Four more hours in LGW - darn traffic!
 

So there I am - up bright an early this morning - 4-bloody-AM! - ready to set off on my day-trip to MLA to kick-off my DEL trip in August..... all fine, right the way up to the M23..... and then - WHAMMO! Traffic galore - into the terminal with ten minutes to departure - stuffed!

Still the F and J ticket sales people were fantastic. Rebooked on the 1600, get in 2000, turn around, straight back on the plane for a 2055 departure back to LGW!

This is not how I intended the day to turn out! Oh how I was looking forward to spending the day in Valetta, soaking up the sunshine, having a decent lunch, and generally pottering around.

Now, I have, ooh, another four hours or so in the Terraces at LGW. Have thumbed through the mornings papers, have a book (or three actually!) in the bag that can keep me busy, the trusty iPod is yet to be called into service today, and maybe there'll even be a bit of tennis on the telly to keep me occupied?

So what else can I do? Those of you more familiar with the surroundings of LGW can no doubt advise as to how I can while away a few more hours?

Thank heavens for BAEC Silver today!

You could always go and stand on the new bridge for a bit and take in the view - should kill all of 15 minutes. If not then YoSushi.

Visit the loo and sureptitiously use the connecting passage to the 'trojan' door into the F lounge and settle down for a bacon butty :D

Go and laugh at any grockles whose flights have been horribly delayed but don't have lounge access, and count your own blessings ....

I wonder how BA handles these exceptional traffic situations with 'normal' unrestricted economy tickets. It does make me laugh sometimes when you see people complaining that they got held up in traffic when everyone else seems to have made it on time.

However, there are situations when half a flight is held up in traffic (as I believe is was like this morning), what happens then?

Do they make any attempt to help out by re-booking, or is it 'tough t*ts, you should have bought a flexible ticket'?

I was stuck on a train last year on my way home from Glasgow. I was sitting next to a girl who was on her way to some carribean island on a charter flight from MAN. She had about 5 hours before her flight was due to go, and it was only around 40 minutes to the airport from where we were. The train stopped behind another broken down train, and 5 hours later, we'd moved about 2 miles. The train then 'terminated' at Bolton, and we had to find our own way to our destinations.

She was convinced they'd book her onto the next flight once she got to the airport, but I wasn't so sure. I didn't point out the fact that the next flight was probably a week away. She probably lost her whole holiday.

Cheers,
Rick

It might be down to the discretion of the station manager. Had a friend heading to a stag do in BCN a few months ago. Needless to say, major traffic problems and the 40 minute journey turned into 2 hours and he missed the flight. He rung BA on the road and they gave him the 'tough luck' speech and that he'd have to fork out 500 quid for a COW!

At the airport, he asked and they said no problem and put him on the next flight.

BTW, what the heck was wrong with the M23 this morning. I was at the M25/M23 junction at 8:20 and it took a further half hour to get to LGW. Was there an accident or something??/

Snuggle down with a glass of whatever takes your fancy and a nice big Havana in the (invariably empty) bird-chirruping smoking room.

Exit through security and take a trip down on the shuttle to the Chav Terminal.

My girlfriend missed her BHX-EDI last summer because a train broke down between New Street and International. Two-hour delay -- she arrived at the airport as the flight was taking off.

The guy said that she'd have to buy a new ticket (£180 or something), but then took pity on her and charged her £60 instead. It wasn't a change fee but definitely for a new ticket -- but given that BA doesn't sell cheap domestic oneways, I'm not sure how he pulled it off. I did have the receipt but I think I've lost it.

Wonderful BA ticket desk staff.
 

BA LGW generally know what is happening on the major transport infrastructure around London M23 and M25. If they accept your excuse, the story checks out and it was beyond your reasonable control, then you should be OK with an inflexible ticket. Be nice to them, they are not easyJet employees.

Assuming it was the same thing that caught me - not so sure given I was about an hour earlier - there was a lorry broken down on - would you believe? - the A23 exit roundabout blocking one exit lane and one entry lane! Nasty.

Only about another twenty minutes till I board now - most pleasing not to have had to mix with the chavs!

Well, that was quite a whirlwind day!

Seven hours in the LGW Terraces is something to be thankful for all-in-all. An EK 773 passing under the new bridge - very impressive. The two-and-a-half hours out to MLA. The freakishness of getting off the plane, getting driven fifty metres in a bus to the arrivals hall, walking another fifty to get back to departures, back on the plane, another two-and-a-half hours and back to a nearly desserted LGW! The cabin crew thought I was a courier. :D

Ah well - I can console myself with the fact that my DEL F trip is up-and-running now!

Road works just north of LGW North terminal have reduced a busy dual carriage way down to one lane so traffic tails back and eventually grid locks the area. Been on the traffic news most mornings for the last month. Tailbacks on the south bound M23 most common (I've seen it back a mile or so in lane 1 with the usual suspects pushing in late from lane 2 causing further problems).

Situation was made worse as the south terminal coach park was closed for a bit.

If possible use the LGW Express (first class one way gets you a fasttrack pass as well).

Any half decent travel insurance policy, even cheap ones, will cover you for the eventuality of missing a flight due to abnormal traffic jams or failure of public transport, as long as you have planned a reasonable amount of time to get to the airport in time.