Ah, What's the worst airport stopover you've had?

clappyhappy · 30-03-2015 10:45pm

Flying from dubai to shannon via Amman in Jordan one time. Arrived for stopover, was only supposed to be for an hour, got stuck there for 14 hours, most depressing airport in the world. No alcohol sold there, everything shut down for the night. So called restaurant only did cold Arabic food. Horrible lime green paint and tiles on walls, never forget it.

On way back to dubai same thing happened, this time they put us up in a hotel, was worse than the airport. Haven't flown with them since.

Pure Mule · 30-03-2015 10:56pm

The day of nine eleven we and our two youngest were due to fly out of Malta. Very scary and very late due to increased security.

JacquesDeLad · 30-03-2015 11:21pm

I've had some awful self-inflicted misery at airports due to hangovers, lost passports and missed flights but I too have experienced the unique misery that Abu Dhabi can inflict on a traveller. Flying with Etihad and with Abu Dhabi being it's base I expected to be well accomodated when I transferred through there with a broken leg. I'd been very well treated by everyone up to this point.

Bad luck to start with that we got a stand miles away from the terminal, I hadn't anticipated not docking at an airbridge but I wasn't too worried because they're obviously not going to expect me to hop down a flight of steps with a heavy shoulder bag and my crutches in midday gulf heat. Wrong!

The crew apologised profusely as I was getting off the plane explaining our scheduled gate was blocked or something but promised I'd be met by airport staff with a wheelchair when the bus dropped us off at the terminal. I didn't get a seat on the bus as I was last on and it was packed.

When I got to the terminal I was shattered after hopping down the steps of the plane in 40 deg. heat and standing one leg trying to keep my balance for 10 mins on the bus. There was an airport staffer with a wheelchair waiting but some black clad person sat in it before I got there. I asked the guy if there was another wheelchair coming and he said he didn't know and then just went off in the lift with his passenger.

After about 10 minutes waiting I just decided to make my own way to the next gate, as I was struggling along the concourse I could see staff with empty wheelchairs heading towards gates and not one approached to ask if I needed assistance. I had to go through a security screen and still no offer of assistance. I just about made my connection and haven't been back since.

Dubai and Doha are much more professional and Westerner friendly imo.

Photo-Sniper · 30-03-2015 11:51pm

London Gatwick.

Was their for 8 hours overnight once. Genuinely the worst ****ing excuse for an airport in the world.

An absolute abomination.

Kiwi in IE · 30-03-2015 11:51pm

Additional to the Abu Dhabi thing, Etihad is also the worst Airline I have flown (and I've flown a few). We had a horrible experince starting with engine failure after boarding the plane at Dublin airport and having to sit on the plane for 3.5 hours while it was fixed, then generally terrible service in the air, really badly timed food service (my child missed a meal and ended up going about 15 hours without anything but a muffin, when I asked flight attendant for something for him outside meal service they offered to heat his next meal up early, Emirates and Qantas have a help yourself food bar on long haul available at all times), then when we finally got to Brisbane our flight out to Christchurch was cancelled, they couldn't give any reason for this, the Etihad desk was closed and there were no staff from the airline available in Brisbane airport at all. We were there for 16 hours (was supposed to be 4) then put on a flight to Auckland where we had to stay the night and get a flight the Christchurch the next morning.

It took 60 hours to get from Dublin to Christchurch. Worst travelling experience I've had and I would never fly them again. The only good thing about it was the 3.5 hour delay in Dublin meant we only had to spend 2 hours in Abu Dhabi airport on the way over, sitting on a plane on the runway in Dublin was far preferable. Emirates are far, far superior and so is Dubai Airport. You can put up with ****ty service on flights up to about 8 hours, but on long haul it's awful.

Iranoutofideas · 30-03-2015 11:56pm

Atlanta, Georgia.

Every single person I had to interact with there seemed incapable of speaking English without resorting to incomprehensible ghetto slang.

Had people from TSA saying things like - "Yo Put yo' bag on da conveyor an' proceed through da gate, nigga what 'chew trippin foo'"

It was ****ing bizarre.

