Any bloobers in airports?

[Randi]

I'll start with this one. My sister and brother in law visited Paris in their younger days and they didn't speak french. Going back home, they got in a taxi and thought they'd asked the driver to go to the airport. They had, but what they didn't realize, there are at least two airports in or near Paris - so they went for the wrong one and nearly missed their flight.

[Cincy'sMom]

Ralph and I dance at a studio that for the last 20 years has been peorformong each summer at Disney world, which means a group of approx 30 dancers, high school and up get son the big plan and heads down. I have only gone on this trip the past 3 years...The first year, while at Disney, we were awarded a "Mousecar" ( like an Oscar, but for Disney) Our director refused to get on the plan coming home untio he was postitive the award would be given its own seat!

Year 2: When we got back to the Orlando airport to fly home, the first group int he elevator when to the top level of the parking garage, instead of the airport. This group was mostly young girls inclusing 2 of the director's granddaughters. Everyone else went to the ticket counter. The girls' parents didn't seem the least bit concerned, went to the boarding gate, and blamed the girls for going the wrong way. Meanwhile they are paging the group from one area, we are paging them to another and no oneis hearing the other page. Finally, everyone was found and no one was left behind.

Year 3: The was out first trip after 9-11. Our director has always had a thing about being VERY early to the airport and he was so sure security was going to be sooooo mcuh tighter, we had to be in Detriot 4 hOURS before flight time. I kept saying, they are going to laugh at us!! Guess what? The flights aren't loaded into the ticketing computer until about 2 hours before flight....so we got to sit onthe hard floor for HOURS, so we could then ckech in and wait TWO MORE HOURS before boarding....at by then we could eat andmaybe more importantly get a drink!!!

What will happen year 4? I'll let you know in August!!!

[RICHARD]

went to pick up dad at the airport after one of his trips.....
he had gone to his place of birth and while he was there
he was wined and dined and given a bottle of 75 year old
spirits.

he did open the bottle but saved most of the spirits for home 'use'
he carefully packed his carryon, boarded and made the flight home. when he appeared at the gate we took his carryon bags and proceeded to go to the parking structure. from behind i heard a thunk, pop and immediately the smell of 75 year old tequila filled the terminal......

my dad laughed it off, by brother died a little that day....and i tried to figure out a way to see if the drippings were of any value to me

my dad said the bottle survived 75 years to be able to christen
the TOM BRADLEY terminal @LAX...

[Edwina's Secretary]

Many years ago when the "new" Atlanta airport was being constructed....you took a bus out to the planes and got off when they called your city. I was headed home to Chicago via Knoxville, or Nashville, or Louisville....some "ville". I got off the bus and boarded the plane. The flight attendant and I had a "discussion" about the best location for my carryon. I proceeded back to my seat and it was occupied!

The gentleman and I both had boarded passes with that seat number so back I marched to the front of the plane. Now I am getting a bit of a "head of steam" as I indignantly presented my boarding pass and the situation to the flight attendant.

I was on the wrong plane. Now rather sheepish and red faced...I asked for my carryon back...walked OFF the plane, had to get back on the bus the next time it came by and get off again at the correct plane!

I have flown about 1,000,000 on American Airlines alone since then. I am far more savvy and far more accepting. Ah youth!

[NoahsMommy]

My mom and I went to Hawaii the year I graduated high school together. We stayed on Maui, but flew in to Ohau and took a "puddle jumper". When it was time to go home, we went to the small airport on Maui and got ready for our flight to Ohau. Well....it was overbooked! Mind you, we ARE from "Laid Back" California, but Hawaii is MUCH more laid back!

The people at the airport were so non-chalant, "Oh, just take the next flight.". What??? Are we going to miss our flight home??? (I think we both had to be at work the next day after being away for 10 days.)

The fun started when they told us what gate (or some place) to go to...they are Hawaiian names!! We were so confused and stressed out, while the islanders hadn't a care in the world! Guess we didn't learn much in our ten days, huh?

[Miss Meow]

Auckland airport. A bomb threat meant we were evacuated and made to sit on the tarmac for hours in the freezing cold Wouldn't the bomber see where we were and then blow us up?!

Melbourne airport. I am a nervous flyer so sometimes I take Xanax as I get panic attacks. I got so nervous the first time I took them that instead of the intended one tablet every three hours, I took three in one hour. I don't remember the flight at all and they nearly had to scrape me off the plane.

Maroochydore airport. I was going home from a conference and assumed the big plane I flew there in was the big plane I'd be coming home in. Nup, they walked us out along the tarmac to a WWII-looking tin can on wheels that seated about 36 people, including the pilot. It wasn't even a plane, it looked like something that had been made of scraps of sheet metal and attached with pop rivets. Then she'll be right, give her a coat of white paint and no one will be the wiser! I refused to get on the plane and the controller guy with the paddles and I had a big argument - he kept waving me to get on the plane and I get waving that there is no way I'm getting on this relic. I eventually got in and the two guys behind me kept stirring me up by telling me how often small planes crash. The plane was so small that the hostess gave us one mint on a tray as our meal.

