So apparently I was blissfully in the dark and incredibly lucky today. I could’ve missed my flight, had the fates gone the other way.
I got up at 8am for my 1140 flight out of Gatwick. I don’t take too long in the morning to get ready and had finished packing just before 3am. I got to the tube station, trucking along all my baggage and waited for the District line to go to Victoria station. When I got to there, I took the express train to Gatwick, which takes 1/2 hour and pretty much right into the south terminal, where I was flying out of.
I walked right up to the Thomas Cook check-in counter, as there was no line. In fact, there was nobody around. I couldn’t possibly be the first one to check in right? Turns out, erm, I was one of the last ones checking in. Obviously if that’s the case, I wouldn’t get my window seat over the aisle. The check-in guy chuckled and said all that was left was row 40E (middle) or 46E (another middle)
Great, I thought. A 9 1/2 hour flight in a middle seat. And checking with the flight attendant or station attendant if there were any open seats, once everyone was onboard was out of the question – this flight to Vancouver was packed.
After security screening, I sat at the departures lounge awaiting gate information. Then it happened. The dreaded, “This flight will be delayed by 30 minutes” announcement. Sigh. After another 1/2 hour, the plane was ready to be boarded.
I asked for my blanket as soon as I got on and found my seat at the tail end of the plane. The plane was actually better than the one going to London. The seats were wider, the pitch deeper, more leg room made my middle seat actually bearable. It didn’t hurt that the passengers on either side of me are both on the thin side. And each seat had individual tv sets mounted to the seat back, unlike my outbound flight with only a monitor in the middle of the plane every 8 rows.
Not too shabby.
The airline feed us twice, full meals with dessert and an ice cream bar as a snack between feedings. I nodded off a couple of times. The guy on my right was a young Londoner in his late 20s, who was nice enough to wake me up for lunch or get dessert for me when I went to the bathroom.
We ended up chatting the last few hours of the flight and before you know it we were preparing for our landing in Vancouver. It was during the course of our conversation, that I told him about how i got to be seated way far back. He actually checked in a couple of hours ahead of boarding and still got the back aisle seat.
When I said I got to Gatwick at 1025am, he asked if I knew that check in was to be closed at 1040 (one hour before the flight). No, I did not know that. In fact, I didn’t realize I was cutting it close until he said so.
I had woke up at 8am. He had woken up at 5am. I had to laugh at the thought that I could’ve been denied boarding on this flight if I arrived even the slightest bit later. (course, the flight turned out to be delayed so it would’ve been okay in this case)
Wowzers, like the absent minded professor, I kinda lucked out and didn’t even know it. Or like Mr Magoo walking along the sidewalk and not falling into any open potholes. Don’t you love it when that happens? At times like this, I thank the universe for looking out for me.
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