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15th anniversary trip - California, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Seattle - Day 1/2
Saturday/Sunday
Even though this is dated April 13 (happy birthday T), we actually started travelling on Saturday 12 April but it takes a while to travel 10,000 miles - especially this time! We left Cape Town without any problems, heading to Johannesburg first and managed to book our luggage through to London, Heathrow and I was finally excited about the whole trip. But something was nagging a bit. I'd been on the BA website on and off all day to try to book the seats on our flight to San Francisco which was leaving the next morning - we'd land at Heathrow, have a few hours in the terminal before boarding the next flight to SF - but couldn't get onto it at all. Now, anyone who's read some previous posts knows that the 'broadband' internet connection in SA is not always the best, but I didn't really think it was that, there seemed to be a problem with BA's site. Added to that was the current big problem - Terminal 5 and all the horror stories about lost luggage, cancelled flights... but hopefully, as it had been open a few weeks now, that wasn't going to be a problem? We were flying into Terminal 4 and out of Terminal 5 now - last minute change so a good job we had time to travel between the terminals.
When we arrived at Johannesburg we tried to book the seats for SF again but the BA desk couldn't access the flight... this was getting ominous. We paid to get some internet access on the off chance that we would now be able to book those seats and put our minds at rest. No such luck, not only could we not book the seats but our flight had been cancelled! There was a number to call if you had problems but hey, it was Saturday night and of course BA in SA only worked office hours which was Mon-Fri 9-5 - really helpful for those people flying at other times! We headed back out into the main terminal so we could get to BA customer services. She contacted sales, sales said the flight wasn't cancelled, well, they didn't have any notification of that. We told them we'd been emailed with the cancellation, then while sales were on the phone, the flight came up as cancelled on their system! Luckily there was a second flight a bit later in the day so she managed to book us onto that one and we'd have to speak to BA when we got to Heathrow and hopefully it would all be okay as it would be a very sorry start to the trip to find ourselves stranded in London!
So flight to London was pretty uneventful. I like flying BA for various reasons and they are my airline of choice, if I have the choice. Watched some bits and pieces on the in flight entertainment, most notably I am Legend. It was okay as a stand alone movie but I've read the Richard Matheson book and this movie was not it! This is the third time it's been filmed and none of them have ever done the novel justice. R managed to sleep quite a lot but I only managed three hours - going to be tired waiting around in London.
We landed in Terminal 5, not 4 as we were told - it's a lovely terminal but that may be because it is new! I still think that Singapore is one of the best airports I've ever been in. Our luggage arrived so we collected it and headed to BA customer services to find out about our cancelled flight. Customer services representative was excellent, really pleasant, very helpful and understanding. The SA branch had managed to book us onto the next flight but of course it was now really full so booking seats we wanted was impossible but hey, we were lucky to get on the flight, there would be some people finding out about the cancellation so late that they wouldn't be flying until tomorrow. BA gave us £10 each in food vouchers to cover the time we would be stuck in the airport.
So, we waited... did some things that we'd missed such as shopping at Smiths and Boots and had a Starbucks. Thought about going to Wagamama's for lunch... bought some cheap books - compared to SA almost everywhere is cheap - and this was only the start, heading to the US always means I come back with books... and shoes... and lingerie usually (love Victoria's Secret) LOL.
The flight to SF was very full and I was very tired so tried to get some more sleep. I had tried to get some sleep in the terminal but not much luck. We were delayed an hour in leaving (I was asleep though LOL) but R was awake most of the time. Did manage to watch Juno, which we both enjoyed, the performances were really good and the story didn't have the usual 'cop out' Hollywood ending. Spent more time listening to the iPod really.
Arrived a bit tired, went through the whole security thing with fingerprints and pics - wonder what they do with that huge amount of data... better not to ask I guess. Picked up the luggage, got transport into town. Serrano Hotel very nice, boutique with lovely little touches in the decor, games in the lobby, and an iPod speaker clock so that took care of charging it! Went to the restaurant to eat something before falling asleep. The way I was feeling, I could have fallen asleep in my dinner!
Went to bed around 9.30pm local time but that was really 6.30am Monday morning for us! Started travelling at 3.30pm on Saturday and finally stopped 39 hours later! Good night's sleep needed before starting the trip for real tomorrow.