[jonza]

This isn’t about airports, but we had some friends who went to Paris for a holiday. They didn’t speak French, so before they went out for a trip into town, they wrote down the name of their brand new hotel, (which was on a large sign outside), on a piece of paper.
When they wanted to return, they showed the taxi driver the piece of paper. He just shrugged and smiled. They kept on asking him, and he just kept on laughing. In the end they got hold of someone who spoke English. He explained that they had written on their paper “Hotel under construction”!

I also knew a mad guy who went to Prague for a week with his drunken friends. They drank all their duty free before they’d even landed. This guy was so drunk he lost the others at the airport. So there he was in a strange city with no idea of the hotels’ name or location, and unable to speak the language. He slept rough on the streets for a few days, then befriended a hooker, who let him sleep at her place. He got back to the airport OK, where the others could tell him what a great trip they’d had. Apart from one of them, he didn’t even make the flight back. I never found out what happened to him!

john

[Barbara]

We left Crete with the ferry and went back in the evening to Athens for our flight back next afternoon. We checked in a hotel and -sh**- our passports were still in the Crete Hotel. The hotel owner said: No problem, he will call Crete and they should give the passport to an Olympics Airways crew member and we could pick it up next morning at the OA office. I did not sleep well.
Next morning: At the OA office they asked Siegmar to go behind the counter. He vanished somewhere for an hour or so. I found him in the freight room -they had left him alone to check all the stuff that had arrived from Crete..... No passports there.
We had all our heavy backpacks with us and took our stuff and wanted to go to the German Embassy. We hailed one taxi after the other. They said the distance was to short and went without us.
Eventually we found a friendly driver -I was in tears until then- and everything worked out fine. But 30% of our relaxed mood had already gone until we sat in our plane home.

I could tell an even stressier story about Bangkok but I'm sorry -it would be too much right now

And there is the story of the Taurus I ruined in Skeena River (and it took me 2 weeks from Terrace to Victoria calling from phone booths in the middle of nowhere to convince Budget it was not my fault......).

But this will be a story of the other 1000 nights

[All Creatures Great And Small]

Oh, scary flashback to my youth - my first trip out of the country, when I was in my twenties. My sister and her husband had won a trip to England and France, but her husband hates to fly, so she took me!! Well, England was a blast, but then on to France...I get really freaked out when I'm in a country where I can't speak the language. My sister speaks French, so she could translate, but it is still an unsettling feeling. Anyway, we were supposed to take a British Airways plane back to England, and then the next day head back to the US. My sister was in charge of the tickets and travel plans, and I should mention here that she is NOTORIOUS for being disorganized and never on time for anything. I was young and inept too, so I let her handle everything since she spoke French. We got to the airport, and she looked at our tickets and saw that the plane left at 12:30, and despite having arrived there at the last possible minute (thanks sis), she said we had time to browse the gift shops before we went up to board. When we finally strolled up to the gate, the door was shut, the boarding area empty, and just a gendarme standing there. She asked, in French, where is the plane? And he made a flying motion with his arm and said "gone". Well, I started crying, she freaked out, and at about that time, we heard our names being paged over the loudspeaker to come to the airline desk. We hustled back down to the ticket counter, where we were SEVERELY reprimanded for not being there for the flight, which was STILL SITTING ON THE TARMAC WAITING FOR US!!!! Now, in the US, back in the 80's, planes just left without you, even if your luggage was onboard, and the gendarme said the flight was gone - I guess he was just being a "butt-opening" (polite version of the word). We ran like mad back up to the gate, where the door was now magically open and we could go in. We walked onto the plane, and the entire packed flight erupted in catcalls, swearing, booing, - I was just overwhelmed, and we both burst into tears. We couldn't even sit together because somehow our seats were taken by others, so for an hour we flew back to London sobbing in our individual seats with people grumbling about us. Then, midway through the flight, they sent an air steward over to each one of us to YELL AT US AGAIN on behalf of the captain, for screwing up everyone's connections and everything. Vive le France, my butt!!!!! At this point, I had to argue WHY didn't the airline have a notation on the tickets or boarding passes about the plane not leaving until everyone is aboard? If I had never flown internationally, how would I know that? They wouldn't respond to that, just kept reaming me until I just about agreed that I was American scum and must never pollute Europe with my presence again. I never flew British Airways again - I fly AMERICAN Airlines to England now!

[Randi]

Barbara, we're looking forward to that!!!

[koxka]

Funny stories everybody!
I'm too lazy to translate now any of my stories but I have friends that missed their plane becuase they just had forgotten after a month holidays in Indonesia it was time to go back home!!

[Randi]

LOL Koxka! How laid back can you get?

..... Then again, John and I nearly missed our flight in Ibiza airport a few years back. When we arrived to the check-in, they were closed and everybody had left. However, we managed to get on the flight - don't remember how.

[koxka]

Nope Randi wasn't me, they are a couple of friends from Amsterdam, actually they found out what happened TWO DAYS AFTER the plane took off.LOL..... And up there on the north they are supposed not to be so laid back as we are supossed to be down here.