Brrr Chicago! The British Airways Arrival Lounge and Homeward
- Seriously… go somewhere warmer!!!
- Early morning Heathrow – Off to Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, South Galleries Lounge
- BA458 London Heathrow to Madrid
- A MAD transit
- Iberia IB6725 Madrid to Chicago O’Hare
- Crowne Plaza O’Hare
- Dealing with Chicago Cold
- Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- More Chicago O’Hare
- BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow
- The British Airways Arrivals Lounge and Homeward
- Thawing out
With an arrival on a hard stand it was a case of heading downstairs to a waiting bus. This being London Heathrow – only a few buses were laid on. In other words, everyone was squeezing into buses quite tightly for the ride to Terminal 5 arrivals.
Thank you G-VIIE!
The bus wound around Heathrow, going on its merry way for the ride back to T5 arrivals.
An A320 series with a Red Nose… Celebrating Comic Relief
Whilst in theory it’s great to arrive by bus at Terminal 5 arrivals, it is a bit of a pain the first thing you want to do when you get of the plane is to head to the wash room for a comfort break.
Once that was done – it was time to deal with the mess of UK Immigration. As usual, the place was queuing to the eyeballs – so it was another 20 minutes to get to an automated processing machine (that kicked me out – and I had to go a see a person to get immigration clearance back into the United Kingdom).
With that formality out of the way, it was time to play game of which belt my luggage would be on. Of course, it was the far one – because that’s the game they love to play at Heathrow.
However, with the slight delay in luggage claim, there was a small plus side – that when I reached the luggage belt, both of my bags were doing the rounds.
Tidy.
With them in hand, I went through the Green channel and back landside into the UK.
A quick check of the clock indicated I had a full hour and beyond. Plenty of time for breakfast… which means its time to head up to the Arrivals lounge (one small benefit of the BA Gold card).
Entrance to the BA Arrivals Lounge
British Airways Arrival Lounge.
I was blipped in successfully, and after dropping off my luggage – there was only one priority… a proper breakfast and not the joke that is served on a BA long haul flight in economy.
A quiet lounge
Hot items at last for breakfast!
Cold items
Pastries and stuff…
Cereals…
And cans of cold drinks.
With a proper breakfast to fill up on, I settled down on a bit of admin and clock watching. Well, I was still waking up from a transatlantic flight. BA’s breakfast items never fail to disappoint, and filled me up a bit… and they tasted of food.
Which is more than that croissant over the pond did.
With what I wanted to do done, and the clock ticking over – I picked up my bags and headed to the kerb to catch my coach back to Birmingham.
With a short wait, I headed aboard the packed coach – which was full of people travelling from Gatwick. I found a spare seat and slumped for the next three hours or so back to Birmingham.
Off we go!
Bye T5… see you soon…
The two and a fair bit of hour passed pretty peacefully… well until Coventry when some friends of each other started chatting loudly… and also tripped an alarm on the coach which tells the driver when the emergency
The joy of the Aston Expressway…. and roadworks. Because you’ve got to have roadworks on the main artery into Birmingham. Clever thinking there Birmingham City Council.
Heading down the “expressway”, the bus peeled off at the end of it – and headed to the nexus of coaches in the United Kingdom – Birmingham Coach Station.
Without much ceremony, the coach arrived in Birmingham, and discharged its passengers…. myself included.
I don’t see this place in the light enough. I think I see it too often to be honest.
With me done and dusted, it fell to a local Uber driver to take me to Chez Economy Class and Beyond… and to the front door to end this rather cold adventure.
And it goes without saying; I popped on the heater when I got in the flat. I was still darn cold.
Next: Warming up
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