Travel companion: the hours either side of a flight

Send a flight number, not an estimate

This is the whole trick. Give Etta the number and she watches the inbound rather than the clock, which means a slipped landing moves the window instead of wasting it. The figure does not change because an aircraft was late. Guests who send a guessed time are the ones who end up paying for an hour they spent in a baggage hall.

Tell her as soon as a board changes, too. Rebuilding an evening around a delayed inbound is routine here and no apology is required for it.

The hotels you can reach without weather

Colnbrook holds the closest belt: SL3 0FF at Poyle Road is about seven minutes from Terminal 5 despite the terminal in its name, and the plain one on the Old Bath Road is roughly eight. TW6 2GD is attached to Terminal 5 by a walkway, which in February is worth more than any amount of decor.

North of the runway, Harmondsworth still has a village with a church and a pub in it, ten minutes from the terminal by car and a very long way from it in feel. Further along the Bath Road the long one towards Hayes keeps a bar going after the rest of the road has given up.

Late is normal here

Half past eleven is an ordinary start time on this stretch, and two in the morning is not an odd request. It costs what a seven o'clock booking costs, because the only thing that moves the figure is the length. This is the one corner of the county where nobody thinks any of that is strange.

Equally, if you have eaten on the plane and want nothing more than a quiet room and somebody to talk to who is not a colleague, say so. The evening gets built around that rather than around a restaurant.

Travelling further with her

Trips away are arranged rather than listed. A weekend elsewhere is quoted as a single figure once the plan is roughly sketched, and the flights, the room and the table are yours to arrange in your own name. She needs a week for anything involving a passport, and rather more if the dates are in a school holiday.

An arrival evening, from the gate onwards

Say you land at half eight at Terminal 5. Etta has the flight number, so your companion sets off from London while you are still in the air and reaches TW6 2GD or the Colnbrook belt at about the time you clear passport control. You send one message once you are through. The first hour is a drink and something to eat, because a hotel kitchen that shuts at ten is the real deadline out here. The second is unhurried company in the bar, and the third is kept loose, since arrivals rarely go entirely to plan.

If the flight is cancelled

A delay moves the window, as above. A cancellation is a different thing, and Etta handles it as a change of date rather than a lost evening. Tell her as soon as the airline tells you, give her the new flight when you have it, and she will offer the same companion on the night you actually arrive if the diary has room.

Who works the perimeter

Danielle has never once been flustered by a departure board and starts her evenings at an old coaching inn three minutes from a runway. Patricia specialises in late starts and a hotel that behaves like a country house. Stacy is unfazed by a three in the morning arrival and would rather you booked honestly than optimistically.

Nora is awake at hours that defeat most people and watches aircraft land for pleasure, and Roxi is good company on a road that goes quiet after ten. Availability changes week to week out here, so check who is on before you settle on a name.