Confessions of a travelaholic – Will I ever get there?

 

The busiest airport in Germany

Flying last year after the new laws came in about wait times due to airlines. I have been stuck in Germany twice and still had no compensation. The first time I travelled without insurance. It was going to be a simple connection to Italy in Frankfurt. But alas my plane was late and the whole flight was so cheap because the connection was very short. There were signal issues in CDG (what a surprise.) and it meant that the flight was over an hour late. So, it landed when I got to Frankfurt which was about 2pm in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Obviously, I missed my connection so I went the service desk. Not naming the airline but let’s call them crappythansa. I got told there were no other flights to Italy that day?

At 2pm in Germany’s biggest airport. I had to spend a night in a hotel which took forever to get to. Tried my connections in the area but no one was around. Spent the night watching Netflix. In the morning I had to be up super early to fly to Dusseldorf, yup back the way I came to get a connecting flight. Problem it was with euro wings and I couldn’t get to the right terminal without a boarding pass. Euro wings didn’t fly from Frankfurt and the Munich flight had been delayed. So, I nearly missed this connection getting my boarding card. Safe to say I had a headache by the time I got to Florence as I had to use three languages in the one day but somehow, I got the message through! Don’t cut your connections too fine no matter what the price.

So, the second time I got stuck in Germany.
This may be more of a horror story. So, I went to Munich to go and see my German friend. She stays in student accommodation in the city so is perfect to visit and go to Oktoberfest. The city swells when the festival is on. We went on the last day and I flew back the next day. The flight was the second last one to leave the airport. But it was in a tiny section. I love Munich airport, its one of the best I’ve been to but this area was in the smaller terminal and quite inadequate. Of course, this was the cheap flight so all the stag dos were flying home. They were drinking before they got to the airport and at the airport. This flight was three hours late! So, imagine how pissed they were but I have to admit they were really friendly.

We finally get a flight announced and everyone goes to the gate. The plane empty’s and we wait and wait. Then there is an announcement that the flight crew are over worked and the flight has been delayed overnight. So, everyone is shite faced and raging. We get ushered out of the terminal and told to come to the desk for accommodation

assignments. OF course, being Oktoberfest everywhere is booked out. Legally we need to be supplied food, drink, accommodation and power. We got given a £50 food voucher even though everything was shut and no information about when we would fly. A lot of people including young girls travelling solo were left to sleep on the manky floor of the airport with the drunk scots. Who had more alcohol btw?
I rescued a girl and took her back to my friend’s place and we got a notification to get to the airport for 9am. So, paying for all this transport and food. The flight wasn’t on the board! It was delayed yet again with no notification. That’s when I was hungry, tired and snapped. Went to customer service and might have scared the poor girl. But I quoted the law at her and she couldn’t argue but easy jet deal with these things over the phone. So, they got an ear full.

When we got on the flight there was no food available and a text came through saying that we had to buy it before boarding. This was after we had been boarded. Someone told me the flight was cancelled because the ground crew simply parked the plane and went home. So, we were lied too. Then when we finally got to Edinburgh, we had to sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes with the aircon off. Only to be let out to walk to the gate and go home. Everyone filed for compensation, but easy jet got out of it claiming there were drunken passengers who got on the flight too drunk and had to be removed. Which was bullshite because no one actually got on the plane! So, to this day I lost a day of pay, my life and my sanity! Watch out for easy jet.

18 hours wait and then disaster.

So flying from Jackson in Wyoming to New York was very exciting. I went from Salt Lake City to JFK. I could only get one bus and got there 15 hours early and I couldn’t check my bag so somehow managed to just sit at a small table and read magazines for eight hours. I found the gate, got food and was all good. But then I had an ocular migraine. This is when you have auroras in your vision without the headache and they last about an hour. My hand goes numb after. But I was essentially blind with a quarter of my vision and I had to get to the gate. Imagine if you look at someone’s face and only see one eye and the rest is blurry. That was my drama. I walked with one hand on the wall and kept bumping into people as I had no peripheral vision and somehow found the gate. Right as we were about to board my hands went numb. This lasts a few minutes. But I couldn’t hold anything and essentially have to just hand things out to a squiggly person. This was my worst nightmare being on my own. I rarely get them anymore as they were linked to being on the pill but it was pretty dam stressful!