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Flying home for Christmas

  • 29-09-2013 9:22am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭


    Hi there,

    I am just wondering who is flying home for Christmas? I had to work last Christmas (it’s not celebrated here) so I am already really looking forward to getting home. I have my leave in to have me home the 13th to the 28th.

    What are the busiest days for Dublin airport? A few years ago, the big snow year, I got stuck in Abu Dhabi on the second leg of my trip to Dublin. There were loads of Irish folk from Aus and around the world going home and it got all Christmassy.

    It’s the one time I really don’t mind flying, throw some Christmas movies on the ipad and some music on the i-pod. 11 hours of pent up excitement on the plane. I have been away 6 years now and the one and only time I was surprised by a family member at the airport was two Christmas’s ago.

    Leaving on the 28th is going to kill me.


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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 1,197 ✭✭✭SuperS54


    Looking at flying back to, although better get off my ass and apply for a visa for the missus! In the past I've often flown on the 24th, long hauls tend to be fairly empty, risky in case of snow though, was lucky to make it back at all a couple of years ago, fair play to Aer Lingus who flew from Heathrow was everyone else had given up.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    Every flight home I have been on in the past around Christmas have been full to the brim, with loads of kids. There are so many Irish in the middle east now that any flight leaving from Dubai or Abu Dhabi are jammers. I was held up in Abu Dhabi over 10 hours due to the snow and then the flight landed in Shannon not Dublin. I didn't mind I just wanted to get of the plane it was so full.

    I have been looking at flights and the prices are through the roof with only 2-3 seats at reasonable prices then they sky rocket. I don’t mind paying to be honest I just need my firm to confirm that I am off.

    I may have to book a two stop 15 hour flight home rather than a 1 stop 11 hour. I don’t know how people from Aus do the long trip, I am lucky in that respect.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,415 ✭✭✭touts


    With the huge number of people who have left the country in the last 12 months I'd say the Airports will be chaotic for a few days before and after Christmas. Best bet is pick a date that suits you and book the flights now before they fill up.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    I got my leave approved and booked them this morning. I land on the 12th and leave on the 28th. Wish I could stay longer after Christmas but need to be in work the 29th.

    If you are flying on the 12th from Abu Dhabi it is nearly booked out. I had to book the 11th instead which cost me 3 more days leave :(

    Have the free chauffeur service booked to pick me up in Dublin so I am just counting down the days now.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,266 ✭✭✭Overflow




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  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Jude13 wrote: »
    I got my leave approved and booked them this morning. I land on the 12th and leave on the 28th. Wish I could stay longer after Christmas but need to be in work the 29th.

    If you are flying on the 12th from Abu Dhabi it is nearly booked out. I had to book the 11th instead which cost me 3 more days leave :(

    Have the free chauffeur service booked to pick me up in Dublin so I am just counting down the days now.


    Safe flight and enjoy your time back in Ireland when you land. There's NOTHING better than Christmas at home. Enjoy your time with family and friends and plenty of Christmas drinks too! ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,257 ✭✭✭Love2love


    Damn you overflow..... Look like a right dope crying on the bus!! That video is so lovely. I'm lucky enough that all my family are here but it used to be me coming home every Christmas.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    Ahh youtube is blocked here so no idea what was posted. Dying for some Irish food and booze now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 537 ✭✭✭dipdip


    I'm flying home for Christmas and I cannot WAIT.

    Dates not solid yet due to work but I'm getting all tingly just thinking about it! :D


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Overflow wrote: »

    Right I'm off to Dublin airport to camp out for the Christmas arrivals!!! That video was sooooo sweet!!!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,240 ✭✭✭✭leahyl


    Omg I'm getting quite emotional looking at that video! I don't have anyone abroad and I'm very lucky to have a job here in Ireland (I still love this country despite the state it's in :)) but it still has an affect on me! I love to see families coming together and being reunited for Christmas!!

    Christmas is MAGICAL!! :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    Can someone tell me what the video is so I can check it out? It's not showing on my computer.

    I really hate flying but looking forward to going home after missing Christmas last year. I will have suitcases full of pressies all packed days before.

    I have a ritual before flying, I always have a shower and a shave before I go to the airport, I have no idea why. I guess it just relaxes me. Check in online, drop the bags off. Hit the lounge with have one or two drinks (plus something to relax me) whilst watching a Christmas movies on the ipad. Wait until the last call, the airport here is tiny so the boarding gate is not far away, I hate waiting in the Q.
    My first flight is only an hour on a narrow body plane so i jus thang on for dear life. Then land and realise I am big jessy for being terrified and dont get too worried about the last long leg.
    Do a bit of Christmas browsing in AD Duty free and go to the lounge for some grub, try to be in the last few on the plane and try to sleep till I land.

