British Isles 2009
A couple years ago we made a plan to travel to England and Ireland, it would be great. As we got closer to booking flights, we changed our minds and went to Eastern Europe instead. Turned out that summer England had some of the worst rains and flooding ever, while we sweltered in a heat wave. So a couple years later when we are deciding where to go, it seemed to make sense to plan a trip to somewhere we had originally planned to go a few years earlier... England and Ireland,
and heck, if we could get the time off, we'll throw in Scotland and Wales too.
Turns out we went to a travel show at the same time as Flyglobespan was offering really good prices on an open-jaw flight that would see us land in Glasgow, Scotland and depart from Dublin, Ireland. With the help of a friendly lady from Flight Centre we walked out with 2 tickets and had to start planning. That's my forte... Start in Scotland, end in Ireland... I can figure that out. Just pick what we really want to see, prioritize and draw lines on a really big map, for such a small area, there sure is a lot to see... Prioritization will be important, we want to enjoy the trip.
(click to enlarge)
With a rough schedule and map of where to go and what to see, and a couple of suitcases we start our adventure to the British Isles, it's 3:30pm. (insert sounds of screeching tires and crash)
flyglobespan.com
We had never flown with Flyglobespan before, and didn't have high expectations based on the discount nature of their pricing, but it wouldn't be a good experience. Weeks before we left we were told of a minor time change, a couple of hours, no big deal, and oh yeah, we're also throwing an additional stopover in Manchester before you arrive. Sucks, but ok...
as it turns out it's the planned Calgary stopover that provides the most drama.
We land in Calgary, and sit in the plane as some passengers disembark, and more passengers get on, it's supposed to be a 1 hour stopover. After a couple hours we are told that they are waiting for some paperwork before they can go. An hour later we are finally told that a baggage handler has driven his truck into the plane, and they are evaluating whether it can be fixed. After 4 hours of sitting on the tarmac with no food or drinks (luckily we packed our own) they finally determine that the plane can't go, and we will have to be put in hotels and flown out the next day once Boeing can fix the plane. Still we are stuck in the plane, and after 30 minutes of waiting to get off, they tell us they didn't want us to wait in the airport so long for our luggage. So finally we are off to claim our luggage, even after the wait it doesn't arrive for a good 30-45 minutes. It's 9pm, and we still don't know where we are staying that night, or when the flight leaves.
There is a mass of people standing around the flyglobespan desk waiting for word, when they come out with "sorry for the delay, we have these letters for you, come and get one". Due to an unforeseen.... blah blah blah. Nothing about hotels, but it does tell us we each will get a $10 food voucher. Finally they start arranging hotels, and after a long wait we get assigned to the hotel in the airport, lucky us not stuck at a further hotel. We exit the airport doors and cross the street to see a line snaking out onto the road of fellow passengers checking in. At 11:30 pm we are finally checked in and head to the only place in the hotel still serving food... bar food, which a $10 voucher doesn't cover. It's 1 am before we get to our room... good start globespan!
The next morning we wake up to a note under the door, our flyglobespan flight will now leave at 1:00pm. 24 hours since we left our house and we're still in Calgary.
Since you never know what kind of service you will get on a flight, always buy a couple bottles of water and some snacks for the flight. Make sure to wait until after you have cleared security, as they will confiscate your water at the x-ray machines.
It's a long flight to Britain, and flyglobespan charges for everything from snacks to drinks, then somehow they miss giving Norine and I our dinner, with nothing more than an "oh well" they give us a couple leftover beef dinners. Norine doesn't eat red meat, apparently checking in advance on their website where it lists chicken and pasta didn't cut it, they ran out.
We fly over Hudsons Bay and Nunavat and across the Atlantic, somewhere along the way I pass out. We stopover in Manchester for an hour, and arrive in Glasgow at the convenient time of 6am. Thanks globespan, never again. At least now we can start our vacation, a day late...
good thing we prioritized our plans, we've lost a day already.