dolphingirl47
In Search of the Tag Fairy
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2007
Day 1
For the first time after 3 years I do not have to work over Christmas. Originally I was scheduled to work over Christmas, but about 6 weeks ago , I was told that my services would not be required after all. So we decided to head somewhere warm for Christmas. With me working for a Dubai based airline, the decision where to go was easy, especially as I have two free standby tickets for which I only have to pay the taxes. I have been to Dubai once in spring 2008 on duty travel and really enjoyed it. DH was supposed to join me for a few days, but his flight was cancelled so he never made it.
Travelling when working for an airline can be nerve wrecking at the best of times as you are painfully aware just how much can go wrong. Flying standby for the first time when the flight is overbooked does not help either. I spent the day frantically checking the loads to see if we were going to get on the flight. I left work being quietly optimistic that we would get on. I headed straight from work to the airport, where I had arranged to meet DH. As soon as we stepped into the terminal, we got this sinking feeling. The lines for our check in desks went clear across the terminal. After taking a deep breath, I approached our colleagues at the ticket desk. They advised that we should proceed to the business class check in to register and to have our luggage tagged, but that we would not find out whether we would get on the flight until 19:15 for a 20:10 flight. I was not impressed, especially as we recently opened a business class lounge at Manchester airport and we had been granted lounge access. However, there was nothing to be done. Fortunately we just got ourselves a shiny new ticket desk with its own seating area. So we made ourselves comfortable. I know most of our colleagues at Manchester airport as I have helped them out on a number of occasions when we had flight disruptions. Quite a few colleagues came by to say "hi" while we were waiting. It was actually quite interesting to see what they deal with on a day to day basis.
About 18:20 the check in supervisor came by to say that things started to look a bit better and that he would get us checked in as soon as possible. Ten minutes later we were given the go ahead and were checked in. They even had saved us two seats together at the back of the aircraft. There was nobody in front of us at security check and we just breezed right through it.
We did make it to the lounge, which is absolutely gorgeous. One of my former team members transferred to the lounge when it opened and he gave us the full guided tour. Then we sat down and had our dinner. Fortunately food is served buffet style, so we actually had time to eat. DH had rack of lamb with assorted vegetables and roast potatoes followed by apple pie and custard and I had cottage pie, with vegetables and bread followed by fruit salad. This was even nicer as it was washed down with champagne. All too soon it was time to get on the plane.
The flight went very smoothly. DH had another dinner on the flight, but I just watched a film and then put on my favourite musical Les Miserables and went to sleep.
For the first time after 3 years I do not have to work over Christmas. Originally I was scheduled to work over Christmas, but about 6 weeks ago , I was told that my services would not be required after all. So we decided to head somewhere warm for Christmas. With me working for a Dubai based airline, the decision where to go was easy, especially as I have two free standby tickets for which I only have to pay the taxes. I have been to Dubai once in spring 2008 on duty travel and really enjoyed it. DH was supposed to join me for a few days, but his flight was cancelled so he never made it.
Travelling when working for an airline can be nerve wrecking at the best of times as you are painfully aware just how much can go wrong. Flying standby for the first time when the flight is overbooked does not help either. I spent the day frantically checking the loads to see if we were going to get on the flight. I left work being quietly optimistic that we would get on. I headed straight from work to the airport, where I had arranged to meet DH. As soon as we stepped into the terminal, we got this sinking feeling. The lines for our check in desks went clear across the terminal. After taking a deep breath, I approached our colleagues at the ticket desk. They advised that we should proceed to the business class check in to register and to have our luggage tagged, but that we would not find out whether we would get on the flight until 19:15 for a 20:10 flight. I was not impressed, especially as we recently opened a business class lounge at Manchester airport and we had been granted lounge access. However, there was nothing to be done. Fortunately we just got ourselves a shiny new ticket desk with its own seating area. So we made ourselves comfortable. I know most of our colleagues at Manchester airport as I have helped them out on a number of occasions when we had flight disruptions. Quite a few colleagues came by to say "hi" while we were waiting. It was actually quite interesting to see what they deal with on a day to day basis.
About 18:20 the check in supervisor came by to say that things started to look a bit better and that he would get us checked in as soon as possible. Ten minutes later we were given the go ahead and were checked in. They even had saved us two seats together at the back of the aircraft. There was nobody in front of us at security check and we just breezed right through it.
We did make it to the lounge, which is absolutely gorgeous. One of my former team members transferred to the lounge when it opened and he gave us the full guided tour. Then we sat down and had our dinner. Fortunately food is served buffet style, so we actually had time to eat. DH had rack of lamb with assorted vegetables and roast potatoes followed by apple pie and custard and I had cottage pie, with vegetables and bread followed by fruit salad. This was even nicer as it was washed down with champagne. All too soon it was time to get on the plane.
The flight went very smoothly. DH had another dinner on the flight, but I just watched a film and then put on my favourite musical Les Miserables and went to sleep.