I initially started this entry whilst sitting in bed at a 5 star hotel in West London as my fellow travelers and I were forced to stay an extra night due to a flight cancellation (don't worry, you'll get the entire story in a few paragraphs). However, as I was undoubtedly panic-stricken and exhausted when I started the original introduction, I have elected to start afresh. Without further ado:
After 6 consecutive weeks of bouncing up and down the east coast of the United States, two of my coworkers and I decided to be a little more adventurous and plan a transatlantic trip for our 3 days off work. To Europe and back in three days is fairly ambitious, especially when one is flying non-revenue standby, so we had to be very VERY selective in our destination. Candidates included Amsterdam and Dublin, but London eventually won out simply because of flight availability. On the day of the 8th, we worked an 8-3 shift at the airport, hopped on a Saab destined for NYC, connected into Philly, and around 11:30PM EST we were en route to London's Heathrow airport. We popped a few Tylenol PMs and were more-or-less out for the night. It was hardly what I would consider a great night's sleep, but it was enough. Other than a few minor delays, traveling *to* London essentially went off without a hitch...
We landed in London at approximately 8AM EST, 1PM London time. It took us about an hour to leave customs and navigate the metro system (a.k.a. "The Tube"), so we made it into the center of the city around 2:00 local time. Waking up for a day of work at the airport and just a few hours later walking out of the London metro and standing directly in front of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament was pretty surreal. We unfortunately didn’t have the best weather on our first day of travel (as in it rained the entire day), but given the short duration of our trip, we didn’t let the rain slow us down at all. We very quickly learned that one of the best ways to tour London is via the bus system (including the famous double-decker buses). After spending £20 on a 3 day transit pass (equivalent to $40…yikes), we wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth, and with the added inclement weather, we were more than willing to utilize public transportation to visit many of the tourist hotspots. We spent the next few hours traveling by bus and on foot to the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, the National Gallery, Admiralty Arch, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge. Walking along the Thames River was one of my favorite parts of the visit. So much of the city has been built up around the river, and even in the rain it was very pleasant just watching boats and other people pass by. Another of my favorite locations was the Victoria Embankment Gardens. According to touruk.co.uk:
“This narrow strip of public park by the Thames was created in the late-19th century with the construction of the Embankment. The gardens have many statues of notable British citizens, including the Scottish poet Robert Burns. The main historical feature of the gardens is the water gate at its north west corner, built in 1626 as the triumphal entry to the Thames for the Duke of Buckingham. The water gate was part of York House, which once stood on the site, the home to the Archbishops of York, before becoming the Duke's residence. Although the water gate is in its original position, because of the embankment of the Thames, it is now 330 feet from the edge of the river.”
Sounds interesting? You decide.
We took a break from the rain and grabbed dinner (ironically we all selected the traditional English breakfast from the menu, and the rumors are true: English cooking really is awful) at a nearby pub before setting out toward the home of our Couch Surfing host, Kris. For those of you who are not familiar with Couch Surfing, it is “a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.” Basically, travelers can request online to stay in the home of a registered couch surfer rather than staying in a hotel or hostel. It’s not actually as creepy and questionable as it sounds. People can create profiles and post pictures, leave references of other members registered on the site, and have their identities verified. Several people have already messaged me just to say hello and welcome me to the Couch Surfing community. It’s not so much about getting a free bed as it is making cross-cultural connections. I registered on the website the day before we left, messaged a few potential hosts, and within a few hours, Kris had emailed me back with an invitation.
Kris lives in Tottenham England, about a 3 minute walk to the Tottenham Hot Spurs Football Arena. Kris was a very sweet, early thirties struggling photographer who was very welcoming and so eager to hear about our travels. Kris has made something of a small income off of Couch Surfing. He charges travelers fairly reasonable fares to stay overnight, and in exchange he’s willing to take travelers around London and show them the sights. It was fun getting to spend the night with a local, and he gave us some good suggestions as to what we should do with our second and final (or so we thought) day in the city…
We woke up the next morning and set out for Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. It only happens once a day, at 11AM, and it is a SPECTACLE. There had to have been several thousand people (almost entirely tourists) crowded around the palace gates to watch a bunch of expressionless men clad in fuzzy hats carrying wicked bayonets walk back and forth about twenty paces. There was a bit of a parade, with the Household Cavalry Regiment riding in on horseback (looking like they came straight out of a game of Stratego, I might add) followed by the English Royal Band (part of the guards) performing a medley of classic songs. I did some research after returning to the states, and the Band plays a TON of show tunes in addition to their traditional selections, ranging from the Austin Powers theme to Mambo No. 5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo50pndjFIcSeriously, if it weren’t for the swords and machine guns, you’d think this job was a joke.
