Holidays From Hell
03/05/08
A story from two of our members Rosemary & Phil Grant.After you read this you may never want to travel abroad again.
Last year they had booked to go on a tour of South Africa.
They were due to leave Glasgow Airport on Saturday the 30th of June on a 3.15 pm flight to London.
They boarded the flight and were sitting on the tarmac as the terrorist attack took place at 3.11 pm.
The passengers on the plane were not allowed to leave and that lasted for over nine hours.
For food, they were supplied with one small packet of shortbread and a mars bar each, to drink, they were given one coffee and two small cans of Pepsi each.
When they were eventually allowed to leave the flight they were bussed to the SECC, at that point they were interviewed by CID officers and were not allowed to leave until all passengers had been questioned.
The captain had told them on the plane that they would be provided with a taxi home from the SECC.
Unfortunately this never happened and they had to queue in the rain for some time, eventually arriving back home at 4.00am in the morning feeling pretty miserable and £65.00 lighter in the pocket for the taxi fare.
Next day they had to make three calls to different call centres in India to try and establish where their luggage was.
What happened about their Holiday?
Well they were told that because it was a terrorist attack no insurance company covers you for that.
They rescheduled their holiday for the 5th of April this year.
When the arrived at Glasgow Airport they were to catch a 3.15 flight to London Heathrow (sound familiar) which would enable them to connect with the South African flight at 7.00pm
Due to technical difficulties (here it comes) they were delayed for over two hours at Glasgow they arrived at Heathrow with only minutes left to catch the South African flight.
They ran all the way to the gate and although the flight had not left they were told that they were too late to board. (Phew)
They were put on standby for the 8.00pm flight, which turned out to be fully booked.
Eventually they managed to get booked on to a British Airways flight, which meant they were going through terminal five.
Due to luggage handling problems the flight was left sitting on the tarmac for over two hours.
At this point the captain informed them they were now able to leave for Johannesburg but without any luggage on board.
Their first day in South Africa was a shambles as it was a Sunday and no shops were open so they were only able to buy the bare essentials (no clothes)
As the Tour started the next day Monday, they were unable to get any new clothes so it was now Tuesday and they were still wearing the clothes they had left Glasgow in on the Saturday.
One of the cases arrived a week later by courier, the second case has still not been seen (no one can give them any information on where it went)
Going by this experience perhaps we should all consider staying in Scotland for our holidays?