Sunday August 3rd - Flights home

 Sunday 3rd August

Flights Home

Friday 1st - Glasgow Airport

Last Friday 1st August I went across from the Holiday Inn Hotel to the departures desk at the Airort and said that I wanted to get some "Special Assistance" for my transitions from Glasgow Airport, through Heathrow and at Singapore Airport as I am unfamiliar with any of those. The time frame between landing at Heathrow and taking off for Singapore was 2 1/4 hours. Okay if nothing untoward happened and I didn't have to recheck in my bags at Heathrow. The time frame for landing at Singapore and taking off for Auckland was 1 hour!

The ladies at the baggage check-in desk looked at my e-ticket and assured me that my bags would be checked in all the way to Auckland. They also pointed me to a service desk where I could register as needing Special Assistance. The man there booked me for all three airports.

Sunday 3rd - Flight to Heathrow

I had to get up at 5:00am Sunday morning to catch my 7:30am flight BA 1475 to Heathrow. I walked across to the Departures terminal at 5:30. The check-in lady again assured me that me bag would go all the way to Auckland., and gave me my all important Boarding Pass. I then walked over to the Special Assistance desk and said that I had booked special Assistance to get to the Boarding Gate. My assistant was a nice older lady called Emma who put me in a wheelchair and walked me up the lift and along to a cafe as we were a bit early. She said she or someone else would be back soon to take me to Boarding. Sure she came back and took me down the corridor to the Boarding Gate where I said, "Goodbye and thankyou". This flight took 1 hour 35 minutes to get to Heathrow.

The flight to Heathrow went pretty smoothly and we landed on time. at Terminal 5. There at the airbridge was my next assistant who took me to where I had to catch the bus to Terminal 2. After a short bus ride I got off at Terminal 2 and headed to the Special Assistance desk right beside door. A nice young man then wheeled me along several long corridors and a lift to where an airport buggy and its driver were waiting to pick several of us up. We all climbed aboard and we beeped our way along more long corridors to our Boarding gate. 

Sunday 3rd August - Flight to Singapore

We were slightly early as Boarding had not yet started so we had to wait about ten minutes before we could get on the aircraft, ready for our 13 hour flight to Singapore. It was an Air Singapore Airbus Industrie A320

This flight also went smoothly and we landed at Singapore on time. I got off and asked the Special Assistants on the airbridge if they had a booking for Ruary. One of the men checked and said, "They haven't come yet", but, "Come with me". He took me up to the end of the airbridge and pointed down a long corridor and said, "Walk down to the end of this corridor and turn left. Walk all the way to Gate 21B and you'll be there". It was a long way, but worked exactly as he said. Again I was slightly early and had to wait to get called up for Boarding. I had a great sense of relief when I found my seat and got ready for the 9 1/2 hour flight to Auckland.

When I arrived in Auckland it was 22:10, so after progressing through Customs and Security I caught the yellow Hotel bus to the Ibis Budget Hotel. Although it was by now 23:00 there was a receptionist there to greet me and give me my swipe card for the room. I went to bed happy to be home- nearly!

Tuesday 5th August - Bus to Hamilton

When I got up I had a shower and shave and then went down to breakfast which was very good. I then checked out and walked down to the Airport bus station to catch the 11:20 Intercity bus to Hamilton. It was a drafty wait with no shelter from the southerly wind.

The bus arrived on time and I was off. We got to Hamilton about 1:00pm and there was Mary-Ann waiting for me. We then caught the Kihikihi 24 bus home to Kihikihi

... picked up the car and drove home!

I have had a great trip, but it is also good to be home!