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?

OP you can do some good holidays via train if you change in Paris you can get to Spain or Italy pretty easily.

The trains in Italy are then pretty quick and can go from Milan down the coast spend a few days around Cinque Terre, Pisa etc.

Ferry options there is the ferry to Spain as well, France, Belgium or Denmark. From Denmark you can drive up to Sweden or Norway.

That's why I asked in my first post for other travelling ideas and experiences outside of the UK.

Instead it turned into some bizarre late night troll hunt with a huge pile on because some posters have very little going on in their lives so need troll others while accusing them of trolling.

Have you evidence that your son is traumatised or are you projecting your own emotions?

I'd imagine many boys of 16 would shrug it off. he also won't be disadvantaged in any way. Many schools do overseas trips (mine did Italy, Greece and France before 6th form) and in a year or so he's old enough to go with friends.

I think the reason you're getting a hard time here is for 3 reasons -

The first is that for an experienced flyer you're letting one bad flight put you off forever.

The second is that you seem to be a bit snooty about UK holidays. That's horses for courses. My idea of hell is flopping in the sun for 2 weeks. I'd be bored stupid. I did the sun/beach hols in my 20s and have got over that now.

I'd rather be somewhere cooler and enjoy beautiful scenery, walking and visiting historic sites.

The third reason is it doesn't take a huge stretch of imagination to consider other means of transport- train, boat, and car. maybe you could catch up on Michael Portillo and his journeys all over Europe by train (albeit some do start with a flight.)

We just had the most wonderful family holiday camping in Brittany at a Yelloh camp. We took the ferry plymouth to roscoff and it was a 2 hour drive from there to the southern coast of Brittany. Obviously the weather isn't as guaranteed as a more southerly destination but in 10 days we had 1.5 days of rain (which was drizzle and spitting as opposed to actual rain) and the rest of the time it was beautiful and sunny.

If you don't like the ferry then eurostar or driving through the channel tunnel might suit you better, I spoke to a couple recently who had an amazing time in centre parks in Belgium (much cheaper/more to do/better weather than uk sites apparently). They took their car on the Eurostar, had a couple of days at Eurodisney and then drove to the site. Obviously your journey is a bit longer if you don't fly but that's where you need to reframe your perspective and make the journey part of the holiday experience I guess. Other than that your option is to emigrate 🤣

@Ghostgirl77

Or consider flying to somewhere like Greece or Turkey where you’re mainly flying over land. …which is where you very often get some big thunderstorms and associated turbulence in summer….

I had a funny flight recently- not as bad as yours- but 7 out of 14 hours was turbulent enough for the seatbelt sign. 7 hours. One block went for nearly 3 straight hours. Half the plane threw up, the flight attendant said to another one they're nearly out of bags!!! It wasn't severe, just moderate, but none stop!

The lights were totally off too- I do think that's just a choice though as it also happened in my other overnight flight. Made it horribly claustrophobic though.

On the other hand, my other 3 flights that trip (totalling 36 hours, and a whole circumference of the world if you add on the first leg) there was barely a bump. The other 14 hour leg- same route, just a few weeks later- the seatbelt sign didn't come on once.

Anyway I would feel the same as you if I had the flights you did. Maybe you'll re-book. Maybe not. Enjoy terra firma in the meantime!

Poor you, op, it sounds a terrifying experience. Made worse by the fact you were also worrying about your son.
Pp have suggested trains which is a good idea.

However for me as an emetophobe, my terror of vomiting passengers would cancel out any fear I would have about turbulence!

Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean they are trolls @YellowphantGrey

You do come over as very aggressive when posters write something with which you disagree.

Trolls are posters who aren't genuine and who drop by MN to cause trouble or create fake posts to grab attention.

How about London - Paris - Nice by train? Or change at Nice to get to Ventimiglia.

Read the thread before you start piling on or go and troll hunt somewhere else.

Your comment isnt unique or funny and has been answered multiple times.

Incase your also hard of reading like many on here, it also isn't posted in aibu of you were using that as a reason to leave a pointless comment.

I'm not surprised @YellowphantGrey is frustrated.

