Okay, following up from the recent trip to St Petersburg, I have to say that I loathe having connecting flights. To save the company money, I couldn't take the direct flights either to or from St P. Instead I flew out via Warsaw, and back via Vienna. Why is it that airlines reckon that a gap of 40 minutes between connecting flights is enough? Apart from maybe the first few flights of the day, every flight ends up with delays, either due to hold-ups on the ground, passengers dawdling in the shops instead of going to the gate when called, etc, or they have to stack over the airport waiting for a landing slot...

On the way back on Wednesday, our flight out of St Petersburg was delayed by about an hour. I had a connecting flight leaving Vienna 40 minutes after the first flight was scheduled to land. Great(!). The first flight managed to cut some time in flight, but we still landed 5 minutes before the Vienna London flight was due to leave, and the cabin crew advised us that the wouldn't make our connections. So, off I traipse to the transfer desk to see what alternatives I had, only to be told there that I could still get on the flight. Oh joy! So now I have to go downstairs again, through passport control, then run to the other end of the terminal to the gate. Of course I had to go through the metal detectors again, but I made it; only to find that this flight had been delayed too! I needn't have run after all. Argh!!!