What's put me off short-haul travel
Travel Issues 2014
It wasn'tjust the Christmas trip that was fraught with travel difficulties, it all started with Sweden in October when BA moved our flight half a day early but didn't email, just tried to phone us - when were clearly in another country and not using the phone! We were only able to call them when the kindly hotel staff let us use their phone next morning and rebooked ourselves onto a later flight so I could still have the last day of my birthday trip, only after a sleepless night, I so was too tired to enjoy it.
I lost count on how many flights changed on the Christmas trip, at least 4-5. The BMI flight from Birmingham to France changed time and destination twice before they eventually switched us to a different day, from Southampton to a third French destination. So having gained half a day in France we arranged to have lunch on the day of arrival, only to have our flight diverted when already in France to another airport! We then had to wait for a bus to take us to our original airport.
Our flight to Switzerland was bought a day early so we lost a day and a half in France with the only other of option going to Geneva for just one night - which wasn't worth it. We preferred an additional night in a country that was new to both of us so then had to re negotiate with our hotel for the whole 3 nights.
Then there was the lost scarf (a treasured Christmas present I bought for Tim in 2012) at Toulouse airport which no one claimed to find even though we realised we dropped it straight away in the sudden rush for boarding. We also lost our boarding tickets which we thought we needed for free tourist travel in pricey Geneva, but it turns out we would have got free travel anyway AND had them with us all along!!! Noooo!
Finally, flying back from Amsterdam, we didn't know the ordinarily brilliant airport was pretty much shut and we'd got there early for no reason. After 10 days away, we are looking forward to being home so being at the airport isn’t unusual! (Although, this never happens coming back from Vancouver)
Finally, finally, BMI announced 'final call for boarding' without any announcements for boarding, despite us constantly checking! So we had to run, having just bought a coffee as we thought we had time to spare! We needn’t have though as we had time to drink it in the queue, formed because everyone else had run too!
I've had a lifelong love for travel, but these experiences sure have put left me slightly broken-hearted. I have no desire to go short-haul at the moment but a real hankering for some quick over nighters in the UK. It’s ridiculous as like I always say, customer service is so easy to get right.
We already decided that Ireland maybe an option for next Christmas, which all being everything we dreamed about, will be our last Christmas in Britain, before we head to BC. This sort of thing just doesn't happen transatlantic, which is what I'm more used to. I’ve spent the last four years ‘doing Europe’ before our pending move out of the continent!
Still, we have booked a trip back to France for Easter so we can stay longer this time and the annual trip to Vancouver is booked for April. Onwards!
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