New England – Fall 2010 – Day 1: LHR to Boston

Our flight to Boston was with Virgin Atlantic for the first time ever and we were due to leave these shores at 15.15. We set off from Hilton by 10.15 despite having promised ourselves to be on the road by 10.00 but we made good progress down the M1 and joined the M25 with no problem little knowing what was in store for us.
My father was a great reader of history and his contention was that the really notable disasters usually come about when in a chain of circumstances every link goes bad rather than good. Scott would have survived his return from the South Pole but for bad luck upon bad luck and the Titanic would have survived if the lookout had seen the iceberg earlier or later.
Our disaster cannot rank with these but in our experience it is hopefully unique – therefore notable – we missed our flight because everything that could have saved us went wrong.
We had set off earlier than necessary having been warned of roadworks in the area of Purple Parking where we regularly leave our car some 15 minutes from Heathrow but those roadworks were to win out against our precautions.
As we left the M1 we heard on the radio there had been a serious accident on the M4 close to the final leg of our journey, we had no way to avoid the M4 so we pressed on. We passed the Airport turnoff and were able to leave the motorway at the correct junction – we thought briefly that we were in luck – but we quickly found almost gridlock as traffic that had been diverted from the blocked motorway merged into the already congested area and progress to Purple Parking was painfully slow.
When we reached the parking lot we sat for over twenty minutes in the next minibus to our terminal before the driver arrived – we then set off and again the slow progress was grueling. The minibus took advantage of the bus lanes and local knowledge to drop us at the terminal by about 14.00.
We located the Virgin Baggage drop for all flights and took our place at the end of a line blessing the fact that we had checked in online. We noted the time was now close to the one hour before flight when the baggage check closed for our flight but there were still many people in front of us and we hoped that some of them were trying to get to Boston. We were further encouraged when passengers to Los Angeles were pulled out of the line to get their luggage checked in – we thought briefly that pretty much all the flights were being delayed.
As we reached the head of the line the hour deadline had passed and on presenting our documents we were told we were very late and needed to get to desk 19. At this desk we were told that the flight had closed and we had limited choices. Either fly to New York and transfer to Boston by internal flight, which we would have to pay for, or fly the following day on the same flight. We chose the latter and paid the £50 each to change our flights, we were allocated seats but we could not confirm them by online check in because it was not yet within 24 hours of the flight.
Before I move on to the arrangements we made to sort out our situation I need to clarify that our “disaster” was an inconvenience and the serious accident on the M4 cost three people their lives so I hope we managed some grace and sense of proportion in our upset.
Incidentally the modern generation of mobile phone users would have contacted Purple Parking as soon as the radio warned them and switched their depot parking to “Meet & Greet” and driven straight to the terminal leaving the car wherever they were told, to be picked up by Purple Parking and returned to us when we flew back but I don’t think like that. The damage was already done when I phoned my travel agent, DialAFlight and made sure the first hotel and the car hire were cancelled for that day.
While Julia got on the internet using her credit card and a public PC I went to find the Hotel Desk, they offered little hope of a reasonable solution to our accommodation problem, a local hotel would be at least £150 room only and if we were prepared to be over 20 minutes away it was still £95. I was unimpressed and may have mentioned it to the smirking operator. Meanwhile Julia had got the number for a local Premier Inn which charged only £52 for the night and sorted out the entire booking over the phone – impressive.
We grabbed a taxi to the hotel and signed up for their meal package at £21 each which provided a three course dinner and a full breakfast. I have to say the hotel was excellent and we will look to use them in the future possibly for a two or three day stay ahead of any future flights to avoid any risk of repeating this debacle.
It was at the hotel we discovered that a kind friend who works for Virgin had arranged us to be upgraded on our flight and was now worried about us.
We watched Newcastle United, whom I have a soft spot for, lose at home to Stoke City, whom I don’t, so life felt less than good as we retired for an early night on the wrong side of the Atlantic.