Tier Point Run to Palm Springs in Dec 2023: Day 6 – London Heathrow LHR to Dublin DUB

I got through Passport Control kiosk first time, although it took a lot of whirring to confirm I was OK to enter the UK! From there, I headed up to the Arrivals Lounge for a shower.

Next activity was heading off to Long Stay to drop my bag off. In the end I decided to try and avoid eating anything until on board my next flight to Dublin. That might offset some of the extra eating I had been doing whilst I was away.

When I got off the bus at Long Stay, it was chucking it down, and I couldn’t remember exactly where I had left the car! I eventually found it and dumped my bag in the boot.

Slightly wetter than when I arrived, I had a bit of a wait for the bus back to T5. I could see buses waiting at the side of the car park. They really make you feel the poorer service in Long Stay compared to the more expensive parking solutions. Let’s face it, the car parking spaces are identical – the only differences are the distance from the terminal, the quality of the bus and the frequency of the buses.

Once back at T5, I headed up to The First Wing (TFW), through security (which was empty) and into the CCR.

I dumped my jumper and my bag of cables on a seat and did the most important thing of the day: pick up a Starbucks! I’ll bypass breakfast altogether and see whether I can last until afternoon tea on my flight to Dublin.

My flight left from Gate 4B (a bus gate) and it was a major scrum with an Edinburgh flight leaving from Gate 4A at around the same time, so there was a real mix-up of passengers.

The bus got held up in an almighty traffic jam underneath Gate A23. I’ve never seen a queue like it before. The aircraft was parked at remote stand 525, which is one of the normal overspill parking bays for the Dublin aircraft.

On into another horrible seat: 3D. Looking forward to getting back into the front row on the way home.

We pushed back late, officially because of the traffic jam delaying the buses. What the captain didn’t refer to was the 5 min delay of the bus leaving Gate 4B due to the flight crew not being on board in time!

We didn’t get on to the runway until almost 16:10 and the flight time was estimated as taking around 55 mins.

Service started very quickly, and afternoon tea included fruit scones! Yippee! The battenberg cake seemed a bit more stodgy this time around, but still tasty.

It goes without saying that the sandwiches were a little odd, but I ate most of them anyway!

I had to ask for power to be turned on, but it was appreciated so I could keep my mobile charged up.

We arrived into Gate 204 as normal. I managed to get off first, after sharing some jokes with the cabin crew, who were great throughout.

Looking forward to getting back on board and heading home to the Vickster.

Follow the whole story here: Tier Point Run to Palm Springs in Dec 2023