Last night at Heathrow Terminal 5 we had another of my epic screw ups even though this time it was not really my fault. Everything was going so well with the self service boarding pass and check in followed by the bag drop off.
The bag drop off we had paid for an extra suitcase the day before prior to arriving at the airport. If you are going to be over weight it is just cheaper to put another suit case through. The one bag was 26.5 kg's and clearly over weight which would have cost 60 GBP and by having the extra bag we could shove things around. We actually didn't buy much except for a couple of items which may or may not be a new line for work.
When you are always looking for something new not in our market you have to act fast and these were a set of weights weighing 10kg's on their own. The extra bag was a cheap suit case and the cost for the extra 23kg's was 90 GBP. The 3.5kg's costing 60 GBP vs the 23 kg's costing 90 GBP is a no brainer.
I digressed a bit here and back to why the passports went AWOL at this point. The extra bag we thought we had paid for was not reflecting and the check in lady/supervisor took the passports to double check if the extra bag was reflecting on their system somewhere. It wasn't so I paid the extra 90 GBP and the bags were tagged and sent on the conveyor.
I was none the wiser that she had not given the passports back and with the boarding passes we went on our way. I thought granny had them as she has the special bag we carry the passports in and at this point there was no stress. You pass through the security check point and no passports were required. In South Africa you pass through immigration and at Heathrow on the way out you do not.
Having no clue that there was a potential problem we spent 4 hours in duty free and in one of the airport lounges. Eventually it was time to go and move to the gate to board the plane and only then did the hunt start for the passports. We searched the special passport bag and my SA passport was there but granny's and my British passport was nowhere to be found. At this point we were a little fooked. Literally seconds after breaking into a cold sweat our names were called over the tannoid system to come to the boarding gate and we knew exactly why. There was no upgrade coming and they must have our passports. They had our passports and we boarded first which was a bit of luck and do not recommend this tactic. The supervisor at the baggage drop off had sent them through and my lucky boomerang passports that I some how always misplace on my travels returned again.
Last year in France I lost them twice in just a few days and I am just not used to carrying bags around with me. I would rather not be in charge of them because guaranteed I will screw up and maybe next time I will not be so lucky.