Thursday, June 14, 2007

Travelling home

I would like to tell you a story of my travelling adventures yesterday:

I left my house in Fenham at 11.45, caught the bus to Central Station and then the metro to the airport, panicking at South Gosforth when it changed drivers and we had to sit and wait for that. But I arrived at the airport with more time to spare than usual and after checking in and dropping my guitar case at outsize luggage, proceeded through security, only to be told that our flight was delayed an hour. That's our Easyjet flight, just to be clear. So I bought some food, and thought that at least it wasn't a five hour delay. Then they told us it would be another half hour. I started to worry. Eventually they called us down to the gate, where we then sat for another half an hour as the flight hadn't actually arrived. Finally, an hour after we should have arrived in Belfast, we were boarding the plane. We finally arrived in Belfast, and I have never been so glad to see rainy Northern Ireland.
However, the saga did not stop there. Up to this point it hadn't really been a big deal, I mean, getting delayed is an inevitable part of having to travel. It was just ironic as the day before I'd been having a flybe/easyjet debate with Mr D from church (for the start of this, see here) who had had some issues with flybe on a recent trip to Southhampton. On arriving in Belfast, I discovered that my guitar hadn't quite made it from Newcastle (thankfully it wasn't my new beautiful guitar). I suppose I should be understanding I mean, Newcastle's such a huge airport...no wait, that's not right. Yes, but I arrived at the airport with only minutes to spare until the plane left...no wait, that's not right either. I hadn't checked on an extra bag when booking my flights...no, I paid £5 extra when booking to make sure I could bring it. I think you know where this is heading.
I.do.not.like.easyjet. OK, granted, it's not really based on the fact that I was delayed or that my bag didn't make it , I just don't like it that they won't assign seat numbers! It's the weirdest system ever! Does it save time? no. Does it save money? no. Is assigning a seat difficult to do? no. Does it mean that if you travel in a group you have to arrive about 5 hours before the plane's due to leave just to make sure you get seats together, but then might still be assigned a lower boarding group and not get seats together because every other group has thought of the same thing? Yes!

Well, my guitar arrived today, so no major damage done. Just thought I'd give you all a laugh, you especially Mr D :)

5 comments:

doonhamer geordie said...

Ok, Ok, Ok...
You're right - Easyjet is just as awful as flymaybe...
Satisfied?

But you didn't need to go to all the bother of paying them to delay your flight and lose your guitar, though!

I'm just thankful that your guitar has been reunited with you - and thankful too that it wasn't your beautiful new guitar that got lost!

Hope you have a good time in Norn Irn, now you've finally arrived!

doonhamer geordie said...

It's all very well me thinking flybe is worse than easyjet, and you thinking the other way round - but we need to be scientific about it (so says Mrs D!)...

So I've asked people on my blog to vote for which airline they think is worse...

That should decide the matter once and for all!!

Anonymous said...

HAHA, well, wow...sounds kind of like Africa, and that seat thing is messed! I agree, assign seats, we'll start a petition ;)

Anonymous said...

I've only just discovered that you still blog! I thought you stopped after germany. I have some serious catching up to do!

Lynne said...

Hey! yeah, I stopped while I was in Benin, but I decided to start again when I got back to uni - it's a fun pasttime! You seriously need to catch up - happy to provide a distraction :)