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

roro1990

Just back from a 13 hour stopover in Zurich airport. Genuinely up there with the worst few hours of my life. Arrived at 8pm and the whole airport pretty much closed at 11pm. None of the shops offer free samples of food or drink (I had hoped to spend at least an hour stuffing my face with Switzerland chocolate).

The airport had 60 minutes free wifi but you needed your phone to get a code and my battery was too low to even get the code, let alone browse the net. I then looked for a place to charge it but the Swiss don't even use European plugs - they have their own f*cking plugs. I then looked for a place with an adaptor, and the shops all had every single type of adapter except UK to Swiss.

To add to this I am suffering with a horrendous dose of man flu - sleep was an impossibility. I pretty much just spent 13 hours in a deserted airport staring into space. Absolute banter.


I guess i'm just posting to make myself feel better when I inevitably read a story about a worse stopover than mine. Anyone have one?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Stayed up all night to catch a 6.30AM flight from Heathrow, only to be told by Alitalia that they had moved me to another flight at 4PM.

suicide_circus

8 hours in Luton. Sh1thole.

Links234

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.

Magico Gonzalez

Overnighter in Brussells airport after Music festival.

Belgians, nothing open, post festival fear, hungover, hungry, all cold and wet as it rained a lot. Very traumatic, I still can't speak about it using full sentences.

Jawgap

Newark - during a snowstorm. The feckers pretty much admitted they weren't going to fly us out because they didn't want the plane to get caught and snowed in at the destination airport.

12 hours sat around.

miezekatze

6 hours or so at Chicago O'Hare. It wasn't long enough to leave the airport really, but there really isn't much to do there. Had lunch at a restaurant there and tried to take our time, but it wasn't nice and the staff were really rude. There are hardly any shops there as well, we just kept going for walks around the terminal to pass the time.

Ficheall

roro1990 wrote: »

Absolute banter.

Magico Gonzalez

miezekatze wrote: »

6 hours or so at Chicago O'Hare. It wasn't long enough to leave the airport really, but there really isn't much to do there. Had lunch at a restaurant there and tried to take our time, but it wasn't nice and the staff were really rude. There are hardly any shops there as well, we just kept going for walks around the terminal to pass the time.

6 hours!...that's a fcking picnic. Bit of lunch, stroll around the shops.

Very handy.

porsche959

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.

Kiwi in IE

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.

Buona Fortuna

roro1990 wrote: »

Just back from a 13 hour stopover in Zurich airport. Genuinely up there with the worst few hours of my life. Arrived at 8pm and the whole airport pretty much closed at 11pm. None of the shops offer free samples of food or drink (I had hoped to spend at least an hour stuffing my face with Switzerland chocolate).

Free Samples? Where are you from the 1960s?

Or are you more used to getting the PanAm clipper to Foynes?

iusedtoknow

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.

Jawgap

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.

Got delayed in Abu Dhabi last year - and it was not fun. 'Only' 6 hours but you weren't allowed leave the gate. Eventually after a lot of pleading and arguing they gave out bottled water.......just as the flight was called!

Eti Had.........never again:mad:

Magico Gonzalez

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.

Short stopover in Abu Dhabi and you freaked out because you thought that they were going o kidnap your son because they dress differently?

Riiiiight.

roro1990

Buona Fortuna wrote: »

Free Samples? Where are you from the 1960s?

Or are you more used to getting the PanAm clipper to Foynes?

Dublin airport have given me free samples of booze many times. Bangkok airport had free biscuits. Istanbul airport had free Turkish delights. I thought it was a common trend

r93kaey5p2izun

Three hours in Gander in the middle of the night. Freezing cold, everything closed and a vending machine that would only accept Canadian dollars which I didn't have.

Necro

Eight hours on the way back from Perth to Dublin in Guangzhou Airport in China. No wifi, metal seats and indoor smoking areas. Absolute torture.

Kiwi in IE

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

Short stopover in Abu Dhabi and you freaked out because you thought that they were going o kidnap your son because they dress differently?

Riiiiight.

I knew someone was going to take it that way. Many people were staring at my kid. I don't know why and I don't particularly care if you don't believe it. It is almost certain there was a logical reason why that we weren't aware of, but it unnerved me.

We have stayed in Dubai on several occasions where people also 'dress differently' and I never once felt the slightest bit uncomfortable. I got an awful vibe in Abu Dhabi airport and you can make what you want of it.

And how do you know what length the stop over was? I never mentioned whether it was short or long.

I would also feel uncomfortable if a lot of people were randomly staring at my kid in Dublin, Heathrow, Sydney or Auckland Airport, but the fact that in many cases I could only see peoples eyes, added to my sense of feeling unnerved.

It was also only one way that it felt like that. On the way over the Abu Dhabi stopover had been non memorable.

dellas1979

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.

Yea am kinda the same with Dubai - nothing wrong per se with the airport (air con was freezing though), just a really crappy long wait inbetween connections.

I was also sick (turned out to be a UTI), and I was freezing cold for 7 hours. The only place I could find was a very hard chair and had a small scarf over me.

