Whats your worst airport delay story

[Adam Virgo's Shirt]

I booked a 2 night break in NY in January 05 flying from LHR on the 0930 Virgin flight. The travel agent messed up my booking and booked me onto the 1430 instead. As compensation for this, they gave me an extra night hotel accomodation free. I'm happy, I've got 3 nights there now instead of 2.

As I'm travelling back to JFK for my return flight, it starts snowing, and by the time I reach the airport, all flights have been cancelled!!

So I'm stuck at JFK, on my own, and the next flight out isn't for 49 hours!!! I had to book another hotel and make my way back to Manhattan which took 3 hours instead of the usual 35 minutes, due to the condition of the roads. Getting the cab back was a bit of a nightmare anyway, as most of them had clocked off, and being a woman on my own, the illegal cab drivers saw me as fair game! Eventually I get a yellow cab but It was a pretty hairy drive back, and there were lorries jack knifing and the whole of the side of the road was cluttered with cars that had broken down in the snow!

The extra expenses I incurred came to £600 and my insurance company gave me £50 compo!

Moral of this story - book your own flights!! If I'd come back on the day I was meant to I would have missed all the bad weather!

 

[Drumstick]

My gf was in scotland over crimbo seeing her family and asked me to come and visit. I booked tickets and when two weeks had passed I came up. Only to find she was annoyed and off with me the whole weekend... When I came to going home I was waiting in the terminal and was told the plane was delayed due to fog and hadnt even left ldn yet! While i was waiting trying to work out what id done to piss her off I got a txt saying she didnt think it was working out! I was really upset as we had been close. After a few txt she went silent on me but I had find out that it was because she had found someone else... The time was 12pm by the time I boarded and it was ment to leave at 6pm... So had 8 hours sitting there depressed as fook and then when I did finaly get home had about 2 and a half an hours sleep then off to work..!!

 

[Robot Chicken]

My worst experience was flying back from Ben Gurion airport in Israel to Gatwick in 1987. Due to fog over England we had to land at Munich at something like 5am. The German authorities decided that as we were travelling back from Israel we should be guarded in a pen in the airport, so we found ourselves (women, children, old folk etc) guarded by German security armed with guns. Needless to say a lot of people weren't happy, especially the old folk!!!

My father and I managed to blag our way out of the airport and went into Munich city centre for an hour or so. Anyway we eventually took off for Gatwick. Total trip took 16 hours, most of it spent in Munich airport.

 

[1066familyman]

Are you sitting comfortably ?, 'cos this may take a while.

My one and only plane trip was with Air Cameroon : Gatwick to Lagos, via Douala.....trouble is, those crafty Cameroonians had other ideas !

Having rang to check if flight was due to leave on time before setting off to Gatwick ( excellent advice from a mate to novice me) I was casually informed that the flight was in fact now going to leave at 7am tommorrow ( I very much doubt they intended telling anyone this obviously completely unimportant bit of info )

Sure enough, I arrive 5am next morning to find chaos at our check-in desk with plenty of people having slept over night in the airport ( not thought to ring you see like my good self )

After being told flight is delayed and we'll be off as soon as possible ( no explanation whatsoever ), we finally board plane at 4pm.

Now this is where the real fun starts !

On boarding the plane there are a smattering of people already on there who point out to those who care to argue that "you're in my seat " that they are getting off at Paris anyway and it's " free seats " ( sit where you like in other words )

PARIS ! What the f**k ?!

So off we fly to Paris to off load our unexpected travelling companions.......and guess what ?......there just so happens to be a few more people waiting at Paris to join us on our trip to Lagos ( or wherever it is this magical mystery tour is actually going )

After an hour or so at Paris, it's Douala here we come ! And to my surprise, sure enough, about six hours flight time from Paris we touch down at Douala to loud prayers and a generous round of applause......FANTASTIC !

4 hours later....... the wahala ( pidgin English for argument/confusion /chaos ) is just about beginning to die down. And the reason for the wahala, 4 hours spent on Douala tarmac 'cos the ground crew managed to off load all the lagos luggage instead of Douala luggage and it's taken this long to spot the mistake and rectify it :thud:

But not to worry, we're off to Lagos now aren't we ?, and thats only about an hour or so away........well.....not quite

The planned re-fuel at Douala can't take place 'cos they seemed to have run out of the stuff. But not to worry, a short trip up to Yaounde will save the day as they've plenty of it there .

And indeed, when we finally reach Yaounde, the re-fuel takes place without a hitch. So smooth in fact that there's just about enough time to fill the plane up with more passengers too, who just so happen to be waiting on the Yaounde tarmac for a flight to Lagos

By now I'm past caring, and since the scenery is so stunning, I'm begginning to wish we'll take in the whole of West Africa while we're about it. Alas 'tis not to be, and our next stop is indeed Murtala Mohammed airport, Lagos Nigeria.

The final touch down is greeted with even louder applause and yet more prayers. Now all that's left is to run the Gauntlet of lagos airport, and believe me, the Aunties giving the low down to me, the only Oyibo on the plane weren't wrong !

