Transit Purgatory

Whatta day. Left San Francisco at 4pm on Friday, and I was supposed to be in Madrid by now. Unfortunately, Virgin Atlantic only budgeted an hour for transfer time, and Iberria closes thier gates 45 before departure. Good to know. Incidentally, 15 minutes is not enough time to deplane and take a bus across the vast, permanently under construction hinterland of Heathrow. Add to that one 10 minute tarmac delay, and it's pretty much an impossibility.

I've never had a good experience at Heathrow. Last time I was here, I waited in security and customs for and hour, only to be paged back to ticketing so I could watch my oversize bag and make sure in got put on the conveyor belt. I still have no idea why. Had to go through security again.

When I got to the gate late today, they sent me back to Virgin. 45 minutes and a bus ride later, the flustered attendant at Virgin told me there was nothing they could do and go back to Iberria. Another half hour later, the lady at Iberria was telling me I had to go back to Virgin. Good times!

I'm on standby for a flight that should put me in Madrid 4 hours later than I would have liked. But, yeah. Standby.

At any rate, I was on TV last night. Huzzah.