Text 14366, 81 rader
Skriven 2011-08-05 23:13:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: june trip 711
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In the morning the 0530 call came right on time (a little
early, even?), the hot water issue was somewhat resolved,
and check-out was a smiling breeze. I met Lilli at the desk,
and we walked the few blocks to Pinglestone Close, where at
0630 a 75 bus whisked us to the airport. Check-in and
fast-lane security took mere moments.

The Star Gold lounge was crowded, hot, stuffy, and when I
went to grab some bacon from the tray at the buffet, a
disembodied hand emerged from the galley and whisked it away
forever. There was, though, a big dish of bangers, which
were more meaty than usual, and these went well with an
unfortunately very gassy pour of Grolsch.

0750 came and went, and the monitor still said "please
wait"; I inquired of the front desk, and the rather surly
young girl said that she didn't have access to the airline
computers and it usually meant they were looking for a gate.

0820 came and went. I remarked to Lilli that we had to
leave by 0920 to make my carefully crafted connection. So
with the monitor still reading "please wait," I decided to
go to the SN transfer desk and see what was what. Well, what
was what was that we were expected to "please wait" until
the new but unwelcome new boarding time of 1030, subject to
change without notice. I pointed out that this would make
our life very difficult, so the nice but not quite with it
blonde girl called downstairs to discover that we had been
rebooked on a nonstop to Boston ON DELTA. This was obviously
unacceptable, so I asked the girl to try again, this time on
Star Alliance. She didn't know what that meant, so I had to
explain carefully, not leaving anything out.

UA 919 LHR IAD 1200 1505 777 3EF 
was SN2092 LHR BRU 0820 1035 AR1 2AC
and UA 951 BRU IAD 1200 1418 777 12AB

Eventually we got what we wanted, Star flights booked all
the way in Biz (but not ticketed, apparently). Perhaps I
should have gone for LH, but the United agent was just
next door.

So we had to troop over there (there's a passage between,
behind the counter, but obviously not in front) to have our
tickets reissued, so had to pass the gauntlet of UA-style
security, with the Indian guys with the laptops, and thence
to the desk, where another Indian guy gave the bad news that
despite the fact that our original booking read LHR-BRU-IAD-
BOS, our blonde agent and the obvious halfwit at the other
end of the telephone line had rebooked us LHR-IAD full stop
and had cancelled the onward to Boston. The United guy issued
our LHR-IAD passes and said rather apologetically that
since SN Brussels had screwed up the booking, SN Brussels
had to fix it. Back to the first desk, all of ten feet
away, where after fifteen minutes' feverish typing, phone
calls, and trips by both SN and UA agents - with both old
and new UA and SN boarding passes in hand - through that
door behind the counter, we ended up getting our original
seats on IAD-BOS. That was exhausting to all, and I don't
know who were happier to see us go - the United people, the
Brussels people, or we ourselves. I remarked to Lilli that it
had been more interesting and instructive than sluicing down
more and more Johnnie Black (hers) or Martell VS (mine). She
agreed, perhaps less than wholeheartedly.

I made the executive decision that we'd go to the Midland club
for our by now one extra hour, and we were surprised and
pleased to find it decorated if not catered in the Lufthansa
style. Slightly dodgy British breakfast food, minus any
protein; packets of crisps (bags of potato chips) as far as
the eye could see; and an open bar, where Lilli poured a
Scotch blend (Bell's or Dewar's or Grouse or something) that
was if anything inferior to the Johnnie at the Star lounge,
and I a Hubert de Polignac VS, if anything inferior to the
Martell at the Star lounge. But the staff were nice, and
there were a lot of them, and our seating tucked away in
a secret corner was comfy.

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