5/24 Made it to London, FINALLY!

 I don't want to focus too much on the disaster of my flight from CLE to JFK being cancelled due to weather and Delta rescheduling me for the next day, but changing my ticket class from Premium on the Virgin Atlantic Flight to coach, for who knows what reason--probably just plain laziness.  They were going to insist that since they had made this mistake that the new tickets could not be changed, in spite of my having spent a few hundred extra dollars making my reservation in this upgraded class so I could be more comfortable on the 7.5 hour flight.  

Not only did the cancelled flights require my son to have to retrieve me from the airport and take me back again the next morning, but I spent over two-and-a-half hours on the phone that evening waiting on hold and then arguing mostly with Delta about why they could not fix their mistake!!!!!!   Will not provide you with details, other than to say Delta did absolutely nothing to fix their error, but Virgin Atlantic came through even though they had to bend their online systems to do get me back on schedule with what I had paid for.  (After hours at the ticket desk and trying to get online or on the phone with someone who could fix their error, Delta sent me a customer satisfaction survey.  Guess what scores I gave them?

So, onward to better things, like my first day in London. The good news is that today, instead of yesterday, I finally made it to London, but at the very early hour of 6:00 am, UK time.  By the way, premium is a class of air travel that most international carriers offer.  It is between business class and economy, and basically you get early boarding, your luggage gets off the plane when the first-class and business-class luggage get unloaded.  Your seat is the equivalent of a typical first-class seat on most domestic flights.  

In the Airbus A330-300 I flew in, seats in premium class are in a 2-3-2 configuration instead of the usual 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 configuration in economy.  (Some international airlines do offer a couple of economy classes with a couple more inches of leg room, but only premium has wider seats with a lot more leg room.)  Mine looked like this:

Note the wide armrests.  Premium class passengers also get, believe it or not, real ceramic plates and actual silverware for the two meals you get onboard.  Wow!  Can't believe airlines are allowing you to have real spoons, knives, and forks!!  😮  Apparently premium people do not tend to stab one another.  You also get a footrest and a tiny bit more recline, plus a welcoming glass of wine.  

 

I will have to admit, however, that the British Air World Traveler seat I had four years ago on the A380 double-decker place was a little more roomy, with a couple more inches of legroom.  I remember specifically being able to get out of my seat without disturbing the person next to me.  

Arrival was really strange.  In 2003, I flew into Heathrow and had my bags swabbed down and checked for drugs and got quizzed about why I had come to the UK, where I was going, and how long I was staying, etc.   In 2018, I did not get my bags searched, but I got a lot of questions if I was teaching online while I was in the UK and who was employing me, etc. etc.  It took well over an hour just standing in line to present my passport and be questioned.

So this time, I got my checked bag from the luggage carousel and walked quickly with the other passengers to try to beat the economy passengers to security.  There was a big sign and two paths.  One was for people holding British passports, U.S. passports, Canadian passports, and a list of European Union passports.  The other area was for people who have "Other" passports. 

So, I guess because we had arrived as the airport first opened, there was hardly anyone in the long, long Disneyesque passport control lines.  I had pulled out my passport, my vaccination card, and was prepared for the usual grilling by security officers.  I had been worried about all the prescription drugs I was carrying and had all the prescription papers for each of them. Basically, I was expecting to have to fill out a customer form, open my luggage, and have everything inspected by customs.  There had been signs on boarding in NY telling us also that every person entering the UK had to complete a form attesting to where we planned to stay while in the country, but had never gotten one on the plane as had happened before.

NOW, HERE IS THE REALLY STRANGE PART!!!  There were absolutely no passport control human beings!  There were a couple of people who were directing you to available automated booths where you were given printed instructions to slip your passport into a slot so your information and photo was visible, and also to take off your glasses.  You stuck your passport into a slot and were told to look at the camera.  CLICK!  If you had slid the passport in right and looked at the camera, VOILA, the gate opened and off you went.  (Note:  I looked really weird in my photo because I had my mouth wide open and my head tilted, but somehow it passed and let me through.  No retakes allowed, I guess.)

A few hundred feet further, there was another set of signs that told you to take the left lane if you had nothing to declare and the right lane if you had something to declare.  And then, it spit you out into the non-secured part of the airport.  I kept looking around wondering what had happened to customs and the guys that searched your luggage, but all I saw were the usual signs directing you to taxis, the Heathrow Express to Paddington, the regular rail station, parking lots, and ticket counters. 

That was it.  Because I had a U.S. passport and had taken the path that said I had nothing to declare, no one questioned me or wanted to see the vaccination card I still had clutched in my hand.  None of this matched the stuff I had carefully read online.  Frankly, I got on the express train to London wondering if I had somehow done something wrong and was in the country illegally.  

Anyway, I got to my hotel and checked in quickly.  Since I had paid for the night before, there was a room waiting for me, so I took a quick shower and took a nap.  I had a headache from all the stress and dehydration and probably from being awake for the past 25 hours.

I did want to show you my room before I messed it up, however.  Premier Inn is a chain of budget hotels very similar to Holiday Inn Expresses, except they have small restaurants in them.  However, in the past few years, they have also opened up several dozen of what they call their HUB hotels--mostly in the bigger cities.  These rooms are all fairly new, about half the size of regular hotel rooms, and are very inexpensive.  I have stayed in them before in London and found the beds very comfortable, the bedding very nice, and the rooms clean and efficient.  

My HUB is about three blocks from Westminster Abbey and the Parliament buildings and only a block or two from Buckingham Palace and some very nice parks.  Cost without breakfast was only 88 GBP per night, which equates to $115 per night.  What other major city can you get a nice, though small, hotel room for anywhere near that price right in the heart of the city?  So here is a photo of my room.

 

 

There is a large shower, toilet, and small sink in a private bathroom, as shown in the next photo. 

What is missing is a closet, dresser, desk, and chair, and you only get liquid soap and shampoo in containers in the shower and next to the sink.  There is a pull-out bench at the foot of the queen-sized bed that you can pull out to use as a desk.  There is also a small stool or tiny chair you can sit on to work on a computer.  

A bonus to the room is that there are tons of regular plugs and charging ports, and a big screen Hi-Def TV at the foot of the bed.  There is also a control panel at the head of the bed that controls all the lighting and the room temperature.  

These rooms are perfect for one person, but a problem is that the bed in in an alcove so that the person sleeping near the wall has to crawl over the person sleeping on the edge.  They do have slightly larger rooms, however, with beds that can be accessed on both sides.  For me, I like the price, the comfortable beds, and the security in the hotel.  You can't use the elevators or even get to the halls without using your room card.  

Around noon, after a nap, I headed out to do some exploring and get something to eat.  More about this later, and about "Minding the Gap" as shown in this photo.