Flights delayed.

The weekends news of the delays at Heathrow because of a computer glitch brought back some uncomfortable memories....
David rang me up one Friday afternoon to ask if I could pack a suitcase in a few hours. He had been given a holiday in Portugal by one of his colleagues who couldn't go.
I said that of course I could get us both packed and off we went the next morning, a Saturday. We went to Gatwick, a drive of a couple of hours, to book in nice and early.
Despite us getting there on time the flight was delayed. I can't remember why.
We sat, trying to get comfortable for over six hours. After eight hours hunger and aching limbs almost made us go back home but we stuck it out, joining in the grumbling and complaints.
Various solutions were suggested, one of which was to find a nearby hotel.
Hundreds of very cross people slept on floors,, queued for food and toilets and the situation got steadily worse.
Eventually, after a wait of several hours our plane arrived.
The holiday was after the bad start a good one. We sat in the winter sunshine and tried to forget the mayhem at the airport.
Half way through David got out his credit card.
He was reading the small print.
In the days before we all had access to wifi many of us found it hard work to read all the detail involved in the fairly new notion of cards....but David had helped set up the banks new venture into Access.
He delved through his papers and sat up grinning...
A delay of over six hours brought compensation....I can't remember how much now!
I was sceptical naturally...
But the bottom line was that he was right and not only for his card but for mine too....
The sum of money involved more than paid for the holiday....the memory of the dreadful start suddenly was wiped out!
I hope the same holds good for all those disappointed people yesterday!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad