For those of you who had read my article last week, you will know the difficulties I had with my first flight. But the drama continues as I try to return back to the US via Heathrow Airport.

According to BBC Radio, Heathrow airport is the most frequently traveled transfer point in the world, with most flights going to and from the United States. My advice to travelers would be to never travel or transfer to or from Heathrow airport unless London is your destination.

How could this airport be so bad? It’s so bad that even before you arrive at Heathrow they give you a map of the airport with various times on it. For me, it was more convenient to fly out of Lyon, (second largest city in France) and my transfer would be in Heathrow. When I checked in with British Airways in Lyon, both my boarding passes were presented to me along with the Heathrow map.

I guess since it was six in the morning I didn’t really look at this interesting map that was presented to me. My British Airway fight to Heathrow was not only on time, but left Lyon early and, “big surprise,” arrived at Heathrow early. (To get somewhere early by air travel almost never happens, because each airplane has its own time slot to take off as well as to land.)

After sleeping for an hour or so on the plane I felt refreshed and ready to tackle these various papers given to me. So I looked at the map. I would arrive at international terminal 4. If I would depart from this terminal, the total transfer time would be 1 hour, per the map. But if I departed from International terminal 1 it would be 75 minutes. But if I departed from international terminal 3 would be 90 minutes. Oh wait! A little asterisk sign!

*“Please note that the times shown are minimum connection times. Your contention may take longer during busy periods.”

Since I did not know what terminal I would be departing from, the first thing I needed to do when I get off the plane is to check which terminal my flight will be at. Even if I do know this beforehand, I always check on the boards. So many things can change, the terminal, the flight time, cancellations etc.

I was hoping that I would not have to transfer to terminal 3. It was quite funny. In “normal airports” they have what I would like to call an active fight board. You can see your flight number, destination, time, as well as terminal number. Often it will also tell you if your fight is “on-time” or if it’s “delayed.” But in this “lovely” airport they have a static board. You have to know your airline and then they then tell you what terminal to go to. No other information is present. I would be flying AA (American Airlines) and started to look at the board. All AA flights leave from terminal 3. Why do I always get the dog card?

All right, I thought, if everything flows as planed it will take me 90 minutes to navigate threw this airport. I looked at my watch. It was 7:50 a.m. London time. My flight leaves at 10:00. Boarding of the plane will be around 9:20 to 9:30. I should be able to make it.

I started what I thought would be my 90 minute journey in the airport. First things first: I needed to take the transfer bus. The map said the transfer bus would be 30 minutes. I was really lucky; I got the bus with no waiting time. Perhaps to calm down passengers, a short 10 min video was played about airport safety. It still did not help me from looking at my watch every 2 minutes. The bus, which said it would take 30 minutes, only took 15. Cool, I thought. I will make my plane with no problems. That’s before I realized what lay ahead.

After walking up “1 million” stairs, I arrived at what they call on the map “flight connections.” I turned around the corner and BAM a long never-ending line of people. This was passport control and security. Even though I had all my carry-on luggage scanned in France, the process was about to happen again. This usually does not bother me, seeing as it is for my safety. But what did bother me is the lack of people they have working to do this job. While the map said this section would only take me 20 minutes, it ended up taking an hour. Current time: shortly after 9. I should be able to proceed to the departure gate with no problem.

WRONG AGAIN! After going through security, we were forced to line up again to talk to service personal who would tell us which gate our plane is departing from. (Haven’t they heard of screens that can project this information?) Now the time was 9:15. I got to the woman and told her my flight number when she proceeded to ask me for my boarding card. She then printed me a new boarding card. Why, I do not know. All the information on the card was the same, it seems like a big waste of paper to me.

9:20. “You better hurry if you want to make your flight,” the service personal said. I looked again at the map. Time to departure gate is 20 minutes. The only thing I could do from here was run. Run I did, trying to get to my departure gate on time, while avoiding children, grandparents, and businessmen talking on phones. “Go speed racer, go speed racer” was playing in my head. I just hoped that I would make it.

I did make my plane. Before I could get on, another line. My advice, avoid Heathrow at all costs.

Stay tuned for next week’s article: cheap ways to get around Europe. If you have any travel questions that you would like Krista to answer feel free to e-mail her at editorial@uwmpost.com.

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