Simon Schus

Thanks for your posts Andy33 and Calchas.

I agree entirely and hope that this came across in my post above. It was exceptionally wonderful service, and I sent a thank you note to Customer Relations with the details of the person responsible. I am also entirely aware that others, including myself in the future, should not assume that my experience is the norm or standard practice (saying that, I've always found the LHR rebooking staff to be great at helping out when I've been at risk of misconnecting on two separate tickets such as LHR-DUB with BA Avios and then DUB-JFK-BOS as an AA cash fare).

My bag was not tagged automatically and I had to pick it up for rechecking at GLA. I simply walked out international arrivals and back over to the check-in desk and was done within 20 seconds which was nice. My flights were on two separate itineraries one with an AA-issued ticket (001-*) and the other with BA-issued ticket (125-*) so the American staff in BOS created a dummy segment to tag it all the way through to LHR after GLA. As such, when I was rebooked by BA then I doubt AA would have had any way to have known. Nonetheless, all was fine.

Hopefully somebody will find this useful.

mad_rich

Glad it worked out for you, and that you received such good service.

Indulge me for a moment if you will!? I'm intrigued as to where you might be heading that EXT, EMA, BHX and LHR are all suitable airports!

Simon Schus

I was actually heading to Torquay, Devon as the end destination after GLA. My aim was to get to Torquay on the Tuesday. My schedule for Tuesday was fairly flexible as long as I didn't get any last-minute meetings organised, in which case i was happy to get to Torquay on Wednesday.

For Torquay, the nearest airport is EXT about 30 minutes away hence why that airport was an option. I believe I could have done a flight from GLA-MAN-EXT with FlyBe and that was coming up with Avios and not at too much more expensive for a cash fare.

As for BHX/EMA, I often have to visit an office in Leicester and I would have happily popped by there because that is where my car was parked. I would have picked up my car from Leicester after landing in BHX or EMA, and driven back to Torquay after work or getting a hotel at some point on the journey back if I was too tired and continued back on the Wednesday morning. For getting to Leicester, EMA is closer and a simple bus ride to Leicester. BHX is slightly further away and has more flights, but it is cheap enough in a taxi back to the office. There was a small chance that I was going to have to be in Leicester anyway on the Tuesday hence this was an option I wanted to keep open, and it was likely I'd only find out about needing to be in Leicester last minute. In the end I wasn't needed but headed up that way today.

As for LHR, I could have [easily taken the BA flight from GLA-LHR and made my way onwards to Torquay from LHR] which is what I did. [For getting to Torquay from LHR, ] I then would have had two options that I considered reasonable. I could have gotten the FlyBe flight from LCY to EXT. However, this would have involved the HEX/underground/DLR/taxi which I wasn't feeling as I'd have had to find a Regus office to hang around in for a good number of hours until my find. Instead of the flying LCY-EXT option, I could have just hopped on a National Express coach from LHR to Torquay direct and be back within 4.5 hours direct. (I know, National Express is not exactly luxurious but I actually find the coach to be fairly efficient and mega cheap when I can't get the LCY-EXT flight). I ended up opting for the National Express coach option, and I had chance to stop off at the Priority Pass arrivals lounge in Terminal 2 for a shower and some lunch. I find the train to be exceptionally expensive from Paddington/Waterloo to Torquay when booked last-minute so that didn't seem like a reasonable option.

I picked up my car later in the week which wasn't a real hassle as I had to go into the office anyway.

I think that there is an option to fly from GLA-BRS too but then I have to get from BRS to Temple Meads station and then go through at least one train connection.

Does that indulge you?

P.S. Completely unrelated, but I'd really like there to be an electronic sign somewhere in T5 and T3 corridors leading up to the underground and HEX stations. Those signs could indicates when the next tube train/HEX is departing, allowing me to work out which one was departing first. This sign could exclude tube trains/HEX that would be leaving less with the next 4 minutes as that would discourage rushing. I sometimes want to get between terminals landside and have to risk choosing between the HEX and underground in the hope that one of them will be the quickest... only to find out that I have take 14 minutes until the next HEX when I'm sure I could have gotten the underground quicker (or vice versa). I know the use of tubes/HEX for getting between terminals might be relatively small compared to those that use underground/HEX to go to London, but it would be nice to be able to make a bit more of an informed decision. Indeed, I also know that the wait times for HEX/underground are still short but sometimes this extra few minutes can be the difference between missing one's onward National Express connection and getting it, particularly after a significant unanticipated delay.

Calchas

Did I miss a route launch!?

Simon Schus

Apologies, i added the 'to Torquay' wording in right at the end to clarify that was my end destination. However, I put it in a really confusing place. I have fixed that aspect of my wording now.

Calchas

Maybe one day ...

stut

"You can see the airport, it's over there between the land and the sky..."

stifle

I doubt HAL will do anything more than it absolutely has to to promote the Piccadilly line over its overpriced fresh air transporter to the north west corner of central London...

mad_rich

It does indeed! Thank you. More thoroughly than I could have imagined