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Child Item

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?

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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

lazza14

Back in '97 I had a 4 hour stopover in CDG ... it was 97 so Porno mags were still on sale ... I bought a couple and went into the mens jacks ....

spent about 2 hours beating my meat , but the other 2 hours were boring as f*ck ..

Yamanoto

spiralism wrote: »

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.

There are comfortable leather recliners in a darkened area upstairs near the KLM Crown Lounge.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

Not many bad experiences except jfk for 8 hours, not too bad. But just gotta say that hotel that's connected to Stansted is worth every penny. I forgot the name but it's basically 30 seconds from the terminal. Has black out blinds and seems pretty sound proof. Bliss after a big London session waiting on an early flight.

Toots

Heathrow a fortnight after the London Bombings in 2005. Had flown from Australia and didn't get any sleep so I looked like the walking dead. Not sure if this made me look shifty or something, but I got frisked 4 times on my way through the various security checks. We queued for 2 hours to get through security, then got to the transfer desk only to discover that someone in Aer Lingus fcuked up royally and had somehow booked us for a flight in September. The woman behind the desk was a complete cow, and was really rude about it all. We had to wait on standby for 6 hours, and the only money we had was about £14 stg left over from the stopover on the way out.

Oh and Malaga airport. Worst airport ever.

mosstin

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).

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?

Free samples of food and drink???? In 20+ years of travelling I've never received free food at an airport.

magentis

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.

Pure and utter sh1thole isnt it.

LorMal

Spend 43 years in Cairo Airport one long night. Now there is a ****hole.

connected1

georgiecasey wrote: »

Not many bad experiences except jfk for 8 hours, not too bad. But just gotta say that hotel that's connected to Stansted is worth every penny. I forgot the name but it's basically 30 seconds from the terminal.

It's the Radisson Hotel. Often spend the night there when catching connecting flights and Yeh, it's great

Steve_Carella

Abu Dhabi seems to be getting a fair few mentions on here. And deservedly so. A three hour stopover there seems to last forever. There's just something about it...24 hour trading under electric light in a windowless terminal seems to have created an absolutely nightmarish place.

HalloweenJack

On one weekend trip to Holland, I had two ~8 hour stopovers in Heathrow (mate booked the flights, didn't tell me this 'til I'd paid). Both times we arrived just as things were shutting down.

First time we kept ourselves going by chatting away and playing basic games. Second time I politely informed him I intended to sleep, couldn't care how awkward or impractical it was.