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What's the most fun you've had in an irrops?

What's the most fun you've had in an irrops?

Old Jul 21, 2015, 2:26 pm
  #1  
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Smile What's the most fun you've had in an irrops?

Our best was a 2 day delay at Houston. We were actually in denver when we got notified but the DEN - IAH flight was not linked as our IAH - LHR flight was the return leg of a 241.

We were notified the night before the flight was cancelled but couldn't rebook online or get anyone on the phone. When we got to IAH it was chaos - 2 BA flights cancelled. We queued for ages to be told we could get on a flight 2 days later. No hotel offered and it was such chaos we didn't even argue.

I got online and booked a Dodge Challenger for 2 days (we'd been in a 30' RV for the previous 2 weeks) and then looked for somewhere to stay.. What Galevston is near Houston? I know a song about there! Booked the hotel and got our car.

Glen Campbell on the stereo and we roared down to Galevston! Had a fab day and 2 nights there eating fresh seafood and meeting Texans then an afternoon at the Houston Space Center on the way back to the airport.

All brilliant! Never claimed compensation - just emailed work "Houston we have a problem...."

So come on, how have you filled the extra unexpected time?
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 2:38 pm
  #2  
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I can tell you the least fun time was when I was stuck in Sumburgh for 2 days due to weather. It was the closest I've ever come to feeling like I was actually in prison.
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 2:39 pm
  #3  
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Positive threads: I like so I'll play.

RTW ending with a flight from DPS via HKG to JNB in F on CX. Next RTW starting in JNB via CPT the day after I am supposed to arrive.

CX plane goes tech on DPS, meaning I will not make my first flight on a AONEx, which is bad (invalidates the entire ticket). CX tries to reroute me in Y on SQ but I politely refuse and since I had already made friends with the CX ground staff, I believed them when they said they will take care of it. So we go for a drink in the lounge.

1 hour later, entire AONEx reissued on CX stock (got a huge tax refund!) and I am rebooked on the next flight but wait... Only First class HKG-JNB 3 times a week and first available opening is in 3 days. Would you prefer to stay in Bali or in HKG ? Well, I'll take Bali.

3 days in perfect 5 star resort on Bali, a potential disaster with the RTW ticket avoided and compensated for the loss of the prepaid hotel in CPT.

Perfect service, perfect flights and like c-w-s on a good destination.

Most memorable is how much effort CX put into this. It being two entirely separate itineraries they were under no obligation to do so.

Last edited by henkybaby; Jul 21, 2015 at 2:49 pm
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 2:47 pm
  #4  
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Originally Posted by henkybaby
3 days in perfect 5 star resort on Bali, a potential disaster with the RTW ticket avoided and compensated for the loss of the prepaid hotel in CPT.

Perfect service, perfect flights and like c-w-s on a good destination.
I accept this beats Galveston despite Glen Camobell not singing about it!
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 2:48 pm
  #5  
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Originally Posted by Louisebook
I accept this beats Galveston despite Glen Camobell not singing about it!
Yes, but you win for being creative. I simply continued what I was doing before.

I even found a Trip Report I made about this non-trip.

Some corrections are in order (it was 6 years ago) but overall it remains the same story: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...ad.main/149716

Corrections:
2 nights in Bali
SQ J offered, not Y
Next ticket was a DONEx, not an AONEx

And for those interested, the VERY long way home: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...ad.main/149958

Last edited by henkybaby; Jul 21, 2015 at 3:03 pm
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:02 pm
  #6  
 
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Missed a connection in Amman on RJ due to a delay of the incoming aircraft. Had a 12-hour wait for the next flight. RJ provided a hotel room, ground transportation, meal vouchers, and arranged for a sightseeing tour of our choice. We chose to go visit Mount Nebo and Madaba and enjoyed our unplanned stop in Jordan so much that we came back for a week's holiday the next year.

Would not have minded the 3-night stay in Bali either
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:06 pm
  #7  
 
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2008. Nothing too exciting, but travelling from Las Vegas to Rapid City, South Dakota, was stuck in Denver for 7 hours after missing the connection.

Managed to see the Champions League final between on the TV (in Moscow between Man United and Chelsea), using the Food vouchers from Frontier, in the bar where the barman put the football on the bigger screen for us to watch.

Oh, and after we were re-routed to United, our bags weren't.
Now lost baggage at Heathrow may be one thing, but at Rapid City it was something else.

As the last Frontier flight had left for the day, there wasn't any of their staff to see. Yet that wasn't a problem, as the guy who worked for North West Airlines dealt with it.
"We all help each other out here" he told us. And true to his word, he set about first on his terminal, then on to Frontier.

OK, they couldn't find the bags on the systems, but assured us they would turn up on the next Frontier flight in an hour, and we should head off to the hotel, and they'd get them out to us. "That's what happens here"

And lo and behold, that is exactly what happened.

To add to the IRROPS tale, we did the trip to Rushmore. It was fogged in for 2 days. All that way not to see it? No.
On the morning of departure, we managed a taxi out to see it as the last of the fog cleared, and dashed back to pick up the bags and out to the airport. Job done!

The bags also missed the next connection in Denver to Chicago - at least we made it, having to run from one end of the Terminal to the other to make it!

Bags turned up on the next flight.
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:08 pm
  #8  
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I think the best IRROPS story ever is the one about staying in the lounge for 3 days... It was mentioned in a thread not that long ago. Eightblack I think wrote it.
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:11 pm
  #9  
 
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We are currently mid Irrops having had a 17 hour delay on our scheduled HNL LAX this mornjng. So, we are just sitting down to breakfast by the beach on Maui, and tomorrow we will have an unplanned trip to Dallas.

In their defence, AA have been great at rebooking us, they even offered us a direct flight to Dublin from DFW (which would have been a disaster! ), instead they have reticketed us via LHR as originally planned and pushed our flight to Dublin back a few days.

The only downside was the stress at the airport this morning after being booted across to United, who then refused us travel due to them being overbooked!

Travel is always an adventure!
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:11 pm
  #10  
 
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Originally Posted by henkybaby
I think the best IRROPS story ever is the one about staying in the lounge for 3 days... It was mentioned in a thread not that long ago. Eightblack I think wrote it.
Yes, I read that recently too!
It's well worth a read!
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:13 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by BlueThroughCrimp
Yes, I read that recently too! It's well worth a read! ^
Found it ! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-long-way.html

It could be a movie.
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:25 pm
  #12  
 
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Not exactly fun, but adventurous

Wind back to 3 days before valentines day a few years back. I find myself in Williston ND. I phone my wife to say I'm going to stay on a day to see a test then i'll be home for our romantic: trip away. Much wrath, followed by Ive got 4 days to get home etc,etc,etc, but flights, changed all good.
ISN-DEN ZK
DEN-LHR BA
LHR-ABZ BA

Turn up at ISN at 4:30 to find no plane on the tarmac. Flight the night before didn't get in. Oh st, next flight is 1430 and gets in 30 mins before my BA flight leaves. bye bye ticket as its unchangeable. But wait, person in the queue has a hire car and is driving to Denver. I do the maths and yep I can do it...... So off we go, North Dakota, South Dakota, Newcastle Wyoming. My new travel partner finally gets hold of AVIS. Only to be told, that they are an affiliate of AVIS and you cannot return the car to Denver without a $3500 dollar charge to come and get the car.......

Now do I get out, risk it and take a bus? I bottle it(days before smart phones) and we turn round and go back. 13 hrs later, I'm back where I started, lost my BA flight, rebooked BA and ZT's next mornings flight. beg
a hotel(which anyone who has ever been there knows is no mean feat)

Repeat again. Plane is on the ground, but has now gone tech....... Part is being flown in on the next flight...... 1430. I go back to bed and don't phone my wife.....