LollipopJimmy · 30-03-2015 11:57pm

11 hours in Izmir many years ago. Bloody awful, terrible food and sweltering heat. I have to go to Zagreb soon and no direct flights it's making me panic

Aimeee · 31-03-2015 12:06am

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

Abu Dhabi! I had been travelling for 24 hours already and we were all cranky and tired. So many people were covered from head to toe with only faces/eyes showing and it was jam packed in many areas, so we were sqeezed in and unable to tell one person from another. I'm not being prejudice, their country/their culture and people should dress how they please, but I just found it really unsettling that I couldn't see people properly. I also found that a lot of people seemed to be staring at my young son and in many cases I could only see eyes staring at him (he was not making a show or misbehaving in any way), I actually felt so conscious of it that I picked him up and carried him. OH noticed it too without me pointing it out and told me later that he felt relieved when he turned around to make sure we were with him and saw I was carrying Little Kiwi. We were probably paranoid with tiredness but I was actually concerned that he was going to disappear under a swishing burqa and never be seen again. This probably sounds racist but I just hated the place and felt quite scared.

A few hours of a stopover in a nice European airoport and had similar experience with my daughter. People staring and stopping to take photos of her. I found it very unnerving. Highlighted a whole new experience of travelling with children for me. It was Helsinki btw.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 31-03-2015 12:34am

iusedtoknow wrote: »

14 hours in Mexico city, flight kept on being pushed back and back so we couldn't leave the airport. Ate way too much food and Mexican coke, got the squits and ended up missing my actual flight as I was too sick to travel.

A lot of lessons were learned that day.

They say it's the purest these days alright.

efb · 31-03-2015 12:37am

Stansted- it closes! Heathrow doesn't fcuking close!

Turtyturd · 31-03-2015 12:48am

Iranoutofideas wrote: »

Atlanta, Georgia.

Every single person I had to interact with there seemed incapable of speaking English without resorting to incomprehensible ghetto slang.

Had people from TSA saying things like - "Yo Put yo' bag on da conveyor an' proceed through da gate, nigga what 'chew trippin foo'"

It was ****ing bizarre.

Atlanta is a bizarre one alright. Definitely the least professional airport I have ever been in, and like a case study of America's race issues.

Have also never managed to get out of it at the departure time even once in all the times I have used it.

Kiwi in IE · 31-03-2015 12:48am

Aimeee wrote: »

A few hours of a stopover in a nice European airoport and had similar experience with my daughter. People staring and stopping to take photos of her. I found it very unnerving. Highlighted a whole new experience of travelling with children for me. It was Helsinki btw.

It's horrible isn't it! I couldn't understand what it was about my son that was making people stare, he doesn't have unusual colouring or any features that would stand out or draw attention. He is an especially adorable looking kid, but I'm his mother so I'm going to think that. He looks like an ordinary cute little western kid. Maybe he was wearing something that was unusual or (hopefully not) offensive in their culture. Whatever it was, along with the generally unpleasant atmosphere in that airport, the fact I was unable to see the faces of many of the people staring, and we were crowded in the security line with people pushing and bumping us constantly, it was really awful and unsettling. I've never been so happy to get on a plane a get out of a place. I've never experienced anything like it again (the odd mass staring) before or after. My OH was unnerved by it too we both looked at each other and said 'what the **** is with the staring' at the same time. There was none of it in the same airport on the way over, I think it had to be something he was wearing in hindsight.

endacl · 31-03-2015 12:55am

porsche959 wrote: »

Kuala Lumpur. Not a particularly bad airport as such, just being stuck there for around 6 hours after getting off a 7 hr flight from Sydney and facing into another flight of 9 hrs to London, and I can never sleep properly when travelling.

KL? Deadly airport. Harry's Bar with decent grub, live jazz and you can smoke. Well at least you could last time I was through. Ex- smoker now. The upstairs food court had a place that served the best chicken satay I've ever experienced. I'd nearly fly there for it now. Really clean showers between arrivals and the main concourse. Massage if you want it.

WTF more do you want from a stopover?!? I'd go to KL international for a break!

Oh. Wait. That was Singapore. Yeah. You're right. KL is shyte. Best ever airport to be stuck at is Koh Samui. Think "Rick's beach bar, from Magnum P.I.". Only, with airplanes, and free iced pineapple juice if your flight is delayed...

Thoie · 31-03-2015 1:04am

Iranoutofideas wrote: »

Atlanta, Georgia.

Every single person I had to interact with there seemed incapable of speaking English without resorting to incomprehensible ghetto slang.

Had people from TSA saying things like - "Yo Put yo' bag on da conveyor an' proceed through da gate, nigga what 'chew trippin foo'"

It was ****ing bizarre.

Don't get me started on fecking Atlanta. Only been there once. Was on a connecting flight, and for various (airline) issues, missed the connection. The airline in that instance is obliged to sort you out. Instead I got all the above kind of attitude, got yelled at, threatened with police, you name it. That was just the Delta desk staff. Ended up having to spend a night there, and they refused to even let me phone around a few hotels. They also took my suitcase from me and essentially held it to some kind of bizarre ransom.

