Volcanic Ash cloud heading to the UK

[DJ]

some truly stunning pictures here...

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/0 ... okull.html

[tut]

Good news for you Campbell.

All UK airports open in ten minutes time.

tut

[simon]

Something to do with BA's "ready or not, here we come" tactics I think

[campbell]

Good news for you Campbell.

All UK airports open in ten minutes time.

tut

Good spot. But not quite.

Our outbound leg EDI-LGW, call it "the first hurdle", if you will, was cancelled before the Willie Walsh mega-deal, and has still not been reinstated. According to BA Customer Services - whom I was able to talk to after only a 15 min wait - the earliest update we'll get on this is 6am tomorrow. At best. If at all.

So usefully, they have offered to re-book us, earliest availability is effectively 1 week from today but we can cope with that and the owner of our Condo hopes to be able to extend our booking to cover the further week and is offering an excellent concession to do that cost-wise.

We think we like that idea as it "lets the dust settle", sorry for the pun but there you go, as things are HIGHLY unlikely to go smoothly for many people tomorrow. We have two young kids in tow. Were it just the two of us, we may have gone for it for the sheer adventure. But sensible hat says "regroup".

Will probably still take tomorow off to recover though!

Now need to camp-on to BA customer services again to actually make the change.

Campbell

[tut]

Best of luck, hope it works out and you do not miss Orlando and your holiday.

tut

[campbell]

Thanks Tut.

Can't even camp-on to BA reservations line now, it bumps me off at the end of the minutes of intro messages. Clearly logjammed. Fecker, all the while the availability will be dropping

Drove into EDI just now, BA desk closed earlier in the evening so can't even deal direct. Opens at 5am though - early rise for me I think!

Can't do online changes because of the way the flight refs had to be set up to include the kids and the BA Miles redemption we were doing. Shame that.

Jeez, what an adventure.

[campbell]

Breaking news

Incredibly, having spent a couple of hours re-ringing BA Reservations tonight until finally we got into the queue, they have offered us re-bookings for Thursday 22nd April. I only finished the call a few mins ago...1.45am or thereabouts. Some day.

Can't believe it. Originally advised there would be zero availability for a week. Seems that in the time it took us to get back in touch with them, airspace de-restriction has enabled the schedulers to commit more flights for booking.

Don't want to get tooooo excited because clearly there might be further probs, but I have to say...if you are going to have a problem with a flight, BA is proving to be quite an outfit for putting things right. Bravo, Willie.

Campbell

PS - the most important thing of all, of course, is how unbearably excited the kids will be once more.

[r055]

great news Campbell!

[campbell]

ta

although there will be no partying until I am truly installed in our Condo, I may still be dreaming!

thoughts continue to be with those currently stranded on hols or, worse, held up on the rigs etc...hope everyone gets moving very soon indeed

[Clarkie]

Campbell,

Sun still shining after yesterday's biblical rain so keep smiling mate Disney now free of charge as well so heading to Epcot with kid's tomorrow.

Hope to get home for the weekend

Watched the shuttle coming home today after seeing it take off live last week, awesome first hand the power/noise/technology was amazing. It was put into perspective when we saw the internationl space station flying by just before the shuttle took off on the same flight path

Cheers

Clarkie

[campbell]

Truly awesome, Clarkie! Watched the shuttle landing yesterday as well via NASA TV, great stuff. We will just miss the next launch, I think, but have seen a satellite rocket launch at Kennedy and that was mental enough. Can only imagine the shuttle thing

Well done you for holding it all together. Safe home, will give you a wave

[Rag_It]

Just back from an epic 2000 odd mile European roadtrip, not epic in a fun sense, but kind of spur of the moment adventure for work!

Was down to present to 40 distributors in Vienna on Tuesday/Wednesday this week, thought on Friday on way to a night out with Ed/Benny etc that there was no chance of it happening, but was told it was going to happen and i needed to be there! So:-

Drove from Fife to Plymouth
Ferry that evening at 10.30pm from Plymouth to Roscoff.
Up at 7am and drove solidly from 9am, with 45 mins in total of stoppage, the 1200 miles to Vienna - arrived at 1.40am
Up at 6am to get into our office for 8am, presented for 2 days, and left on Wednesday at 6pm.
Drove to Wuerzburg (twinned with Dundee!)
Up at 6am, Drove to Zoetemeer, presented for the afternoon
Jumped on a train and headed to Schipol airport
Stayed last night in a very cool hotel CitizenM
thankfully managed to fly from Amsterdam to Heathrow and then onto EDI and back for 6pm........

Been a very very long week, and glad to be home!

[Scotty C]

I was suposed to fly home from London on Thursday and back down Again next wed but could not be araed with the will I get back down thing I have stayed in London. At leeast ts 20 deg down here shame I'm working in the garage changing engines

[campbell]

Well for sake of completeness I should confess we have finally made it. No real hitches once re-booked for Thurs 22nd, flights all generally to time and run in customary excellent BA style. Pilot talked about "more southerly routing" for the transatlantic leg to ensure "any ash clouds are given a wide berth", I'm sure there was a smirk in his voice!

Biggest challenge has been securing the hire car after I left the counterpart section of my driver's license at home. Doh. Thankfully bro came to the rescue although it remained touch n go for best part of 24 hours. Just what I needed after the touch n go of the last week

OK time to sit back relax and enjoy the serenity that is...DISNEY THEME PARKS, arrrrggghhh

[tut]

Good to see that you made it with the loss of only one day Campbell, though 0 out of 10 after weeks of planning to forget your part two.

Have a great time, the family loved it, though did not do Disney, went for the unlimited Theme Parks ticket being a lot older. I drove them there and picked them up, then went for the great USofA buffet breakfast, (tip, go in by the exit door, saves queuing and even paying), loafed by the pool, or found the bars with the best Margaritas and barmaids.

tut