We had experienced favourable winds and landed about 30 mins ahead of schedule. However, as apparently happens 9 times out of 10 (according to Jane, the FA) we were parked at a remote stand and herded onto buses for the trip to Terminal 4.
Immigration FastTrack is not open after about 11am, so I was a little concerned about delays given that all the gates at T4 were occupied. But I should not have worried. After walking past the long line of people connecting to other flights at T4, I found the passport control area was almost deserted. No delay at all. So passport was duly stamped and I was waiting and waiting for my bag on the belt. The F tag didn't seem to work too well for me this time. Once the bag arrived I was out through customs and off to the Avis bus.
Another good thing about arriving on QF29 in he middle of the day is that the M25 is generally not a car park at that time of the day. And I was able to go straight to my hotel and check-in, which can be a problem for the early morning arrivals like QF9.
At the Avis desk, I was told my TA had booked me a 7-seat minivan! Well, that would be nice if I had my wife and 4 kids with me, but this trip is just me, my suit case and carry-on bag. So I was offered a Mini Cooper for half the cost of the booked minivan. I doid not take much convincing. Now I would be dropping it back tomorrow, but noted they offer 1 hour grace and over that I have to pay for a second day. So my pickup time was duly noted as 2:15pm.
I had already programmed the hotel and office addresses into the Favourites of my PPC GSP, so with it all plugged in and operating I headed for the wilds of the M4, M25, M3, A331 etc to Farnborough. At that time of day the drive was easy.
After checking into the Holiday Inn, I called my local colleague and arrange to meet him in the hotel bar when he finished work. After a pint we headed off to his "local", which was a very small country pub about 30 mins drive away. Several pints and a nice meal later he dropped me back at the hotel and we made arrangements to meet at the office the next day.
We had a valuable few hours together in the office and after lunch I decided it was best to leave early to ensure I beat the 3:15pm return deadline for the car - and to ensure plenty of time at the JW Blue lounge (aka T1 FLounge). I was very glad I did leave early as the M3 was a car park for about 8 miles due to a truck roll-over. Using the GPS to get back to the Avis car rental centre was much better than my previous unguided attempts where I ended up driving through the tunnel to T123 and back again to the rental car returns. I put five quid worth of petrol in before returning. Gee petrol is expensive in the UK!
I made the 3:15pm deadline, despite the best efforts of the M3 and the driving rain, and jumped on the bus round to T1 check-in.
The R (Premium) check-in area was deserted at that time of day. I queried about changing my LHR-FRA to an earlier flight and was told I have to take my paper ticket to the ticket desk to have it changed. Since there was no queue, I decided to change to the earlier flight. That would still give me plenty of time in the lounge and get me to my hotel an hour earlier.
The whole process of changing my ticket and checking-in took less than 5 mins. And the security screening also had no delay. Shoes off this time. I had placed all my liquids in my checked bag assuming it was going to reliably delivered and I didn't need anything for the 1 hour flight.
So straight through and to the FLounge. Showed my BP and my QF Plat card and no problems walking into the FLounge. It was not long before I had to gain the attention of the wait-staff to replace the now empty JW Blue bottle.
The flight was delayed slightly, I assume due to the LHR weather. The sideways rain is a fair indication that ATC will be limiting the airport operation somewhat. So it was probably a good thing I changed flights as these delays always seem to get worse before they get better.
Eventually the flight is called and I make my way to the gate via the loo. By the time I am walking down the last part of the concourse, I am being paged. I am the third person to board.