Canard · 31-03-2015 1:08am

22 hours in Charleroi...no idea why the hell I agreed to it in hindsight. :pac: In fairness we went to Brussels for the day which was nice, but by the time I arrived I'd already pulled an all nighter, and had to then stay up from 8am til 6am to get the flight -- so a total of around 40 hours awake, travelling. Charleroi is a weird place and while I ended up having good chats with some of the Belgians we found in an Irish pub, some of them were shockingly rude.

It was hell knowing some people had slept twice or even three times in the time I'd been awake, but sure now whenever I can't sleep I just remind myself how tired I was and I promptly get to sleep. :cool:

ProudDUB · 31-03-2015 1:26am

Washington DC (forget if it was Dulles or RR) back in Jan 2006. My sister and I had just flown from Ethiopia with her 5 yr old daughter. Addis-Rome-DC took the guts of 24 hrs. The flights themselves were actually fine. We were freaking out about them, as we were traveling under particularly harrowing personal circumstances, that I won't bore ya'll with.

Anyway, we got to DC thinking that the worst part of our trip was over. It wasn't. It was only beginning. A massive blizzard had just hit DC. Our inbound flight was one of the last flights to land before they closed the airport to all incoming flights. They were about to close it for outbound flights about an hour after we arrived. We had connecting flights home to Atlanta (me) and Seattle (my sister) about two hrs after we arrived. They were both canceled and the airlines were frantically trying to reschedule and rebook people on new flights, before the airport closed.

What we didn't realize, was that it was the day after President Bush's inauguration ceremony. So the airport was packed full of very, very, very important VIPs that had no problem pulling rank to get themselves to the head of the various airline queues. I don't know how we did it, but we both managed to bribe, bully, cajole, Delta and American Airlines staff into getting us on the next flights outa DC. The stress however, was unreal. And we were knackered tired to boot.

I dunno, maybe they just felt sorry for us and knew that if we didn't get out that day, we were facing 2-3 days stuck in the airport with a seriously traumatized toddler. There is no way we would have gotten a hotel in DC, what with the weather situ and all the dignitaries being in town for Dubya's lil shindig.

Just goes to show, that no matter how well you plan a trip (and God knows, we planned every single detail of that trip down to the most minute degree) George W Bush could have still effed it all up for us royally !

Btw, dunno what the beef is with Hotlanta airport. I must have traveled thru it 200 times when I lived there & I don't think I had one bad experience with the security staff. They may not be as polished as those in some other cities, but they deffo have the human touch that those in JFK, O'Hare etc etc sorely lack imo.

Egginacup · 31-03-2015 1:31am

Listen to yourselves......6 hours here, 12 hours there. Try 3 fcuking days stranded in Dusseldorf airport in the Xmas of 2010 ( the big snow).

endacl · 31-03-2015 1:34am

Egginacup wrote: »

Try 3 fcuking days stranded in Dusseldorf airport in the Xmas of 2010 ( the big snow).

Absolutely willing to, but can't. 2010 is in the past.

househero · 31-03-2015 1:40am

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

I was actually concerned that he was going to disappear under a swishing burqa and never be seen again. This probably sounds racist but I just hated the place and felt quite scared.

Not knowing other cultures can be intimidating. FYI, they LOVE children in the UAE, the people staring at your (exhausted) son, probably wanted to make him smile but a language/culture/aware of a scared mum barrier didn't let them. Children are put on a pedestal and treated with huge respect in ME countries, other adults will often try to make strangers children laugh, its innocent and the whole airport did not want to kidnap your son. You were horribly mistaken and possibly lead to believe a terrible racist idea portrayed by the media. Sad. But now you know.

My most loathed travel isn't on a plane but 14hr ferry/car trips every summer UK/ireland as a child. I can travel like a trooper now I know nothing is worse than the back seat of a ford Orion and a 20ft swell on p&o.

househero · 31-03-2015 1:47am

endacl wrote: »

KL? Deadly airport. Harry's Bar with decent grub, live jazz and you can smoke. Well at least you could last time I was through. Ex- smoker now. The upstairs food court had a place that served the best chicken satay I've ever experienced. I'd nearly fly there for it now. Really clean showers between arrivals and the main concourse. Massage if you want it.

WTF more do you want from a stopover?!? I'd go to KL international for a break!

