I am writing this offline at the moment in a cheap B&B in Luton. Why am I in a B&B in Luton you ask? Well basically due to Aer Arann
I was in Galway last week on a conference thingy and decided to fly back to England not to my nearest airport Gatwick via Shannon but Luton via Galway. My thinking was that the travel difference between them would be equal. How wrong I was.
I got a taxi at 4 to bring me to Galway airport for my 18:30 flight to Luton. While on the way I got a txt from Aer Arann telling me the flight was delayed until 20:30. At 21:00 I was in Shannon airport.
See what happened was that not only was the plane delayed for 2 hours it was also short of fuel and had to refuel in Shannon. So 5 hours after I left to go to Galway airport I was in Shannon. Now as Aer Arann planes are smaller and slower they took an hour and a half to get to London. So we arrived at 23:00 2 and a half hours later then scheduled. So knowing that I could not get back to my house which is on the other side of London. So I jumped into a taxi and said bring me to a travel lodge. Which indeed the taxi did and then left me there. So I went to the travel lodge and talked to the intercom as the doors were locked. Sorry no vacancies so I asked could they phone me a cab. They said no ask at the petrol station.
So now I was worried stuck in the middle of a city I did not know having spent my last bit of cash on the taxi over. So I went to the guy in the hatch. And asked to him about taxies and he gave me one and told me about if he knew any hotels. I bought a bottle of wine so that I could get cash back. Then another guy came to the shop and the guy in the shop asked him did he know any place local to stay. He said yes and told me to walk up the road to a hotel up the road. So off I walk up a street in Luton quiet stupid I know. But I am stupid. But I saw this place and said feck it rang the door bell and here I am.
So moral of the story is don’t fly Aer Arann if you want to get somewhere on time. Ryanair I love ya. Sorry for not being more poetic here. But just too tired. Also I have to go to another conferance in Munich at 4 in the morning. Not good for my sanity.
2 comments:
At least Aer Arran still ran the flight. Ryanair often cancel delayed flights because they don't want to impact the rest of their schedules.
As for delays, being someone that travels a lot I keep a track. On average my arrval is delayed 15% of the time. That is typically anything from 30 minutes to 24 hours (one nightmare where I got delayed in Chicago overnight and only by demanding my entitlements under the EU charter of passenger rights was I able to get a hotel room).
We have just been visiting family in Galway and used aer arran from leeds/bradford as we live in south yorkshire. flight out was excellent flight back even better, we left Galway at 12.00 noon and actually drove onto our road at 2.30 pm you cant do better than than. Thanks Aer Arran, you were great.
Suzanne Middleton
Post a Comment