The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

Not sure I would have the confidence to do that, however easy it sounds. I thought PN doesn't like social interaction, I'm not sure she would go knocking on strangers' doors.

The thing was that she sent a friend to do it. That way, if she did buy it, they wouldn't recognise her as that strange lady who came knocking at the door! :rotfl:

Also, if you're doing it for a friend, it's far less nerve-racking! I wouldn't do it for me, but I'd be quite happy to do it for a friend! It'd be good acting practice!

Ok, it is a little itsy bitsy white lie, but you sort of are interested in the house, just on someone else's behalf!

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

Look at what flights are arriving just before yours, if there are a few large planes coming in from India it could be long. If there are mainly flights from Europe then it should be fine.

Also depends on the passports of your friends. GB passports would be quick.

Generally Heathrow at that time of the morning is OK. and terminal 2 is a lot better than terminal 4.

If you are driving from home, I wouldn't think of leaving until your friends tell you they are off the plane. Circling Heathrow waiting for a landing slot is common and even when on the ground there can be delays waiting for a gate to disembark. Heathrow car parks are expensive, you want to spend the shortest time there as possible.

Yes, I was going to ask how long does it take you to drive to Heathrow. If under an hour, then ask them to phone you when they are getting near the top of the immigration queue, and set off then. They still have to pick up their luggage and get their bearings, and if they have to wait for 15 or 20 minutes for you, they can always get a cup of coffee in arrivals.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

Look at what flights are arriving just before yours, if there are a few large planes coming in from India it could be long. If there are mainly flights from Europe then it should be fine.

Also depends on the passports of your friends. GB passports would be quick.

Generally Heathrow at that time of the morning is OK. and terminal 2 is a lot better than terminal 4.

If you are driving from home, I wouldn't think of leaving until your friends tell you they are off the plane. Circling Heathrow waiting for a landing slot is common and even when on the ground there can be delays waiting for a gate to disembark. Heathrow car parks are expensive, you want to spend the shortest time there as possible.

We'll check when the plane has landed, then set off. It will take us an hour to Heathrow, but we'll stop off at one of the Heathrow hotels for a coffee until they tell us they are clear of immigration. Radisson charges £5 for 2 hours parking, which is okay-ish.

GDB2222

Checking which flights are coming into Heathrow is a bit harder than I expected. There are roughly 9 flights listed as landing at 10.25, all coming from Ottawa. Clearly, it's one plane that's been subbed out to 9 airlines, each of which have used their own flight number.

So, I've given up trying to predict what the queue will be like. I shall lie back and wait to be telephoned.

chris_m

GDB2222 wrote: »

Checking which flights are coming into Heathrow is a bit harder than I expected. There are roughly 9 flights listed as landing at 10.25, all coming from Ottawa. Clearly, it's one plane that's been subbed out to 9 airlines, each of which have used their own flight number.

I found that once when I went to pick Dad up from Heathrow T5.
It was a bit hard to fathom out because a) the display board didn't list all the "sub-flights" at the same time but seemed to cycle through them, and b) not all of them showed Stockholm as the departure point, obviously the plane came from elsewhere and stopped off at Stockholm en route to pick up more passengers, at which point the BA flight number was added to the list.

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

Checking which flights are coming into Heathrow is a bit harder than I expected. There are roughly 9 flights listed as landing at 10.25, all coming from Ottawa. Clearly, it's one plane that's been subbed out to 9 airlines, each of which have used their own flight number.

So, I've given up trying to predict what the queue will be like. I shall lie back and wait to be telephoned.

Code shares. A lot of airlines in the same alliance (there are 3 major worldwide alliances) will use their code to sell tickets on the same flight. If in doubt the key one to follow is the operating airline, in your case Air Canada.

Googling the flight number AC888 will often give you as much detail as checking the airport website.

You can even follow the flight in real time on some websites. eg on flightrader24 you can see it is currently above Wales.

Currently forecast to land at 9.59, so you may want to get out of bed!

/geek

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

Code shares. A lot of airlines in the same alliance (there are 3 major worldwide alliances) will use their code to sell tickets on the same flight. If in doubt the key one to follow is the operating airline, in your case Air Canada.

Googling the flight number AC888 will often give you as much detail as checking the airport website.

You can even follow the flight in real time on some websites. eg on flightrader24 you can see it is currently above Wales.

Currently forecast to land at 9.59, so you may want to get out of bed!

/geek

That's the one before the flight from Washington that we are meeting. The Washington flight ETA is 10.43. Off for a shower now.

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

That's the one before the flight from Washington that we are meeting. The Washington flight ETA is 10.43. Off for a shower now.

Same theory. United Airlines operating and loads of code shares. UA924 Landed 10.40am.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Pyxis wrote: »

Yes, I was going to ask how long does it take you to drive to Heathrow. If under an hour, then ask them to phone you when they are getting near the top of the immigration queue, and set off then. They still have to pick up their luggage and get their bearings, and if they have to wait for 15 or 20 minutes for you, they can always get a cup of coffee in arrivals.

It never fails to amaze me just how bad we are in the UK at such a simple thing as immigration checks at our major airports. I now tend to avoid major UK airports like Heathrow and fly from minor ones direct to CDG or AMS and connect globally from there.

I've never had to wait more than 20 mins to clear passport control at Schiphol or Charles De Gaulle... Whereas the last dozen times I flew through UK hubs before I stopped using them it was at least an hour and sometimes two or three.

Doozergirl

I need to know how long the visitors took to clear immigration now. I'm invested.