Oh. Wait. That was Singapore. Yeah. You're right. KL is shyte. Best ever airport to be stuck at is Koh Samui. Think "Rick's beach bar, from Magnum P.I.". Only, with airplanes, and free iced pineapple juice if your flight is delayed...

Meh the new KL domestic (Asian) airport is one if the best I've ever been to, shopping mall (nandos) loads of food and no Q's. Koh Samui was painful for me, no walls, no ac. Crappy free food on a boutique airline doesn't make up for tarantulas crawling on the back of your wicker chair. Reminded me of the Dominican republic big ass fan airport.

& KL does have live jazz on the airside and a huge range of shops and food.

ProudDUB · 31-03-2015 1:59am

househero wrote: »

Meh the new KL domestic (Asian) airport is one if the best I've ever been to, shopping mall (nandos) loads of food and no Q's. Koh Samui was painful for me, no walls, no ac. Crappy free food on a boutique airline doesn't make up for tarantulas crawling on the back of your wicker chair. Reminded me of the Dominican republic big ass fan airport.

& KL does have live jazz on the airside and a huge range of shops and food.

Ah feck off you. I'm gonna have nightmares about that tonight. :mad:

househero · 31-03-2015 2:01am

Pure Mule wrote: »

The day of nine eleven we and our two youngest were due to fly out of Malta. Very scary and very late due to increased security.

I booked a 2 week 5 star holiday to Rhodes for me and my mates for €68 on the anniversary of 9/11 . 1 year later. Didnt realize until we asked why the Thomson Jumbo Jet had 20 people on it and the airport was pretty much empty,the FA told us. (Bloody backwards date writing Americans, its 11/9)

househero · 31-03-2015 2:12am

ProudDUB wrote: »

Ah feck off you. I'm gonna have nightmares about that tonight. :mad:

It was mortifying mate. When I travelled to Asia I knew I was going to see a few but I didn't know if I was going to freeze or kill it. When it came down to it and I saw it crawling up to me I fkn punched it in its 80 eyed face then I was all like great now I got spider guts on my hands... Walked in to toilet to wash my hand and take a leak and when I looked over, there was another one right in front of my face as I was Peshing.

Weirder still there was a 18yr old pretty little (Malaysian I think) girl watching me too. She was the cleaner (I think) but she just hung around and stared at dudes junk... I used that toilet a few times on our 5 he delayed flight, it had an awesome fish tank over the urinals. I found the whole Asian toilet thing weird. A cranky old cleaning woman in Bali airport was so keen to clean the urinal I was using, she sprayed cleaner on my piece while I was Peshing. And all the other guys in there too.

Loved the Conrad in Koh Samui, hated the no walls airport.

househero · 31-03-2015 2:48am

My worst airport delays...

3. Military airport Dominican Republic
Emergency landing due to hurricane, had already spent an extra 2hrs circling. (Military) Ground crew refused to refuel Thompson jumbo jet and after sitting on the mack for 4hrs in baking heat no ac or food drink. We were taken to our resort by knackered minibus's took 3hrs on a 'farmers' mud road. Our bags came a day later. Just glad to be alive.

2. 6hrs on a easy jet plane in Prague waiting for take off clearance after heavy snow, told repeatedly 'was us next' bullsquit Mr pilot man. My whole suitcase (with 22 bottle of absinthe) was smashed when we landed in mank. I bought insurance every trip after that.

1. Chennai Airport India
They spent €500 MILLION building an extension that looks great to tempt you in.

But the airside waiting area is a 50yr old shed that smells like butt. Food options are coffee, 1/2 tub Pringles €8!!!, or a plain, no butter 'sandwich' with lettuce OR tomato. That's it, no joke. There are 3 'shops' that sell this identically wide range. Or you can get some noodles from the ground floor kiosk, BUT when I threw them in to the bin, the cashier walked over brushed off the tray and put it back on the shelf. The toilets are grim, no AC, 40+ degrees, every1 unplugs the fans to charge their iPhone and if you smoke you can electrocute your self on a bare exposed mains wire they use in the (open) smoke room to light their cigs as lighters are banned hahahahaha one good thing is there are free local phones, I passed an hour calling strangers, that were happy to practice their English (friendly people) wasted 9 hours of my life here

