A travel lesson reinforced

[margbem]

A topic fairly frequently discussed is whether to risk flying in on the day of embarkation. We never do this, just to be safe, and we had this reinforced last Friday as we travelled from Manchester (UK) to Paris and on to Sint Maarten. (We are staying on the French side for a week so this issue did not affect us, apart from the exhaustion levels it left us with!)

 

Flight no 1, Manchester to Paris at 6am. Got up at 3.30am after a poor night’s sleep, checked in, all OK. Flight delayed as they tried to fix a fault, kept us on the air bridge for a while before sending us back to the gate. Eventually airborne at 7am. Already in a slight panic as we only had 2 hours in CDG anyway, now 1 hour. 
 

7.18am, back on ground at Manchester after an emergency landing with 7 attendant fire engines due to fumes and heat in cabin.

 

Eventually left for Paris at 7.25pm, given an hotel a fair distance from CDG, got into bed at 11.30pm. Back up at 6.30 am, flight to Sint Maarten and arrived here exactly 24 hours late. If we had been boarding same day as the original flight, or even on the second day, it would have been a nightmare.

 

And we didn’t do Seabourn Air because the cost through them was double what we paid booking direct. Air France looked after us magnificently. It certainly has made us even more determined to leave plenty of time if things go wrong!

 

Looking forward to embarking the Ovation on Saturday.

[galeforce9]

22 minutes ago, margbem said:

A topic fairly frequently discussed is whether to risk flying in on the day of embarkation. We never do this, just to be safe, and we had this reinforced last Friday as we travelled from Manchester (UK) to Paris and on to Sint Maarten. (We are staying on the French side for a week so this issue did not affect us, apart from the exhaustion levels it left us with!)

 

Flight no 1, Manchester to Paris at 6am. Got up at 3.30am after a poor night’s sleep, checked in, all OK. Flight delayed as they tried to fix a fault, kept us on the air bridge for a while before sending us back to the gate. Eventually airborne at 7am. Already in a slight panic as we only had 2 hours in CDG anyway, now 1 hour. 
 

7.18am, back on ground at Manchester after an emergency landing with 7 attendant fire engines due to fumes and heat in cabin.

 

Eventually left for Paris at 7.25pm, given an hotel a fair distance from CDG, got into bed at 11.30pm. Back up at 6.30 am, flight to Sint Maarten and arrived here exactly 24 hours late. If we had been boarding same day as the original flight, or even on the second day, it would have been a nightmare.

 

And we didn’t do Seabourn Air because the cost through them was double what we paid booking direct. Air France looked after us magnificently. It certainly has made us even more determined to leave plenty of time if things go wrong!

 

Looking forward to embarking the Ovation on Saturday.

Phew.  Glad you are getting a good rest now.  

[Isklaar]

Glad to know you got there. Manchester is our closest airport. In my opinion it's awful. I feel for you being stuck there for 12 hours!

[margbem]

2 minutes ago, Isklaar said:

Glad to know you got there. Manchester is our closest airport. In my opinion it's awful. I feel for you being stuck there for 12 hours!

Thank you! Air France got us a day room at the Hilton so we had lunch, a sleep and a bath, at least! If you had seen us getting there, though! The shuttle bus had finished so we walked fromT2. Quite a long way. We had all our luggage with us on a trolley, but then we had to cross the dual carriageway with no dropped kerbs….. we are too old for all this! 

[fudge]

Hi,

That sounds a shocker, feel for you! We have done this cruise three times and always took a chance, thankfully it turned out OK each time, but as you say, never say never. Looking forward to meeting you on the cruise.

[2SailingNomads]

We always arrive at least 1 day prior or more if flying to another continent.  First cruise we did, leaving in January from Miami, based on flights we could book we arrived a day early.  There was a big snow storm in the Noth East and we subsequently met multiple folks who had planned to arrive the day the ship left only to have to catch up 3 days later.