    Jebus Im excited now.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    Jude13 wrote: »
    Can someone tell me what the video is so I can check it out? It's not showing on my computer.


    It's Flying Home For Christmas RTE News report. Lovely little video.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,292 ✭✭✭Cunning Stunt


    Tearing up in work aswell, goddammit! Lovely video

    I am not flying home this year - my OH is from this country so we have to take turns - give and take and all that. Still, I hate not being home at Xmas :(

    But this year I have a special treat to keep me happy - we are expecting a Christmas baby and I can't wait!


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    Kids make Christmas, best gift of all.

    I have been away for Christmas before and it is just what you make of it. Loads of decorations and booze, god I missed not being able to get enough ham though


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 24,650 Mod ✭✭✭✭Loughc


    But this year I have a special treat to keep me happy - we are expecting a Christmas baby and I can't wait!

    That's brilliant news!!! Many congrats!! Your Christmases are about to get a whole lot more magical from here on :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,292 ✭✭✭Cunning Stunt


    Thanks very much :)

    I concur with the other poster on the 'not getting enough ham' thing when abroad. It's duck here for xmas dinner, and that's on the 24th. I was never a big fan of duck so I dread the thought... Then on the 25th they're winding down and I'm all ''Hurray! It's Christmas day!!''. Just not the same...
    Though with a new baby I think I will be pre-occupied anyway ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,378 ✭✭✭Cherrycola


    Jude13 wrote: »
    Every flight home I have been on in the past around Christmas have been full to the brim, with loads of kids. There are so many Irish in the middle east now that any flight leaving from Dubai or Abu Dhabi are jammers. I was held up in Abu Dhabi over 10 hours due to the snow and then the flight landed in Shannon not Dublin. I didn't mind I just wanted to get of the plane it was so full.

    I have been looking at flights and the prices are through the roof with only 2-3 seats at reasonable prices then they sky rocket. I don’t mind paying to be honest I just need my firm to confirm that I am off.

    I may have to book a two stop 15 hour flight home rather than a 1 stop 11 hour. I don’t know how people from Aus do the long trip, I am lucky in that respect.

    I think my husband was on that flight too, was it a few years ago? He ended up in Shannon too, then the bus was bringing them all the way back to Dublin and wasn't going to stop in portlaoise to let him and another guy off! Thankfully they made him stop other than that they would have been stranded in Dublin airport as all roads out of Dublin were a nightmare!
    For the first time in 7yrs my husband will not have to fly home for Christmas cos he's back home for good now! ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,378 ✭✭✭Cherrycola


    Jude13, re YouTube being blocked, amongst other things I'm sure, get yourself a VPN, it's the only thing that made my life bearable when I lived in the ME.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,378 ✭✭✭Cherrycola


    Ah those news reports always kill me!! That and the airport clips at the end of Love Actually!
    So glad we don't have to do that anymore, the welcome home is lovely, it's the return journey after Christmas that sucks bigtime! No fear of any cameras there then, depressing everyone.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,698 ✭✭✭✭Princess Peach


    I went through hell last year flying home, took me 3 days of waiting around airports and 3 flights!

    But it was sooooo worth it. It may be horrible and busy airports and very little sleep, but gotta try make it home for Christmas! You'll forget all about the travels then and have the best time :D

    But I am glad to be in Ireland this year :p


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    Cherrycola wrote: »
    I think my husband was on that flight too, was it a few years ago? He ended up in Shannon too, then the bus was bringing them all the way back to Dublin and wasn't going to stop in portlaoise to let him and another guy off! Thankfully they made him stop other than that they would have been stranded in Dublin airport as all roads out of Dublin were a nightmare!
    For the first time in 7yrs my husband will not have to fly home for Christmas cos he's back home for good now! ;)

    Yeah that was the one, I decided that the bus would take too long and thought (rightly) that it would try to just go to Dublin airport which would be no use to me.

    Myself and another guy from Dublin hoped on a train to Heuston. It was full of old ladies who were going up to relative in Dublin as their water pipes were frozen etc. We helped them all with their luggage both in Limerick and Dublin then had a good Christmas natter. I still have a landscape pic from the carriage window as my screen saver, the snow was so beautiful.

