Frequently irritated flyer.

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

As a frequent traveler and someone who frankly despises any form of inconvenience, airline flight routes matter to me a lot.

Gatwick is my airport of choice, for obvious reasons. The difference between getting to Gatwick and getting to Heathrow is the difference between a half-hour train journey and a two-hour bus journey. Then there’s the matter of the airports themselves: while Gatwick is compact and easy to deal with, Heathrow is a confusing, sprawling mess. Heathrow is not convenient in any respect, so I avoid it whenever I can, even if it means taking a less direct route to get to my final destination.

I distinctly recall my dismay when British Airways moved its Gatwick-Phoenix flight to Heathrow several years ago—a dismay rivaled only by that which I felt when it became impossible to fly from Gatwick to Cork on any airline other than Ryanair. And there was another blow yesterday when I found out that both British Airways and American Airlines are moving their respective Gatwick-Dallas flights to Heathrow as well.

Gatwick-Dallas is a route I often travel several times a year to see my family in Arizona. I can’t stand DFW (though Terminal D is pretty nice), but I’ve put up with it because it’s convenient leaving from Gatwick and then going from Dallas to Tucson.

If I’m going to have to go to Heathrow anyway now to catch a flight to Arizona, I guess I might as well take a direct Heathrow-Phoenix flight and avoid the hassle of Dallas. But here’s the rub; whereas Tucson is an hour and a half from my parents, Phoenix is three hours. So between the two hours to get to Heathrow from Brighton and the three hours to get from Phoenix to Sierra Vista, I’m faced with a total of five hours of extra traveling if I fly between Heathrow and Phoenix (not counting the time actually spent on the plane). Compare this to the two extra hours it takes if I go from Gatwick to Tucson, and you can see why I’m irritated.

All is not lost, of course. Continental still flies a Gatwick-Houston-Tucson route, and I reckon I can probably get to the east coast from Gatwick and catch something to Tucson from there. It just makes me nervous when airlines start pulling their flights from Gatwick, because it increases the likelihood that I will have to make the long haul to Heathrow a lot more often, and I hate that. I know that, in the greater scheme of things, this is a minor irritation. But air travel is miserable enough as it is; anything that compounds the misery just makes me miserable.

Comments

1

Several thoughts:

Just say no to Continental. It is an evil, evil, evil airlines.

Do any other other airlines fly a Gatwick - Chicago O’Hare - Tuscon flight? Or Gatwick - Los Angeles - Tuscon?

I also would like to see Heathrow get its act together… It seems to be constantly in construction but never finishing.

2

I’m hurt :-)

DFW is my airport and I have never understood what it is that bothers people about it.

It’s not like Heathrow where you need to take buses to get to different terminals. I once made a running dash from Terminal B to D in a matter of minutes —— and didn’t kill any small children or old people —— left my wallet in a bar!

The decor is not wonderful but you have a great opportunity to people watch.

My list of hated airports includes Heathrow/O’Hare/Prague all of which have issues with logical movement and customer service.

Don’t get me wrong … I’m not a native Texan and would love to live almost ANYWHERE else —— I had to fall in love with a Texas latina …

Smile when it’s a pain and tell yourself your either going someplace REALLY wonderful or going home … either way, the pain isn’t really so bad.

Posted by Michael Ingram-Stahl

3

I’ll give you this much: DFW has nothing on Charles de Gaulle, which is the worst airport ever. :-)

I guess whenever I pass through DFW, I’ve either just come off of a 10-hour flight or I’m facing a 10-hour flight; either way, I’m not in the best of moods. And I’ve too often had hassles with immigration and security in Dallas (rude people, massive lines, pandemonium), or I’ve made my way laboriously from one terminal to another only to find out that my gate had been changed at the last minute and I had to go all the way back, or I’ve been stuck for hours in the older, grimmer terminals, with their low ceilings, terrible flourescent lighting and uncomfortable seats.

However, it is much, much better now that the Skytrain is running and Terminal D is open. I’m thankful for small favors.

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