Angharad Dowse

Great mood this morning.
We are off! 🎉
Will was so excited he even packed last night. 😆
Had a quick rinse in the shower then we were off.
Walked to Piccadilly Circus then got the tube to the airport.
We judged how much to put on our Oyster cards really well. Only about 3£ each left in the end.
The train took about an hour and I was 80% sure on what terminal. Terminal 5.
Got it right ✌🏼
I’m very overwhelmed with all the documentation.
Since booking our flight details have changed 4 or 5 times - we booked with American Airlines but are flying British airways and Qantas.
They all have different booking references and flight time and I honestly just don’t know where we are meant to be.
Waited an hour so we could check in with a real person.

“I’m sorry I can’t find your booking”

Off to a cracking start.

British airways sent me an email about uploading Covid documents so I at least had my booking reference for them so he found it.
Didn’t look very hard did you. 🙃
Never had that happened before.

Next good news - our flight is delayed and we will miss our connection. 🫠🫠🫠🫠

I am very uncomfortable about everything.
I don’t trust our check in guy.
Have accepted we will miss flight which our boarding passes say leaves LA at 8:45pm, so we have looked at other possible Qantas flights tonight they could put us on and there is 2 others at 10:30.

Except 10:30 is the one we are meant to be on????? And everybody’s website except our boarding pass says 10:30 departure not 8:45????
It’s still tight but could we make it?
Only now even less likely because we have to collect our bags because the dude was like you land after departure, go get your bags and go straight to the help desk when you arrive.
Clarified with him 5 times that our bags are not going straight through.
“No you must collect at LA”
Ok. Gotcha. (Stay tuned for different story)

I am so confused 😭😭😭
How could you not find out booking? Have you put us on a different flight I don’t understandddddddd

I’d rather miss is outright cause we hadn’t arrived because they have to fix rather than a gray area of “well you were quick enough” and it becomes our fault.

Check in man originally said he couldn’t print our 2 boarding passes because second flight is moot but both were printed and I’m glad it says a departure time after our arrival. It will be my ‘Exhibit A’ when arguing why we didn’t hurry to make it.
Because we can’t prove any of the conversation we had with the check in man. 👍🏼

Considering all the strikes, the airport wasn’t busy at all.
It also had a feature we both liked which was pictures of little people depicting how busy the North and South security lines were. North way busier than south most of the time.
We found a business lounge but the guy was like go to the other one it’s better.
So we caught a tram one stop.
Lounge was lovely, got super comfy seats.
Lots of yummy food.
I love that you can make your own drinks. Could have a whole bottle of vodka if you wanted.
I made my own nachos with a mountain of sour cream. Person behind me was waiting.
Hang on a minute please I’m busy 😆
Also had some tomato/cucumber with balsamic 🤤
Their mashed potato was crap.

So confused I can’t even.
I’m so angry about the communication.
American Airlines saying we leave at 6:30, British airlines and airport saying 5:30.
American Airlines saying we arrive 6:35pm. British have given no time but my automated email from flight center is saying 8:50pm.
These are very different.

Eventually got given a gate and caught the train back to it.
460 people on our flight.

We went and spoke to a worker because we are beyond confused and wanted some clarification.
Asked when are we arriving and he said should be 8:40.
Thank you flight center you were at least close.
American Airlines, come on man.
We then inquired about our departing plane.
He has no idea why our ticket says 8:45 (his system does too) cause when he googled the flight number it’s 10:30.
So we have a little bit of hope.

He said our luggage ticket says our bags are going straight through to Sydney and we don’t need to collect.

Have text dad to update him with nothing really other than to say we don’t know when we will arrive.

Boarded plane and business not nearly as good as Qantas. And kids everywhere.
In fairness it has a kid vibe though. Qantas was leather seats with polished wood this is just economy with more space.
Will isn’t going to able to lie down and I’m facing backwards. Lol
I do like that I’m in a corner and near a toilet so everyone doesn’t stare at me when I go the the toilet 100 times. Lol

The entertainment on board is garbage, or rather the set up is.
No option to just show all movies? Have to search all 39 genres.
For TV it shows every episode rather than pick a series you want to watch and then it will show you the episode.
In conclusion lots of unnecessary scrolling haha.

Have successfully taken off.
Hatteeeeeeeeee take off in an airbus. Takes too long to get in the air, I panic 😂

Announcement over the loud speaker.
“All passengers will need to collect bags if transferring domestic or internationally”

Going to lose my shit soon. Don’t care the circumstances but can we all just agree on what that is please.

Food was delicious. Especially some cous cous thing with sour cream. Had some slow cooked beef chucks which were great too.

A worker came and told us we have been put on another flight with United airlines.
25 minutes later than our Qantas one…
Doesn’t give us that much extra wiggle room.

We want Qantas cause Will fits but I think his desire to get home for New Years trumps his fly with Qantas desires. He may regret though as we don’t know what their business looks like.
But ok, we are flying United Airlines. 💪🏻

Read lots of my book and watched a movie. Unbelievable. Normally can’t watch them on planes. But every plane this trip I have wanted to watch but not watched..
I watched ‘Good luck to you, Leo Grande’ which made me laugh out loud on the plane even though it’s not a comedy. I don’t know what you would class it as but both actors, especially Emma Thompson deserves an Oscar.

Will read some of his book. The most newsworthy event of the day really.

