A Long-Haul Flight Lesson

A bucket of tears and a 6.5 hours flight later, I’m sitting at London Heathrow Airport trying to kill 14 hours worth of layover. I miss him so much.

I learnt a valuable lesson last night while checking in at the airport for my flight – always check in with the airline you booked with even if it is a co-shared flight with another airline.

After a tearful goodbye with my mom-il and Anth (I’m a baby I know), I ventured into the airport and got utterly confused because all I see are American Airline counters. I didn’t see the airline I booked with, and in my teary-eyed state checked in at the co-share airline – American Airline.

The kiosk printed my luggage tag. It says PHL-LHR. Perplexed, I told the lady taking my 50 lbs suitcase (half of that weight are gifts. I know, what kind of a minimalist am I?) that I’m flying to Singapore, do I need to collect my luggage at London? She took a look at the tag and said, “yes, you’ll need to.” I thought that’s how co-share flight worked, and printed out the boarding pass for my first flight because that’s all the kiosk offered. It was not what I was used to, but I’ve never taken co-share flights.

So I proceeded to pass through security, and walked right to my gate – as is my usual practice. I got there, sat down, and googled about connecting flights operated by different airlines and realized that I probably made a mistake. Unsettled, I looked around for British Airways staff or people who might be able to help me. I approached a lady at an AA counter who confirmed my suspicion that I should’ve checked in at the BA counter. Now I would have to collect it at London and recheck the bag again.

It didn’t feel right. I don’t like that BA might not know my luggage is not tagged correctly,. I also don’t have the boarding pass for my second flight. Even though she said there’s nothing I can do about it, I wasn’t about to let it go. Besides, I reached the airport early. I spied a lady wearing a dark blue and red ribbon around her neck, and asked her, “do you happen to be a BA staff?” You know, just trying my luck. She wasn’t, but she directed me to Gate A16.

Of course, no one was there.

I did find the information counter though. A kindly man was behind the counter, I told them I couldn’t locate a BA staff, and my luggage is headed to the wrong destination. That caught his attention. He suggested that I exit the transit area and go to the British Airways counter. To come back, I’ll just have to go through security again.

I didn’t know that I can exit the transit area! All my adult life, I’ve wondered about that. He said people do that all the time to get a smoke.

I expressed my concern about missing the flight. When he found out that I still had almost 2 hours, he confidently said in his cool African accent, “you won’t miss your flight, the exit is just 3 minutes away, right by Gate 14, and BA counter is right beside the escalator.”

With his reassurance, and a security personnel’s confirmation, I left the transit area. Part of me wondered if I’ll miss the flight and have to go home to Anth. Anyway, I managed to get to the BA counter. I was expecting to have to recheck the suitcase at London, but the helpful lady re-tagged my luggage to Singapore and checked me in for my second flight too. Woohoo! She also said the co-share airline should’ve checked in the first place.

I went through security again, thanked the info counter man, and wrote him favorable feedback. He was happy, I was happy, and I marveled at the amount of nice people in this world. In the short span of 40 minutes, I sought help from 5 people, who helped me to the best of their ability. I’m thankful.

I also marveled at how far I’ve come. I was the girl with social anxiety so bad that ordering food at a fast food restaurant made me tremble. It took me 32 years to get here. I’m always lagging in societal skills, but hey, I’ve gotten better.

I worry more when I fly alone, but I’m not afraid. After all, airports are very controlled environments full of helpful staff stationed to help ditsy folks like me. All we need to do is ask nicely.

I’m not sorry for making the mistake since I learnt from it. You probably already know this, but I’ll say it anyway:

Always check in with the main airline you booked with, make sure you have boarding passes for all legs of your flights, and it’s okay to clear security more than once, if you have time.

Now I have 11 hours to kill.