MONDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2025

(Las Vegas, NV – Home, UK)

We boarded the plane slightly early, but pushed back a few minutes late, although the pilots looked ready.

We turned right after take off, which meant the other side of the plane got the views of the Las Vegas strip and hotels. We got suburban areas and the La Madre mountains to the west.

After that, the flight soon settled into the usual pattern for a night flight, of dinner while watching a movie, followed by an attempt to sleep. Emphasis on the ‘attempt’. It was bumpy almost throughout the flight, until after Iceland. Not serious turbulence, it felt more like driving over a washboarded dirt road. The pilot still had the fasten seatbelt sign on for most of the flight though. 

Before landing, we had breakfast, which is when we discovered my seat wouldn’t recline normally again. It was stuck upright. Not the worst thing, but they were very apologetic, tried manually winding it, but to no avail. There was only 50 minutes left, so no huge problem, and it was safe. They offered me air miles in compensation, which I was very happy to accept.

We landed, with the late afternoon sun shining across the runway, and taxied, only for the pilot to find that a British Airways plane was still on our stand. Even when it was pushed back, it wasn’t far enough, so we still couldn’t get parked. I’m sure the pilot was as frustrated as anyone else. Ten hours flying, and you can’t get to the parking space! It was resolved after a short while with the help of ground staff.

After disembarking, we walked a few miles (well, it felt like it) to passport control, where the machines wouldn’t read our passports. Andrew succeeded after multiple tries, but after six attempts at two different machines I was sent to the queue, along with non-UK passengers, and a lot of other people who were struggling. It took so long that Andrew sent me a text, wondering where I was. On the plus side, the luggage was ready and waiting by the time we got to the carousel.

We left the airport shortly after 4pm. Apart from a couple of places, traffic was moving well, if busy. Including a short stop at Warwick (fuel for the car) and at Norton Canes (fuel for us), we were home shortly after 9pm. Work tomorrow. And unpacking, washing… but first, sleep!