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Old Jan 23, 2018, 4:46 am
  #14  
Hut
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 223
Part 4: Vancouver to London

With an early start the day before, I had a great sleep and woke up in time for the hotel provided buffet, which I knew probably wouldn’t be that good. However, I couldn’t really tell you – because when I arrived it was packed. As in, no seats inside, it was raining outside and most of the food had been picked over to the point where you wondered if this was the beginning of another post-apocalyptic survival show. As I’d been planning on going to Stanley Park, I consulted the interwebs and found somewhere on the way.



I’ve visited Vancouver a few times now, but this was the first in summer… which sort of reminded me of a warmer version of winter! Still, I wouldn’t mind living here.



Eventually, there was some blue sky to be seen and Stanley Park is a lovely place to spend a few hours walking about.



Next up was the Museum of Anthropology, which is a fascinating and thought provoking place, I’ve often wondered why museums with large collections don’t show more of them…



Well, I think I now know… because it was, well – overwhelming. Not overwhelming like a bad hoarder on a reality tv show, but more like there is just so much to see, that you can’t quite figure out what to look at first or next.

Either way, I was an hour in when I was distracted by my phone… which told me that BA84 was delayed by three hours… which means with the late arrival in London I’d have 17 mins to make the connection to Amman. Yeah, that’s not happening.

So, did what any reasonable person would do, stepped outside and called BA… at least I tried, as their call centres were flooded. Instead, I got the lovely message “Due to call volumes we are unable to complete your call, please try again later”

Ouch.

So, I called American instead while I looked into options for alternatives with OneWorld – but because of the late notice, it didn’t look like there were any options. After a couple of minutes on the phone with a very helpful agent, she confirmed what I already suspected, that the only real way to salvage my day in Amman, was to get BA to put me on the earlier Air Canada flight to London.

But I would need to talk to BA for that and luckily, American has a special number where they can forward your call and even when the call centre is flooded, you can still talk to an agent fairly quickly.

Sensing this could take a while, I found a bench under a tree and settled in… now, I won’t bore you with the details… but I will say BA’s call centre sucks, it seems they read from a script and won’t touch your reservation during a disruption. I learnt however, if you are persistent they will eventually, grudging and a little belligerently, connect you with the ‘airport team’ who can re-issue your ticket over the phone. For me, persistence took the form of a 97-minute call and two escalations…

I also learnt that the BA and AA reservation systems were not playing nicely, which meant that despite the (I have to say very good) BA team at YVR saying head for the airport now, while we will call our support team to get the ticket reissued on the AC flight and it will be ready when you get here… It turns out when I got there, via the element and through Vancouver traffic – it still hadn’t happened.

After a bit of a chat with the BA team, we got on the phone to AA and the agent we got sounded great, after the BA agent explained the problem, he said ‘Oh, sure. I can help with that…’ which surprised everyone given the issues they’d experienced, and then proceeded to book me on the Air Canada flight, in Economy. Which I didn’t expect on a Business ticket, and didn’t find out, until I’d walked down and checked in at the AC desks to be given a boarding pass a fair few rows further back than I thought it should be. Seriously Not Cool.

Walked back to the BA desks for another BA/AA phone conference, this time with a better AA agent who rebooked me on BA84 and after the BA IT support team talked with the AA IT support team they agreed that they didn’t really know what was wrong, but it didn’t really matter as the AC flight closed while they were coming to that conclusion.

So, not boring you with the details… it turns out BA84 is the only option and the rather apologetic team in YVR suggested I hope for a tailwind, but expect to talk to the missed connections team in London… with that sorted, I headed for security and the lounge.

British Airways Galleries Vancouver



I walked past the Cathay lounge and stopped by the BA one, mainly for a look around. It was packed, so I didn’t even sit down and headed back towards the Cathay one…

Cathay Pacific Lounge Vancouver



After the sad mess that was the Galleries First lounge down the concourse, the Cathay alternative was lovely!



It was also empty, which I guess you could understand as they had just opened, it’s delightful lounge which looks fresh and well maintained.



With a bit of a wait, I settled in with a seat overlooking the runway and watched the world go by as the sun went down.



Also made use of the noodle bar, as I was planning on sleeping as soon as we took off. All I’ll say is this is how lounge food should work and it tasted fantastic.

British Airways BA84
Airbus A380 (G-XLEL)
Vancouver (YVR) -> London (LHR)
Depart 23:34, Arrive 17:05, Flight Time: 9:31

Boarding on the delayed service, was further delayed by its even later than expected arrival, so we all got to watch the gate agent have a mini-meltdown because, apparently premature queuing in the gate lounge was somehow going to slow things down.



After a couple of rants, boarding began despite the queues and in spite of them, seemed to progress well. BA’s business product was apparently cutting edge at the turn of the millennium, in fact, if one looks online, its suggested they really shook up the market. Clearly that industry leading team has been otherwise occupied in the intervening years and with only minor refreshes it is now less than ideal. I would call it cramped and in need of a comprehensive makeover.

Also, less than ideal, was the cleaning. I understand things get missed, especially when trying to quickly turn a large aircraft, but I found the previous occupants ear plugs in the side bins, some sort of red stain on the table (looked like blood, probably wasn’t) and a pair of used socks and a snotty tissue in the foot tray… nasty stuff.



On tonight’s flight, there would be a couple of meals, a dinner after take-off and then breakfast before landing.



I rolled back the seat after take-off and slept most of the way, waking up just past Iceland.



Breakfast started well with a great fruit plate.



This was followed by a very average, but slightly better than it looked English muffin.



We were treated to a scenic tour of London on the approach and landed with a bounce.



In a cruel twist of airport real estate allocations, we parked near the Royal Jordanian flight to Amman, so I got to watch as it was pushed back…

After waving farewell, I headed for the BA desk, where an amazing agent spent the next 2 hours trying to get me to Amman. The best they could do was a connection via Dubai DXB on BA109 & RJ611 which would be a delay of 15 hours and kill the one day I’d allocated to Amman. The reason it took 2 hours wasn’t issues with the flights, but the whole AA/BA computer battle… there were multiple calls, and at one point they even got out the paper tickets, but in the end, it was somehow fixed. I don’t even pretend to understand how or why, but thankful I jumped on the bus over to T5 with tickets in hand to have a shower and then take an unexpected detour via Dubai.

British Airways Galleries London T5



First priority was a shower, in what was a tired and mouldy bathroom setup, but the water ran, it was warm, and I left refreshed. So, it did the job.



Next was a drink, I might have only had breakfast a few hours ago, but it was now 8pm and I’d just spent a couple of hours wondering if I’d be leaving on a plane or in a cab. So, then I had a second one and headed for the gate.

There could have been a third for the road.
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