Even though this is dated April 13 (happy birthday T), we actually started travelling on Saturday 12 April but it takes a while to travel 10,000 miles - especially this time! We left Cape Town without any problems, heading to Johannesburg first and managed to book our luggage through to London, Heathrow and I was finally excited about the whole trip. But something was nagging a bit. I'd been on the BA website on and off all day to try to book the seats on our flight to San Francisco which was leaving the next morning - we'd land at Heathrow, have a few hours in the terminal before boarding the next flight to SF - but couldn't get onto it at all. Now, anyone who's read some previous posts knows that the 'broadband' internet connection in SA is not always the best, but I didn't really think it was that, there seemed to be a problem with BA's site. Added to that was the current big problem - Terminal 5 and all the horror stories about lost luggage, cancelled flights... but hopefully, as it had been open a few weeks now, that wasn't going to be a problem? We were flying into Terminal 4 and out of Terminal 5 now - last minute change so a good job we had time to travel between the terminals.
When we arrived at Johannesburg we tried to book the seats for SF again but the BA desk couldn't access the flight... this was getting ominous. We paid to get some internet access on the off chance that we would now be able to book those seats and put our minds at rest. No such luck, not only could we not book the seats but our flight had been cancelled! There was a number to call if you had problems but hey, it was Saturday night and of course BA in SA only worked office hours which was Mon-Fri 9-5 - really helpful for those people flying at other times! We headed back out into the main terminal so we could get to BA customer services. She contacted sales, sales said the flight wasn't cancelled, well, they didn't have any notification of that. We told them we'd been emailed with the cancellation, then while sales were on the phone, the flight came up as cancelled on their system! Luckily there was a second flight a bit later in the day so she managed to book us onto that one and we'd have to speak to BA when we got to Heathrow and hopefully it would all be okay as it would be a very sorry start to the trip to find ourselves stranded in London!
So flight to London was pretty uneventful. I like flying BA for various reasons and they are my airline of choice, if I have the choice. Watched some bits and pieces on the in flight entertainment, most notably I am Legend. It was okay as a stand alone movie but I've read the Richard Matheson book and this movie was not it! This is the third time it's been filmed and none of them have ever done the novel justice. R managed to sleep quite a lot but I only managed three hours - going to be tired waiting around in London.
We landed in Terminal 5, not 4 as we were told - it's a lovely terminal but that may be because it is new! I still think that Singapore is one of the best airports I've ever been in. Our luggage arrived so we collected it and headed to BA customer services to find out about our cancelled flight. Customer services representative was excellent, really pleasant, very helpful and understanding. The SA branch had managed to book us onto the next flight but of course it was now really full so booking seats we wanted was impossible but hey, we were lucky to get on the flight, there would be some people finding out about the cancellation so late that they wouldn't be flying until tomorrow. BA gave us £10 each in food vouchers to cover the time we would be stuck in the airport.
So, we waited... did some things that we'd missed such as shopping at Smiths and Boots and had a Starbucks. Thought about going to Wagamama's for lunch... bought some cheap books - compared to SA almost everywhere is cheap - and this was only the start, heading to the US always means I come back with books... and shoes... and lingerie usually (love Victoria's Secret) LOL.
The flight to SF was very full and I was very tired so tried to get some more sleep. I had tried to get some sleep in the terminal but not much luck. We were delayed an hour in leaving (I was asleep though LOL) but R was awake most of the time. Did manage to watch Juno, which we both enjoyed, the performances were really good and the story didn't have the usual 'cop out' Hollywood ending. Spent more time listening to the iPod really.
Arrived a bit tired, went through the whole security thing with fingerprints and pics - wonder what they do with that huge amount of data... better not to ask I guess. Picked up the luggage, got transport into town. Serrano Hotel very nice, boutique with lovely little touches in the decor, games in the lobby, and an iPod speaker clock so that took care of charging it! Went to the restaurant to eat something before falling asleep. The way I was feeling, I could have fallen asleep in my dinner!
Went to bed around 9.30pm local time but that was really 6.30am Monday morning for us! Started travelling at 3.30pm on Saturday and finally stopped 39 hours later! Good night's sleep needed before starting the trip for real tomorrow.