Stranded in Portugal for a week?

[InOffice]

My boss was due back form holiday yesterday, but is apparently now stranded until Saturday.

It doesn't really matter, we'll be fine without her, but is it really that bad?!

Stuck here trying to get back to Heathrow...meant to fly at 18:30 yesterday now not flying until 8am Thursday!

Yes. I’ve had 3 flights cancelled, stuck in Spain for 5 extra days. The airlines were booking soon after but most flights were sold out before this happened - try to rebook people for over 500 flights on a bank holiday week, and still school holiday!

“I'd have booked a train back the minute I heard about it but alot of people just waited to hear from the likes of Ryanair and so on so it's no surprise they have got nowhere fast.”

@AlisonDonut yeah right! You’d have been so prepared for the unexpected you’d have thrown money at it and got out would you? Easy to say that when you’re not in the thick of it. You can’t train it from anywhere overseas so I’m guessing you mean plane? I looked at flights before “as soon as I knew” because I was keen to stay a few days longer and the flights were £900pp then. Your comment comes across so condescending as if it’s the passengers fault for being stuck!

Eve if you had booked another flight there’s no g’tee that would have got you anywhere faster anyway. The ATC for the whole UK was stuffed.

I've heard plenty of people on radio phone ins telling their stories of being stuck, it's not surprising that they can't absorb all those people on flights in just one day especially as not every airport has a daily flight to every other airport in the world

How do you get to a train station if you're on an island? Trekking across countries using ferries and public transport with possibly young children iand no money left sn't a realistic option for many families

But well done you

Yes. There's probably ways round it, but you feel you ought to leave it for people that are desperate. I've ended up being stranded before with the Ash cloud. People were prioritised for the extra seats (e.g. elderly who would run out of medication were high). Me and my husband were very low priority and it took a week. We managed to relax once we realised we weren't going anywhere for a while. So theoretically, you might see some spare seats you think he could use, but when there's a 5 year old crying because they miss their dad or something and are frightened, you'd just stay put and let them have the seat.

Insurance doesn't typically cover this type of Air Traffic Control failure.
The airline will give you a refund or get you on an alternative flight (which you might have to wait days for). The airline is responsible for refunding your accommodation whilst you wait for this flight... if you can find any.

I read that around 540,000 passenger seats inbound and almost the same again outbound were caught up in the air traffic control issue yesterday. That's a lot of people to get where they are supposed to be.

If they are on mainland northern Europe they are being quite wet - if you have to wait until SATURDAY to fly just get a train. Ive literally got back from a holiday using trains in Europe and they are really good and very cheap compared to here anyway.

Further afield like Lanzarote or Cyprus I have more sympathy and agree stuck with no flights.

Of course you can get trains back from Europe - not heard of the Eurostar or ferries?

You have to accept now that if you fly you run the risk of being abandoned and stuck so you need the funds and resources to buy alternative way home and fund accommodation. You may be able to claim it back but you may not. Happened the last two times out of three when I have flown flight cancelled at the gate in one case late at night plane landed at different airport 3 hours away. In both cases airline no where to be seen. No way would I fly now with young children or elderly unless it was absolutely necessary - certainly not for a holiday. I would want to be somewhere I could always get home from by car/train like South of France/Italy/Germany etc.

The problem with this is that
a) Eurostar carries limited numbers of passengers
b) not many cross-Channel ferries permit foot passengers
c) public transport links to ferry ports which foot passengers can use (such as those served by Brittany Ferries) are rarely good.

Portugal sounds pretty bad

My flight home was cancelled on Monday. Within minutes of the cancellation I was on Eurostar website and there weren't any tickets left until Thursday and they were £300+ each. Not everyone has enough spare money to cover that sort of thing, plus they were selling fast so people whose flights were cancelled later would have probably struggled to get tickets until Friday or the weekend.

yep, I have an employee who is stranded until Saturday. I have checked, he is genuinely stranded, with wife and two small children. The only bookable route back (overland) is £3k and over 24 hours travelling. He's had to book himself an air bnb which has cost around £800 and will have to wait...

Sadly eventually only those with the resources to buy their way out of it will be able to fly. We got stuck at a Swiss airport earlier in the year had to fund and find hotel / dinner / taxi / new flight/train from airport flight got in at as was not to airport we planned to go back to. Claimed these expenses back eventually but took a while

We flew back from Faro today. Our flight was on time and the airport was very calm with everything running smoothly, we were very lucky. The pilot acknowledged the chaos yesterday and said we had some on our flight who were meant to have flown yesterday - they’re fitting people on where they can.

Transvaginal ultrasound. Not likely!

I got stranded abroad and all flights out of the entire country back to the UK, not just the airport I was originally flying from, were booked up for at least a week. I have had to do a very convoluted route via a third country but even getting on those flights was dicey because they filled up so fast.

I was supposed to leave Malaga on a ~3ish hr flight on Tuesday morning to Liverpool. I would have been able to get the €3 train from my friend's apartment (flying for a wedding before I get jumped on!) and been home by early afternoon even with a £2 bus home. Instead the taxi is picking me up at 330 tomorrow morning for an internal flight to Barcelona and then onto Newcastle before the train back down to Liverpool. I've chucked it on a credit card and hoping for the best because it was that or get home to my 3yr old a week late on top of a week's unpaid leave. I cannot properly explain just how stranded people have been left. I've only been able to get these flights because my friend speaks Spanish and knows an agent, we spent 4 hours looking before spending 2 hours with him. Everything flying from the south coast this week was already full!

It was worse on the Somme
in the real world it is a minor inconvenience

Apologies @Richmondgal I didn't realise this was a race to the bottom. I quite agree it was worse at the Somme but I wouldn't call 2 days unpaid leave and ~£900 to get home a 'minor inconvenience.' That is for 1 person, imagine a family of 4 in this situation.

"It was worse on the Somme."

😂 Possibly the most cretinous contribution I've heard in a long time.

Yes which are all probably full of other people and some who got stuck

I heard it's Putin doing IT hacking peak time UK flights, I know if sounds silly but I think plausible.