I hate Heathrow

I took the high road (flight to Edinburgh, connecting through Heathrow) and B took the low road (TGV to Paris, flight) and he indeed got to Scotland before me. People have warned me about Heathrow's Terminal 5, and now I am equally on the bandwagon of the Terminal 5 hatred. My flight was late leaving Lyon, and when we got to London we were in a holding pattern-- the phrases 'Heathrow' and 'holding pattern' go together like salt and French fries-- and then after we landed, we had to wait on the tarmac because our gate already had a plane in it-- again, typical. So, I watched my layover evaporate and I missed the connection, which was the last flight of the day. At least the employees know the drill, down cold, so they handed me an overnight pack and put me up in a quite nice hotel overnight. Nicer than I could have afforded myself, for that matter.

I should have been concerned when I looked at my itinerary and saw that I only had a 1-hour layover in Heathrow. At the Lyon airport, the woman at the check-in desk pulled out a purple 'short layover' tag to attach to my bag. It turns out this is standard practice at Heathrow, because they did it to me on the way home when I had a 2 hour layover. What is considered a long layover? Are you always supposed to budget 5 hours?

Oh well.