Hello. I had an interesting journey back from tour last week, so I thought I'd share a mini TR to see if you lot think I made the right play.

My original ticket was AMS-LCY-JFK-LIM/CUN-MIA-LHR/LGW-AMS. Upon arriving for CUN-MIA, I checked in my guitar and two suitcases, then did what any sane person would do, and took advantage of the excellent offers on duty free tequila there. Afterwards, while enjoying a terribly overpriced drink in the international terminal's Air Margaritaville (there being no OW lounge at CUN), I noticed that my first flight (AA1285) was running late. Gradually, my 2.5hr connection at MIA eroded to about an hour. AA gate agents recommended that I keep the booking as ticketed and see what the state of play is when I arrive at MIA. I called the BA Gold line, who very quickly recommended moving from AA38 MIA-LHR to BA208 MIA-LHR, an hour later. I was hesitant to give up a very comfortable AA J seat for the redeye in favour of an unrefurbished BA 747, so I didn't make the change.

Having flown this route a few times in the last year, I've always been required to collect my bags at MIA and take them through customs, even when only transferring. I'd planned to stow my duty free in them at this point, before proceeding to the AA lounge, but given the tight connection, it would be difficult. However, for the first time, this was not a requirement, which meant I was able to move very quickly towards the gate for AA38. However, there was no way to get from my plane arriving from CUN to my next flight to LHR without passing through security, who claimed the duty free wasn't properly packaged for onward travel, and that I'd have to check it. And if I checked it, I'd miss my plane.

The look on the face of the TSA agent when I told her that I'd rather miss my flight than surrender the tequila was quite something. I was then escorted to some nearby AA desks. The manager at the transfer desk took a look at my boarding pass, then his watch, then my bag, and told me it was ten minutes too late to get it to the plane, and that I'd have to abandon the duty free. I told him that it was only too late to check in because his company's plane had delayed me coming in from CUN. A fairly animated discussion ensued whereupon he claimed that the two problems - the delayed Cancun flight, and me being unable to get the tequila onto the plane - were unrelated. I realised that I was being given the option of either missing my flight or abandoning some of my possessions, which I didn't really appreciate. After a brief explanation of cause and effect, and that neither of the issues were of my manufacture, he proposed to rebook me on another flight tomorrow. I informed him that there was a BA flight leaving an hour later, and he countered that there probably wouldn't be room in J for me. Another animated discussion followed which ended with me explaining that I knew that the type of availability required wasn't the same as what was on sale publicly, and yes there was availability on this particular flight. That was a good one.

That's when I mentioned that if he bumped me from the flight, he'd also have to pull my three items of luggage from it too, which given the time, would mean delaying that plane. Probably by just enough to get my bag of tequila on board anyway.

Another priceless expression, but he didn't like being cornered by logic in such a way, and called dispatch to have my bags recovered from the hold. I was reticketed onto BA208, checked in at the BA desks (which that American AAgent tried to send me in the wrong direction to...), popped up to the lounge to check that my luggage was being transferred to the new flight, and actually wound up sitting in 62B, which wasn't bad.

Upon arriving at LHR T3, I collected the duty free bag from the carousel, then went directly to the baggage desk, where, without a blink, they handed me a delayed baggage form and told me that both suitcases and my guitar were still in Miami. I was heading straight up to Newcastle, so wound up having to buy clothes and toiletries in T5. The temptation was to do my shopping at Burberry, but I settled for Reiss. My suitcases eventually made it to my flat, three outfits later.

It's all a bit of a storm in a teacup, in hindsight, as it all ended up fine (although I feel I might have slept much better in the AA J seat than I did perched on the aisle on the upper deck). If I hadn't need to be in the North the next day, I'd have gladly accepted a bump to a flight the next day, and a free night in Miami, and whatever EC261 compensation that would have materialised. The fact that there happened to be another OW flight just an hour later was a stroke of luck, as otherwise I'd have had to let a couple hundred dollars worth of perfectly good booze disappear. What do you think?