My long haul experiences have generally been fine. You can get a bit bored/cabin fever-y, but just take it an hour at a time and think about the fact you’ll be on holiday soon, or if returning…you’ll be home soon.
I have 2 flights with bad delays, both coming home. One from Newark near NYC, and one from Toronto. Newark was delayed 22 hours!! We sat on the flight for 3 hours before the pilot said the fault couldn’t be fixed and we’d have to get off. They couldn’t reschedule another flight until almost midnight the next day, so we were put up in a hotel that night and all of the next day. It was Virgin so they looked after us pretty well, we got lots of airmiles as compensation and about $50 of food vouchers…but as our flight was so late the next day most places were closed in the airport! I ended up spending about $30 in Subway just because…the cashier was really enjoying helping me pick out cookies and things at 22.30!!
Toronto was a 12 hour delay, the plane just…didn’t turn up. Should’ve guessed something was amiss when I saw the pilot walking the wrong way with his little wheely bag. This was 8pm and they chartered another flight for 8am. It took ages sorting hotels/vouchers for everyone though and then there was a huge queue for the hotel shuttle, so I didn’t get to the hotel until about 22.00. Virgin were much more organised, this was Air Canada and a bit of a shambles. I was starving but the hotel restaurant had closed when I checked in, so the staff said to call room service but they were hugely busy with my fellow passengers doing the same thing, and said they couldn’t bring me anything until midnight. I had to be back at the airport for 6am, so chose sleep over dinner and kept myself going with the reese’s pieces I’d bought people as gifts. Ooops.
It’s a bit of a running joke in my friendship circle as everytime I go to America/North America this happens! What are the odds…