After Buckingham Palace, we took Kris up on his suggestion to go to the top of the Tower Bridge for a great view of the entire city. On the way, we stopped at the Museum of Natural History and Royal Albert Hall. Like most museums in D.C., the NHM was free of charge and contained some really fun exhibits. The Tower Bridge excursion was definitely a tourist trap, but it was reasonably cheap and, as promised, it did give us a great view of the river and city. After leaving Tower Bridge we had to very quickly make our way back to Westminster Abbey for the 5PM Evensong service. Without a doubt, the coolest thing we did in London. The Westminster choir was very talented, and the Nave (the section of the Abbey in which the service was held) was breathtaking. Among the famous people buried in the nave are Charles Darwin, David Livingstone, Sir Charles Barry, Thomas Telford and Clement Attlee.
If you’re curious, this link has a map of the Abbey:
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visitor/plan-of-the-abbey/(The service was held in the space between sections 1, 2, 3 and 6).
After the service, we grabbed dinner and planted ourselves down in a pub to soak in the local vibe (and brew). We relocated to Leicester Square on the West End, which, as an “entertainment centre” of London, was basically a conglomeration of clubs, restaurants, bars, and a casino. In other words, night life. We met some very entertaining locals as well as other travelers and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. We hopped on a night bus and rode around (I was taking pictures, my colleagues were sleeping) until about 5AM when we headed to the airport.
And that’s when all hell broke loose.
We got to the airport around 6:00AM. Our return flight didn’t board until for several hours, so we found a nice cozy spot right in front of the US Airways check-in counter and curled up for a nap until the counter opened. Emily and I snagged pillows and blankets from our initial transatlantic flight, and I can assure you that they came in handy more than once on the trip. After checking in and getting to the gates, we were all relieved to get seat assignments on the flight (flying standby involves gambling with seat availability) and waited patiently for the flight to board. Unfortunately, something malfunctioned with the nose gear and all passengers were forced to leave the gate to await a further update on the status of the flight. We were already nervous about making connections with the delay, and after delaying for an hour or two, our worst fears were realized: the flight cancelled.
This is why a cancelled flight was the WORST possible scenario:
1) US Airways at Heathrow only operates one roundtrip flight a day. One in, one out.
2) As non-revenue standbys, we are at the very bottom of a list of about 300 revenue passengers who take priority over us in any rescheduling situation.
3) In typical US Airways fashion, the company oversold the next consecutive 3 flights, meaning that not only could they not reschedule us, but nor could they reschedule the other 300 passengers on the next available flight.
After weighing our options, which were:
1) Wait around for the next available US Airways flight, which would have been in about 5 days.
2) Pay a little extra money and use a ZED fare to fly on another airline and get home on the same day. Other than an elevated cost, it’s a pretty painless and foolproof process. Takes about 5 minutes.
Logic would tell you that we opted for the second option. However, the US Airways staff at Heathrow made this ever so much more difficult than it needed to be. I’ll continue, but before I do, a little history on US Airways Heathrow:
The operation opened on March 29, 2008, less than 4 months before our trip. Prior to its acquisition of Heathrow, all US Airways flights into London operated out of Gatwick, which is about an hour and a half train ride/40 minute taxi from Heathrow. After the split, the Heathrow operation serviced a flight into Philly once daily, while Gatwick retained control over its flight to Charlotte once daily. As a brand new operation, the staff that run Heathrow are not actually US Airways employees, but rather a temp staff that has been contracted out by US Airways to run the station. What this means is that there is absolutely no cross training done between staff members. You have a very small operation of employees that fit into a very specific division of labor. You have a small handful of ticketing agents, one or two that handle check in, one or two that manage the gate, and a supervisor. Take this setup and imagine the logistical nightmare of having a brand new staff rebook 300 passengers on oversold flights.
