Journey from Hell
On Monday I travelled from Ilford to Galway.
My intended journey was:
0639 Ilford - London Liverpool St (One Railway)
0704 London Liverpool St - Farringdon (Metropolitan Line)
0716 Farringdon - Luton Airport Parkway (First Capital Connect)
Shuttle bus to Luton Airport
0930 Luton Airport - Galway Airport (arrival at 1130).
What actually happened?
0639 Ilford - Liverpool St - cancelled
0649 Ilford - Liverpool St - late-running due to passenger overcrowding.
... eventually got to Farringdon and onto a First Capital Connect service. Destination advertised was St Albans - decided to proceed and change at Kings Cross. Hopped off at Kings Cross, it departed just as I noted that it was in fact going to Luton Airport. GRRRR.
Eventually got the next Luton Airport services, and ended up legging it accross the Luton Airport departure building to the check in desk, with 45 mins to go before the flight was due to take off.
Check in desk was still open. When I checked in I was told to hold onto my checked in baggage as the flight had been diverted to Stansted due to fog at Luton and there would be a bus in 10 minutes to take us there.
An hour later I was still at Luton Airport eating breakfast. Shortly after 10am the bus did arrive at a now fog-free Luton and we got on and headed for Stansted.
Checking in at Stansted about the time we should have landed in Galway (and they were as clueless at that airport as they were at Luton - thank you to the Ryanair Duty Manager who recognised a friend on our (non-Ryanair) flight and sorted out Servisair, who then opened as desk and put our flight on the boards).
About 1230 we eventually took off. All going well - they served complimentary (non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks. Then 15 minutes before landing the pilot came on and apologised that although we had all though we were going to be flying from Luton to Galway, instead we would be flying from Stansted to Knock (at this point my Dad rang both Aer Arann and Galway Airport, was told an arrival time of 1445 at Galway and was waiting there for me).
Needless to say when we landed I texted him to say I had landed at Knock, which was the first he knew (the airport and airline staff were clueless, as no flights had landed at Galway all day due to fog).
So onto another bus for a road journey to Galway where I arrived at 1640, some 5 hours and 10 minutes behind schedule.
Actually I had survived pretty well as I had a fruit salad with me which I ate for lunch. Some on the flight had not eaten since 7am.
Still at least I arrived in one piece and with all my baggage intact.
My intended journey was:
0639 Ilford - London Liverpool St (One Railway)
0704 London Liverpool St - Farringdon (Metropolitan Line)
0716 Farringdon - Luton Airport Parkway (First Capital Connect)
Shuttle bus to Luton Airport
0930 Luton Airport - Galway Airport (arrival at 1130).
What actually happened?
0639 Ilford - Liverpool St - cancelled
0649 Ilford - Liverpool St - late-running due to passenger overcrowding.
... eventually got to Farringdon and onto a First Capital Connect service. Destination advertised was St Albans - decided to proceed and change at Kings Cross. Hopped off at Kings Cross, it departed just as I noted that it was in fact going to Luton Airport. GRRRR.
Eventually got the next Luton Airport services, and ended up legging it accross the Luton Airport departure building to the check in desk, with 45 mins to go before the flight was due to take off.
Check in desk was still open. When I checked in I was told to hold onto my checked in baggage as the flight had been diverted to Stansted due to fog at Luton and there would be a bus in 10 minutes to take us there.
An hour later I was still at Luton Airport eating breakfast. Shortly after 10am the bus did arrive at a now fog-free Luton and we got on and headed for Stansted.
Checking in at Stansted about the time we should have landed in Galway (and they were as clueless at that airport as they were at Luton - thank you to the Ryanair Duty Manager who recognised a friend on our (non-Ryanair) flight and sorted out Servisair, who then opened as desk and put our flight on the boards).
About 1230 we eventually took off. All going well - they served complimentary (non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks. Then 15 minutes before landing the pilot came on and apologised that although we had all though we were going to be flying from Luton to Galway, instead we would be flying from Stansted to Knock (at this point my Dad rang both Aer Arann and Galway Airport, was told an arrival time of 1445 at Galway and was waiting there for me).
Needless to say when we landed I texted him to say I had landed at Knock, which was the first he knew (the airport and airline staff were clueless, as no flights had landed at Galway all day due to fog).
So onto another bus for a road journey to Galway where I arrived at 1640, some 5 hours and 10 minutes behind schedule.
Actually I had survived pretty well as I had a fruit salad with me which I ate for lunch. Some on the flight had not eaten since 7am.
Still at least I arrived in one piece and with all my baggage intact.