Flight Delays and Brits Abroad

Karl102

Karl102

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Currently sat in Palma airport in Mallorca. We have been delayed 5 hours... What's the longest delay your u have ever had? Mine is 10 hours in Newark New Jersey....

Also, our plane on its way in was hit by lightning, so it has to go through some safety checks before we can go. It absolutely astounds me the number or angry, rude and obnoxious people who are arguing the toss, quite aggressively with the Spanish airport staff who literally are doing all they can.... Am quite embarrassed to be honest...
 
8 hours for me at Heathrow when we needed at plane change, thankfully I had lounge access with BA so ended up firing down the bubbly and it helped me sleep most of the way to Boston.
 
Had an overnight at Heathrow several years ago when ATC was down and all flights were cancelled. That was utter chaos!

A big part of the problem, especially in tourist resort airports is the complete lack of information given when flights are delayed. If they just explain why and how long most people can relax and get on with it but not knowing what's going on can drive you crazy.
 
Karl102 said:
Currently sat in Palma airport in Mallorca. We have been delayed 5 hours... What's the longest delay your u have ever had? Mine is 10 hours in Newark New Jersey....

Also, our plane on its way in was hit by lightning, so it has to go through some safety checks before we can go. It absolutely astounds me the number or angry, rude and obnoxious people who are arguing the toss, quite aggressively with the Spanish airport staff who literally are doing all they can.... Am quite embarrassed to be honest...
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Nothing like a brit abroad to make you feel embarrassed and ashamed.
 
Touch wood I've been very lucky with regard delays over the years, nothing outrageous or even claim worthy and I've flown a fair amount. Last one was four hours on the tarmac at Charlotte whilst Atlanta was closed due to an electrical storm. We couldn't go to the terminal because BA don't have any agreements with Charlotte Airport and the pilot had to use his credit card to pay for some extra fuel - he must have racked up the Clubcard points :)
 
Been delayed about 6 days before coming back from Camp Bastion -
 
5-6 hours in Munich due to fog across chunks of Europe. Nothing really and KLM were so apologetic, even though it was not their fault, that they upgraded me so that I could use the Business Lounge. I have been very lucky.

I do agree on the information aspect. If you tell people clearly the problem then they tend to be okay. It is when you tell people nothing that problems start. It still doesn't excuse rudeness to staff who have no control over the situation however.
 
6 hours in Wellington. Not because of wind, the usual cause in that airport...it was so hot that the runway 'melted'!

Fellow - much travelled - traveller was very calm about it. He'd often been delayed, twice missing connections. One of them crashed and the other was hi-jacked (it was 1974) so he was pretty laid back about delays!
 
8 Hours at Gatwick waiting for a charter flight to Malaga. Our plane had gone tech so we had to wait for a plane to be found in Malaga flying to UK that could then fly us out. Nightmare, especially as our kids were about 4 & 6.

I'll never forget the name of the charter airline, Translift, perhaps with a name like that I might've known better.
 
5 hrs at Belfast Int. Back then everything closed before midnight, and eventually took off about 1:30am...

The plane was found to have an engine problem. Wonder if it was the one I had flown in on that morning. The grinding noise from the right side of the plane for about half the flight had the passengers sat deathly quiet.
 
I did have to spend about 6 hours in Aberdeen Airport once, not due to a delay but because my boss was too stingy to pay for me to get on an earlier flight. Possibly the worst airport catering I've ever had anywhere in the world. This was a few years ago and I hope it has improved because it was abysmal.
 
9 DAYS!! We were in Mombasa Kenya when the Iceland volcano erupted , we had to take the internal flight of our homeward journey to Nairobi , then Virgin had to put us in a hotel until we could get a flight back , If we had been independent travellers it would have cost us a fortune , but Virgin were great and we just treated it as another holiday
 
andycap said:
9 DAYS!! We were in Mombasa Kenya when the Iceland volcano erupted , we had to take the internal flight of our homeward journey to Nairobi , then Virgin had to put us in a hotel until we could get a flight back , If we had been independent travellers it would have cost us a fortune , but Virgin were great and we just treated it as another holiday
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Same cause - the volcano! We would still be at Faro airport now for all the help we got from British Airways and Lastminute .com through who we booked. We ended up on a coach to Calais for 23 hours with a max 1/2 hour stop at any time
 
One year after first driving winter hol to the Alps, did the package hol and if I recall it was 26 hours door to door (about 1.5 hours of transfer at each end), bad weather in Grenoble I think. Drove a lot more from then on.
 
Had an enforced overnight in Schiphol years ago.

No biggie, bugger hanging around an airport though.
Taxi, hotel, bar, bed.
It was a rather enjoyable night as a matter of fact. :)
 
24 hours in Perth WA due to a problem that needed a new part from Dubia

Airline were pretty good and put us up overnight and arranged transfrer for connecting flights etc




Reminded me of another similar topic though

Shortest hotel stay: 2 hours in Melbourne!

Due to another flight delay I got checked in for an overnight stay and before I got to my room I managed to get an earlier onward connection, so I got to the room, 90 minutes sleep, shower etc and back to the airport
 
Karl102 said:
Currently sat in Palma airport in Mallorca. We have been delayed 5 hours... What's the longest delay your u have ever had? Mine is 10 hours in Newark New Jersey....

Also, our plane on its way in was hit by lightning, so it has to go through some safety checks before we can go. It absolutely astounds me the number or angry, rude and obnoxious people who are arguing the toss, quite aggressively with the Spanish airport staff who literally are doing all they can.... Am quite embarrassed to be honest...
Click to expand...
Delayed for 11 hours earlier this year when we flew back from Naples to Stanstead.
am sure I am not the first to say this but seriously check for what you can claim for being delayed. We/ Missis Tash ran off a form form the Martin Lewis website which we sent onto Easyjet. Five of us flew and received €400 euro per person 2000 total. boom.
criteria, at least one airport must be in Europe.
Must be delayed for at least 4 or 5 hours ( me and Tashygirl arguing over that one.
stick to facts, there not interested in lack of info, whining kids etc etc
there is different refunds for different lengths of flight delays. Good luck
turn a bad experience into a positive one.
 
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