Hell in earth

Joe Doe · 31-03-2015 4:30am

worst: Heathrow: T1 overnight the place stinks, spotted loads of bed bugs crawling over the seats and then my luggage, even though there was plenty cleaners banging about the place pretending to work.
worst: LAX: Dozens of perma-homeless located at the bus terminal & car parks with eyes on your luggage, haggling for change, plenty of cops indoors though, none outside.
worst: Newfie: cold semi-fried chips and attitude was all that's open/available after extensive transfers to get there.
worst: JFK: Get in with at least 5 hrs to spare, more queues than a new ipad launch party, had to blag it into the faster resident passport holder stream, else return tickets were going down the drain (spring break wknd). No shortage of queues and standing about on arrival too, not for the elderly or infirm, passport checks, random questions and all that finger/eye scanning not much of a laugh. Sure it's only me...

not so bad: Vancouver: Ye have to walk a good km around in circles pre-customs, all-right if you have wheels on the luggage.
not so bad: KL: squat to crap on medieval style floor toilets, lucky-dip fish soup was the only hot food open as O'Brien's was closed, not cheap.

Best: Amsterjam: Library, shops, shoulder massages, tidy well designed place even the McD's give you proper metal cutlery, no plastic stuff.

Am sure there is plenty worse, but only do 1st world currently...

Jude13 · 31-03-2015 6:58am

Got stuck in Abu Dhabi for 14 hours the year of the big snow (2010?) Had great craic bozzing it up in the pub. The etihad lounge was packed though.

No stare-y people either in the 6 years Ive been traveling through there.

Kiwi in IE · 31-03-2015 7:35am

househero wrote: »

Not knowing other cultures can be intimidating. FYI, they LOVE children in the UAE, the people staring at your (exhausted) son, probably wanted to make him smile but a language/culture/aware of a scared mum barrier didn't let them. Children are put on a pedestal and treated with huge respect in ME countries, other adults will often try to make strangers children laugh, its innocent and the whole airport did not want to kidnap your son. You were horribly mistaken and possibly lead to believe a terrible racist idea portrayed by the media. Sad. But now you know.

Yeah, normally when people want to make a child who is unknown to them laugh/smile they smile/pull faces at the child. Normally body language crosses cultural barriers. Staring fixedly at them for prolonged periods with very serious or blank expressions ain't going to do it. You can patronise me all you like but I know what I saw and it was definately not people trying to make the child laugh, I think I'd probably recognise a friendly gesture like that, no matter what the culture. As I said it did not happen in the same airport on the outbound flight, and nor has it ever happened in the other UAE country we have been to and stayed for several days on 2 occasions since my son was born (Dubai). Think whatever you like, but I was there know what happened and I am not some simple racist idiot as your post implies, as I said in another post, it must have been something my son was qearing that day that was odd or unusual to their culture (hopefully not offensive), there is not really any other explanation, but it was not pleasant at the time. Another parent in the thread said she had a similar thing happen in Heksinki Airport which unnerved her, has she also been led to believe a 'terrible racist idea portrayed by the media'?

porsche959 · 31-03-2015 8:31am

endacl wrote: »

KL? Deadly airport. Harry's Bar with decent grub, live jazz and you can smoke. Well at least you could last time I was through. Ex- smoker now. The upstairs food court had a place that served the best chicken satay I've ever experienced. I'd nearly fly there for it now. Really clean showers between arrivals and the main concourse. Massage if you want it.

WTF more do you want from a stopover?!? I'd go to KL international for a break!

Oh. Wait. That was Singapore. Yeah. You're right. KL is shyte. Best ever airport to be stuck at is Koh Samui. Think "Rick's beach bar, from Magnum P.I.". Only, with airplanes, and free iced pineapple juice if your flight is delayed...

Thinly-disguised 'my world travels were more interesting than yours' post.

cournioni · 31-03-2015 8:34am

I have been lucky so far with flights thankfully. The longest stop over I have experienced was in Dubai which was a 9 hour wait. Just booked the airport hotel for the night and then headed for the plane in the morning.

Howard the Duck · 31-03-2015 8:44am

Links234 wrote: »

Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris

I understood perfectly why the French get a reputation for being rude. I'd actually love to go to France properly sometime, get a real experience of the country, but my god was the airport a horrid experience.

I went to a cafe here once and i asked the man behind the counter if they toast the panini's, he didn't answer me and picked one up and went over and put it in the grill. when he came back i asked can i have another please, he looked at me and pointed the tongs he was holding at me and said "are you sure, because i can walk up and down all day for you!" I just kind of in shock, looking back i should have told him to shove them both up his backside.

Worst stop over i had was in Hamburg for 5 hours on a trip to Sydney. Was just very boring and everything was closed, i was too afraid to sleep in case i missed my flight but was really tried so i just walked around and sat down a bit. The security staff were very rude also.

Ah, What's the worst airport stopover you've had?

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