Prior to the start of our trip, we encountered a few pesky problems, chiefly with flights. Nothing terrible, and honestly, I expected some change because we booked both British Airways and Loganair (to Orkney) so far in advance, but it was a bit annoying. With some diligence on our part, though, all worked out. BA ended up changing our seats (which we paid to pick from the start) four times, each time they changed the type of plane we would take. I only ever got one email about a change.

So, after the second time, I began to go online each Monday morning, from about five months out, and double check our seats were still the same. Each time our seats were changed, I was able to pick new ones we were happy with in the price range we had chosen. Our Loganair seats never changed, but there were minor issues with them, too.

Four months before the start of our trip, Loganair emailed me to let me know our original 9:30a flight from Edinburgh had been cancelled; we were now on the 7:30a flight. Well, ok, except I had booked us a hotel (for the night before) in the middle of Old City Edinburgh, about 25-30 minutes travel time from the airport. And we always try to get to the airport for domestic flights at least two hours ahead.

So now we would need to leave the Old City at 5a-ish. And get up even earlier to re-pack, as we were required to check at least our bigger bags for this flight; plus eat breakfast and hope traffic wasnt bad. Just didnt work for me. I regretfully cancelled our castle-view Old City hotel room, and re-booked at the Hampton, a few-minute walk from the terminal. At least breakfast there started at 4a.

BA also gave me a few heart stopping minutes with about three months to go. I was getting ready to start my routine at the gym when I got a text our BA flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh had been cancelled. Well, I wasnt going to rush home, as I was at the gym already, but it was the longest hour of exercising I ever did. When I got home, I saw they had booked us on another flight and gave us a layover time of . . . . 5 minutes. Obviously, they just threw us into any old slot, but it was very annoying.

It turned out in our favor, though. I went online, scrolled through the many Heathrow to Edinburgh flights that day, picked one that gave us a new, five-hour layover, and called BA customer service. I politely asked to be re-scheduled on my new choice, and within 5 minutes had it booked. We liked the new seats even better. And, with more time on the ground now, we would be able to leisurely take a shower and have breakfast in the lounge (business class, we treated ourselves) before going on to the rest of our day in Edinburgh. Win there.