Calcifer

Welcome home!

kalkat

My flight last night LHR-ORD had plenty of extra room too, even in C.

FAs told me that there has been room on lots of flights UK-USA, but not on the flights USA-UK. I wonder why that would be. Maybe the end of the long UK Easter holidays with vacationers returning home?

I had to fly via ORD (upgraded lie-flat) because all the non-stops LHR-SFO were zeroed out. I wonder if they too were flying with spare capacity.

WHBM

And did indeed make it back as planned My fears of unbridled applause on touchdown at Heathrow were a great exaggeration. There was none.

Many large official notices at passport control in Heathrow that "there are long delays here today due to Volcanic Ash". This just seemed a ridiclous excuse. There were indeed large queues, but as we all know Heathrow is normally at full runway capacity, and there is therefore no scope for additional flights. There seemed proportionately less overseas visitors than normal compared to UK residents (very few Americans in the flight from Boston), so they will be easier to process. No, the main reason for the long queue at T5 seemed that a large number of immigration desks on the right hand side were unstaffed.

So it seems that many UK residents have been stuck overseas, some in desperate circumstances, but the Home Office staff can in no way organise overtime or similar arrangements to speed the flow. After all, it's not as if they have been rushed off their feet in the last week, is it ?

TrojanHorse

Add me to the returned home list

I split from London on wed and took the Eurostar for the first time to Paris for a night and then flew Thur evening to Madrid where I took a nice Iberia flight home on Friday

I wish I had done this earlier in the week, wish I had skipped Paris and spent more time in Madrid but no matter what, I'm quite happy to be back home

A long expensive trip is now in the books and even my Iberia miles posted quite quickly

MatthewClement

I finally made it home on Friday. You can take me off the list...

kalkat

Are there still FTers stuck at SFO? Now that I'm back home, happy to help in any way I can.

How about a mini-DO for volcano refugees? Monday lunch? Tues-Wednesday dinner? Probably in San Francisco, but could be near SFO, depending on the response.

Wish I had gone to one of these myself when I was stuck in London....

szg

I made my flight today to HEL. ^

SanDiego1K

I was at two different LAX airport hotels this weekend, and was surprised at the number of stranded passengers at both hotels. BA had notice boards up at the LAX Westin with instructions for what they were to do each day in terms of going to the airport to get on the standby list but not check out of the hotel. Based on the instructions, BA seemed to expect it to be several days yet before they got all the stranded passengers out.

N830MH

Great! I'm glad you made it back home safe.

I am getting ready fly back home on Tuesday. YAY!!!

stimpy

You can take me off the list. I just landed at AMS. NBO was mad this weekend due to a fiber cut. All systems were dog slow. I couldn't do online check in and was still standing in line to check in 30 minutes before departure. But they held up the flight til everyone could board. ^

N830MH

Oh, no! I don't believe it what happening in NBO. It was too many problems in Kenya. I think it should wait for flight to be resume service. It was trying lots of those people are waiting flying back home in EU, USA, Asia and etc. Do you really think where some passengers will have go through international transit lounge in AMS? How exactly where the bags will have to be automatically through to USA for next flight out instead of going to final destinations cities.

I think the ticket agents should have beef up to be reductions wait time and not wait for more than 20 minutes at ticket counter. Why they aren't getting more ticket agents to need our help for those passengers to get through at ticket counter & bags checked, too.

stimpy

I happen to know it really wasn't the airlines fault, except perhaps in not spending more on IT infrastructure. But for an African airline, KQ is really quite good. And the bottom line, especially for this thread, is they got yet another plane full of people back to Europe.

N830MH

Hello All,

I am back home to PHX today and the flight is very successful out ZRH-PHL-PHX. It was quite enjoyable for flying in the Envoy Class & First Class, too. So it was great time in Switzerland for extended 1 more week due to ash volcanic. So I am really lucky that I am gone back home to USA. So the entire trip is doing so successful. So it was looks exactly I am still barely awake for 24 hours out of Switzerland. So I need to get time off the forums due to long jetlags on TATL flight. So I haven't see my entire family for more than 2 weeks. So that's why I am struck in Switzerland for another week. So It was great time to take care with my niece Maya. She is looks so gorgeous baby girl. So I can't wait to get on back TATL flight again for sometimes in the future. You can see it when I will have enough time to upload the pictures of my entire trip & plane spotting, too. Also, I saw A380 is already there in ZRH this morning. I am really lucky that I saw SQ is already landed around 10am but, the flight has been delayed for 2 hours out of SIN. So what is reason why the flight is delayed for 2 hours due to technical problems. So I took a several shots of SQ A380 is already at the gate. She is so spacious! You can see it when I am consider it done to do post the trip reports.

Regards

giblet

I made it out of DUB a few days ago.