We actually did leave the hotel about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule, and that proved to be a good thing, given how things panned out. For a start, the walk to the Departures Hall seemed much longer when hauling all the bags than it did without, and the three lifts we had to use during the walk seemed painful.
We needed to print our boarding cards, which was the simplest part of the process, and as the slips of paper were produced from the machine, DW noticed that we'd been upgraded again, which pleased us very much. Flying on a Saturday, flying during the day, being a BA Club member, and having bought premium economy seats, all contributed I think.
The line up to drop the bags was glacial, though, we were in the wrong line after the upgrade of course, and time was ticking. The automated bag drops were not working, I'd guess thanks to heightened security and as if to prove my point, a large policeman with a large gun came and stood close by, followed by a dog, its handler, and another armed policeman. All the bags were duly sniffed, which I suppose is comforting, although it's unusual to see armed police in the UK.
Back in the line, the people three ahead of us were having long discussions with the agent at the desk, mobile phones were being flashed around, and they took an age to be serviced. The man in front also took an age with his one bag, because it was overweight and he needed to pay some extra money. He was a youngish man with a long black coat, and long black hair held in a beautifully coiffured pony tail. He looked like he was travelling on business, and as it turned out, he was. He put his company's gold credit card in the payment machine, but it wanted a PIN, and he didn't have one. Then he had to fish his phone out and pay using his personal card, which was on his phone. That took a few goes, too, but he got there eventually. Finally it was our turn. The agent was very chatty, which I suspect was part of the reason the line was so slow I suspect. She shredded our paper boarding cards, gave us new card versions, then gave us directions to the BA Galleria Lounge, which our upgrade gave us access to without additional cost; it looked like we could get breakfast if we could get there in time.
But first, Security.
I never have an issue with security, they do an essential job getting me to take my shoes off, but even being allowed through the "Fast Track" channel, things didn't go well. I forgot to take my belt off (metal buckle), then to take my wallet and phone out of my pockets, and when I finally remembered, I distributed all of that stuff through our three plastic trays without giving much thought to it. I didn't get stopped by the body scan for once, but when our trays came through, the one full of model trains was pushed into secondary screening. We'd thought it might be, but what I didn't realise was that I'd put my belt and passport in that tray, and hadn't realised it. I went into major panic when I couldn't find my passport, and it wasn't helped by the screening agent covering up said passport as she was checking the bag. The people doing the screening were a wee bit surprised at the contents of the bag, they said they thought to looked like parts of musical instruments when it was scanned. Probes were run through the partially unpacked bag, but of course all they found was model trains. When the bag was returned and DW found my passport and belt under the case, the panic was over, but what a faff.
It was a long schlepp over to the B Gate area, and time was evaporating. The transit trains to the distant gates are slow to arrive, which added further time, but eventually we did find the lounge, and we found breakfast, which was nice. The lounge was busy, but it was better than sitting out at the gate, not least because of the food and drink. I started to get into a state of anxiety as the departure board was showing our gate as being open, and I thought we should be heading that way. DW rightly wanted to get a drink and use the facilities, and despite the fact that the airline knew where we were, I was still thinking, stupidly, that we'd be late boarding. The open gate thing was a lie, of course, because it wasn't open at all, but we didn't have to wait long to be called to get on the aircraft, a shiny Boeing 787. For the second time in my life, I went left after getting onto the aircraft, which was more of a thrill than it should have been.
Club World, or Business Class, on this aircraft had the little individual pods, separated by a sliding screen from both the aisle, and the adjacent pod. We were in the centre of the aircraft, so no window, but the pod was a little palace. Bigger TV, seat that reclined properly, or even turned into a bed, and a host of exciting little "gizzits". (Gizzit = Give Us It, freebies). We'd been in the pods before, but I was still like a kid with a new toy.
The flight left on time and I dined well once we were airborne, although I think DW struggled with the vegan offerings. I watched three movies, back to back, failing to fall asleep through any of them, while DW had a bit of a technology issue and had to have her entertainments system reset. It wasn't much like a flight at all, really, laid back as I was with my head on a comfy pillow with people bringing me food and drink while I watched TV. I did glance at the maps on the TV in between movies and noticed that we were coming in over the coast of Labrador, so quite far north. It wasn't until later that I saw that we were on a really northerly route and that we'd been over the southern tip of Greenland, and I'd missed it. Tsk.
We landed pretty much on time at Toronto, did the automatic arrival passport scan thing after having completed some of the formalities on the ArriveCan app the day before. Waiting for the bags to come through was a bit a pain because despite our bags being marked as Priority, two of the three were pretty much last off the aircraft. We weren't really in a hurry, but it's hot and noisy in the baggage reclaim area, not helped by people talking on their speakerphone enabled cell phones. While I waited, I completed the ParkNFly app so that the car would be ready to pick up when we arrived at the parking lot. I think it's quite magical that you can press a few buttons on your phone and automatically the car is waiting when their little shuttle bus drops you off at the lot. Talking of the bus, as we made our way out of the arrival point, people were being complete bananas. Huge, big, group hugs and kisses for people connecting and reconnecting are all very well, but not right at the point where hundreds of people with suitcase-laden carts are exiting the baggage reclaim and customs. Then there were the people who stepped in front on my suitcase-laden cart and stopped dead in front of it. That happened over and over again, although I suppose it's fair to say that airports can be scary and confusing if you're not used to them, and that could make you do daft things like trying to get run down by bag-laden carts.
We walked away from the crowds to door B, and found our shuttle bus. The man driving had a really thick accent and said he'd come from Somalia originally. "I've been here 37 years" he said, with an accent that sounded like he arrived a week ago. That's no complaint, of course, I love the variety of accents, especially in Toronto. Indeed, our neighbours sounded like they'd just arrived from Northern Ireland, but they been in Canada for more than fifty years.
As anticipated, the car was waiting at the ParkNFly lot, so we loaded up and headed out towards the 401. I say headed, but the signage is absolutely awful in Ontario, and despite following signs for the 401, I still ended up heading for the airport again. Google came good and steered us back to the place where I'd normally have joined the highway, only the road was closed. Google came to rescue again, and we were soon bowling along to the west, happy that it was a Saturday and the traffic was relatively free-flowing.
Petrol, now gas I suppose, was going to be tight but I really didn't want to pay Highway prices when the cost is already through the roof (thanks, Donald), so we just pressed on and did the run without stopping, about two and half hours. I did the dozy thing and missed the first Chatham turn off, but as the second one suits us just as well, it was no hardship. To celebrate our return, we went straight to Craves Poutinerie for our supper, and ate chips (now fries) in the car, which was a pretty good way to end the long journey.
I will make a trip conclusion post soon, but first I must actually post these twenty-three blog entries I've written!
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