Well, after an email from Expedia to call them ASAP about our flight from Bordeaux to Paris we figured things were not good - even though we had downloaded our boarding passes with Air France and BA. A Skype call and it was confirmed...our flight to Paris was cancelled. Decided to get to airport ASAP and see what we could do. Bad news, all flights to Paris and Heathrow were cancelled until further notice. Luckily we had given ourselves a 24 hour window for possible disasters. Air France were able to put us on a flight for the next day but no guarentees the airport would open in Paris. Decided to dash to the BA desk (which was empty???). Felt like I was living my dream to be on the Amazing Race...trying to get ahead of other passengers. I was in the zone. Irina the lovely lady from BA confirmed the cancellation of our Paris to Heathrow flight. When we mentioned we needed to get make our flight to Australia she was great. Got us on a flight straight from Bordeaux to Gatwick (which amazingly was still open "for now")for no extra charge. (They were selling for E800 each). went back and gave up the Air France flight. After a nervous 6 hour delay we left Bordeaux very relieved. Arriving at Gatwick at 1.00am was an introduction to cold. Man it was freezing. Minus 10. Found the bus terminal and fortunately we decided to prepurchase our ticket to Heathrow from a machine for the 2.00am shuttle (about an hour ride). Sat inside with a hot coffee and waited. THANK GOD we prepurchased our ticket as everyone wanted that shuttle and he only took the prepurchased people first. Got to Heathrow...still minus 10. Waited for another shuttle to our hotel. Fell into bed exhausted and frozen at 4.00am. BUT WE WERE AT HEATHROW. Had to give up our sightseeing day back in London and spent the day trying to get info on our flight. Arrived at airport before 6.00pm hopeful as our flight had not yet been cancelled. Fortunately we were coached out to BA as the Qantas flights were cancelled. After being told there was no plane, they finally found one and we left at 1.00am (4 hours later). We were one of the last ones before the airport was closed again due to bad weather. Busing out to the plane you could see how deep the ice was on all the wings of the grounded planes. Very pleased to see that ours had been completely de-iced...which they said had taken a few hours to do. Finally left a very iced up airport...looked crazy taxiing down the runway and everything was white and icy. Arrived in Sydney at 10.00am...missed our connection to Melbourne...had to wait to 8.00pm to fly out. At least BA had been great...Qantas...well we were back in Oz and they could not have cared less...quote "it's not our fault you missed the flight" (even though we were on a Qantas ticket). Customer service ...could learn alot from OS.
However, worth everthing to see my big babies again...and my dog. So farewell to the blog and I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
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