[stevescoots]

They say it comes in threes, do you ever have one of those flights that you just wish you had missed by falling asleep in the lounge? Well I had mine yesterday. CX 257 HKG to LHR.

One: Sat in seat 23A, last row of J before PE. Took a flying visit to the loo , no pun intended, and sat down to finish my movie when the lady across the aisle tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that whilst I was gone someone came through from PE and started to search through the belongings in my seat then took a reach for the overhead but saw that even though she looked asleep her eyes were open so he scuttled back through the curtain. What surprised me was that she saw him come through the curtain several times before then and walk the aisles looking and he was not stopped by the crew. She told the crew but hard to Id him as he was wearing a surgical mask. Checked my stuff and it was all ok.

Two: crew serving piping hot dinner dropped it in my lap and mildly scolded me. Lots of apologies and ice pack given but I ended up cleaning my own area where food had splashed on the IFE controller etc. When another cabin crew member came through I asked if the incident had been logged in the records as it was crew member that dropped the food and she was surprised, thinking I had done it! My guess is that as I had not lost the plot with the original crew member and accepted her original apology as accidents happen she decided not to log it. What surprised me was that the CSD did not at anytime come over to check, I was not asked to make a statement on either incident and on departing the plane nothing was said. My shirt is ruined, and my stomach is a little sore today, but no real harm done, none the less I will be complaining to CX.
And to round it off, they destroyed my big samsonite case,(which was actually a replacement from KLM when they destroyed the last one) it comes in 3s!

On the plus time T3 from far gate to picking up my flat and battered case was under 20 mins

So what tales of multiple flight woes do others have?

[Charles-P]

Many years ago now but it sticks in the memory.

Arrived at Heathrow for flight to US, important business meeting could not be late.
Overbooked, no seats available, next flight later the same day (could still make meeting)
Took later flight and discovered on board had been bumped from Business to Economy despite being assured this had not happened, given choice – sit in economy or no fly. Ended up sitting next to obese unpleasant woman for entire flight.
An hour into flight glass of red wine split down shirt by ham-fisted stewardess.
Flight delayed – landed 90 minutes late and then held on tarmac for another two hours for “security check”.

Never made the meeting, never won the contract, flew home following day.

[LuganoPirate]

I’m sure there are others, but the only one I can recall was a journey from Amsterdam to Billund via CPH. I was taking samples for a product demonstration which was the sole purpose of the trip. I had to clear customs in CPH (pre Schengen days) then rechecked the samples to Billund. Finally arrived but 3 hours late due to the original flight being cancelled, and of course no samples! They let me search the baggage hold and cargo area at Billund but, nothing. Further they did not arrive the next day, so the meeting had to be cancelled and I flew home.

But the bad news did not stop there, as I arrived (much) later than I said I would at my hotel, they let the room go so I had to find another hotel at twice the price. No mobiles or internet then! Got back to AMS, about DFL 3,000 poorer to find thieves had smashed the rear window of my Jag to try (unsuccessfully) to steal the radio. 2 hours wasted in the police station and of course it decided to pour with rain just as I left, so the interior got soaked when the cardboard and tape the police gave me came away on the highway!

[stevescoots]

[quote quote=885016]I’m sure there are others, but the only one I can recall was a journey from Amsterdam to Billund via CPH. I was taking samples for a product demonstration which was the sole purpose of the trip. I had to clear customs in CPH (pre Schengen days) then rechecked the samples to Billund. Finally arrived but 3 hours late due to the original flight being cancelled, and of course no samples! They let me search the baggage hold and cargo area at Billund but, nothing. Further they did not arrive the next day, so the meeting had to be cancelled and I flew home.

But the bad news did not stop there, as I arrived (much) later than I said I would at my hotel, they let the room go so I had to find another hotel at twice the price. No mobiles or internet then! Got back to AMS, about DFL 3,000 poorer to find thieves had smashed the rear window of my Jag to try (unsuccessfully) to steal the radio. 2 hours wasted in the police station and of course it decided to pour with rain just as I left, so the interior got soaked when the cardboard and tape the police gave me came away on the highway![/quote]

Made mine seem like a normal day!

[PeterCoultas]

Must admit that these are all horrors but LP’s sems the winner so far !