I will always remember freezing in Dubai!

keithclancy

Stansted.

Slept on a suitcase for 6-8 hours, that was lovely, had to go to work 2 hours after getting home.

That was a fun day.

The Backwards Man

Nothing too serious, six or seven hours in Gatwick a few times would be the worst. Very good airport for people watching, crap for snoozing.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

About eight hours in Alicante a few years ago. I was 19 and me and my friend were coming back from holiday, so I was stony broke and dying hungover. Small airport, so everything closed after a while.

Also, Spanish airport police don't have much of a sense of humour about certain things. Like pretending like you're going to run back through security at 4am for the craic.

source

Not a single stop over but multiple in the same trip. Flew Auckland to Sydney, 4 hour stop over late in the evening all shops were closed.

Sydney to Singapore, landed early morning their time after a 12 hour flight, 3 hours to kill, nothing open and no vending machines.

Singapore to Heathrow 5 hour stop over but at least it was a more sociable time getting in which meant we could at least get breakfast and make our way between terminals for our last flight to Shannon. I think it worked out around 34 hours of travelling, of which I slept around 3.

Mint Sauce

We forget how good we have it at UK and Ireland airports. You can go to Boots in most of the London airports or Dublin, you get your snacks/drinks/sweets for the airport lounge/plane, usally as a meal deal, most of the last minute things you need, and even reading material, either there or in WH Smiths/Easons. Even Knock, for a small airport y ou can get pretty much anything you need.

Expected much more in Salzberg in Austria or Lyon in France, could get nothing once past Security, or if I could it was stupidly over priced.

Tenerife, you had to go to one shop for a bag of sweets, another for a sandwich, yet another for a magazine, and if you wanted a bottle of the water for the flight, lets hope you had two euros in change for a 300ml bottle from the very temperamental machines.

Red Kev

1. 32 hours in Nouadhibou, Mauritania waiting for a sandstorm to subside. By this stage more passengers had arrived for the next day flights that were all delayed, so the self proclaimed "important ones" (of which there are many in Mauritania) got our seats.

Storm took about 12 hours to die down, waiting room was like that in a 1930's Irish country railway station. Only warm bottles of water to drink, the baxtards shut the taps off in the jacks so we couldn't get the water there.

2. Damascus 12 hours, flying from Chad to Europe via Moscow with Aeroflot in the early 90's. Plane had to wait for repairs, Syrians wouldn't let us into the cafe/bar area, so we waited for 12 hours sitting on the ground just inside the terminal doors. We thought we were getting off the plane for 45 minutes so we took no jumpers, books etc. Torture. The worst was being told "only 1 more hour" every fupping hour. That was a total pain in the jacksie.

Steve_Carella

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

Short stopover in Abu Dhabi and you freaked out because you thought that they were going o kidnap your son because they dress differently?

Riiiiight.

Enter Strawman!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVH_7V4XXgY

recylingbin

15 minutes in Mountmellick

Peregrine

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

I knew someone was going to take it that way. Many people were staring at my kid. I don't know why and I don't particularly care if you don't believe it. It is almost certain there was a logical reason why that we weren't aware of, but it unnerved me.

We have stayed in Dubai on several occasions where people also 'dress differently' and I never once felt the slightest bit uncomfortable. I got an awful vibe in Abu Dhabi airport and you can make what you want of it.

And how do you know what length the stop over was? I never mentioned whether it was short or long.

I would also feel uncomfortable if a lot of people were randomly staring at my kid in Dublin, Heathrow, Sydney or Auckland Airport, but the fact that in many cases I could only see peoples eyes, added to my sense of feeling unnerved.

It was also only one way that it felt like that. On the way over the Abu Dhabi stopover had been non memorable.

I kinda of know what you're talking about. Abu Dhabi airport makes me very uncomfortable. It was cramped and neither the staff nor the passengers were friendly.

JillyQ

I give you St Louis Airport absolute and utter ****hole.

dlouth15

48 hours in JFK due to snow and also the aircraft getting damaged. Loud security announcements every 20 minutes so sleep impossible. Unable to leave airport initially due to being snowed in but eventually got out to visit New York for a few hours.

anncoates

Some of the stories here are terrifying. 6 hours stopovers in a terminal full of shops, bars and restaurants.

Terrible altogether.

...__...

Heathrow 13 hours Christ I was so drunk I was surprised they let me on the plane

artanevilla

Zurich is a lovely airport. It was an overnight stopover so I mostly slept, and had no money to buy anything so that was fine. It was something like E7 for an orange juice though.

the evasion_kid

13 hours in Newark on the way home at Xmas and then the same on the way back,I kept jumping between the 3 terminals to fill time,I felt a bit like tom hanks in the the film the terminal

Tails142

Yeah I didn't like abu dhabi either, try to avoid it now, just got a weird vibe.

Pinch Flat

Did an overnight in Dublin & Stansted Airports on the airport waiting lounge seats, both going to Germany for on an Erasmus year one time and summer work another. Wasn't too bad. Airport bars kept us busy for a while.

