Cancelled next years holiday abroad

[YellowphantGrey]

And feel awful about it.

Trying to convince myself a UK holiday will be ok bur I know it won't.

We've just returned from disaster holiday after two horrific flights. Holiday itself was fine but the flights were absolutely horrific. People in tears, screaming, crying, my kindle screen broken, DH hurt his back, people throwing up, all from 2 hours worth of severe turbulence on a 4 hour flight and Pilot had to speak several times. It was a night flight and all lights went out and emergency floor strip lights came on. He ended up having to fly lower to try and avoid and was prepared to divert when it started becoming clearer.

On the way over, it was an hours worth of turbulence and not as bad but still took some quite big drops, everyone lifted out of their seats on each drop. Couldn't land and had to retry which was successful second time round.

We decided today after we are all bruised and shaken that we don't really want to fly again but I'm also worried my DS will now be restricted in life and we should be forcing ourselves back on a plane.

Any ideas what to do? I don't think any sort of scared of flying course would help as even the cabin crew were crying yesterday! Apparently turbulence is set to become more frequent, common and extreme.

Cruises are a definitive no as well.

I suppose we could train or drive?

The cabin crew were crying???

Sounds awful op. Agree you should give it a miss next year. But if you want the weather you can cruise to the Me storm Southampton - no flying involved. We've done that several times with P&O.

Plus trains of course as pp suggested.

Sounds really scary

This is a totally normal reaction to a pretty scary experience - twice. Flying is a bit of a leap of faith and once that faith is shaken it can be hard to get back.

I think you should let the dust settle a bit and see how you feel in a few months.

Statistically this kind of turbulence is uncommon, you know this having taken many flights. Scary experiences can also happen on the roads (a lot more statistically). Your son needs to be able to fly without fear, it’s a life skill. And you prefer non UK holidays. All of these are rational reasons to return to flying, but in due course once the immediate shock has subsided.

Alternative holiday destinations in the meantime - Southern France is the obvious one, by car or train. Dordogne, Lot, Provence, Alps are all reachable with an overnight stay. Or west coast (La Rochelle/Ile de Re) can be done in a day from London - but the weather isn’t as reliable.

This happens from time to time and when it does it must be terrifying.

I waste far too much time watching Flight Radar 24 and the Canaries/Madeira have has some truly awful storms this summer.

I understand! I hate flying and have not been on a plane for years.

You can still get a holiday in Europe though using the trains: South of France, Amsterdam, Belgium...

Or you could get a ferry and take your car.

So you can still holiday abroad within having to fly.

To all those suggesting cruises: OP is frightened of cruises

I have a fear of boats, no bad experience, I just don't like them. Completely irrational like all fears

@hateflying

”If you wanted to satisfy your curiosity, you may be able to find your flight history on Flightradar24, you can do a playback and can probably see how much the plane fluctuated during the turbulence. ”

Might be worth a look but I’d be wary of that, it was Flight radar that cause all the crap in the MSM about the Singapore flight plunging thousands of feet in turbulence when it didn’t (the “plunge” the press reported was actually a normal descent prior to diverting to Bangkok.).

Most turbulence only gives height excursions of maybe 20 feet or even less, it’s rare to see anything close to even plus/minus 100 feet unless you get into very severe turbulence - the Singapore flight mentioned upthread bounced up and down plus/minus less than 200 feet…that sort of deviation is barely or even not visible at all on the Flightradar playback.

Also on Flightradar normally the data points as sent out to the general public are usually 3 seconds or more apart, you are not getting a continuous stream. As a result the hard brief “jolts” and lurches you get in some turbulence gets lost in the gaps between the data.

I think this is what you need to focus on.
You talk in you OP about how you son is going to be restricted in life, but actually he's happy to get on a plane and at 16 he can do this with friends / alone.
Yourself and your husband can look for a spa type holiday in the UK if you're just looking to relax, or go across Europe and make THAT the adventure.

@YellowphantGrey I would avoid July and August next time you fly. Our weather pattern is changing, turbulence, storms much more severe as we've seen in Europe this summer. Tornadoes in Caribbean earlier too.

Try a break whit week. Family living in Scotland, friends in Cornwall have also had an awful summer as have friends in Brittany So you'd have had a miserable time here.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. Give yourselves time to recover.

@YellowphantGrey you realise that many thousands of children don't get to go on holidays at all, let alone on a plane? No, your ds will not be "restricted in life" if you don't take him on a plane again. What an absolutely ridiculous and entitled thing to say.

It was one. She hurt herself apparently.

How does anyone who wasn't on that flight know whether OP is being dramatic? I've been flying for three decades. Have experienced turbulence but nothing on that level or like the Singapore one dropping 16 stories in 5 seconds. I wouldn't dream of dismissing OP's experience or fears. Her family is battered and bruised.

@YellowphantGrey , stop explaining your history to posters who don't believe you. Just ignore them, they probably enjoy winding you up.

you realise that many thousands of children don't get to go on holidays at all, let alone on a plane? No, your ds will not be "restricted in life" if you don't take him on a plane again. What an absolutely ridiculous and entitled thing to say.

Actually I think not taking him on a plane again purely for reasons of fear, and when his last flight was a scary one, could set up a long term fear of flying, which would indeed restrict him in life. This is entirely different from children who haven’t had the opportunity to fly during childhood but have not developed any fear of it, so there’s nothing stopping them flying later in life.

Yes, we have long standing visitors who came for the peace and quiet now rethinking because of the liner tourism.

My DS knows I'm not keen on planes. It hasn't put him off.

I agree.
Dismissing someone's fear and upset is unkind, and doesn't make it disappear either.

Surreal reply

As it goes, we go by train

Madeira is off the coast of Morocco, and much closer to the Canaries than it is to Portugal.

@YellowphantGrey if you flew from Luton you are presumably within easy reach of the Eurostar, so train would be a great option for you. There's a lot of work going on at the moment to improve the long distance and high speed options, including reintroducing sleeper routes. And some countries have great deals on tourist passes if you want to travel around.

You could easily get to south of France, Spain or Italy, and it's a much nicer way to travel - fewer luggage restrictions, more legroom, you can wander around on the train and see the countryside you're passing through, better food choices etc.

Sorry you all went through that OP, sounds terrifying.. I've read too much about plane crashes and final destination is one of my favourite films. My kids would have been crying.
I do think it's very unprofessional of the cabin crew to be crying, they need to be the face of calm and reassurance.

Ok, but was his last flight one that scared/hurt him? And did you stop flying because of a bad experience?

I do think it's very unprofessional of the cabin crew to be crying, they need to be the face of calm and reassurance.

This is a bit harsh, she’d hurt herself.

They generally look about 12 years old to me. I wouldn't find them reassuring I'm afraid.

The problem (from someone who has travelled stage length and breadth of this country) is that all towns look so similar that you can’t tell one from another.

It is also eye wateringly expensive

The last time I looked even caravans for couple of weeks by the time I had added in all the other expenses worked out more than getting a flight and renting an Airbnb with a private pool and we had guaranteed weather. (I think I must have been working on the days we had Summer this year.)