 

[Everest]

We were due to take off at 10.15am one Saturday going to Yugoslavia (a year before the was started). Plane bringing passengers back from God knows where had an "engine problem" that the captain wasn't happy with, so couldn't take off. Mechanics did a thorough check of the engine, finding nothing wrong with it, but the captain still wasn't happy.
They had to wait for a replacement plane to be flown out from Ireland for the passengers before returning to Gatwick for us. By the time they would have got back to Gatwick it would have been too late to take off due to time restrictions for take offs.
We had to get coaches to Manston in Kent and wait there, eventually taking off at 1.15am Sunday, 15 hours late.
We were on a sailing clipper (Marco Polo) for the first week of the holiday. We got on board at about 7am, setting sail at 9.

 

[GNF on Tour]

As a drunken backpacker in Sydney in the late 90's I turned up a day early for a flight to Cairns (and was still so toasted from the night before I actually argued I was right). Apart from that and the rubber glove treatment at Athens a year later I have been quite lucky.

 

[Rougvie]

In my job i'm on a long haul flight every week or so, but Friday was one of the most soul destroying delays of all time, check in at 06:00 for an 07:30 departure from Toronto to Hartford CT, 3 feet of snow lands betweek 03:00 Fri and 03:00 Sat, wait 9 hours in the terminal to be told no way flight is departing, come back tomorrow.......

Came back yesterday, told there is no flight so I ask if I can re-book to Boston, Air Canada Jazz (Spaz) lady says sure, but it will cost you $1324 USD, after a lot of thought I say OK, get to Boston at 13:00 yesterday and there are no hire cars, so have to get a cab, another $400 spunked and 29 hours later than anticipate, I am back 'home' to my hotel in Connecticuit.

The highlight of the trip was watching them bulldoze the snow down a big hole in the ground at the airport. *impressed*

 

[Barry Izbak]

I've text my old man this morning to tell him that there's far worse stories on NSC and that he's had it easy by comparison with you lot. I think this has been a great comfort.

Anyway they were up at 4am, checked in at 6am and are on BA207Y due to depart from Heathrow for Miami at 0840 (minus Prince Andrew) so if you have got absolutely nothing better to do, you can keep an eye on this on the baa website to see if they get away. I'm off to work.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Tel Aviv to London - a flight to London allegedly scheduled for 8.30pm kept being announced as being "delayed for about 30 minutes", every half hour until 4.00am. When we managed to board the thing, it became quite obvious that it was never planned to be leaving at 8.30pm. The give-away was the breakfast that they served us (that was labelled up as having been prepared in London the previous day).

Who packs breakfasts for an evening flight?

The departure lounge at Tel Aviv is one of the most boring places in the entire world. Especially when Israeli security requires you to turn up three hours early to give you time to go through the intense period of questioning that they insist must be a major part of the process of leaving the country.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Heathrow to Ottawa 1971

- Due to leave 14.00 on Sunday
- Fog delay. Finally taken to hotel in London 23.00
- Fog lifts, back at Heathrow 0700 Monday
- As soon as fog lifts, baggage handlers launch go slow
- Finally leave Heathrow 3.00 on Tuesday morning,
- Overnight stay in Montreal, arrive in Ottawa Tuesday afternoon. 2 days late

 

[Superphil]

OK, sitting comfortably again?

A group of 5 Albion fans (and one Palace fan) went to County Kerry for a long golfing weekend, from Stanstead.

Flight out was fine.

Return flight, all tickets were in the custody of Jonesy, we sat in a bar in Cork waiting for our flight we left the bar at 5pm (17:00) to catch our 7pm (19:00) flight.

As we left the pub car park, Jonesy noticed in fact out flight was at 17:00 not 7:00pm, and he pointed out our plane as it flew over us.

So we got to Cork Airport, Jonesy had to take the full force of our slightly pissed fury, and arranged for us to take the last flight to Stanstead and paid for the additional cost.

We boarded the flight, at about 10pm, and took off.

Approching Stanstead at around 11pm the captain tells us we are circling due to fog on the runway. Then, we start final approach, and all of a sudden, as we are well on the way, the pilot pulls up and scares to poop of us. He tells us he is going to circle again for a bit, and 30 minutes later he advises us we are going to Luton instead.

I could tell you the story ends there, but no, we land, as do many planes scheduled for Stanstead, and wait 4 hours for our bags.

Then we queue for a coach to take us back to Stanstead where our cars are.

Finally get in our cars at 5am or so, drive home, arrive at 6.30, take a shower, have a shave and go to work.

Moral of the story, never, ever, let Jonesy take the tickets again

 

[Badger]

Last year I spent 11 hours in Auckland Airport. The plane got struck by lightning when it landed so they had to go out and do a safety inspection but unfortunately the weather was too bad to do it straight away.

Still, to be honest I would rather they made sure the plane was safe than get on the flight quickly. I got a free meal voucher which paid for an extra large Burger King Meal, so it wasn't all bad!