Alrighty. 10 mins from landing. Must rush to find people at “the top of the stairs” who will help us cause I have questions about our bags… and how we board a new plane when I don’t have a boarding pass for it.

Hope the airport has Wi-Fi so I can message dad or I’ll have to activate my sim.

My review for British airways airbus is if it was significantly cheaper to fly then Qantas I’d fly again but just the little things like my seat taking 40 pushes of the button to recline which all up genuinely took like 15 minutes. That’s fine I can deal BUT the only place for storage is under the bed in a box I can’t access to get anything out all flight cause didn’t want to deal with the bed.
No shelf to put my phone, had to put it in my shirt so it didn’t fall and get stuck in the seat. I mentioned the crap entertainment system already and my phone had been on charge for 5 hours and gone up 6%. Thankfully we don’t appear to be stranded so it should last until the next flight.
I drained a lot of it on this flight making my video which will end up being about 1h32mins 😅

But really main one is Will doesn’t fit. I fit but only just and I’m not tall.

I have loveeeeeed my corner.

The food had been great and staff were the noticeable highlight. They have so many workers it’s great.

Am currently lying in a deliciously comfortable bed in LA -
STRAP IN FOR THE MOST RIDICULOUS EXPERIENCE.

Got off the plane.
Found the lady we were meant to find. She gave us fluro orange express pass things and our NEW flight number of QF12
BRUUUUUUH THAT IS OUR ORIGINAL FLIGHT 🤦🏼‍♀️

I was feeling lucky because we got off the plane first we got through customs quick. If you are 450th of the plane you are going to be there a while.
Worker there didn’t care about our fluro pass. We waited. Line we picked naturally had someone before us who needed to supply a mountain of documentation.
Hurry up. 😩
Wouldn’t have mattered anyway because then came the bag carousel drama. 20 minutes for our bags to arrive.
Then we RACED to drop them off again going off a very non detailed instructions of where to go.
To race quicker Will ripped his bag tag off.
We fixed this problem once we arrived and I didn’t let my feelings known about his decision regarding this, but honestly how stupid are you. How is your bag getting to Sydney without your tag on it????
Anyway. It still had some stick so reattached and put on the carousel.
Then had to get through customs.
I got yelled at by a lot of people and workers for going under barrier lines and running past people.
No one cared about our express signs.
Had to get sniffed by a dog, have passports checked again, do TSA, we SPRINTED through the airport sweating like pigs and arrived for our flight in time.
Told dad plan A is going ahead.

JOKES.

Tried to get on the plane.
Gate wouldn’t open so was sent to see a worker.

British airways cancelled our booking. 🫠🫠🫠🫠
Not allowed on the plane because we have no booking.
And this guy was an absolute wanker too. Not even a fake sorry. Just a big ol tough titties attitude.
Had to force info out of him like
ok what do we do now then??
Wasn’t his problem.
Prick.

Sent us to British airways ticketing.
All staff left for the evening 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠
Found one lady who found her manager who had been at the airport for over 14 hours by now who deserves a raise.
2 others in the same pickle but not going Sydney. They have NYE Fiji plans with a friend and now that friend will be celebrating alone. 😬
We were there about 1.5 hours but in that time we got booked on a delta flight for tomorrow evening at 8pm but we asked if we could be put on the later Qantas one if available as we know he fits and it’s only 2 hours different. So she went and did that for us.
Meanwhile, a man from Qantas we found (who also deserves a raise) went and found our bags for us.
He said British airways has developed quite the reputation of late and our bags were never making it even if we did.
I’ll say. Will not fly again. I have never experienced such incompetent ridiculousness.
I know I complain a lot but most of the time I don’t really mean it. I’m not actually bothered, I’m just talking crap.
But WOWWZA today has been HARD for real.

By the end we have a new Qantas flight, food vouches and accommodation for 2 nights.

Some very feral people will be joining us shortly and they have my sympathies.
In order to check if we could have 2 nights accommodation rather than one so we didn’t have to check out in the morning m, the lady called to confirm with the hotel only to find out her colleague only booked 5 rooms in the hotel for the evening when it was meant to be 7.
The lady had sent a 6th over so they will be reappearing shortly to say the hotel denied them 😬
But because of this we got put in a better hotel.
Food vouchers for most meals.
But gratuity not included 🙃🙃🙃
I see red when it comes to tipping, I really do. Vividly and immediately.

Caught the shuttle. Absolutely no signage asked 3 people for help but eventually found and taken to the door.

Had trouble finding our booking, but we got there.
Have checked in and eaten with food vouchers.
Didn’t tip. Will have to tip tomorrow which I’m furious about. Going to send the bill to British airways as per the instructions of the lady I think deserves a raise.

LAX is the stupidest airport. Will not fly through there again unless visiting USA.

I’m done I tell you.
We can’t reaaaallly afford it but we have pushed our work start dates back a few days and will start on the 9th. We both need to sit without this garbage.
The stress has just been so constant.
The entire world has honestly just shat itself and hasn’t fixed itself yet. Everything has been a mess.
Bed time.
Silver lining is Will hasn’t been to LA and we have a whole day.

Bed time thank goodness.

Also we aren’t sure but we think someone took a piss in the sink on the plane. Very bubbly but unlikely to be champagne. No one walked in with champagne.

Took a picture, of course.Les mer