It had to happen. Having blogged about how smooth the outbound trip was, the return had to have a few problems.

I found Gran Canaria airport relatively smooth, as I didn’t have to take my electronics or liquids out of my very full hand luggage. The experience of other members of the group makes me wonder if this had more to do with a lax attitude rather than good scanners and good staff, but either way, it was a smooth run through security in no time at all.

The coffee was indifferent and the last few sandwiches left were a disgrace.

For reasons involving synchronizing my departure with friends, I didn’t take the return leg of the Jet2 flight I flew out on, which is a shame as it was at a very reasonable 3pm or so and would have seen me tucked up in my own bed by 10pm after a pizza at home.

Instead, I booked a TUI flight which allegedly was to take off at 1920 and land in Birmingham at 2345.

It did not.

“Operational reasons” delayed us in getting on to the aircraft by half an hour, then we had the interesting spectacle of a passenger (who had mistakenly sat in my seat, no less) being removed by the police (not for his seat-stealing ways, as far as I know…).

Then having missed our departure slot, we ended up getting away about 95 minutes behind schedule.

Did we make up lost time in the air? Erm, no. Or at least, I’m typing this while looking at the coast of Portugal out the window, and our ETA is currently 0:40. I don’t doubt that the smooth operators holding my car will be charging me for being late, but hey ho at least I’ve got a front row seat and nobody else in this half of the row. And the battery life on my Asus laptop is excellent for a case like this.

Update Maple Parking had my car waiting when I walked out of the terminal, and didn’t charge me any extra. So not bad.