Off to a flying start so far (excuse the shitty pun) – I've managed to miss my flight to Dublin, and am presently on standbyin Gatwick for the 1:15 flight. Interestingly, the thingabout standby is that they don'ttell you whether you're on the flight or not until 10 mins before checkin closes. As the queue takes about an hour or so to get through, this means that after having queued for 20 mins in the first place to get on the standby list (11:35am), I then have to go away and make sure I'm back at the checkin desk for 12:40pm… so it's pretty much “Hi, you're here. Now go join the back of the queue and we'll tell you whether you're on this plane or not.”
Of course, following checkin, you've got to make it through airport security, so there's still scope to miss the flight.
If I was to miss this flight, then I've got a definite seat booked on the 5pm flight. Therefore, if anyone ends up receiving postcards from me from Gatwick Airport, you'll know I've had a fun 6 hours.
At this stage I don't want to discuss the reasons I missed my 10am flight, however I want to reiterate how frustrated I (among millions of others) am at the current “security” situation in London, and also to register my bewilderment that the Gatwick Express – a train that according to its website runs every 15 minutes – had me waiting for over half an hour to get on it. Would've been quicker to catch the regular train… although the waiting situation didn't become clear until after I'd bought the ticket. Whatever. Whinge whinge whinge.