they were training the british tsa that day and bc i got to the airport so early, pulled me aside for the training line but in doing so one tsa agent had directed me to the training line and the other to his own line and the two literally ARGUED about where i was supposed to go 😭
then in the training line, i set something off so they had to swab my hands and pat me down. and as if that wasn’t enough, they had someone in training not very supervised search my bag. she emptied ALL the pockets in my backpack, thoroughly swabbing inside each of them. people were staring!!! and when she turned to her supervisor asking if that was good he told her it was “more than enough”
then i had to face the chaos of the terminal’s waiting area which has a weird layout and not enough seats. i was dealing w a recent painful knee injury, but they only told you your gate 15-20 minutes ahead and i was worried i’d miss my flight so i had to go to my airline’s help desk and ask about it. it turns out they already know all the gates anyways they just don’t tell people ??? then on the flight there was a baby who scream-cried the entire time whose mom did little to help them. which is not heathrow’s fault but was the cherry on top