Stranded in Germany!

[Lovethetimeyouhave]

Well, first time to Austria and we ended up with the connecting flight back into London being cancelled due to thunderstorms. Thousands of people were stranded, we spent hours in the queue to be rebooked and given a hotel room, we then spent hours waiting for the shuttle bus to the hotel as people swarmed them as soon as they arrived, then spent ages in another queue to be booked into the hotel room. I know it's not an aibu, but would love to hear others stories of airport failures as I have to wait until 3pm to go home. My friend has my little boy and I miss him terribly

I've spent three hours on the plane on the runway in Iceland because of a hurricane. And a further ten hours I the airport waiting to get out again.

A flight to Denver via Chicago took 30 hours. It was just after the shoe bomber so security was (obviously) bonkers, then got stuck in the tarmac at Chicago as the weather was so cold they couldn't get the de-icers out. I was delirious by the the time we got there.

Not actually an issue because I got on the flight but was travelling back from Kenya on stand by. Sat on my own in my early 20s until midnight before I got on. I was pretty nervous.
Very glad I got on. The plane took off at 12:30 in the morning of 11th Sept 2001. It was the last flight from Kenya for nearly a month.

Many years ago, my flight couldn't land in Healthrow because it was too foggy, so we were diverted to Frankfurt, stayed in the airport for a while then back to Healthrow some hours later.

I wasn't that bothered. My mother was though! I was only 10 years old at the time and flying solo home from visiting my best friend, who'd moved to the US. This was before the days of mobile phones, so she just had to wait in Heathrow until her 10 year old reappeared, hoping I was OK.

I was grand! They did nice pastries in Frankfurt airport, I remember :)

We had a week in Crete one year, last flight home at the end. Crowded into a small gate & flying with EJ, with a glass panel to the next room, Ryanair flight to LGW due to leave just before us. Weather was horrible - really windy. None of us going anywhere; several times staff arrived to start boarding, a message came through and it all stopped. Upshot was that after about 4 hours at the gate, the staff came through & said we couldn't go anywhere as our plane had tried to land several times but couldn't so had stopped at a neighbouring island. EJ said they put us all up & collect us next morning at 8am for an 11am flight. Aa we all filed out, we could see the Ryanair passengers left locked in at their gate. We were taken to a lovely 5* airport, given late night sandwiches and breakfast then coached back to the airport.
Yes the other passengers were still there next morning - all night in a deserted airport, not even vending machines available there.
Thre is no way that I would ever go on Ryanair!

A few years ago, we were on a flight to China. and about half an hour before landing the (BA) pilot announced that most of our luggage had not been loaded. This was because they thought we'd rather arrive on time. After we landed, about 150 people (half the plane) then queued up at the chinese lost luggage counter to report what their luggage looked like. Just what we wanted after an 11 hour flight. No-one from BA helped of course.

Have you ever tried to buy UK sized clothes in China? We cleaned out the hotel 's Tshirts. I was fortunate in that I always have a change of clothes in my hand luggage. Most people didn't. Of the 104 people on our 3 tours - 8 had their luggage. None of the couriers did. To make matters worse, one couple (who had their bags) complained that the constant moaning about lost luggage was spoiling their holiday!!

The bags finally arrived on the 4th day - just as we were leaving to catch a flight to Xian. This was only because the travel company's head office put pressure on BA to make it happen.

When we complained to BA on our return, they told us to claim for the extra clothes etc we had to buy on our travel insurance!!

Ah that's a shame. They have a botanical garden. I'd still take a stroll for an hour but I can understand your anxiety. Hope the flight home is okay.

@stickywhitelovepiss no not to Egypt. Was about 20 years ago now. My first grown up holiday.

@1tisILeclerc Someone got out of bed the wrong side this morning. Have a and I hope your day gets better

Remembered another one coming back from Germany after a work trip. It was so cold that by the time they had de-iced one wing the other had refrozen. We were sat on that plane at least 2 hours, last flight home of the evening and I was desperate for us just to take off. We did in the end but watching that little truck go round and round the plane was amusing.

