Transatlantic
I’m on the homeward bound finish stretch to Germany. We made up some of the lost time while flying east over the Atlantic and arrived at London Gatwick at 10:00 in the morning. Customs and Immigration and luggage pickup went surprisingly quickly. That always seems to be the case when I have oodles of spare time and am in no hurry.
Gatwick North Terminal
I walked to the other terminal and things started going pear-shaped. Even though the overhead signs pointed me to area “A” for Lufthansa, there was no Lufthansa counter to be seen. They’d shut down after their first flight and wouldn’t open until 15:30. I’d bought a business class upgrade expressly so that I could use the Lufthansa Lounge and spend the time in comfort with free internet rather than sitting in a grungy plastic airport seat designed to be as uncomfortable as possible for long-term seating.
It is now 14:00 and I’ve got another hour and half to wait for the check-in counter to open, and looking at the lounge information it might even closed (it says operating hours 07:00-14:00). I’m not happy, having wasted quite a bit of money for absolutely nothing; all I’ve gained is some frustration. To make matters worse, the airport is very busy, and the free Wi-Fi system is completely overloaded. I was able to connect for 15 minutes in the morning and have not been able to reconnect since then.
Check In
The whole departure area was empty the whole time until shortly before check-in was to resume. A large group arrived and waited at the soon-to-be-announced-gate. When I joined the line just a couple of minutes later, I had about 50 people in front of me in line! Most of them with large families and too many suitcases, too. I knew that this wasn’t going to be fast and wasn’t surprised when a single Lufthansa employee showed up the desk.
But once 15:30 rolled around they opened 3 counters and one was a Business class one which I snuck into. I did get to use the business class lounge for at least a small meal and some beverages before boarding time came.
Frankfurt
We were a bit delayed on take-off, partly because the captain parked us in a penalty area and announced that we couldn’t continue until all the passengers sat down, stopped using their phones, and fastened their seatbelts. Some of the passengers were ignoring instructions. This was like a grown-up version of “time out”.
We arrived just a bit late, but an ominous “Technical Delay” message at the baggage carousel promised further delay. After a half hour our luggage finally came out and I got my rental car and departed the airport.
In the rain, which continued nonstop for the rest of the 3 hour drive. I was tired, so despite most of the stretch having no speed limit I stayed at 110-120.
I didn’t make the homeward bound finish line until about 02:00