My journey to Glasgow consisted of three legs – From San Diego to Phoenix, then to London Heathrow, then finally to Glasgow. I will admit that the few days leading up to this trip were stressful for me. I wanted to make sure I had all my papers and knew every detail possible to avoid any travel conflicts that would make me overly stress. Luckily, my mom helped me organize all of my travel documents and luggages to ensure I would have as smooth a flight as possible.
I departed from San Diego on time at around 12:17pm on Tuesday, June 18. We were slated to land at 1:45pm but we ended up landing 10 minutes early (shout-out to the pilot).
Then it was time for the worst part of the trip, the gruesome 10 hour flight from Phoenix to London. The aisles were clear with all butts in seats by the time 3:05 came around. We’re gonna leave on time! I perused my entertainment choices as I waited for the plane to start moving. There were movies, tv shows, and even games like Plants vs Zombies. I thought it would be an enjoyable 10 hours. I turned on the RBG documentary and waited for the plane to leave the terminal. However, five minutes became 10 and before I knew it I had already finished 30 minutes of the documentary and we hadn’t moved an inch! There were flight attendants walking up and down the aisle moving people to different seats and the gentleman in front of me remarked how the pilot hasn’t explained what the delay was yet. At around 3:40 the pilot announces that a group did not have the correct travel documents and that workers had to find and remove their stowed luggages. And so we waited 20 more minutes and essentially departed a whole hour late. This was really concerning because I originally only had a two hour layover in London to clear customs and now it was one.
I finally get off the plane in London at 10:55am (June 19 in London) and my next plane leaves in exactly an hour. I rush out the plane, get handed an express ticket for the shuttle, and spend a few minutes transferring to terminal 5. I check the time and it’s around 11:20. Okay, I have 30 minutes to get my student visa, clear customs, and run to my gate. My student visa check only takes a few minutes and I’m off to security. The TSA officer expediting the personal belongings check asked me if I had any liquids in my backpack – to which I said no. However, I was carrying some liquids in my duffel bag, but he never asked me about that one so I thought it was fine. However, after I pass security, I see my bag in a pile to be checked by another TSA officer. There were three bags before mine and they were taking five minutes to check each bag! It was 11:30 and I did NOT have time to wait. I asked the two people in front of me if i could go before them, to which they said I could because I had a huge time crunch and I ended up throwing away my hair gel and face lotion because they were too big. I guess the allowable fluid amounts for the UK are stricter than the US. In my defense, many other flyers were a bit aggravated at the workers, stating how they’ve never seen anything like this. After running to my terminal, I arrived at the gate with 10 minutes to spare. Thank goodness I made it! I never want to have to go through anything like that again. The one hour delay really screwed things up.
My flight to Glasgow was very nice and calm. It was only a 90 minute flight and the woman I sat next to was a retired German, Spanish, and French teacher from Baltimore that was traveling for her niece’s wedding at Loch Lomond. Chatting with her really made the time go by fast and before I knew it we were in Glasgow.