You get over yourself 1tisILeClerc. People can be annoyed about any number of things. No one made you arbiter of what can or can not be discussed on Mumsnet. If you don’t like it, then you’re welcome to leave. Don’t let the door hit your arse on the way out.

My sympathies OP. And anyone else stranded due to the chaos at Manchester Airport last night.

Last night DH was flying back from Spain and got caught up in the problems. He'd flown out with one airline, and the return flight with them had been cancelled so I panicked. Fortunately DH hadn't booked the return with the carrier and instead was scheduled to fly back with another airline.

The Plane Gods were smiling on him. His was one of the very few to get into Manchester Airport last night. He said it was complete chaos there when he left at after 1am.

We could hear the flights coming and into the airport after 2am which is highly unusual. I believe there were flights in all night. Some people were taken to Liverpool airport for their flights. Others ended up going to a different destination to the one they were supposed to be flying to because the airport they were going to was closed overnight. There's plenty of stories today....

I've sat on the tarmac waiting to fly before now. Its a dreadful experience. The airline staff are as in the dark as you are, but passengers slowly get angry and the atmosphere tense. There's not enough food on the plane and you can't get off. Having a very young child to deal with, whilst being exhausted yourself is hell. And then not knowing what will happen if you do fly because your hotel check in shuts at 1am. Flight delays are a special kind of misery.

I really feel for everyone in this situation this morning. I've heard that some people have been told the next flight home isn't until Wednesday - that would have been DH if he'd been on the other airline. And they won't get compensation from the airline as its one of those rare 'exceptional circumstances' where the 4hr rule doesn't apply.

I hope you get home quickly OP.

Quite a few years ago my family and I were on a coach being taken to the airport at hurghada for our return flight home. I received a phone call from my mum in England who was checking my return flight who had found that the outward leg for that plane had been diverted to Italy due to a bomb threat.
Got to the airport and no one knew what was happening. Left hang for serveral hours without any info. Lucky for us another passenger managed to get more information from his personal contacts back at Gatwick. Our plane was grounded in Italy and we had already gone through into departures. Egyptian authorities had already “checked us out the country” and so were loath to let us back through to be taken to a hotel. After much arguement and a lot of phone calls back to the uk it was confirmed our delay would be at least 24 hours and we were duels herded together, shuffled back through immigration and put on buses to the intercontinental hotel in hurghdada.
A man was stationed at the door with a big bag of room keys giving out a key to each party arriving and a voucher for meals.
No one looked at the size of the party for the room allocation so you had us a family of 4 given a room with 2 beds and others a party of 2 getting a suite with a couple of rooms and their own pool. The whole thing was a mess but at least we got fed and had somewhere to put the kids to sleep.
Did eventually get home about 36 hours later.

We were stuck in europe with no flights anywhere for about a week i think. It was that icelandic volcano eruption years ago. Trains were fully booked,people were taking taxis or coaches to france to get on ferries... it was mad!!

We booked into a hotel for a few days and claimed most of it back on insurance😆

thank you 1tisILeClerc for your useful contribution

Air Canada - plane cancelled because of bad weather. No hotel room offered as their T and Cs exclude bad weather, no way to get to a hotel independently as no taxis were running from the airport due to bad weather. Hundreds of people sleeping in the airport and waiting for another flight at least 24 hours later.

I was in Ibiza when 9/11 happened. We were told on our return journey once we had arrived at the airport no hand luggage at all and back then you could take loads. We had to throw away And condense loads of our stuff whilst at the airport. We were kept in there for 24 hours not allowed to leave and out of the 8 of us there was only me with any cash left. I'm a nervous flyer and that trip was awful I'd spent so long rewatching it on tv and reading transcripts in the papers.