(This is where I drop a considerable amount of airport lingo. You probably won’t have the slightest clue as to what I’m referring. Just go with it.)
As employees of US Airways, all we need are our ZED fares, which allow us to pay roughly 10% of the cost of a full fare tickets for various airlines that are all part of a collective alliance. It’s kind of like an interline buddy pass. It allows us to travel on carriers like Continental, American, Virgin Atlantic, etc., without having to pay a full priced fare. Just to give you an idea, a roundtrip ticket to London, full price, is about $2,000. With ZED, we pay $200.
We call up the ticketing counters of other airlines, set up our reservations, and everything is good to go with the exception of physically acquiring our paper ZED tickets from the US Airways counter. It’s hardly an earth shattering process. Takes less than 5 minutes and any trained ticketing agent can follow the prompts to successfully print the tickets. Or so we thought.
US Airways (from henceforth we will refer to them as Useless Scareways) flatly refused to help any non-revenue passenger. The Heathrow employees were so flustered by the prospect of rebooking 300 passengers that the station had a complete meltdown. The following a long, passionate diatribe against the US Airways Heathrow employees, but for the sake of time I am going to offer the abridged version instead:
Day 1: 15 hours at the airport
1) Michael offered to walk a Heathrow agent through the process of filing a fare to help alleviate some of their frustration. Any self-respecting ticketing agent knows how do to this. Regular agent = 30 seconds, Heathrow = 45 minutes.
2) After repeatedly pleading with the agents to help us print out our ZED fares, Michael and Emily got blacklisted from the ticket counter.
3) We and the other non-revs were physically forced out of line multiple times.
4) Thinking that we had finally convinced a ticketing agent to help us, Emily and I sprinted from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 to set up reservations on American Airlines. All we had left was to wait for Michael to help the agent file a ZED fare and meet us at the terminal. The agent ditched Michael 2 minutes after we left and he was stuck alone with no help, no agent, and no ZED.
End Day 1.
Because the flight was cancelled, US Airways put all 300 passengers up in a £250 a night 5 star hotel (that’s $500 for you non-math majors). Sounds great, right? Well technically, non-revenue passengers are not supposed to get any vouchers of any sort because, as non-revenue, we obviously didn’t pay for our tickets. Heathrow conveniently overlooked this item and put all non-revs (about 10-15 total) in the hotel. We asked repeatedly if they were sure they could reserve a room for us at no charge, and they assured us it was fine. After 15 hours in the airport, we were not about to argue this matter any further. They put us up in the Sheridan Skyline hotel, fed us dinner and breakfast, and provided a swanky room with a hot shower. It was, without a doubt, the only positive thing that happened all day.
Day 2 was basically just a repeat of the first day: we were refused help, ran back and forth between Terminal 1 to Terminal 3, deliberated whether it was in our best interest to travel to London Gatwick (the other airport), buy ZEDs there, and travel back to Heathrow to catch a flight. We’d been on the phone with Gatwick and their employees were more than willing to help us. We would have just flown out of Gatwick had there been any availability on flights. However, this plan was thwarted by the fact that an hour roundtrip taxi ride was quoted at £240---that’s almost the price of a plane ticket! After another 10 hours of no progress, the Heathrow supervisor finally approached me (she specifically forbade Michael to approach the desk) and asked me to walk her through the process of printing out our ZED fares. We did a celebration dance with the other non-revenue passengers (who by this point had become great airport companions), took our final leave of Terminal 1, and caught an American Airlines flight to Boston home at 6:00PM London time. Total time at Heathrow: 25 hours.
We got into Boston Logan Airport, had to spend 10 minutes being thoroughly frisked by US Customs (don’t ask), spent the night at a friend’s house, and were back in the Vineyard by 10:45 the next morning, 15 minutes before our first flight of the day was scheduled to land.
Final verdict: To Europe and back in three days (allegedly) was a great adventure, albeit a very expensive one. I’d recommend it to a friend.
Moral of the story: Always book ZED fares *before* you travel internationally, and don’t get sassy with Julia the station manager because she will make your life a virtual hell.
And thus ends the London chapter, ringing in just shy of 3,000 words. I applaud you for making it all the way through the entry.
Florida State Football
The roommate and I at a skating rink...yeah, there's not a lot to do in Tallahassee...
Chef Kevin and our live lobsters
