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?

I know you said you have an irrational fear of boats but perhaps you could find a way to treat this and get yourself on a cruise? I’ve seen some fantastic ones advertised for next year for families around the Med.
I do think that you might be better having a year off from flying and then maybe seek therapy to move on from the trauma.
I don’t know why you’re getting ridiculous snarky comments from people on here. I would be out of my mind if this happened to me while flying with my kids. Like you, I’ve travelled solo all over when I was younger. I had a terrible flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur which sounds very much like yours but I could put my headphones on and try to zone out. With kids, you’ve got to stay present for them and see their terror.
You absolutely have my sympathy.

Sleeper train to south of france/ spain or even italy.

Whole new adventure - and a halo every time you describe it.

I think ‘exotic’ holidays for kids can be a bit crass anyway. A lot of charm in an annual pilgrimage to a warm european country, where you are tuned into the language and culture, and eventually are comfortable to let the kids out independently.

Mainly because we've done most of the UK holiday destinations, the weather is generally rubbish and customer service is shocking!

Seriously? 🙄

We no longer go abroad and we’ve had wonderful holidays in the UK not only in hotels and guest houses but self catering and B&Bs too.
Ok, the weather could be better sometimes but we love exploring less visited areas, I’d love to do Ireland next.

With your attitude towards customer service perhaps it’s just as well you don’t holiday here!

I find airports spoil holidays for me anyway. If all you want to do is 'fly and flop' then I wouldn't be worrying about restricting your son's horizons. I know it gets mocked on here, but the most relaxing holidays I've ever had were at Center Parcs.

You drive there, and then no cars for the week. Lots of activities for the kids -my son loved it. And you have guaranteed warmth in the pool area - we would spend literal days there just sitting reading with the occasional swim. Pure relaxation.

They are all in beautiful countryside, and the activities help children have an appreciation of the world around them. You'll probably spend the same as going abroad - maybe more in school holidays. But no stress made it worth it for me.

Again, she was crying because she got injured and the Pilot said the turbulence wasn't expected. Even on take off he said the weather was good.and everything was clear and calm. It wasn't me thinking it, I saw it, as did other passengers.

And I don't think anyone has said that Maderia is a Canary Island? The conversation began to include places with known bad landings.

Someone recently DIED on a plane due to turbulence! Why is this so funny to either of you?!? Cabin crew are people with families too. Why can't they cry if they think the plane will crash or they are injured?!?

@YellowphantGrey you could take a year from flying - we’ve driven to the south of France a lot, two days driving ( we are in the north) 39/40 degrees end of July through to mid August. Weather gets stormy mid August onwards and is still hot , but you get a good storm every 4/5 days.
we use the channel tunnel, which is easy and take 30mins to get across and you drive ont be train, stay in your car and drive off.
this will give you a bit of a breather from flying, sounds scary and would shake anyone up!
you could rent a property with a pool, do a eurocamp, air B&B , lots of possibilities

There's no particular need to go to the canaries. We've done all but one several times. It just happened that the two flights were from the Canary Islands.

People are being ridiculous. For all you know the cabin crew may have broken something, but either way she sounds like she hurt something. Cabin crew might be trained but they aren’t robots.

OP it sounds really awful and I know it would put me off flying for a while. We had some medium turbulence flying into a US airport during a storm, DD was crying, and thankfully it wasn’t that bad. No-one was hurt. In the end we diverted to another airport and waited there half an hour then went back as storm was over. I think I’d be taking a year off minimum, and then see how you feel about it in a couple of years. France / inter-railing sounds fun

It sounds awful, and I don't blame you for avoiding, but the best thing you can do is get back on a plane as soon as possible. Maybe do the easyJet fear of flying course?

Again, Columbo, I edited a post in response to it. Why don't you go back and read it, amend your case file and try again?

Whilst searching for further evidence to try and trip me up, as someone else pointed out, troll hunting is allowed so report my thread if you think I'm on some bizarre wind up.

My heart bleeds for you
Firstly, how lucky you are to afford holidays abroad. Now because of turbulence, a risk of flying, you are cutting off that means of transport, yet managing to imply that a UK holiday is akin to acweek in a gulag
How will your son's life be affected unless you transfer this type of extreme reaction to an event, on to him

Learn to ski. The air is less turbulent in the winter.

I can no longer ski due to having metal in my back but as soon as summer pisses off, I get the itch to book up so bad, it's like a disease.