Our late night flight to Porto, Portugal got diverted to Santiago de compostela, Spain last summer. We (me, dd aged 3, my elderly dm) were herded off the plane into the closed airport in Santiago to await further instructions- no phone charging ability, drinks/food outlets open, even the vending machines were out of order! After 2 hours we were all put on 2 coaches to Porto which took about 4.5 hours. We arrived at our hotel in Porto at about 7am and the entire first day was a write off as none of us had slept (plus we had paid for a hotel night we couldnt get refunded!)
No compensation or anything to speak of from airline.

Years ago I also got stuck in Frankfurt for 2 days coming back from Dubai, due to the ash cloud erupting.

So been there, feel your pain x

Miaww.

Sexy kitten 2005 “blitz spirit” were you trapped in an airport terminal with planes dropping bombs all around you.

Unless you’re old enough to have actually lived through the blitz please don’t compare it to being locked in an airport terminal.

Aww, what’s wrong 1tisILeClerc? Did someone step on your tail?

We had a 12 hour delay when coming back from Cuba, the shops ran out of food & drink.

We were in the US when 9/11 happened no one new when flights would restart it was actually handled well we went to the airport then we're shuttled to a much nicer than our original hotel and fed. Only issue was we were on a tight budget and it was pre-credit cards (for us anyway) so we were down to our last bit of money. We just tried to enjoy the extra days we had as the people affected by 9/11 hadn't had that opportunity.

There isn't a lot to see in Frankfurt but you can at least grab yourself some nice food. German bread and pastries are superb. I'm doing low carbing and I'd love a cheesy pretzel right now! Lots of chocolate gifts at the airport for your son.

What happened at Manchester airport last night RedToothBrush ?

This is probably outing as well, but we had problems flying home from holiday at the weekend. The reason - a bumble bee. Story here

Fortunately we weren't flying with a budget airline, and the way that Tui handled the situation was brilliant.

The captain came into the boarding gate area and told us that he had run out of flying hours. Tui had already provided meal vouchers earlier on in the evening, but handed out some more. They then bussed all the passengers to hotels for the night, and gave us flight details for the next morning.

Yes, there was a bit of waiting around (7 hours in total from first checking in), but it must have been a logistical nightmare to try and find hotels with enough rooms for 130 passengers at 11pm. I felt that Tui couldn't have handled the situation any better (no I don't work for them )

We then had a medical emergency on the flight, but again it was handled brilliantly. By the time we landed the passenger who needed help was feeling much better.

This is one of the reasons we don't fly with budget airlines. This is the third time that something has gone wrong with a flight for us, and each time we have been well looked after. The previous incidents were with BA and Cathay Pacific.

"Blitz spirit" is a perfectly acceptable way to describe stoicism in the face of a difficult situation. I think being locked in to an airport terminal with no food or water and no way of getting out counts as a "difficult situation".

Why are there so many arsey people on this thread?

Not that bad but kids and I got stuck at Edinburgh last year. Evening flights cancelled at late notice. Managed to get a hotel but they wouldn't give us replacement flights until two days later. Had to get the train in the end as I had to work on the second day. Bastards wouldn't refund the train!

They had locked us in as well. I will be a security issue. You can't have random passengers wandering a around an airport when most of the staff, including security staff have gone home.

I think Tui must have organised for one of the cafes and pizza hut to stay open for us, as everything else had closed.

We were due to fly back from Koh Samui to Bangkok for our return flight to the UK in 2008 when protesters occupied Suvarnabhumi airport so nobody could get in or out. We optimistically got a boat (horrendous- everyone was seasick) to the mainland and then an overnight bus to Bangkok thinking it would all blow over quickly, but no, the protest went on for 8 days and we were stuck for another 2 days before we got a space on a flight home. We didn't really mind, because the Thai government paid for our hotel and once we'd got a local mobile so the airline could call us if the airport reopened, we had time to do some sightseeing in and around Bangkok. There are worse places to be stranded. :)