[MartynSinclair]

@Steve – just a pleasant message, knowing you fly ex Europe tickets…. don’t fall asleep / get distracted in the lounge…. 🙂

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stevescoots

[FlyingDoc]

I must admit I have been inactive here for a long time, not because I am not interested, but because of time restraints, but I must admit this post has made me chuckle…

Quite a few disaster ones, as a medical repatriation escort – most likely have enough to write a small book, but an overnight trip to collect someone from the Canary Islands comes to mind – BA insisted on me checking in all my medical equipment and personal stuff – it was soon after 9/11 so security was at its highest – pleaded with check-in manager, explained that I was happy to hand all my stuff to CSD on board for them to keep safe, to no avail.

Of course on landing, all my stuff had gone in the opposite direction – BA extremely apologetic but ended up not having all until 5 days later, as BA decided to move all the luggage around Europe before it came back to the UK.

Thankfully aircraft had defibrillator in place, I ended up borrowing all type of medications and other medical stuff from the clinic (who being private was very happy to oblige and charge the insurance company), and a quick shop for clothing and toiletries in the Canaries ! Not the best place to get something that looks professional…

Needless to say, since then I never, under any circumstances, give way anymore – vividly remember having a huge argument with a Virgin Airlines CSD on the tarmac in Antigua, as they wanted me to check my defibrillator, by the aircraft steps, and half the travellers boarding a BA plane next door looking at us, mesmerised… let alone a trip via Moscow to Minsk, about ten years ago, where not only I had to fight my way on every single airline all the way through, but where I found myself, on the Moscow to Minsk flight, on a prewar plane (don’t ask me the type, was dark, winter, heavily snowing and I was ready to turn round to London by this point…), where on noticing there was a draft on the floor by the window, I realised you could lift the carpet with the tip of your foot, to find out wood planks with huge spaces in between – they were only serving vodka and biscuits (God knows what economy was…), and although I am not fearful of flying, I must admit I had a few shots !

Could go on forever, so I feel this is enough already.

[SwissExPat]

I was caught in NYC when the East Coast electricity blackout occurred (approx 2005?). I had just arrived in JFK as the electricity went down. I managed to check in (all checked bags needed to be manually searched). My EI flight was not certain to take off but I got airside and into the Lounge. There was no Air Con so we were sweltering.

I found a corner to sleep in thinking we’d be going nowhere. AFter 3-4 hours, we were told we’d be departing in 45 minutes. I went to the gate and boarded. I remember the great feeling of the AIr Con on the EI A330. I was in J and thought that ait was not too bad having had a 2-3 hour delay (given the circumstances).

We took off and the service started. After 30 minutes, the Captain asked if there was a Doctor on board via the PA system. Then, 3.5 hours into the flight he came back on and said that due to a sick PAX on board, we would have to turn around and fly back the 45 minutes to St Johns Nova Scotia. (We were only 3 hours out from Dublin at this stage).

So we diverted to St Johns. Waited on the ground for 1.5 hours. The “so called” Sick PAX walked off the fligt. We then took off and it took another 4 hours 15 minutes to get to Dublin.

[Krsnp]

Didn’t happen to me, but happened to one of my friends. He flew TK from Germany (can’t remember which airport) to AUH via IST. The check-in desk could only issue him a boarding pass for his first leg (to IST) and asked him to collect his next is IST. IST Transfers Desk for some reason couldn’t see his onward journey on their system, and refused to issue a boarding pass until check-in closed. Because he had to be in AUH on that day, he purchased a last minute ticket (obviously quite pricey) from IST to AUH via AMM (RJ). Alas, his IST-AMM got delayed, and the AMM-AUH flight had already departed by the time he arrived. So he had to wait for the next flight the following morning.

Such an exhausting journey for what’d normally be a 6/7-hour direct flight. I just hope he managed to get his expenses reimbursed by the insurance!

[capetonianm]

When I was about 19, and flying was a big adventure, I’d booked a skiing holiday in a resort called Stary Smokovec, in what was then Czechoslovakia, close to the border with Ukraine. It was one of my first trips behind the Iron Curtain. I’d arranged to meet a lovely Irish girl whom I’d met a few months before, she booked to go to the same place but as she was coming from Shannon, as she lived in Limerick, on a different flight.

When I checked in for my BEA flight at West London Air Terminal in Cromwell Road, I was told that the flight to Prague was cancelled for some reason which I forget, it might even have been a French ATC strike, since those are not a new phenomenon, meaning that I would miss the domestic connection to Poprad, the airport serving the resort.

