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

bnt · 02-04-2015 11:33pm

I plan flights to avoid long layovers, even if it costs me a little more. I don't have a single worst one, but all my negative memories of stopovers are set in one airport: Heathrow. It wasn't designed for stopovers, and it shows. :mad:

BeerWolf · 02-04-2015 11:34pm

Way back in the early 1990s, was doing a flight transfer at Moscow... but couldn't take flight due to a severe snowstorm so all passengers were sent to a "hotel", and we stayed there for 2 days.

I use the term "hotel" loosely. It was an incredibly derelict building with lots of areas where the lights weren't working... the heat in the place was stifling and very humid and really uncomfortable... cockroaches everywhere... food I wouldn't wish on my very worst enemies... and the best part; getting stuck in an elevator with no electricity alone in the dark for 9 hours straight...

Fun times...

towelly · 02-04-2015 11:39pm

Stopped over at Stansted, like a dog, it was ruff!

worded · 02-04-2015 11:58pm

Stopped off on the way to the airport to buy water melons in the mid 80s. Car got stuck in a huge pot hole outside the make shift veg shop and took 30 mins to get it freed.

Arrived to Hirakilon airport in Crete with the hired car half full of fuel as that was the way I got it. Hertz insisted it was full when I got it. Argument ensues and flight closes. Arse.

I now had 3 huge red water Mellons and FA money and a back pack. I used one of the water Mellons to pay the fellow running the phone shop in the airport to make a call home. I'd no credit cards and no mobile phones back then.

I asked some shop in airport to mind the second water melon for me as I couldn't carry two out if the airport. Doubt if an airport would do that theses days incase it was a melon bomb.

Went to a camp site near by and made a reverse call home asking my bro in law to go to the airport and find someone boarding a Hirakilon flight and give them a 100 pound for me. That didnt happen. The camp site owner over heard the call and gave me a loan of 20 pound. I offered him my watch but he said it was fine, just post the 20 to him when I got home - cool or what.

Ate the water melon that night and Air lingus statf said that they would put me on standby next day for free and if there were no seats I could sit in the cock pit with the pilots on the way home :-)

3 week holiday and I got an extra day unexpectedly.

Brought the last water melon into work and everyone got a slice.

What an amazing holiday and I really love the people of Crete, they were so cool from the very start of the holiday to the end.

The shock of missing the flight made it a terrifying experience initially but it all worked out fine in the end.

JillyQ · 03-04-2015 12:18am

worded wrote: »

Stopped off on the way to the airport to buy water melons in the mid 80s. Car got stuck in a huge pot hole outside the make shift veg shop and took 30 mins to get it freed.

Arrived to Hirakilon airport in Crete with the hired car half full of fuel as that was the way I got it. Hertz insisted it was full when I got it. Argument ensues and flight closes. Arse.

I now had 3 huge red water Mellons and FA money and a back pack. I used one of the water Mellons to pay the fellow running the phone shop in the airport to make a call home. I'd no credit cards and no mobile phones back then.

I asked some shop in airport to mind the second water melon for me as I couldn't carry two out if the airport. Doubt if an airport would do that theses days incase it was a melon bomb.

Went to a camp site near by and made a reverse call home asking my bro in law to go to the airport and find someone boarding a Hirakilon flight and give them a 100 pound for me. That didnt happen. The camp site owner over heard the call and gave me a loan of 20 pound. I offered him my watch but he said it was fine, just post the 20 to him when I got home - cool or what.

Ate the water melon that night and Air lingus statf said that they would put me on standby next day for free and if there were no seats I could sit in the cock pit with the pilots on the way home :-)

3 week holiday and I got an extra day unexpectedly.

Brought the last water melon into work and everyone got a slice.

What an amazing holiday and I really love the people of Crete, they were so cool from the very start of the holiday to the end.

The shock of missing the flight made it a terrifying experience initially but it all worked out fine in the end.

absolutely loved crete when i was there but thank god my delay happened in St. Louis not crete

MarkY91 · 03-04-2015 11:37am

Wouldn't be bad for most people here but it's MY worst experience.

6 hour stop off in Heathrow after 3 weeks of hard partying in Cyprus. I had the shakes and felt like I would collapse at any moment. I dozed off on some seats only to wake up and my mates were nowhere to be seen. So I'm sat there feeling like I should be in a hospital bed until they arrive back from a nice burger king.

There are some horror stories here that make good reading

endofrainbow · 03-04-2015 12:18pm

On an Aeroflot flight to Cuba in the late 80's from Shannon via Gander. The flight originated in Moscow and stopped in Gander for refuelling.

As we were due to re-board to continue the journey, we were told to get on the plane, retrieve any personal items and go back to the Terminal.

It later transpired, that a Cuban student on his return from Moscow, decided to seek political asylum in Canada so the plane was searched and all passengers were questioned to see if anyone had colluded with the asylum seeker.

We were stuck in Gander for over 5 hours with no Canadian dollars to even buy anything. I can't remember if they gave us a sandwich .....

We arrived in Havana around midnight straight into Hurricane Gilbert.

I swear, you couldn't make this stuff up

househero · 04-04-2015 3:53am

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

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'?

Nobody suggested you were a racist idiot.

But the people over on the white power forums also think they are the victims while they point the finger at the people that look different.

#sad

coylemj · 08-04-2015 8:12pm

Was stuck in Barcelona airport once for about 5 hours, it was like being locked into Dundrum Shopping Centre.

Worst airport I was ever in: the old Athens airport before they opened the new one in time for the 2004 Olympics. Stray dogs wandering about the place and cops lounging around with their tunics open and their guns hanging off their belts. Security was so poor (as in non-existent) that I wasn't surprised to later discover that it was virtually the only capital city in Europe with no direct flights to Nth. America.

osarusan · 08-04-2015 8:57pm

Flight from Dublin to Copenhagen was cancelled so we were rerouted to Paris, but had to wait 4 hours. Not too bad.

Then in Paris we had to wait something like 9 hours for the flight to Tokyo. Just horrible, although it was really just the length of time - the airport was fine.

All the misery was instantly forgotten the moment the staff said we had been upgraded to business class though.

JohnMearsheimer · 08-04-2015 11:03pm

I had a 16 hour stint in Shannon airport back in 2000. All the shops were closed and I resorted to walking laps around the airport in the middle of the night to entertain myself.

The worst airport I was in was Terminal 2 of Lisbon airport. It's just a cattle shed!

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

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