London Apr. 18: In London Heathrow London, England

20PAR08 London Heathrow International, London England (LHR)

I made my way to the Continental counter in Terminal 4 and printed my boarding pass using the self-service kiosk. I had an aisle seat in the second cabin; the Exit row I think, but changed it as I wanted a seat with a power port. These are in rows 17 to 23 in Economy glass. I saw one of my colleagues and said hello. We chatted for a bit before I did my security checks.

I bade her goodbye and then headed for the airport security area. I was asked if I had any liquids and I said no and moved on. Saying yes, is just annoying as they want to give you bags and ask annoying questions. Well, all my stuff is already in bags and I have no water with me, at least not today. I do think they have way too many of those people standing around annoying people.

Speaking of annoying people, I saw one of them have this guy as they thought his bag was too big. So he had to stuff it in the sizer to prove it. Of course I could not escape it, so my bag had to be checked despite the fact that I told her it was fine. You would think that the amount of bags they see, they would be able to tell by now if a bag is bigger than is allowed or not.

The rest of the security system was fine, so I proceeded to the Holideck where I presented my documentation and gained access. It was now about 10:30a. The board said to “go to the gate” for my flight. I tooled around in the Holideck for a bit, had breakfast, took some pictures and then left.

When I got to the gate, boarding had not started and I saw the crew still outside and a catering truck at the rear of the plane. I guess we are delayed today. The gate area was quite crowded as there was a Qantas (QF) Boeing 747-400 flight leaving from the gate next to ours. Its first stop would be Hong Kong (HKG) on its way to Sydney, Australia (SYD). Coincidentally, there was also another QF flight to Sydney, but it was going through Singapore (SIN). This one was at gate 10, so the Continental flight was sandwiched by the two QF flights.

I walked around a bit more and came back and still no boarding. I did hear an announcement though of an apology for a delayed departure which was due to the late arriving aircraft. The crew had gone down to inspect the plane which was still being cleaned. Boarding would start shortly.

I took the long walk back to the Holideck and checked and sent a much needed e-mail. In a few minutes, the guy at the front desk announced that the flight was boarding as a special announcement. I then wrapped up my activities and went down to gate 9.

When I got there, they were just boarding Elites followed by special assistance passengers. In a few minutes, they boarded the masses and I went on board. As I walked down the jetway, the lady in front of me commented on how long of a walk it was. I concurred. Most of the jetway is actually in the terminal building. The actual jetway itself is really short. This time, I was not stopped for another random security check so I was safe. The checkers were busy checking others is the reason I think.