Diva in total melt-down

Diva and TSH had the wrong kind of air ticket and were told at Manchester that the only option was to pay for one of their bags for the flight to London, collect all three pieces of their luggage at Heathrow, transfer it personally between 2 terminals and re-check it in. A supervisor was called but insisted that this was how it was and it was not possible for any correction to be made at that stage.

Manchester airport was crowded, noisy, dirty (Diva cleaned their table with a wipe) and no decaff coffee could be found.

The situation was mentioned to various BA staff along the way but all said 'this happens a lot now' and took no action.

So two pensioners transferred 64 kg of luggage across Heathrow, travelling by foot and train. They encountered a member of Heathrow staff who should never be allowed to have a customer-facing role (and possibly no role involving contact with any human beings) and will be the subject of a complaint to the airport. Two and a quarter hours from landing to sitting down with the first food of the day.

 Diva has given up BA forever, in spite of the second leg of the journey being much better. BA  have a business model that involves everyone flying to hub airports like Heathrow but they have forgotten to manage the internal flights properly.

TSH is trying to get the position sorted so that this does not happen in reverse when there is a relatively short transfer time between flights.

The mood was not helped by TSH breaking a nail during the transfer and having fizzy water sprayed over him at Heathrow. OK, technically it was Diva who opened the bottle but it was Pret's bottle and Pret's water. But their meatballs in a wrap are still excellent.

Sight of the day: Young(ish) woman with a full head of rollers sitting at Manchester drinking a large glass of white wine. Not even a headscarf to hide the shame!!