Fazed

I absolutely hate flying, I will do it if I have to but would rather not - my last three reasons for flying were Lapland and two work trips rather than summer hols. We tried a cruise this summer and absolutely loved it! We had a super chilled week. We had an extra sea day due to bad weather preventing us from docking in the final port but honestly the small amount of movement was nothing like horrid turbulence on a plane (felt like movement on a train). I get that cruising isn’t for everyone but we’ve been converted.

Lots of different ways to get abroad if you're bothered. But it's very unlikely to happen again.

I've explained this on one of my amended posts. I've even given a rough breakdown of the amount of flights I've taken as one rather persistent poster insisted there's no way I've flown that much in my life because of school and work annual leave, despite me saying that I spent four years flying for work, probably almost half give or take were night flights and we often have early evening into night flights as we like a full last day at places. American return flights were night too, depending on route taken.

Cabin crew were as helpful as they could be as they were told to get back to their seats and this was when she was injured. None of them looked thrilled.

As I said, everything that happened made it unbearable and put us all off flying from other passengers screaming when the plane dropped, the "woah" and "oh my God noises" you could hear people taking big gasps etc!

The reason the night flight issue was raised because someone pointed out I was lying about the lights because the plane inside was completely unlit other than the emergency floor strip lights and they were insistent that this is typical on one night flight but any of the night flights I've done, you've had the "mood lighting and the little reading light above your head, all of this was off.

She also claimed that I lied about the safety landing message being replayed and the pilot asking everyone to reread the emergency landing card as started to descend.

Was it perhaps the location? The Canaries are quite exposed and I think the weather in that general area can be unpredictable. You could try flying to the Mediterranean or towards Asia and see if it's any better.

Take the train or drive to the South of France next year, and then the following year get back on the horse so you don't have a whole family fear of flying.

Completely. It sounds like a horrible experience. I'm not at all fond of flying but do it a few times a year for work, and next due next week. Bleugh! Sorry to hear of the experience OP.

Canaries and Madeira are often subject to turbulence I believe. Have you considered a shorter flight in Europe? You can get to south of France in 1.5hrs and it's all overland mostly. I've never had terrible turbulence on those flights and anyway it would be very short lived.
Train as others have suggested or indeed ferry, although the 24 hr ferry to Spain can also be turbulent!
I think just regroup after this awful flight and maybe try something different for a couple of years?

I might have missed it but where were you flying to/from? I've heard there is a spot that has recently been more prone to silent turbulence (when pilot doesn't expect it).

I've also flown a fair bit and not a nervous flyer but it does sound awful.

Holidays in UK can be lovely, but the weather is a gamble. Have you tried Isle of wight? I just had a week at South Coast and weather was gorgeous.

A poster did say Madeira was in the canaries.

I've flown to the canaries many times with no issues. I'm crossing Madeira off my list of places to visit now though 😂

Sounds awful OP.

The increase in air turbulence due to changing weather systems is reported everywhere, and is likely to increase
Skies are busier than ever as more flights crowd the airways, so options to re-route or change altitude limited during a flight.
I have flown a lot in my life, perhaps 250 flights, have had one or two scary frights, but overall I am now more of a nervous passenger than I have ever been.
My DD went through an anxious period after a scary flight when she was 13, but we kept flying, and she is now OK.

I know there are other holiday options that don't involve flying, but if you seek guaranteed warm sunny weather flying abroad is usually the most reliable and cheapest option.
I live in Scotland, temperatures are much lower than other parts of the UK, and it rains more.
Travelling to the south of England is expensive, takes longer than getting to Spain or Greece, and more expensive, further afield to Europe on foot and train or car means days of driving or carrying heavy bags.
We do get some warm weather in scotland- but the chances of that lining up with annual leave booked in advance are low.
So despite my flying anxiety I will continue- so I can give my knees an airing.

I get it, OP. I am an experienced flyer too, but like it less and less as I get older. Earlier this year there was a news story about an incidence of turbulence in which several people had broken bones and head injuries, and a man died. So it does happen, and is likely to happen more frequently in the future. I'd have been very shaken by your experience. Fortunately for me, I don't need to fly much any more. I live in a remote part of Scotland, so long car trips to England and Wales give us enough of a change (and it's much warmer in the South of England). We haven't tried driving to France yet, but probably will as the kids get older.

I think you were crazy to cancel it yesterday when still feeling shaken up.

It's a bit like saying just after childbirth that you would never do that again.

I hate flying (and childbirth) but do both for the benefits.

2 weeks in the wet UK and a years forgotten turbulence and you will be racing to book a flight.

Inter railing is great, but it is not the relaxing fly and flop that you need.