Advertisement
Published: December 12th 2010
Edit Blog Post
So, I am writing this sitting at my dining room table back in America, just about a week after my arrival back into the states. I decided to write one more blog because so much happened my last two days in Spain I just could not pass it up.
Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. My senora and I spent a good majority of the day checking the news because the air controllers in the madrid airport went on strike. In otherwords, no flight was leaving or entering Madrid in about 24 hours at this point. We were both really nervous but the news kept telling us that they were sending in the military, later the armada to escort and monitor the air controllers at their posts. by 6pm, saturday, the news had shown that the air controllers were suppose to be back in their posts after friday and saturday not flying, and that my airline would be reopening at 6am sunday morning. my flight took off at 140 on sunday so luckily our flight would not be canceled. So anyways, with this in the back of my mind, i headed out to meet up with Suzanne and John for
one last adventure. We decided to go geocaching, and I actually found 3 of them!!! It was really fun, we hit up the Corte Ingles, and even went into Plaza Mayor for the lights and grabbed a drink. It was nice. That night I returned back and just hung out with Any and we were both relived to know that the airlines would be back in order. Little did we know, the chaos that was happening in the airport.
Sunday morning. Day of departure. The taxi comes to get me and my friend and we head out to the airport. We walk in and...are you kidding me. lines and lines of people trying to get on flights because their fligths were canceled! So we waited on a line for about an hour and a half to check out luggage and check in. And guess what!? I am put on standby. In fact, everyone in our group, minus two kids who checked in the night before, were put on standby. The only hope that I had was that the lady said that I was on the top to get on this flight. That was our only hope, but we tried
and tried to remain positive. we get to the gate and see hundreds and hundreds of people waiting. To make a long story short, the civil guard came to protect the workers and the gate as they were letting people board and started to read off the standby list. Kept my fingers crossed, but no luck would let me on this flight, even though I was at the top of the stanbylist, there was a waiting list of over 150 people to get on this flight. nice. So our flight took off, without our group. Great. I'm freaking out becase people whose flights were canceled on friday STILL hadn't gotten a solid flight back to the states. So we waited line after line after line to get some answers. We waited in one line for a really long time, listing to christmas music and telling stories, when we were told to go to a different line.; this line was in front of all the other people waiting.....I swear a riot almost broke out. But it was impossible for everyone to understand because it wasn't that our flight was canceled like theirs, ours took off, without us, because they gave our
tickets away, even though we were booked 6 months ago. Anyways, they took care of us...sort of. They gave us a connecting flight to London at 950 in the morning and from London to JFK, we should have been back at 710pm. And for our inconviences, they put us up in a 4 star hotel, transportation included, and 600 euro visa card. Worth the trouble? potentially. But so we got their at around 1030 am, and left the airport around 11pm, with hopes that everything would be situated.
Wake up call on Monday was at 630 to catch the bus, not that we could shower and change because our luggage had already been checked for our flight this morning the night before to save us the trouble. So we didn't have to rush and stuff. But we get to the airport, go to brisitsh airways to grab our seat numbers and such and head to our gate. Now, apparently I'm too much of a realist because no one wanted to hear or understand that our flight could be delayed and so they assured me it wouldn't be. Surprise surprise. 4 hour flight delays- result....didn't make our connecting flight to
JFK. We literally just got to London just as the plane was taking off even though the crew tried to get us on the plane. I really couldn't even believe it. but God must have been on our side this time, because the airline automatically put our group on the next flight, as well as about 30 other people. Result: We got to JFK around 810 instead of 710. 😊
The chaos of the airplanes were unbelievable. My senora and I had wonderful communication to keep each other posted on what was going on, and I'm sure it gave her peace of mind. But the organization was madness to make up for canceled flights. One kid was telling me that they flew a group of kids from Syracuse University to Portugal, to mexico, to miami, to jfk to syracuse. People beyond people were put on standby, and i sure hope they stopped giving flight tickets away. By the end of Sunday night the waiting list grew from 150 people, to well over 400 people who were looking for flights to new york, for all sorts of reasons. Our group was lucky in the sense that our flight wasn't canceled but that they gave ours away so we had preference. Thank goodness. Alls i can say is that I am happy to be home but I truly do miss Spain. But i'll be back, and i'll be sure to bring some of my favorite people too 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0421s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb