It surprises me sometimes just how short a time you have to transfer flights

Indeed, it can be ridiculously short sometimes! Flying out to Japan with the band in March this year, most of us flew to CDG from MAN and had an hour and a half connection, but the three guys from the south flew from LHR with a 45 minute connection (booked through AF as a genuine ‘connection’, too). Knowing what CDG can be like and the fact our NRT flight was on a remote stand meant I knew full well there was no way they’d make it. Sure enough we’re sat on the plane ready to go, minus a drummer, lead guitarist and keyboard player. A baggage truck with Daves cymbals on it even came to the side of our plane and then disappeared with them again! They were something like 5 hours behind us having been put on the next JAL flight so all was OK in the end, just rather frustrating when a connection is booked and can’t be made. It has to be said though, there are certain big airports a 45 minute connection can be OK; places like Copenhagen, Oslo, Amsterdam and even Frankfurt are usually fine. Heathrow or CDG, forget it!

Paul