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

roro1990 · 30-03-2015 6:05pm #1

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 · 30-03-2015 6:08pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:16pm

8 hours in Luton. Sh1thole.

Links234 · 30-03-2015 6:17pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:19pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:21pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:22pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:23pm

roro1990 wrote: »

Absolute banter.

Magico Gonzalez · 30-03-2015 6:23pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:24pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:26pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:27pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:27pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:29pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:30pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:30pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:34pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:37pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:39pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:39pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:40pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:42pm

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 · 30-03-2015 6:54pm

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 · 30-03-2015 7:10pm

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 · 30-03-2015 7:12pm

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 · 30-03-2015 7:17pm

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 · 30-03-2015 7:19pm

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 · 30-03-2015 7:23pm

15 minutes in Mountmellick

Peregrine · 30-03-2015 7:34pm

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 · 30-03-2015 7:39pm

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

dlouth15 · 30-03-2015 7:45pm

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.

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

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