1300 go check in. All ok, except they want volunteers to get off the plane
No one speaks up.... so people are picked, turns out 4 of the largest, angriest people on the plane are picked, However TSA soon put pay to that. We all board, then more people are required to get off

Luckily my name doesn't come up. Finally 11 people are left on an EMB 130(subsequently found out a combination of lots of profitable oil field freight and a big set of power lines at the end of the run way don't work in favour of passengers)

Finally get to DEN and have missed by BA flight again, after A few beers I phone my wife

Finally leave DEN the next day and get home the following day to a rather angry wife....
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:33 pm
  #13  
 
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My (so far) only IRROPs was when the snow shut LGW a few years ago so my flight back from MCO was cancelled. I'd had a head's up a day earlier that this was likely thanks to an email from a friend, so I was able to immediately get on the phone to my travel agent (who hadn't event been told themselves and had to check while I was on the phone that LGW had shut down), rebook on what they anticipated to be the next flight out (due to leave 2 days after my original flight), spoke to my hotel (the Hard Rock) who extended my stay at the same (bargain) rate I'd originally booked, put in a claim with my insurance company (who told me no problem - put in the receipts and they would pay out - and they did!) and notified my boss that I wouldn't be in as planned due to events completely out of my control.

I then spent the next 2 days at Universal Studios riding rollercoasters and thrill rides from opening to close - particularly cool was that Harry Potter world had only recently opened and due to the time of year (the sweet spot between Thanksgiving and Christmas) was practically empty - I only had to wait 5 minutes in queues and was basically going round and round on them. Never had a holiday so cool since.

1F
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:37 pm
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Not so fancy as yours, here are mine:

"The city break"
Five years ago, the last leg of my SEA-LAX-LHR-HAM trip was cancelled (CC strike) and for some weird reason, the online rebooking let me only pick the earlier long haul and the later short haul, giving me 8.5 hours in London.
I left the airport, hopped on the tube and walked around London a bit for the first time in ten years, had lunch and when the jet lag really hit me, returned to the airport and continued my trip home. It was a lot better than hanging around in the air conditioned terminal. In the end I spent less time in T5 than on my original connection.

"The rollercoaster"
Another one was GLA-LHR-HAM on the 23rd December 2013, when it started to get windy. I was at the airport early enough to be put on an earlier flight to Heathrow at check in (Quote from memory: "I booked you on the earlier flight, the weather is bad, we want to get you down there."). The plane stood at the gate in Glasgow long enough for a drink service and the crosswind approach after sunset was... interesting. I haven't heard applause after touchdown for some years. The flight to Hamburg was a bit delayed but uneventful.

"The one for the plane nerd"
The first irrop I ever had doesn't really belong here It was a MAH-HAM flight as a teenager where the scheduled Condor 737 (IIRC) was replaced by a very empty Lufthansa A300.
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Old Jul 21, 2015, 3:51 pm
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Originally Posted by 1nfrequent
My (so far) only IRROPs was when the snow shut LGW a few years ago...
Would that have been 2010 / 2011 when I suffered the same at ZRH? The fun bit was discovering that a BD *G was actually worth more than a few sandwiches and pre-flight drinks .

'Standard' rebooking was absolute chaos filling most of the ticketing area while the LX *G desk was a 5 minute wait. When my rebooked flight also got cancelled at Gate X and everyone rushed over to X+2 it was all looking a bit desperate until the agent saw the *G marking and scribbled on the BP to get me aboard.

It's one of the reasons I aim to keep a reasonable level of status - not often needed for this but certainly was useful then ^. No idea how much BA rely on status when prioritising multi-flight irrops though .

If that hadn't have happened I'd probably be reporting the extra fun we had in the Swissotel sauna and environs while delayed. ... ... Darned *G card !
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