At 8.15 a.m., the car came to collect me from the Yangtse Hotel to transfer me to Shanghai's Pudong Airport. On a Sunday morning, the traffic was the lightest I'd experienced in Shanghai and we had no delays as we crossed the river and headed north to the airport.
Crossing the river on the way to the airport.
The driver dropped me at the entrance to the terminal and, after a bit of walking, I checked in and obtained directions to the lounge. Security was thorough but good-natured and I found the Cathay-Pacific lounge (used by British Airways passengers) without incident.
The lounge was quite extensive, with a neat area of cubicles provided with PCs. I decided to try to access the web and carefully followed the printed instructions for logging on, involving entering the network name and password followed by passenger name, flight number and seat number ("exactly as are written on your boarding pass"). Well, I think I managed that, but the next instruction stumped me - "Pick up an access KEY from the long wooden table in customer area". There was lots of furniture in the form of tables, but I wasn't sure which qualified as the 'long wooden table' so I finally went back to the entrance to the lounge and enquired. I was directed to a couple of tables with perspex sign holders, with the printed log-on instructions I'd followed plus actual key generator units glued on (similar to those used in connection with some internet bank accounts). Pressing the button on the key generator displayed an 8-digit number and, apparently, you had one minute to enter this number before it became invalid.
The log-on instructions, plus two glued-on key generator units.
I borrowed pencil and paper to copy down the number and dashed back to where I'd started logging-in. The whole thing seemed rather like an intelligence test but I actually managed to complete the log-on procedure. However, I found the system response was so lousy that I gave up after a few minutes.
I allowed plenty of time to get to the Boarding Gate and we boarded on time. After a while, the Captain announced that there would be an air traffic delay of just over an hour before we could 'Push-Back' but that he hoped to make up the lost time during the journey. Whilst waiting, I diverted myself with on-demand films (although I've no recollection of what I watched then or during the long flight home). When we finally pushed-back, it took a further thirty minutes of taxiing to reach our runway and actually get airborne.
They served a reasonable lunch and then we were expected to go to sleep but, in the middle of the day Shanghai time (and much earlier back home) I couldn't settle. I don't remember much about the journey but as we came over Europe I took a few pictures of the coast. Then we were over southern England. The pilot had, indeed, made up time for our late departure from Shanghai but, sadly, Heathrow were not ready for us and we followed a 'racetrack' holding pattern somewhere over Essex (I think) for a few minutes before continuing past London and well out to the west. I can't resist taking aerial photographs (although they're often not very good) so there's another set here. Finally, we turned to head east and landed at Heathrow.
We taxied to Terminal 5 Satellite 'B', where we found our stand alongside other British Airways jets.
British Airways aircraft at Terminal 5 Satellite 'B', in the evening sun.
Then it was off the aircraft, take the 'guided system' to Terminal 5 main building and stooge around for the luggage. This time, I'd checked two pieces in. One appeared promptly, the other did not appear. Eventually, I reported the missing bag and a simple computer enquiry revealed that it had been delivered to the wrong carousel so another walk re-united me with my missing bag. I met up with Alan in the arrivals hall and he drove me home, arriving about 9.00 p.m. Another wonderful trip was over.
My pictures
Shanghai, China.
Shanghai (Pudong) Airport.
Southern England from the Air.
Heathrow Airport.
