Back to America Yet Again

Well, here I am again, typing to you from the evah so lovely Singapore Airlines lounge at Heathrow, I just had a really yummy goat cheese, sun-dried tomato and asparagus sandwich and it had pine nuts in it, which are just little bits of heaven.

But anyway, a handy dandy little tip for any fellow travellers out there about to depart from Heathrow (and probably all UK airports):

They just updated the baggage restrictions here back up to 2 carry-on bags and, ever excited to avoid baggage claim, I packed and repacked last night, sacrificing girly items and extra clothes, to be able use my carry-on rolly suitcase. The one I've owned for 5 years and have used umpteen times as a carry-on.

So, per my usual, I arrived uber-early because I could and because it's just less hectic that way. After checking-in via the kiosk and flashing my passport to the counter agent, I went upstairs to go through my beloved fast-track security line...and I was mere feet from the door when some twerpy little union guy stopped me and made me put my suitcase in the cage thing to see if it was small enough.

The wheels made it just too big and, after explaining how I'd used it a million times, it was carry-on size, the wheels don't count, etc, twerpy guy wouldn't budge, so I went back to the check-in counter to check it :(

The United counter agents were very very nice and really irritated - as apparently this has been an ongoing problem all week (the rules changed on 7 Jan). I was correct, wheels do not count and my bag is perfectly fine. But, with exasperated shrugs, they both advised that if I tried to go back upstairs, the twerpy guy would turn me away again. Although, it's important to note that, being the professionals they are, neither agent actually called him "twerpy guy." And neither did I, out loud, that's not nice :D I just called him "the security guy." They called him "the self-appointed policeman." ;) But they said they'd raise their argument later today, "yet again." Even the very nice (and cute!) constable who helped me thump my suitcase downstairs (no down escalator) expressed sympathy that I was turned away.

I don't have the most patience in general and though I love the airport and the flight once I'm through security, I almost always get grumpy in the process of getting to that happy point. But yay me, I was polite to everyone involved, I even smiled at twerpy guy and the haughty United guy who I passed on my way to the nice ladies at the check-in counter - he was just being generally annoying and difficult.

So my advice is this - don't bother trying to carry your suitcase on unless it's the really small kind, you might get turned away and if you didn't have boatloads of extra time like I did, that could be a problem! Or, you might be luckier than me and get through because maybe you won't encounter twerpy guy. But why chance it? On the happy side, my packing and sacrificing wasn't for naught...funny enough, the US is now much more relaxed in restrictions compared to the UK...and on my much anticipated flight back home on Friday, I can carry my suitcase through security and I can get back to my beloved city that much quicker :D

Oh! But in an actual very happy security change, you no longer take anything out of your bag when you go through security! I started to unpack my many items of contraband - 2 laptops, 3 phones, saline eye drops, etc and the security guy stopped me. "No, leave everything in your bag." "My laptops? Everything?" I said, surprised. "Yep." "I love that!!" I said. "So do we!" He replied. Lol. So, my coat and my fully packed bag went through on the belt, I walked through and I was on my merry way.

In other unrelated news, I've fallen in love with flat #3, which I saw last night, and once I make sure I really can afford it (bit pricey), I'm snagging it. Fingers crossed!