British Airways Finally Gets It Right

Hi all! Sorry for the delay in a post, it has been a whirlwind of a few days. We are all well, safe, and exhausted from all of the adventures of the last few days.

The last we left you was on Monday and we were still unsure on whether we would make it out of London on the flight we had rebooked to Milan. Originally we were set to fly into Rome, but British Airways was not sure if they would have the Rome flights moving until Tuesday or Wednesday. Not wanting to delay our trip any more, we looked for any flights flying into any cities that we were semi familiar with. It turns out it is pretty difficult to book 4 people on the same flight after a global outage of an airline. We managed to get a flight for Monday to Milan instead and figured we could train it into Florence or Rome depending on where we could pick up the original itinerary. As it is, we are out the tickets we bought for the Vatican and the Borguese. But the more we can salvage the better!

Prior to our flight we spent the day working through some of the sites we wanted to see on our London city guides. Christyn really wanted to go to the Camden Market, so we took the metro out in that direction. On the metro a cute family of four sat next to us, and of course we go to chatting. They were on their way to see the Platform 9 3/4 a one of the train stations from the Harry Potter movies. Since Christyn is a huge fan, and it was in the general direction we wanted to go, we tagged along. We then made our way up to the Camden Market. This is an open air market with hundreds of permanent vendors selling all sorts of things. And it was hopping. We bought some Hungarian take-away food and walked around the market for a few hours. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and make our way to the airport.

As it was, with the rebooked flight to Milan, we still had the worry that even if the flight took off we had no idea how we would get from the Linate airport to the city center, as the metro does not run out to Linate. And we didn't want to book a hotel for Milan until we were sure the plane would be taking off. So many ifs, and all hanging on one itty bitty little flight off of an island to the main land. :)

As it turns out, the flight did take off, we were on it, and we booked a hotel for Milan abut 5 minutes before we boarded the plane. Whew! We figured we could always get a taxi, but where is the adventure in that? After exiting the airport and collecting our luggage we learned that there was a #73 bus that could take you into the Duomo (the main church area) and then on the same tickets (they are good for 90 minutes of travel) we could metro to the hotel from there. We spent 20 minutes or so in the big piazza in front of the Duomo and walked through the galleria. Mind you we have our full packs still on. We seriously think that we should all earn at least one college PE credit by the time we are done with this entire trip! By the time we reached our hotel it was around 1am. We were hot and tired. We opted to plan for an early departure so that we could catch an early train out to Florence in the morning. By 5:45am we were out the door and back at the train station again. A bit of a brutal turn around, but we made it.

It is now 2:30am our time, so I will update you more on our Tuesday adventures in Florence and our Wednesday plans for Rome. Ciao!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make English Tea

So if American news is covering any of the British Airlines mess you likely all know now that our worries about our British Airways flight to Rome were valid. Once we landed we made our way from Termnal 2 to Terminal 5. On the way we were looking for signs of hope that things had returned to normal in the 10 hours that we were in the air. The flight attendants and pilots on the first flight were even calling into Heathrow to check the status of our flight. One thing we have learned through this, if we ever have the chance to fly on Air New Zealand again we will. They were amazing. The seats were comfortable with enough room, the video screens near each seat actually worked, included in the fare were amenities like blankets and pillows, and they even fed us two decent meals in flight. They also had touch screen ordering of drinks at any time so that you didn't have to get up or try to hail a flight attendant. Interestingly enough, their drink selection was quite robust, including the traditional options and quite a number of adult options. It made us wonder if part of the training to be a flight attendant included bar tender school.

On our way to the terminal we saw a number of British Airways flights leaving the tarmac and had renewed hope that we might actually make it out on a flight. Unfortunately, as we were headed to check in a BA crew member verified that our flight was indeed cancelled. We were told to exit the airport through customs and go back into the airport on the arrivals side to rebook our flight with the BA side on arrivals. When we got down to the ground floor and were about to exit the airport we learned that they were not letting anyone up to the arrivals to rebook unless they were on a confirmed flight and had checked in. We also saw that if you left the airport they would not let you back in unless you were on a confirmed flight. We opted to stay in the airport until we could sort everything out. All passengers on cancelled flights were told to rebook with BA.com. Which was ironic, because it was IT issues that prevented flights from going, and now we had to rely on BA.com in order to get a new flight. 