Another time, I went drinking for about 2 days before heading home from a summer working in Germany, got a train to Frankfurt and decided to kip at the top of the Lufthansa queue which I got to at about 4am from memory. Was awoken by a couple of machine gun wielding Polizei with a massive Alsatian dog a while later who didn't see the funny side.

Kiwi in IE

Nim wrote: »

I kinda of know what you're talking about. Abu Dhabi airport makes me very uncomfortable. It was cramped and neither the staff nor the passengers were friendly.

Tails142 wrote: »

Yeah I didn't like abu dhabi either, try to avoid it now, just got a weird vibe.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. That first person who responded to my post saying that I freaked out because people were dressed differently made me feel silly and wished I hadn't posted, but I did get a really horrible vibe that day and it may sound extremely paranoid, but a lot of people were staring at my child and we were definately not imagining it. There was most likely a logical reason that we weren't aware of, but it felt weird and unsafe. I have been in a lot of airports in all sorts of countries and had tons of long stopovers, but that one was a really horrible experience. I am not someone who is easily freaked and I'm not the sort of parent who imagines that people who might abduct my child are lurking around every corner, but I felt a heightened sense of risk on that stopover.

I am aware that people often look at cute children and smile (and my kid is damn cute) but everyone (the ones who weren't covered) seemed expressionless or serious and otherwise I could only see people's eyes staring. It was really unnerving.

rainbow kirby

Luton with a putrid hangover on my way home from Poznan in 2012...

Teyla Emmagan

11 hours in Orly in Paris. This was a long time ago, but from memory there was 1 cafe and 1 shop. Most tedious day ever.

Mint Aero

I usually go the exec lounge to get away from the commoners.

SeaFields

Not a stopover, more of a stranding.

Coming home from a week in Lanzarote. 7am flight so airport for 5.30am. Plane was on loaded and good to go. Something wrong with the rear door. On the tarmac for an hour while they discussed it with an engineer somewhere (pilot was good in fairness and kept us informed). Everyone had to get off and back into the terminal. Engineer was coming from Barcelona and a part for the door from heathrow. Both of those had to wait for flights. All in all, flight took off at 8.30pm that night. Longest...wait...ever.

Uncle Ben

Was going to Leningrad back in the USSR in the '80s. My flight was Aerofkot from Shannon. My flight arrived from Cuba and my seat was inside a 20 stone Cuban who sweated profusely and never stopped smoking. We sat on the tarmac for a few hours before taking off. Then 4 hours plus of a flight.
Just thinking about it now it's hard to believe you could smoke on planes and in hospital beds.
Those were the days!!

Buona Fortuna

First holiday we had together before we were married.

It was one of those crap package deals (which I've been wary of ever since). You had to be out of the hotel in the morning but then we weren't flying until about 8 that night. Spent the day ion the beach covered in sand and salt got on the coach to Corfu airport about 4 or 5.

When we got there no announcements nothing departure arrived and went. Turns out the plane was fcuked and they were arranging another one.

We spent 30 hours at Corfu airport. Some of the Intersun Reps came to the airport and gave us some vouchers for food and drink. I felt a little bit sorry for all the people on 18-30s (same flight) their reps had no vouchers at all I heard one of them say "I think there's some cokes in the locker"

Tobyglen

35 hours in JFK with no money & 3 Months drinking in the back pocket. Nasty stuff.

ABajaninCork

Ten hours in Faro Airport. Biggest dump EVER. Well hacked off, as we'd just got engaged and I couldn't wait to tell my friends and family and go shopping for my ring!!

Closely followed by a six hour delay in Zakynthos. Another dump. Holiday from hell, couldn't wait to get home and dump the then boyfriend.

PARlance

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Ten hours in Faro Airport. Biggest dump EVER. Well hacked off, as we'd just got engaged and I couldn't wait to tell my friends and family and go shopping for my ring!!

Closely followed by a six hour delay in Zakynthos. Another dump. Holiday from hell, couldn't wait to get home and dump the then boyfriend.

How closely was it followed?
Sounds like you were juggling men.

Turtyturd

Couple of hours in Jeddah, which included Saudi police pulling their guns on me....I was 10.

spiralism

Amsterdam Schiphol i had to stay in overnight once with a vicious hangover. Horribly uncomfortable place and not a wink of sleep was had, the chairs there are pretty much impossible to sleep in.

ABajaninCork

sugarman wrote: »

Id say he had a lucky escape there.

You weren't there so you can't comment. No. I did. I won't go into details...

PARlance wrote: »

How closely was it followed?
Sounds like you were juggling men.

Not at all!! The Zakynthos experience was some years before the Faro one. But the Faro one was the worst. Took Thomas Cook SIX hours to even give us something to eat and drink. Awful.

Antar Bolaeisk

Not a stopover but the worst airport experience I had was landing in to Dammam airport for the first time and standing in the queues for nearly four hours waiting to get through visa processing wondering what the hell I was after doing.

Been delayed there before as well and to be fair they're normally very good with handing out something to keep you going, buttered bread and a small juice carton