When Travelling to London Heathrow Airport....

If you are not planning on staying in London and have another flight to catch  please ensure you have at least 4-5 hours between flights.


Why? Well, here's our trip home...(So much for that previous glowing review Air Canada!)

We were flying from Halifax to St. John's, Newfoundland and then to London...THEN to Helsinki.
Simple right?  We checked in our luggage and got our boarding passes and the Air Canada rep at the desk notified us that we have to pick up our luggage in London and re-check it in AND THEN go through customs and security again.
We had less than 2 hours to connect to our next flight...FYI Heathrow is a monster-huge airport...


We looked at this girl like she was nuts and she said yes we definitely have to go through customs.

Our flights were smooth and easy and for 30 minutes we hovered in the air in circles (you could see the little white plane and green line going in circles literally on the map on TV) above Heathrow.  Why? Probably because all the lanes were booked!  So we went from having almost 2 hours to having less than 1.5 hours to get on the next plane.
Thanks to this delay, we missed our flight entirely.  We had to wait 45 minutes in a SUPER huge line up (as we have Canadian passports and are listed in the "All Other Passports" line up in which there are less than 6 reps clearing customs)....The staff doing customs and security both asked us "Why are you clearing customs?!  Don't bother rushing - you aren't gonna make it."
Funny...we were thinking the same freaking thing.
 We were not impressed and went to British Airways to get our new flight.  They said we had to go to Air Canada and get them to re-book us....

1st Trip
We go to Air Canada and the young fellow books us in and says, "Well, I don't know if you're flying with British Airways or Finnair.  Go check Finnair and if not - go to British Airways. There's a flight at 1020am...you still have time to get in there."  (It was 8:15am or so....)
(Insert death look but with a happy voice).

We go to Finnair who has 0 record of us being there and march over to British Airways.
They have Tim registered and printed a boarding pass for him (flight is not at 1020am...but now at 1230pm)...
Nothing for me and our son, V�in�. (Insert not impressed look and stern voice).


2nd Trip 
I go back to that young man and give him a death stare that would make Darth Vader proud and a voice of a reprimanding teacher...and he says, "Oh I'm terribly sorry Miss.  I just got a call - there...*twenty minutes of me standing there he types* now you're booked.  Go back to British Airways and they'll print out your pass."

I go back and British Airways says, "You are here with a reference number but your son is still not listed as infant and doesn't have a reference number."
(I am threatening to choke the Air Canada rep in front of the British Airway reps and they smiled calmly and said, "We'd recommend flying through to Toronto with Air Canada next time then BA all the way to Helsinki in future...you wouldn't go through this garbage if this was us!" Thanks - good to know.)

3rd and final trip
I stand there with our Passports in hand (Tim and V�in� are patiently waiting by British Airways and I think, at this point, my husband is terrified of me) and the reference numbers for myself and my husband...
I have a look on my face that screams "I am so kicking you in the nuts if you don't get this straightened out..." and my voice is so cold I think Lord Voldemort might be proud of me...
"Listen.  This is my 3rd and FINAL trip to see you to get this straightened out.  This is what needs to be done and I am beyond fed up with having to run back and forth and hope I catch the 1230pm flight to Helsinki." (it's almost 11AM by this point!)
He explains that he doesn't understand why I need a reference number or whatever, because V�in� is an infant and would be in my lap anyway.  Fine - I get that.
THEN HE SAYS: "Here - take the ticket to them..that should make them happy.  And I hope we don't see each other again and I mean that in the kindest of ways Miss."

WHY DIDN'T HE GIVE ME THE TICKET THE FIRST OR SECOND TIME I SAW HIM?!
And it's not like he was waiting long for it - he calmly walked to the printer and it was already sitting there...because he avoided talking me and looking at me when he saw that I was in the line again for the 3rd time and decided this was his prime time to type like mad...

So...if you travel via ANY AIR LINE and they tell you - you have to stop in London and you have less than 5 hours to get to your next flight - fight it!

The reason why we're so upset is because we have 2 dogs at home with a dog sitter and obviously the airlines aren't going to pay for the extra time the dog sitter has to be with them if we kept missing flights.
As well, we're travelling with an infant who is very sensitive to time differences..he was accustomed to Canadian time and London is 2 hours different from Finland.  THEN we were late leaving by 4 hours...so jet lag was a major concern for us - seeing as Finland has 20 hours of sunlight now...

Review of Air Canada

Now, I have never flown Air Canada before but have heard glowing reviews (occasional luggage issue but otherwise fine) and although my husband and I had "Scattered Seating" (we weren't sitting anywhere near each other) -when we arrived at the gate they quickly corrected it and we sat together in the center of the plane with the center seat free to put the baby if he wanted to.  The movies were wonderful and a wide selection (I saw "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" a bit of "Little Fockers" -but decided it was too funny for me to watch while flying and trying to pay attention to a 1.5 year old and "The Tourist" which I enjoyed a lot)....

Because we were slightly delayed (1 hour!) from leaving Frankfurt we were given extra drinks and the entertainment stuff was left on except for the occasional update.

We got lucky (due to that scattered seating bit) and had 3 seats to ourselves.  Of course, our son preferred to sit in my lap....but we were in the center of the plane and it was roomy enough!

The food wasn't too bad .... vegetarian option and a chicken option. 

Staff are billingual (it's mandatory if you want to work for this airline - friend of mine couldn't speak French and couldn't stay and work for them) and super duper friendly!

Funny thing is - when we touched down in Halifax (a couple days later) - I heard a report on the radio that a young man who was doing a stint with his Missionary was trying to board an Air Canada flight and has a severe peanut allergy.  So he brought his epipens and tonnes of medication just in case because he was en route to Fiji....apparently he was refused his seat and they took off without him because of the quantity of his medication he needed.  (I don't know the FULL story but that was all that was said on the radio).
I've heard wonderful things about Air Canada and heard the occasional lost luggage story....

But for what it's worth - it's way better than American Eagle(Airlines) or Continental....

*I forgot to mention - that when we flew from Toronto to Halifax - the seats had individual TV sets again, however no ear plugs.  You had to either bring your own or remembered to bring a pair from the previous flight!  They charged $3.00 for a pair of ear phones...I am assuming you got to keep them for all of your future AC flights....major downfall on that one Air Canada.