They've had two really rough experiences on flights that are normally no more difficult than a bus or train ride. She says her husband has bruising and his back hurts. Her son seems badly effected emotionally,

And people come on here and more or less accuse her of lying.

I've heard a few times that turbulence on flights is getting worse.

I do know someone that was cabin crew for Virgin for a while. She had one flight that hit some unexpected turbulence in the middle of the dinner service.

One of the crew hit the ceiling and hit the chairs on the way down and ended up breaking some bones in her back and was unable to return to work. Bad turbulence can and does happen - just look at that Singapore flight a few months back.

I don't know why OP is getting so much grief for sharing her experience. If you have something happen to you that, in the moment itself, you fear for your life, of course it's going to tarnish your views on doing it again!

I echo the sentiments of one of the first (sensible) posters who said to let the dust settle from this flight. As time goes by the edge of the fear will subside.

We're in France. Took the overnight ferry to St Malo and spent few hours driving. Very relaxing, we deliberately took longer crossing so we could have meal, go on deck to see the stars etc and cabin very comfortable. Once you’ve factored in flights, airport parking and car hire, very economical too. I’d say driving to the Dordogne with warm weather and beautiful towns is easily doable in a day. Eating out here is reasonable too.

OP this is why you're getting a hard time. Aggressive replies.

People aren't being trolls just to query if cabin crew cried.

I don't think any sort of scared of flying course would help as even the cabin crew were crying yesterday!

You did amend your posts and you can't expect everyone to always read all your posts.

There's no aggression on part, it's just tiresome having to constantly defend and justify what has happened with people outright saying I'm lying and demanding answers then trying again to accuse me of stuff.

Someone even said I shouldn't have posted on aibu if I didn't want these responses, I didn't I posted in holiday chat for holiday ideas and the majority of replies have been troll hunting.

God, I would pay a million dollars to have this kind of perspective!!!!

Meanwhile here's me, looking around at my fellow passengers at departure gate on a smooth slick A380, thinking "these are the people I die with" LOL

Madeira is not off the coast of Portugal! It's closer to Tenerife than it is to Portugal.

It also tends to be very windy and has a short runway, both of which make landing difficult.

Bloody hell. The posters engaging in a Spanish Inquisition are unbelievably irritating.

Ignore them OP. You are wasting your time responding to them.

I believe you because my brain can comprehend that it is entirely possible for someone to have an experience that is highly unusual and at the same time highly unpleasant. So unusual, in fact, that the shock of it might compel them to share their experience. Possibly in an online forum.

The fact that Miss Marples and Agatha Christie have never had a similar experience doesn't mean this experience did not happen, nor does it make them qualified - irrespective if their personal experiences - to declare whether something is true or not.

Especially if the thing they are trying to disprove has the distinguishing characteristic of being very very rare and unusual.

As to whether the poster is lying about the rest of her life....? It has zero bearing on this single experience. It is irrelevant because whether the poster has flown 1000 times or 1 times, her description of what happened is obviously blindingly unusual and horrible.

If you think she is a liar (aka troll) go remind yourselves of the MN rules on troll hunting before you set out to put energy into proving she's a liar. They exist for a reason. Because it kills a thread with utter fucking pointless tediousness.

So you don't think that your replies are aggressive where you accuse everyone who asks something of being, a troll?

You're being very aggressive - read your posts.

You DID say cabin crew cried.

Ok, later you changed that to say it was one of them who'd been hurt.

Understand that not all people read all your posts. They read the first post only.

FWIW I did this exact route a couple weeks ago- not a single bump, a lovely flight :)

Thank you

For many in the country the nearest channel port is just as far if not further than London.

It's really not my fault that people can't be bothered to read half the thread and instead choose to troll hunt rather than any updates.

I'm also worried my DS will now be restricted in life

Because they can't fly abroad on holiday? Seriously?

You could try visiting Reality for your next holiday. It's quite an interesting destination.

Wow that sounds awful 😣. I don’t know why you’ve had such a beating on here. Turbulence is becoming more common and more severe. I’m 43 and flown many, many times but last year we went to Ibiza and honestly it was one of the roughest flights and landings I’ve ever had! People screaming etc. Really awful. And I’m one of those people who absolutely loves flying!