I hope all London-bound flyers are having a reasonable time today. I know that fog has caused havoc in Heathrow and Gatwick. I'm in Malta, waiting for my return flight to Gatwick. BA seems to have done a reasonable job of looking after its passengers, convincing the authorities to release the passengers from the pseudo-imprisonment of the non-schengen gates, to allow them to roam the airport (and spend their Euros) again. I was stopped by the captain of today's flight as I re-admitted myself to the LaValette lounge, and he gave me (and another couple) a blow by blow account of what had happened, and what the likely scenarios were. I think it was a lovely touch, and I appreciated his efforts to talk to us directly. He even recommended certain apps to monitor flight progress (I'd already been watching events unfurl on flightradar24.)
Totally disastrous evening for me from Gatwick. Missed connections, massive delays. I know there is not much the airlines can do about fog but my goodness it played havoc with my schedule.
Yes, sadly the intra-EU €250 compensation for 3+ hours delay doesn't kick in where it's the weather. You are entitled to food, drink and accommodation, however.
I was supposed to travel back PHL-DUB-LHR on separate tickets. Luckily BA agreed to book me PHL-MAN so I could catch a train home. Wasn't much later than had I gone via DUB. Lost a few Tier Points of course and will have to claim the train ticket on my travel insurance, but I am home.
In the end, I had a relatively good experience. We were summoned from the lounge (where there aren't normally any announcements). It was an hour earlier than expected. Everyone boarded wonderfully quickly and we were away. Our hands-on skipper did a hands-off landing, stating that he used two autopilot systems to land as the visibility was down to 300m (although I couldn't see the ground until we'd landed.) He then had to personally try and get the doors open on the air bridge as the gates were locked. I think that GAL staff had to be summoned to release us. We were probably on the plane for an extra 20 minutes or so, but we had excellent communications from the captain and the CSM... ...and of course our bags were waiting for us on the carousel. Every (foggy) cloud....!
Never nice when that happens. My ZRH-LCY was cancelled Sunday evening, and so I had to overnight at the Hilton Zurich Airport (not great) and head back the following day. I've submitted my hotel costs and incidentals to BA, so here's hoping they pay out.
