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

We were due to fly home from Thailand when the airport was taken over by political protestors. We were delayed by a full week, eventually at very short notice we had a police escort to a military airport. It was absolute chaos as the airport was, obviously, not geared up for commercial flights, all passengers desperately wanting to get on a flight so everyone pushing and shoving.
We didn't go abroad for ten years after that and when we did we sailed out of Southampton on a cruise ship!

I was 'stuck' in Zagreb when bombs were falling (12 killed, 50 or more injured in the city centre one day, about 200 metres from my hotel) and couldn't leave as the airport was closed.

cross post!

Ummm... Austria and Germany are two different countries...

Flying on holiday out of Dublin... Our plane was supposed to leave at 8 pm, but got delayed. At least the airline was honest and said there was no way they would get us in the air for five hours or so, so people who lived close to the airport actually went home for a few hours. The rest of us got food vouchers. We finally got on the plane around 4 am. A good eight hours delay with a two-year old... It was interesting.

Another time I was flying from a northern US airport to Canada on one of those turboprop planes, ten passengers max. Waiting at the gate and saw the plane land, passengers got off, pilot got off... Now mind, there were maybe half a dozen passengers sitting at the gate but no ground crew whatsoever. Pilot stuck his head round the door to ask if we'd seen anyone from the airline or some maintenance people because he needed a wrench and a screwdriver. Those of the passengers who had never flown that route before, me included, looked a bit worried. The veterans just shrugged and one even offered to go and look for some staff. Somehow a ground crew member was found, tools were produced, and we settled down to watch through the window how the pilot and copilot worked on the door of the plane. We were delayed two hours or so, during which time a certain fatalistic camaraderie developed among us passengers. Once we were in the air, all the Canadians kept telling me - a first-time visitor - about ice storms and blizzards and guessing the probability that we would get one or the other in the next few days (it was early November). It was a fun flight! (And I'm not being sarcastic - it really was).

We were once in, I think, Kos and at the end of the holiday we were taken to the airport, the rep pointed to a queue of people and said,That's the Manchester flight, and left. After about 15 minutes another woman and I were talking and as the queue wasn't moving thought the timings were wrong. Being bossy teachers we then checked the rest of the q and found it was for a much later flight, our flight had finished loading and the desks were closed. We managed to get someone to take our bags and we made the flight by the skin of our teeth.

We got stuck in Dubrovnik once due to our plane being struck by lightning on the way over and no one being available to do the mandatory maintenance checks. We were with Monarch and they lied continually for about 10 hours about when the plane would be ready/getting another plane, before eventually sticking us on a plane to Manchester when our car was in Birmingham. We got to Manchester at about 2 in the morning and had to go by minibus to Birmingham. During the airport wait they gave us one manky sandwich and a carton of juice. We had to book into an airport hotel at Birmingham as neither of us was fit to drive the hour home. Never got a penny of compensation as it was 'an act of God'.

I have terrible luck with flights. So terrible that over the past 18 months I’ve had over £5k worth of compensation which is more than we spent on the flights! The worst was last October when we were flying to Boston via Shannon. Just when we were about to taxi, the plane developed a minor mechanical problem. The problem was fixed in about ten minutes but we then had to sit for two hours before Edinburgh Airport found another takeoff slot for us. Missed the connecting flight by about ten minutes and had to spend 24 hours in the airport hotel.

I suppose at least we got a hotel room and were fed but it was my first trip back “home” in about a decade to see friends/family and to have our four days cut down to three was painful.

Ffs there’s so right pissy people on this thread.

Yes My personal hell on earth. Screaming over tired frightened children being comforted by exhausted worried parents. No news no information at all and a feeling of being abandoned (my personal worst fear is being lost and helpless)

@maldives2006 yes blitz spirit. Those of us that weren’t falling asleep were walking children round and round to try and get them to fall asleep and give parents a break. Some people were claustrophobic and having panic attacks and strangers were sitting with them and supporting them. Those with food and water were sharing with people who had nothing. It was what I imagine being in the blitz to have been; people supporting each other get through the best of a bad situation. Mind you with your nasty confrontational attitude I doubt you experienced any of that.

Was going on honeymoon from Paris as DH French to French Carribean. Turned up at airport to be told flight delayed, went on until they decided no flight that day due to pilot strike so sent us to Hotel Ibis Orly Airport, perfect for first night of honeymoon. 😂

At 4am they woke us all up, did get a quick breakfast then back to airport. But still no pilots and people seriously hacked off by delay and being woken at 4am. About lunchtime plane and pilot appeared. Got on plane and they pulled a massive screen for a TV about 3 inches from my eyes down - I was shattered and went into a rant at this point about how French were always on strike, how their politicians were too weak to stand up to them, that pilots aren't badly paid, that I was hacked off a giant screen was in front of me then I realised everyone else on plane was French.

Thankfully other passengers just said they agreed with me, they moved our seats and gave us a bottle of champagne. Holiday was extended by Kuoni one day for free so sorted.

