Crikey! My flight to SteemFest has been cancelled!
My husband @cryptofunk turned to me this morning and muttered the words "Monarch have gone bust."
"Ay Caramba Batman!" I shouted back, though my language was a little more fruity than that. I’m speaking at SteemFest next month and we booked our flights pretty soon after SteemFest was announced with Monarch Airline, so at this point I was in full panic mode.
I think the neighbours may have thought we were being attacked by wild cats as all you could hear at 7am around our house was the high pitched squeal of my voice ranting about our cancelled flights.
Plan B
"We will get there, after all there are other modes of transport," I yelled at my husband from downstairs as I powered up my laptop ready to search for travel alternatives.
"What about boat? Lisbon is by the sea," I asked. A quick Google later and I shouted back, "OK, no ferries to there from UK but we could hire a boat right?"
"You can’t sail" hubby chuckled back at me.
"I have a month to learn!"
I think at this stage the image of The Wolf of Wall Street’s Jordan Belfort on his Yacht in the middle of the storm may have been going through his mind, with me being airlifted to safety and asking to be flown onwards to SteemFest.
Apparently by boat was not an option, so time for Plan C.
Plan C
"We could go by train," I said staring at the Eurostar booking page. "We could take the train to France then from France down to Lisbon."
"That would take days!" @cryptofunk said.
Apparently this was also not an option, but I still marked this one up as a possibility, quite literally as at this point I had the whiteboard out and a selection of coloured marker pens.
Apparently I have a rather nostalgic view of train travel!
Plan D
"I’ll find another flight," @cryptofunk shouted down the stairs at me. "There are other airlines and airports."
At this point I was leaving the house, I could hear the frantic taping of keys coming from upstairs. Now I will admit (obviously not to his face) that his idea was probably the more sensible alternative to my travel plans, but I like to get a bit creative!
I’m a natural optimist and a big believer in silver linings. So I’ll wait and see what this little glitch to our plans brings. I count my blessing that we weren’t abroad when the flights were cancelled, as many other people are waking up this morning to find themselves stranded abroad. I hope they get home safely.
I'm determined to get to SteemFest no matter what happens!
Budget airlines go bust left, right and center. Berlin Air is one of them. Forget the "cheap" flights (unless you are a gambler) and go with the established airlines. British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa etc, they would all get you there, though a bit more expensive (but not always, as I have found out). The only other problem you could encounter is a pilot strike or some such thing. I missed one by a hair a couple of years ago going overseas. I was on one of the last flights - and hoping the strike would be over when I had to return 3 weeks later (it was). Another problem I ran into in Seattle last year, when Delta Air computers crashed. I could not get the boarding pass for the flight I was booked on, as did a long queue of other passengers - so I assume the plane left half empty while people were waiting in line to get boarding done manually.
In Seattle, there is a desk especially for Microsoft employees. I don't know what it was, but I asked a attendant there - they seemed like they had absolutely nothing to do, while the rest of the airport was a holy mess - but the nice lady there had pity on me and although I was not with Microsoft, she managed to re-book me onto British Airways - the great thing about this was that I arrived in Paris for my connection sooner than I would have with Delta!
When we checked the flights we had two real options and they were both budget- Monarch seemed the slightly less budget so we went with them. Doh!
You didn't say where your departure point is - Lisbon is not some outpost on a remote island, there are, at least from my end, a lot of connections. https://www.expedia.co.uk/lp/flights/vie/lis/vienna-to-lisbon
well, I must live in a privileged area - you say train takes days: Vienna to Lisbon is a little over 7 hours. https://www.cleartrip.com/tourism/routes/ii/vienna-to-lisbon-route.html
Thanks! My husband sorted it, we are going to fly from London and come back on a later date from Lisbon. Just need to sort out accommodation now.
my bad about the train, I was wrong - that was only the first leg of the trip, lol - I thought it sounded short, so I double checked. I traveled on trains in Spain, and the worse part of the trip is buying the tickets (language, you think there is anyone there that speaks English?) idk Portugal, maybe their public transport is by ox cart.
just keep Smiling and Keep Sharing Love !❤️
I did miss a flight once, I was connecting in Madrid and missed the flight, which meant an overnight stop over in Madrid. I try now to book flights with a longer connection time- it may be an extra couple of hours on my trip but it does mean I'm not frantically rushing through airports trying to find the right gate, and no panics if my flight is late arriving.
makes sense. I had experiences where I am running literally for a mile through a terminal to catch the connection. Worse yet if your connection is cross-border and you have to queue up for customs .....
just keep Smiling and Keep Sharing Love !❤️
Hi @opheliafu, What an awful situation. Glad to know you were able to get it sorted out. I had a similar situation coming to the U.K. a couple of weeks ago when I went to check in online and found my name was misspelled on my reservation. Mind you I was supposed to board a plane in less than a day and all the actors I could reach (2 airlines and a booking service) all said I had to talk to one of the other characters. But in the end it all got sorted out, so I totally I agree with your closing sentiment, it will work out. Keeping that sentiment in mind has helped me lower my stress levels during challenging times because I just know that a solution will present itself eventually.
So good job to @cryptofunk, and I'm looking forward to introducing you two to my wife in Lisboa!
I remember about the name situation, glad you made it to the UK though and it was great to talk to you in London. I'm looking forward to meeting your wife in Lisbon.
We are now just sorting out if we can get refunds for the cancelled flights and new accommodation for our extra stay.
Hah, I need to do a better job remembering who I tell stories to so I don't repeat myself!
You didn't tell me (don't worry about your memory), I read it in your post https://steemit.com/steemfest/@philmesnier/why-on-earth-did-i-get-a-slot-to-speak-at-steemfest in the comments section- I had forgotten where I had read it so just went to check!
SteemFest looks like a ton of fun, and I wish I can participate in future as well, but I hope you can find a way to get there. Don't always depend on cheap transport, because this can turn out awful. I once bought some cheap bus rides to Latvia and back and the bus never went back so I needed to almost pay triple the amount to get back home.. Anyway best of luck!
Well we have manged to book new flights with a different airline. So I will be going, but we've had to stump up for another set of flights- a lesson for the future I think. I should have done a bit more research on the airline- but we are not having much luck at the moment with airlines in the UK.
Uh this thing happens all the time, the most important thing is that you can still go there. Have a safe trip and enjoy the fest! :)
thanks for sharing of lisbon fest
The principle of budget airlines ... this draw customers due to low cost air tickets... but they forget a little about the fact that they are engaged in passenger transportation. ... And in the end, aircraft only "sleep" in their airports and passengers are waiting in the waiting room.
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We hope you can get another flight soon!