I was rerouted and got to Prague later in the day and got a hotel, probably paid for by BEA – I don’t remember. I went out for a walk and someone in the street offered to change my sterling into Koruny on the very tempting ‘black market’ rate – remember I was 19! As you will have guessed, he disappeared with a wodge of my spending money never to be seen again. I walked to the main railway station (Hlavny if I remember correctly, similar to the word for main in Polish, Glowny, so it probably was) where I took a photograph of a rather splendid steam locomotive, only to have the film ripped out of my camera by a policeman.

Next day I went back to Prague Ruzyne airport for the flight to Poprad, saw the ancient Soviet aircraft, boarded, buckled up, only to have the seat belt fabric disintegrate in my hand. Despite the snow on the wings, the ancient aircraft roared into the air, rattling and shaking, and soon, although it seemed like hours, we were skimming treetops and mountain peaks as we came in to land at Bratislava. I was so terrified, the only time in my life I have been scared in a fixed wing aircraft, that I disembarked there and took a train to Poprad or Stary Smokovec, arriving a day and a half late.

The Irish girl never turned up, or had probably left and gone to another hotel, of course in those days we had no way of communicating with each other.

I do remember having a great skiing holiday though and specially the fantastic East European food, which I still enjoy to this day, although in those days good food was only available to tourists paying in hard currency.

This reminds me that after I’d met this lovey Irish lass, I wanted to call her at home in Co. Limerick, and her number was Murroe 12 or something like that, two digits anyway. I rang our local operator as you did in those days to book a ‘trunk’ call to the Republic.

She put me through to Dublin and said she had a call for Murroe, Dublin put the call through to Limerick, who put it through to the local operator in Murroe, whereupon I asked for Murroe 12, and the response was :
“Dat’s grand, you’ll be wanting de O’Reillys, dey’re over at de Collins’ for lunch, it’s number 18, oi’ll be putting you through now.”

Good old days when travelling was fun, and I still love the Irish for so many reasons.

[canucklad]

I’ve been incredibly lucky to enjoy many ,many travel adventures thus percentage wise misadventures have occurred regularly through the years ….So much so, that when things go wrong, I’m generally not fazed by events.

I think, my earliest memory was the family trying to get back to Scotland for a summer vacation.
Travelling on staff tickets, and at a time when fireman at Canadian airports were disrupting travel with wildcat industrial action meant that my father had to negotiate both a physical and verbal (staff reservations) path back to the UK.

Rather than fly direct with one stop (Calgary/Edmonton) to Amsterdam as we normally would , our routing , as best as I remember was …..

Bumped off the YVR-YEG-AMs , we managed to get on a domestic flight to YYC after the AMS flight departed without us. Stayed in a grubby airport motel, hoping to catch the YVR-YYC –AMS flight the next day.
Advised that flight would “probably/likely” make an unscheduled stop in YWG to pick up passengers from a cancelled flight and that the YYC-YWG would be full due to domestic pressures, it would be best to get to Winnipeg before the flight ,that ironically originated in YVR.
After another domestic flight we arrived in Manitoba.
Hoping that the flight would arrive and more importantly have seat availability , we waited in Winnipeg, I sensed my parents nervousness as the gate filled up with people. But more importantly the Orange Jet finally appeared. Domestic passengers of loaded, the AMS bound passengers then filled up the full “Y” cabin. Thankfully the gate agent, aware of the family holiday and the travails of travelling with children , found us seats in 1st Class. We still couldn’t take –off because the local fireman stood down , no cover, no take-off jeopardising the flight that day. Something must have happened behind the scenes because , minutes before curfew and after hours of sitting on the aircraft we were eventually on our way to Amsterdam.

My Dad, and to a lesser extent mum, took full advantage of the legendary CP Air service, helped by my Dad being a well-known employee at YVR , and the cabin crew being YVR based. Consequently and also because our flight was late, our planned connections on Air Anqlia direct to EDI went awry.

Thanks to the brilliant KLM person at the transfer desk, we were re-routed to LHR on KLM and then up to GLA on BEA . Finally in Scotland, and late in the evening , we had to face our final hurdle. How to get from GLA to Edinburgh. Bearing in mind my dad was in no fit state to drive , although soberer than when he was in AMS , and it was back in the 70’s , no mean feat. 2 buses and a local taxi ride later, we eventually rolled up at my Grandmother’s house in Stockbridge just after midnight.

As I look back, I realize I’ve learnt a lot of lessons from that one trip alone!!

[Author]

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