Travelling to the USA- part 1

The prospect of travelling 18 hours by air coupled with a 5-hour layover, 3 bags and a 4 year old was rather intimidating when I thought about it. But, to be honest, the experience was not too bad overall.

BLR- Home to BIAL

We left home (Blr) on 29th June at 3 am(IST) to reach the airport. The drive to BIAL was amazing, given the lovely roads and the nippy early-morning air. Having reached the airport in just under 30 minutes, it was time to start the routine of checking in the bags, collecting the boarding pass and going through security check. Having done an online check-in 24 hrs prior to leaving, the process was surprisingly smoother and quicker than I had expected. I walked upto check-in, dropped off my baggage, collected my boarding pass all under 5 minutes! Kudos to BIAL! Bags were checked upto JFK and I was told I could collect them at NYC directly.

Then followed the immigration counter and the security check, which again took up around 15 minutes in total. At security check, they do not allow you to carry any water through, even inside a bottle. Laptops must be removed from bags and placed in a separate container for the scanning process.All done, I was at the departure lounge by 4 am for a 6.30 am flight!

For a tuesday morning flight to London, the aircraft was only about 30% full. Interesting thing is while I was in the lounge, I saw an elderly lady dressed in traditional sari and in a wheelchair, speaking tamil. She got up and walked down our row and I offered to help with her bag. She was pleased and struck up a conversation. Turns out she was Meenakshi Mami, from Palakkad, and very familiar with Appam. And get this, she was travelling upto JFK! The world is a really small place- Palakkad iyers everywhere!

BLR to London- BA 118

Once on board the flight, I found my seats fairly comfortable, given that I had chosen the front row(16J & 16K) which gives additional legroom. The flight from BLR to LDN is a 3+3+3 seater, but the front row has only 2+3+2, which meant Gy and I had a cosy corner of our own and getting up to use the bathroom was fairly simple.

BA 118 took off at exactly 6.30 am and was a very smooth flight. Gy was most thrilled with the view from the window when the flight was taking off. I was a little worried that she might have been airsick,but she handled the whole journey beautifully. By 7.15, they served a sumptuous breakfast comprising upma, masala dosa, sambar n chutney, bun n butter, a chocolate croissant,fruit salad, orange juice and tea/coffee as an option. Whew! I polished off the upma and dosa and the fruit salad and nibbled on the last of Gy's croissant. Had tea to complete the meal. Gy had the croissant and a bit of buttered bun. Then it was time to snooze. Gy, tummy full, was very sleepy. I arranged her pillow and her blanket for her and she was asleep under 2 minutes. She slept from 8 am to 1 pm. Good thing too, as she was very sleepy.

I tried to nap, but it was no use, so I decided to watch some movie. Scrolled through the menu and found 'Wake up, Sid' and chanced it. Good move. A very smart and savvy movie, well directed and well enacted. Good work by Ranbir and Konona. Very fluid and natural storyline and the whole idea of ' boy falls in love at first sight' is not done, which was brilliant! Really worth a watch.

Post movie, decided to snooze, but felt my ears popping, so asked the air hostess for some candy. She had none, but brought a snack box filled to the brim with goodies. This again is given to all passengers about halfway through the flight. Interesting assortment of cookies/ crackers/ chocolate raisins/ bun n butter/cupcake and mineral water. Again, good food, but very heavy. Could only take the crackers and the raisins. Cookies were finished by Gayathri as were the raisins.

An hour later, it was time for lunch and food was not bad at all. Main course was rice/dal and mix veg sabzi. There was an aloo-channa- lettuce salad which was made well, not too spicy.Then there was a raita and lime pickle(made rajasthani style-yum!). Used the raita as curd. Very filling meal indeed. Gy was not in the mood for rice and I requested for some pasta. The steward checked and said they had veg pasta available and got it specially for her. She loved it and slurped it down to the last morsel! The tomatoes in the pasta were finely minced and Gy simply enjoyed the meal. Very satisfying journey from Blr to Ldn.

At Heathrow

Touched down at HRW at 11: 45 am (LNDN time), half an hour early. Good pilot and good landing. Then it was off the flight and onto the shuttle bus that took us to Terminal 5. Long walk down the terminal to security check, which was a very long wait, almost 45 minutes. Couple of places, they let us ahead as Gy was there, but we had to wait in queue at security check.

At checkpoint, we had to remove all bags and place them in trays for scanning. Laptop removed from bag( but not from its case), removed gold bangles, but not chain and rings. Since gy and I were wearing floaters, we were not asked to remove shoes. Funny thing is they did body search for Gy, but not for me!

Huge airport but not very well organised, in my opinion.Bit of confusion regarding which terminal to go to, where to wait and seemed understaffed to handle such large crowds of travellers.

Then it was off to the departures lounge which was bit crowded, I felt. But the really good thing was the restrooms. Gy needed to do her big job and was I glad at the size of the loos! Huge! I managed to fit gy, myself and our 3 bags inside the loo!! She did her job and then I changed her clothes and socks. She was excited at the hand dryers in the restrooms:)

I did manage to get wi-fi access via my netbook and connected to Boingo Hotspot in the Dep Lounge. Turns out that it is a paid service and when i accessed skype, it took a few Euros off my skype credit for accessing the wi-fi. Managed a brief call to Appam via skypeout. Voice and call quality was crystal clear. Told them I had landed safely at HRW and was waiting for next flight.

For some reason, post that, I was unable to get net access once again. Noticed that my cellphone was still receiving a signal and tried calling, but I got a 'calls barred' message on the display screen. Took a chance and sent an sms to Gopu and another to Amma, saying I was in HRW. Both went through! Even got replies from both. But international roaming rates are around 15/- INR per outgoing sms.But i heard that receiving sms is free!!Wow! Need to recheck. So need to keep that in mind.

Kept watching the display screens for info on my flight. Was not impressed with the size of the screens. Could have been bigger. Flight was scheduled to leave at 5pm, and I was waiting in the lounge from 1.45 onwards. Around 2.15 the flight number popped up on screen with the msg 'gate opens at 1555', but gate # was not yet up. Had to periodically check the screen which was a bit tedious, as Gayathri was asleep on me from 2.30 to 3.45. Getting up and walking around was not an option with her on me.

Another grouse is the seeming lack of water options! At security check they made me discard the packed bottle of water that BA had givn me on the flight. And I had to walk around for almost 30 minutes to locate a water fountain as even purchasing a bottle seemed difficult! Surprising , for such a large and famous airport.

Gate # popped up around 1535. It was b42 which meant another long walk to a different lounge. Gy was cranky when i woke her up to walk that distance. had no choice, as carrying her plus 2 backpacks and a small suitcase was next to impossible! Poor thing. but the high-speed transit train improved her mood. And then it was up 2 escalators to B42. Flight was scheduled to leave at 5pm and by 4.45 the gate was still not open! Finally at 4.50, they started letting us board. And we took off only at 5.45. Captain said something about some unexpected delays.

HRW verdict. Huge airport, but not managed very well.