Please Do it Better...

So, while back in the good old UK, I discovered something else that the British do better than Americans, “STRIKING”  throwing a country into utter chaos, and making sure that the innocent, who have nothing to do with what the strikers are striking for, suffer the most.  

This particular planned action was to protest public sector pension reforms. The British Prime Minister said that unless the workers accepted the changes the pension would go broke. However that statement failed miserably in deterring them from their planned action.

American workers I’ve noticed don’t strike when they don’t get what they want, but we Brits seem to do it frequently, disrupting industry, and bringing everything to a standstill. 

The industrial action promoted by 4 unions was due to begin at Heathrow airport at 6pm on Wednesday June 29^th, the day we were flying out of Heathrow at 6:50pm!!!

Immigration staff warned the public of “severe disruption” at Britain’s borders as they joined the public sector strike.

The action was planned to disrupt thousands of travelers, who have been advised by the unions to change their travel plans to a different day… Hello, these people are not really that stupid, they know all too well that travel plans have to be made weeks, sometime months in advance, hundreds of people trying to change their travel plans at the last minute would lead to utter chaos?  In my experience most airlines can’t organize themselves to get out of their own way, let alone  cope with all the flight changes the strike would bring about.

So, moving on... we headed up to the airport a few hours early, to get through check in and immigration and wait it out in the private airport lounge.  The plan sounded great, we could get through before the strike started and just relax until our flight boarded, sadly the airport staff appeared to have no knowledge of the planned strike, and we were not allowed to check our bags earlier than 2 hours prior to our flight.  So there we were with 4 heavy bags to lug around the airport for 4 hours, thank goodness for luggage carts, I had a flashback to the movie "Terminal" with Tom Hanks.

  

Eventually we checked in, excited that we had made it ahead of the strike action, and headed off to the private lounge, OH boy, I have to tell you Delta and American really could learn a thing or two from Europe about what private lounges are all about.  The comfort and luxury of the quiet lounging areas, the well equipped wireless stations, a decent selection of hot and cold food, yes real food, and it's pretty good too, a FREE bar with no limit, quality wines, and great coffee...  

It's been a while since I've visited a private lounge in Europe, I forgot how great they are, I've become quite complacent about the, one token for a drink, and sad dry biscuits one gets in American private airport lounges, not to mention the sour faced receptionists one often meets on the welcome desks.  I know this sounds bitter, but really it's based on my experiences,  if European airlines can do it  this well, then so can American...

  

 There you have it,  I simply say it as I see it, but then that's just me :o)