Pax Vobiscum
11th Jan 2009, 14:57
Having been bumped off our BA 744 direct flight back from Africa, we got rerouted on Alitalia (321) via FCO. Now, for me, transiting is an unusual experience since (a) I prefer direct flights wherever possible and (b) LHR is my nearest airport, so most destinations can be reached without transit. I've seen several posts regarding difficulties of transiting LHR, so here's an alternative view (with apologies to those who have to do this more often than I - you have my respect and sympathy!)
The transfer was relatively tight, at 70 minutes, but we were only 5 minutes late landing, so things looked alright. We got an airbridge (good!), but after following the signs down a couple of sets of stairs, we emerged into the night air and climbed on a bus. We were one of the last ones on the first bus, so it set off shortly after we got on. Unfortunately it only went about 20m and then stopped. Despite several cries of 'andiamo' from the locals, it was clear nothing was about to happen until the second bus caught up with us. Once this had happened, we set off again and reached the arrivals gate.
Now things got seriously weird. Every single person had to go 'underneath the arches' with hand baggage, coats etc. being x-rayed separately. Now, I'm aware that there is a potential security threat to aircraft posed by weapons or explosives being smuggled on board, but I was previously unaware of this new and more deadly threat of weapons or explosives being smuggled off an aircraft into the local city - thank god for the carabinieri who can protect us from these risks. As you can imagine, with no-one (including locals) expecting this search and with a full 321-load of pax arriving simultaneously, this all took rather a long time.
Once through, it was just a case of following the signs to the monorail (for transfer to a satellite hub). Of course, being a non-Schengen destination, we had to go through the arches yet again (making 4 times since we left our hotel) - wasn't it Einstein who defined 'insanity' as 'repeating the same action expecting a different result'?
To cut a long story short, we caught our flight with about 10 minutes to spare. And (couldn't you guess?) it was exactly the same aircraft that had just brought us from Africa. Our bags made it to LHR too, mirabile dictu.
The transfer was relatively tight, at 70 minutes, but we were only 5 minutes late landing, so things looked alright. We got an airbridge (good!), but after following the signs down a couple of sets of stairs, we emerged into the night air and climbed on a bus. We were one of the last ones on the first bus, so it set off shortly after we got on. Unfortunately it only went about 20m and then stopped. Despite several cries of 'andiamo' from the locals, it was clear nothing was about to happen until the second bus caught up with us. Once this had happened, we set off again and reached the arrivals gate.
Now things got seriously weird. Every single person had to go 'underneath the arches' with hand baggage, coats etc. being x-rayed separately. Now, I'm aware that there is a potential security threat to aircraft posed by weapons or explosives being smuggled on board, but I was previously unaware of this new and more deadly threat of weapons or explosives being smuggled off an aircraft into the local city - thank god for the carabinieri who can protect us from these risks. As you can imagine, with no-one (including locals) expecting this search and with a full 321-load of pax arriving simultaneously, this all took rather a long time.
Once through, it was just a case of following the signs to the monorail (for transfer to a satellite hub). Of course, being a non-Schengen destination, we had to go through the arches yet again (making 4 times since we left our hotel) - wasn't it Einstein who defined 'insanity' as 'repeating the same action expecting a different result'?
To cut a long story short, we caught our flight with about 10 minutes to spare. And (couldn't you guess?) it was exactly the same aircraft that had just brought us from Africa. Our bags made it to LHR too, mirabile dictu.