Running through Heathrow Airport thanks to British Airways

Six days in Las Vegas brought plenty of fun, frolics, people meeting, happy tears and overkill on the tequila. In no particular order my Top 10 best moments are as follows:

1) Grand Canyon
2) Downing Jose Cuervo and Cornonas with Tim and the Oklahoma guys waking up the next morning with a mighty hangover and a Bellagio stamp on my hand – evidence that I ended in the nightclub.
3) Taking a romantic Gondala ride at The Venetian with Faye’s parents. I’m sure passerbys must have thought they took pity on the lonely Asian tourist.
4) The wedding of course!
5) Spending a lazy morning sunbathing at the Hard Rock while trying hard not to cry over ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns.’
6) Getting called Juicy Liu as I walked past Hooters
7) Going to the MGM Wet Republic pool party where I overindulged on the perving of hot, topless men and strawberry beer. At $16 each I kept the cup.
8) Ordering room service for the first and last time – total $32 for a pizza?! All because I was too lazy to head out to the SevenEleven
9) Witnessing the Bellagio fountains
10) Robert the jeweller store owner in the Venetian who tried to sell me canary diamond necklace for “only $950.” Saying no to this charming and handsome man was the right thing to do!

The award for the ultimate funniest, nerve-wracking, worrying, panicky and tiring moment goes to the day I almost could not fly out to Vegas.

So I arrived at Heathrow two hours before flight departure and was greeted by an extremely tanned and camp British Airways employee. Did I check in online a day before he asks. No. Oh dear. As it was such a busy flight and there were no more seats, I was in Standby mode. What? I bought my ticket 10 months ago! How could I be in Standby? Turns out that BA sells more seats than there are available as they expect some people to miss the flights.

Standing in that Standby queue the nerves kicked in. The next available flight was the morning after and even though BA would compensate me £200, I would miss my Grand Canyon trip!

Now you know those airport documentaries where there’s always some ill-mannered, vulgar Brit yelling at the check-in staff for whatever reason? Well I watched two men do the exact same thing. My heart went out to the woman sat behind the enquiry desk. When my turn came to see her I quietly said I understand the situation and heard everything she repeated to the men.

I guess she appreciated my understanding as 10 minutes after check in closed, with only 20 more until the gate did the same, by some sheer miracle three seats were available for Angry Men and me. I got called first! It just goes to show empathy and manners will get you far.

So with only 15 minutes to get through security and to gate A10 (it took five to check my suitcase in) I ran. It seems this year I’ve been doing a lot of running but pounding through Heathrow is a whole other sport. Sod’s Law would have it that I was behind a large family at security point with buggies that they didn’t think to fold up while they were in the queue. As soon as I got through the detectors I continued running towards the A gates – praying that I didn’t trip and fall in my wedges. Just to make it that much more difficult, A9 and A11 were on the same floor but A10, my gate, was one floor below. Seriously?!

It turns out I didn’t need to run as it took another 10 minutes to get us all on the buses. I could have used that time to buy sun cream and cleansing wipes instead of having to resort to baby wipes bought from Motel 6’s own convenience store.

This is how my Vegas trip began, running through the busiest airport in England. Had she been there I’m sure my high school PE teacher would have been very proud. Next time however, I will check in at least 24 hours before departure and make up for lost time in the airport bar!