Today was supposed to be a pleasant travel day. We were supposed to fly from Dublin to Heathrow and then on to Charlotte. We would spend the night in Charlotte before flying the rest of the way to Tallahassee on Wednesday. But, as usual, things did not go according to plan.
It started off pleasant enough. We got up at 6:30 to get dressed and then went to eat breakfast at 7:00. I was surprised by how crowded the breakfast room was when we arrived a few minutes after it opened. After breakfast, we finished packing and checked out of the hotel. I had arranged for a car to pick us up at 7:40 and take us to the airport.
We arrived at the airport, got boarding passes for all three flights, and Jay and I each checked a bag. We then went through security. They did not make you take anything out of your bags, such as liquids, laptops, etc. After security, we made our way to our gate. Our flight on Aer Lingus was scheduled to leave at 11:15 and arrive at Heathrow at 12:40, which would give us a 2½-hour layover to get from one terminal to the next and go back through security.
But things did not go as planned. Our Dublin flight was delayed. At first, it was only supposed to be delayed 20 or 30 minutes, but it ended up being delayed by 2 hours. They also changed the gate twice. Finally, a little after 1:00, we started boarding. We had to walk down a flight of stairs to get to the jetway leading to the plane. There did not seem to be any order to the boarding process.
We had not been able to select our seats, so Jay ended up by the window and I was stuck in the middle seat. We were not even offered anything to drink on the flight. I do not know why, but the flight attendants completely skipped our row.
The plane landed at Heathrow at 2:45 PM. We took off walking as fast as we could to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2. We did have to take a bus. There were six of us trying to make the Charlotte flight. The ticket agents said they could not help and that we had to go back to Terminal 3 to speak with the Aer Lingus ticket agents.
So the six of us went back, taking the bus to Terminal 3, which meant we had to go through security again. By this time, the other four had their tickets rebooked and were running to their gates. Since we were going to Tallahassee, the Aer Lingus ticket agent was having trouble finding us a flight. She eventually told me I could have a seat and that she would let me know when she had everything worked out.
After a while, she told us we had to go through baggage claim and then go to the Aer Lingus ticket counter in departures. She said they were expecting us, but it looked like we would be spending the night in London.
We eventually found our way to the Aer Lingus ticket counter, and the agent booked us on a Delta flight for the next morning. It would take us to Atlanta, where we would spend almost 7 hours before flying on to Tallahassee and arriving around midnight. She also sent us to a hotel and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast, along with vouchers for the hotel shuttle bus.
The hotel, the Radisson Blu, is nice, but the dinner vouchers could only be used in one self-serve restaurant. The food choices were beef stew, some kind of pasta (maybe lasagna) covered in cheese, and buttery mashed potatoes. They did not even have decent toppings for the salad, and the only drink offered was water. It was very disappointing.
After dinner, Jay walked to a convenience store and discovered a McDonald’s along the way, so he bought himself a sandwich and brought me some French fries.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.
