Flight home was delayed again this morning from 0700 to 1015 and we FINALLY took off at 1057. Same plane, according to pilot, apparently a Boeing engineer was flown out from the UK, with a ‘part’ flown in from the US. No idea if that is accurate or not especially as the engines on Boeings are not made by Boeing (either Rolls Royce or Pratt and Whitney, definitely not Boeing).
We then had an aborted landing just as wheels were about to touch down at Birmingham, which was absolutely no fun at all as the plane suddenly reared upwards with full power after the control tower told the pilot another plane was on the runway …….. Carole told me that my Mum had told her it happened when as a 2 year old we flew home from Singapore, more than once, to try and get the landing gear down. I am not a great flier (in planes, helicopters don’t bother me at all - 2 of my most favourite memories of flying in a helicopter are 1/ sitting on the open tailgate of a Chinook in the Falklands as we resupplied the mountain sites and 2/ when I was ‘allowed’ to man the machine gun on the side door of a Lynx in Bosnia on a flight from Split in Croatia to Kiseljak in Bosia during the civil war in 1995) and today’s fun and games did nothing to allay that fear.
Anyway, some 46 hours after getting into the taxi at the hotel to take us to the airport on Thursday evening, we pulled onto our drive. An hour later, we had the grandkids passed to us so Daughter and her partner could start their long weekend away, late by 48 hours. Cheers Tui !!!
Will do the compensation claim online tomorrow and write the letter to their CEO on Monday (including receipts). Yeah, planes and cars breakdown, I absolutely get that, but the total lack of communication and the invisible reps on the island was disgusting (I’ll also be writing to the Occidental Hotel in the islands Capital, Las Palmas, thanking them for their brilliant service and hospitality after Tui dumped 28 pissed off Brits onto them; the 3 female receptionists we dealt with were quite wonderful and provided us with more information than the tour company did).
Anyway, we’re home safe and sound and as we feel today, we’ll never use Tui again.
It is nice to be home, finally! Have never had this happen to us before, but it seems from talking to people , plenty of people have!
Oh yeah, one day I will get the window seat 😉
Oh my! I think today more than ever before that the adage “if you have time to spare, go by air”, holds true to an incredible degree. Did you kiss the ground when you got off the plane?! 😊
You incident is why I have decided to give up flying. I take blood thinners and the idea of being held on a plane for hours scares me. Glad you finally made it home.
Glad to hear you are safely on home ground. Not sure your troubled journey would instil me with confidence though. You did get a lovely shot of the clouds and engine though
An aborted landing as well! Eeek and double eek. I, like you, am perfectly happy in either a very tiny plane or a chopper but I hate flying in commercial airlines. Can fully understand why this has not enhanced your comfort in the whole flying process, it wouldn't me either! Appalling that Tui just legged it and avoided talking to you all. They should have been right there at the fore, reassuring you and passing on updates regularly. Get complaining, for sure and I wish you well with it.
I'm just quaking now, with another plane mishap, that aborted landing sounds horrific. And as for the company, how these big companies can't get their s*** together when this sort of thing can't be uncommon is beyond me. Good luck with the compensation claims.
Beautiful capture. The blue color is said to have a calming effect. It's great that you made it home. And I completely agree with you. Something can always go wrong, but the lack of information is outrageous.
We used to travel independently when flights were cheap and book the hotel direct or through a web portal. We've used Jet2 in our last few holidays , I quite rate them , although we holiday in a tiny resort which attracts very few brits to the hotel (we've always been the only brits) . No holiday reps visit.
A nice image
Oh yeah, one day I will get the window seat 😉