FeedTravel Etiquette
Friday, June 22 2007
My hols was good; short, sweet & crazy. Flying to Europe for just a week is crazy. Jet lagged work kind of well with me, I woke up early in the morning and could fall asleep easily in the evening. This meant I really take advantage of the time.
I had a connecting flight at Heathrow and one has to go through a Security check before being able to enter the terminal. And people, when UK security saying 1 (one) piece of luggage - that is exactly what they mean. One carry-on luggage and a teddy bear, that is one item too many. More then 1 item and you will not allowed to pass through.
The queue was looooooong. The queue is also split between Terminal 3 and the other terminals. After waiting almost an hour, I saw some other passenger cutting the queue. My patience after a 10 hour flight & children kicking my seat was on bare minimum. The result, a shouting match occurred. My first real loud comment “There is a queue here y’know” Some guys turned around, looked sheepish and when back to the end of the queue. One man ignored me and stayed *tsk* so now my patience was nonexistence so I said much louder: (screaming) We are standing in a queue here.
The man turned around, who was of Arab origin so I got the hand gestures as an extra, and replied: “I have children here.” I replied back; “There are families with children standing in the queue” and turn around and indicating to the family with 3 children standing behind me. The man retorts in a irritated voice (how dare I to question him??) “I have a baby here”. I was about to answer back but this exchange caught the attention of the Heathrow staff.
The clever Heathrow guy asked in the typical smart British way: “Who escorted you pass me?” The man grumpily said: Nobody. The clever guy said: “You have to go to the back of the queue. There are many families with children in the queue and you have to do the same”. Then he turned to me and winked at me. YEEEESSSSS!!!! 
I got to the connecting flight in time. I do miss the advantage by living in London and having direct flight ready to hands.
More pics and clips are coming up soon. And I have been tagged by Incognito so that is coming soon too.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:41
Your experience, sad to say, is typical of many Arabs. They use the “family” excuse to jump queues, when in actuality they just don’t have the manners to step in line. My response when I hear this excuse is to tell them that’s an even better reason to go to the back of the line - so you don’t teach your children bad habits.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:45
And yes, Heathrow is a Chinese fire drill. I & my wife fly through Europe frequently and used HRO as our preferred transit. No more. And since I control other peoples’ itinerary (I sign the checks) I make sure I spare them the inconvenience of Heathrow. Don’t bet on Terminal 5 curing this security disease.
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:08
I agree, Terminal 5 (or even T6) will not make this process quicker. After the terrorist scare in Aug 06, they changed the rules to just allow 1 hand luggage for screening. Before there were no such restriction, and I cannot believe they checked things at lesser quality before Aug06.
The solution is invest more in staff and equipment to get over this bottleneck.
Heathrow is one of UK’s prime assets and brings a lot of revenue to the country - they need to treat as such and keep up the investments.
I like your response re bad habits and I shall keep in mind and use it when necessary!!
Thanks for commenting on my blog
June 23rd, 2007 at 19:24
What a pain! I guess it’s a feeling of entitlement and assuming that people haven’t the courage to question them. I’m sure the fact that you, as a woman, had the audacity to confront him made him even angrier. You brazen westerner, you!
That’s great the official made him move back. It’s just common courtesy.
Will look forward to pics and more tales from your hols. and your 7 thingies..
Don’t worry about it if you don’t want to.