18/09/10- Traveling to Manchester

We got up at 5am this morning because the bus to the new british airways terminal was picking us up at 5 30am (Terminal 5). When the bus did arrive it was full and when we asked the driver what time the next bus would come she said she would call it now, we asked her again how long the bus will be she just drove off. We ordered a taxi which worked out better because it was a brand new mercedes car.

On arrival at the airport we started our check in. The check in is way different to NZ where u can arrive 30 mins before your flight. You  need to be a heathrow at least2 hours before hand. The security process includes taking our picture then going through a screening process similar to international flying possessions are put through the x-ray machine and we walked through and the metal detector booth every passenger is subject to a proper clothing pat down searching for concealed items. 

Dad took a picture for me near the security arrear before moving to go have breakfast at the giraffe cafe. A security person approached dad and wanted to look at the picture he took to make sure it did not include detail that could by terrorists, as you can see we still got to keep the photo.

Despite this being a domestic flight we still had to show our passports. Remember I said we had our picture taken well this is used at the boarding gate to verify who we are when we show our passport prior to boarding.

The actual flight time is 30 mins to Manchester although it took us 20 mins to taxi out because of he size of the airport and queuing for air space to take off. The actual time from taxing or landing is 55 minutes. 

On the flight we got a meal which is strange because as I said actual flying time is 30 mins. The 6 flight staff worked really fast to do the food which included a nice filled roll followed by drinks. The finished collecting all the rubbish with a few minutes to spare before we landed. This was not a small plane - probably one the same size as we would travel to Wellington on from Auckland except our one was  full.