2026 AMT France, Wed May 13, 2026

7:30pm PDX -9h30m-> LHR 1:00pm  British AirwaysEconomyBoeing 787-10BA 266   $693 / $6,410 business 6615
LHR layover 1h15m
2:15pm LHR -2h-> LIN 5:15pm     British AirwaysEconomyAirbus A320neoBA 576  (elapsed time 12h45m)

Why are British Airways flights delayed?

One concensus (parroted by Google Gemini AI) is that due to the Iran war (Thanks Trump) jet fuel shortages and airspace closures are wrecking havoc on flight scheduling. Another is that weather in London the day before caused delays that are rippling to today. Another is that increased fuel prices are making many flights unprofitable, but the airlines obgligated to keep flying those routes in order to keep their airport slot reservations. Unless a force majore makes them cancel. So, claim the weather is bad, cancel the flight, save money and keep your slot. This was easily the most believable explanation while we sat in our plane at LHR under 50% cloud cover, blue skies, occasional light rain, waiting 1.5 hours to be cleared for takeoff into the terrible thunderstorm.

BA266 was delayed 2 hours making us miss the connection with BA576. Chris got put on BA578 at 2:50pm (somehow that 1h15m layover plus 45 minutes is going to allow for a 2h late flight. If they fly fast and get me out of the plane quickly, I just might make it. But Kathi was put on BA580, a flight 4 hours later. This has us arriving in Milan 4 hours apart. Chris will run to the hotel, get checked in, buy train tickets to Torino for the next day, then run back to LIN to meet Kathi and pick up the bags getting to our hotel around midnight. Not a great start! Or, looking at it another way, The Adventure Begins --- remember the definition of Adventure: (noun) discomfort recounted at leisure.

What really happened... BA266 got off the ground more like 2h45m late, did not fly especially quickly, did a 10 minute hold at LHR, landed but did not get to the gate quickly. Even before the doors opened, I got an announcement that I was missing my flight, still with 30 minutes before boarding closed, but in fact, there was no way to get through arrivals and to our gate in time. Chris waited in line for an hour, talked to an agent, We are a party of two: Christopher Uhlik and my wife Kathryn Baganoff. I'm flying economy, booking Z9QIIO while Kathi is flying business, booking Z9HC2L. The first leg BA266 has been delayed about 2 hours. My 2nd leg has been rescheduled onto BA578 while Kathi's 2nd leg has been rescheduled onto BA580 about 4 hours later. If there is room on BA578 to fly economy for Kathi she would accept the downgrade to fly earlier. If not, if there is room on BA580 to shift Chris later, we would prefer to fly and arrive together. then got onto Kathi's flight which (at least now) wasn't full anymore.

Flight (part 1) PDX -> LHR