    I got a taxi form Heuston and we kept stopping to help people stuck on the way home. We got to Whitehall road past the KCR and one driver just kept getting stuck, obviously never drove in the snow. Over and over we pushed them out, they wouldn't listen to instructions and kept concking out. Eventually pushed the car out again only fro them to crash into a parked car and block the road. I grabbed my luggage from the boot and trekked up to orwell round about when a friend picked me up.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,292 ✭✭✭Cunning Stunt


    I flew home aswell when Ireland had that huge snowfall. A bus trip from the airport down home normally takes around 2 hours. I was 5 and a half hours stuck on that bloody bus! But I was one of the lucky ones in that my flight made it to Dublin - up until my flight left for Ireland they had been grounding flights all over Europe (as you might remember) and somehow my flight got the all clear - must have been a temporary break in the diabolical weather conditions. They closed Dublin airport again that evening and I had just made it home so was so thankful!

    But what a Christmas! The water pipes were frozen in the house - the heating was screwed - my parents re-opened an old well on the property and were using that to feed their animals and to get water to flush the loo with! Big pots of water boiling on the cooker to use for a wash...Our bottled drinking water had to be rationed because the roads were so bad that we could hardly make it to the town to buy more - and yet in the face of it all, my mother managed to pull off an amazing Christmas dinner :) It was still great to get home, regardless.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    CS, that sounds amazing, it really is all about what you make of it.

    My trip felt like a movie, trying everything to get home for Christmas so I had a great one.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,266 ✭✭✭Overflow


    Cherrycola wrote: »
    I think my husband was on that flight too, was it a few years ago? He ended up in Shannon too, then the bus was bringing them all the way back to Dublin and wasn't going to stop in portlaoise to let him and another guy off! Thankfully they made him stop other than that they would have been stranded in Dublin airport as all roads out of Dublin were a nightmare!
    For the first time in 7yrs my husband will not have to fly home for Christmas cos he's back home for good now! ;)

    I was flying home that year too. We were sitting in the airport in Norway, which is 5 hours from my house, our flight was delayed for hours, expecting it to be cancelled, considering nearly every other inbound flight to Dublin was :) But somehow our flight got cleared. The snow is no problem in Norway, there was several feet of it when we left :) All was going well, we started descending into Dublin, we could see the city lights, i think yes !! we made it, but then an announcement from the captain. We ended up getting diverted to an airfield in Kerry somewhere. Had to get a packed bus all the way back to Dublin airport, with a pregnant wife and a 4 year old boy in the middle of the night. But it was all worth it and made being home even more special, considering how lucky we were. Everything shutdown after that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,789 ✭✭✭Jude13


    Overflow wrote: »
    I was flying home that year too. We ended up getting diverted to an airfield in Kerry somewhere. Had to get a packed bus all the way back to Dublin airport, with a pregnant wife and a 4 year old boy. I was just happy to be home because we got the last flight out before Christmas :)

    Ok I take back any moaning about landing in Shannon. Kerry!! with a the whole, pregnant, family. I tip my hat to you.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,266 ✭✭✭Overflow


    I've since added a few more details to the post ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,378 ✭✭✭Cherrycola


    I was sure my husbands flight was going to end up in Manchester, like the ones the previous day, so Shannon was a blessing really. I was weather watching all morning and they closed Dublin airport 15mins before the flight was due to land, I couldn't believe it! He would never have gotten out of Manchester if he'd been diverted there, as it was worse over there.
    And every year after that I had to remind him not to book the cheaper flight through the UK because they always seem to get hit worse than us with snow! And of course he never gave himself any wiggle room, always flying at the last minute!
    So delighted not to have to deal with that stress this year.


  • Moderators, Education Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,952 Mod ✭✭✭✭Moonbeam


    Tearing up in work aswell, goddammit! Lovely video

    I am not flying home this year - my OH is from this country so we have to take turns - give and take and all that. Still, I hate not being home at Xmas :(

    But this year I have a special treat to keep me happy - we are expecting a Christmas baby and I can't wait!

    aww Congrats:) I have 3 January babies so it is obviously the best time of year for them;))


    That video had me crying!! I could not cope with going near the airport at christmas I would be so upset with all the happy people getting their loved ones home.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,292 ✭✭✭Cunning Stunt


    Thanks Moonbeam :)
    I know what you mean about the emotions at the airport. I was waiting for my husband to fly in after a one day trip, and while I was there I saw two little girls who were waiting for their granddad -- and when he arrived and they ran to him, I was a blubbering mess - wouldn't mind but it wasn't Christmas and I wasn't even pregnant then, so no excuse!


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