What happens if you miss a connecting flight? What do you do?

What happens if you miss a connecting flight? What do you do?

If you are flying with a reputable airline the airline will sort out accommodation and new flights, even if the connecting flight is with another airline. This has happened to us twice now.

You are stuffed if you are flying with Ryanair or Easyjet though.

What happened at Manchester airport last night RedToothBrush ?

There was a power cut and the fuel pump broke meaning they couldn't fuel any planes there.

Cue cancellations and chaos whilst they tried to fix it.

I believe the problem started about 2pm and they didn't get it fixed until 3am.

Thank you TapasForTwo !

We got stranded in hot airport a couple of years ago. "Bad weather" they said. Except it was clear blue skies and other flights from that region were coming and going quite happily. Stressed, hungry, anxious, sweaty thirsty daughter aged 4, for 3 hours. Asked for compensation and it turns out it was strike action. Which is not compensated for. It was the lying that made me so cross, though, I won't fly with BA again.

I was stuck overnight in Frankfurt once, flying back from Austria with my parents. We landed in the evening, so first I had to hare all over the airport to find a Lufthansa counter to issue our hotel voucher and rebook our connection for the next day, and then down to baggage to get our cases back. Had a ciggie and chat with the baggage handler who was very friendly and kept me informed of when our bags would be coming up on the carousel. Meanwhile my mother was having a complete tizwoz about the whole thing and calling me on my mobile to rant every two minutes like it was my fault. Talk about making an annoying situation worse.

I had another delay in the airport of a small former Soviet republic, the announcement was that the flight was delayed due to bad weather, but I could see that the weather was clear and every other flight had gone except ours. Managed to espy and collar the very good looking pilots, who told me the plane was faulty and was being repaired. I went and sat in the bar with everyone else who was waiting and ended up getting absolutely smashed with a customs official. Arriving in Moscow with a hangover from hell is an experience I don’t want to repeat.

@1tisILeClerc

I was 'stuck' in Zagreb when bombs were falling (12 killed, 50 or more injured in the city centre one day, about 200 metres from my hotel) and couldn't leave as the airport was closed.

Yep - this puts the other stories into perspective 😮

Dh got stuck the wrong side of the Atlantic back when that Icelandic volcano erupted. 6 kids in DD's class had dad's stuck in the USA by chance. BA looked after him brilliantly, hotel and 3 meals a day but those travelling with US airlines had real problems (ultimately they were all on business so didn't cost anything but you often pay up front and claim money back of course, or from insurance).

Gosh, where are you that February has 30 and 31 days!!!

The following day was chaos at the airport - because there were gates for the 23:00 from the 31 Feb to London, and flights for the 30 Feb to London an hour earlier (with a 23 hr delay).

If all these people were booked on flights on 30th and 31st February, that could explain their problems.

@Lovethetimeyouhave doesn't help your current plight, but don't forget to claim your European flight compensation.

I love that two posters were caught up in the same protest in Thailand!

we were stuck in Lanzarote when the ash cloud hit. We were fine as we'd bought a package so ended up with a free week long holiday extension (and an upgrade to half board!) - people who'd booked flights and accommodation separately were stuffed as they then had to pay the standard room rate for 7 extra days.....

Flying visit back home to Ireland for a family funeral - in one day and out the next.

Checked in to come home, waiting at the departure gates only to be told that there was a problem with the runway lights and our incoming flight had diverted to another airport two hours away so our flight home to Stansted was cancelled.

Because it was cancelled rather than delayed, we got no help with food, drink, transport, accommodation etc etc, Ryanair basically just left us to it...and because all flights into Knock were cancelled for the rest of the day, the staff in the coffee shop closed and went home

Thankfully being Irish we had a million relatives delighted to ship us from one end of the country to the other where we got a plane to Gatwick, then had to get across to Stansted where DPs car car was, and then another hour home.

I had to fly from Stansted to Hamburg once. However, my flight collided with those of various head of state arriving for the G20 summit in Hamburg. Thus there was one delay after another; in the end, the flight was delayed by over 2 hours.

However, I still had to take the train to a city which is over 100km away and then public transport to the suburbs. I thought I might catch the last train. But I had forgotten that I had to go through passport control since Britain is not a Schengen state. I thus missed the last train by 10 minutes.

I figured that I might catch a long-distance bus and went to the bus terminal outside Hamburg Central Station. Instead of a long-distance bus, there was a police bus and numerous police cars. I was informed that due to the anticipated mayhem and chaos, the bus terminal had been moved into a suburb for the duration of the summit.

So I had to go there and couldn’t take the first bus that went to my city because I had already booked a ticket for a later bus and was obliged to take the later one. It was by then after midnight but there were quite a few people stranded including some that had to go to the same city. We arrived there at about 3am and I then shared a cab with one of the stranded people because he had to go to the same area and public transport didn’t start for another hour.

I will never fly to or from an airport in a city that is hosting a summit at the time of my arrival or departure ever again!