Determined to make the most of it, we grabbed a piece of cold floor with about 2,000 of our closest friends to figure out what we would do. Thankfully Heathrow has free wifi and with that we could use to actually make a call. After about 3 hours on the phone with reps from both British Airways and Air New Zealand we were rebooked on a flight to Milan (not Rome) on Monday. We cancelled our original Rome hotel (thank you Booking.com for allowing us to do that for free) and then tried to figure out how and when we could rejoin with our original itinerary. At this point we are going to miss our reservations for the Vatican museaum and the Borguese gallery (which has Michelle's favorite statue), but we should be able to catch up in time for our reservation to the Academia in Florence for the statue of David. Fingers crossed, as BA is focused on getting their long haul flights back up first and their short hall flights up next. 

After securing a flight Tim and Susanne went to see if they could get our bags, which were tagged to go to Rome so we did not pick them up after our flight landed in London. At that moment, we were worried that they would end up in the big pile of bags that were left unclaimed. BA was assuring passengers that they would be reunited with their bags as soon as possible. We had two days of clothes and essentials in our packs, so we were not worried in the short term. But the idea of relying on an airline to properly forward baggage around the world when they can't manage getting people around the world seemed a bit of a stretch. Michelle and Christyn worked on local transport information and finding a hotel for the night. With BA reimbursing 200 British pounds for a hotel for 2 each night and 25 British pounds for food per person, there were a number of options available to us. We had fun looking for the best deals in some swanky places. :) 

Tim and Susanne had their own adventures in baggage. There were a number of lines they had to be in, each with frustrated passengers and little information. The one they finally landed in allowed 5 people at a time in to search for luggage, and this included the BA workers. So if a crew member went in, that was one person of the five and the rest of the line had to wait. After an extended search of a few hours they finally managed to locate all of our bags and were able to take them out of the baggage handling area. There is no sight sweeter after all that the day held then your husband and sister-in-law walking up with big smiles and 4 bags on their arms. 

All told, we were in the airport for 6 hours to rebook flights, find bags and get to our hotel. Thankfully we arrived at 11:00am London time, so we departed at 5:00pm and were at our hotel by 5:45pm. Since we are (hopefully!) only in town for one night, we decided to work on our list of sights to see in London a little earlier than planned. First up, a traditional London pub for dinner. We bought two different local brews and a number of dishes to share. Fish and chips, shepherds pie, traditional English breakfast plate and a fish plate filled out the table. After dinner was a short walk to Buckingham Palace. We walked through St. James park at dusk, which was a very serene experience after a hectic day of airplanes, air ports and rescheduled plans. The slowly setting sun, the various birds and the beautiful scenery all combined to remind us of the bigger picture of what we were doing and why we are here. 

Our walk continued with the ultimate goal being to see the River Thames. Along the way we marveled at Trafalgar Square and bumped into a small pastry shop. Since we all had a hankering for something sweet, we purchased four different options and made our way to the Jubilie bridge. It has a beautiful nighttime skyline view of the city and of the Parliment buildings (including Big Ben). We ate the pastry's in a small park overlooking the same city view and marveled over the days challenges and blessings. A quick walk past the London Eye brought us to the tube station and then back to our rooms.

Today was fill of blessings and adventures, and we are grateful for things like free wifi almost everywhere that made the day so much better. We can't image how difficult this would have been had it happened even 10 years ago. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but we are together and we are safe and we are still excited for what God has planned.

And Away We Go Again . . . . Hopefully!

So today begins our next European adventure, this time with Tim's sister Susanne and our niece Christyn. We are looking forward to another 20+ fun filled days exploring the European landscape.

For months we have been excited about the great airline deal we scored on tickets (about $500 less per person than our first trip in 2007) and the fact that we have a direct flight from LAX to London. Knowing that when we get off of the first plane we will at least be in Europe was an exciting proposition. Then we have a small flight from London to Rome to start our trip.

That was until this morning of course. Our connecting carrier for the London to Rome flight is British Airways. If you have not seen the headlines, they are having massive IT issues and have cancelled all flights for today. Our flight that we have for tomorrow is still on, but we anticipate it being cancelled as well unless they are able to recover their systems quickly. The pictures of frustrated and angry passengers at the airport is not exciting! So we may begin our trip in London, and then have to get creative on how we actually get down to Rome. Never a dull moment when you are traveling! So for those of you who are reading this, just know it may be a few days until we are able to post again on this blog pending travel arrangements.

We are T minus 45 minutes before we leave for the airport, so we will sign off now so that we can get in a few last minute snuggles with all of the kiddos. Much love to you all and we will update soon!