Surprisingly Easy
Yay! We are now safely in London and our whole trip here was surprisingly easy. Matt and I had been so worried that our four, packed-to-the-gills suitcases plus our four, relatively heavy carry-ons would be a pain in the tush to deal with at airports and in taxis. My family also thought so, for when we had the pile of luggage ready to go on Monday night, my family were seriously concerned that we might not be able to stuff it all into a car to even get it to the airport.
In reality, the luggage was heavy and a bit unwieldy but we had the best travel experience in our lives getting here. It all started with friendly jetBlue people in our home town airport and absolutely no line at security.
Then when we got to New York, we grabbed a quick breakfast near our arrival gate (the yummiest croissant I've ever eaten). Stopping to grab breakfast caused us to be a few minutes late to pick up our luggage at the carousel, so a luggage attendant had already placed our huge bags, along with a few others that had not been claimed, onto a large rolling trolley.
When we told him that four of the bags were ours and that we were headed over to British Airways, he checked our boarding pass and then offered to take us over to the British Airways check-in, which was in another terminal building. We are so thankful he offered to help! It would have taken us a while (I say over an hour, but Matt says 15 extra minutes) to figure out where to go and to find an airport shuttle to take us. He had all our bags on one trolley and led us outside, across a few streets, around a bus station, across another couple streets, into a building, and up an elevator. We then tranferred our bags to two smaller trolleys that were just sitting there waiting for us.
After sitting at a convenient table for an hour, we were able to check in our bags and head upstairs to wait for our next flight. We had about 7 hours to kill and we were exhausted. Matt happened to find and grab the only couch in the entire terminal, which we hogged for the rest of our stay. We took turns laying down and sleeping, trying our best not to snore too loudly :)
Thanks to the couch, when it was finally time to get on our British Airways flight, we were somewhat rested. By the way, we just love British Airways. We would definitely fly them again. The staff was very nice, we had lots of leg room, and our kosher meal was just scrumptious. Plus, just like jetBlue, we each had individual televisions that were fitted into the back of the seat in front of us. So, I read some of Michener's Source, watched an episode of Frasier, and watched a very cute British movie during our trans-Atlantic flight. Since I had such a good trip, they almost had to drag me off the plane once we had landed.
Passport check and customs were both easy-breezy. And by the time we had both taken a quick restroom stop, our bags arrived and we placed them on two trolleys. Overall, our airport experience at Heathrow was a 4 out of 5 experience (I got asked to answer a survey about our airport experience), with a drop in one point only because the first bathroom I stopped at was completely out of toilet paper.
In reality, the luggage was heavy and a bit unwieldy but we had the best travel experience in our lives getting here. It all started with friendly jetBlue people in our home town airport and absolutely no line at security.
Then when we got to New York, we grabbed a quick breakfast near our arrival gate (the yummiest croissant I've ever eaten). Stopping to grab breakfast caused us to be a few minutes late to pick up our luggage at the carousel, so a luggage attendant had already placed our huge bags, along with a few others that had not been claimed, onto a large rolling trolley.
When we told him that four of the bags were ours and that we were headed over to British Airways, he checked our boarding pass and then offered to take us over to the British Airways check-in, which was in another terminal building. We are so thankful he offered to help! It would have taken us a while (I say over an hour, but Matt says 15 extra minutes) to figure out where to go and to find an airport shuttle to take us. He had all our bags on one trolley and led us outside, across a few streets, around a bus station, across another couple streets, into a building, and up an elevator. We then tranferred our bags to two smaller trolleys that were just sitting there waiting for us.
After sitting at a convenient table for an hour, we were able to check in our bags and head upstairs to wait for our next flight. We had about 7 hours to kill and we were exhausted. Matt happened to find and grab the only couch in the entire terminal, which we hogged for the rest of our stay. We took turns laying down and sleeping, trying our best not to snore too loudly :)
Thanks to the couch, when it was finally time to get on our British Airways flight, we were somewhat rested. By the way, we just love British Airways. We would definitely fly them again. The staff was very nice, we had lots of leg room, and our kosher meal was just scrumptious. Plus, just like jetBlue, we each had individual televisions that were fitted into the back of the seat in front of us. So, I read some of Michener's Source, watched an episode of Frasier, and watched a very cute British movie during our trans-Atlantic flight. Since I had such a good trip, they almost had to drag me off the plane once we had landed.
Passport check and customs were both easy-breezy. And by the time we had both taken a quick restroom stop, our bags arrived and we placed them on two trolleys. Overall, our airport experience at Heathrow was a 4 out of 5 experience (I got asked to answer a survey about our airport experience), with a drop in one point only because the first bathroom I stopped at was completely out of toilet paper.
posted by Jen | 12:23 PM
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