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Volcanic ash from Iceland closes British airports

moonstreet said:
Ive been trying to go from Ireland to London since thursday. Each day m flight has been cancelled and Ive been rebooking a new one. I am now booked on a flight for Monday, but as all flights from Dublin for Sunday 18 april have been cancelled its doubtful whther I will fly on Monday. I have also booked a ferry and a train for tuesday, so whatever happens, I least I can get back to London on Tuesday.

For anyone planning to travel in the next week or so, my advice is to
1. Check the live departure information for your airport on line
2. Check your airlines website
3. If your flight is cancelled ring your airline immediatly. You will be offered to either rebook your flight at no extra charge or to get a refund.
4. Keep checking with your airline, as they have more accurate information than whats online. One time when I rang to check the status of my flight, they said it was due to be cancelled and rebooked me, where as online it wasnt cancelled yet.
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Hey Moonie......I hope you get there safely.....:hug:
 
I know quite a few people stuck abroad, personally I wouldn't mind it.

The worst is one of them is stuck in Spain, she said that they're trying to get them on a coach back home - a 36 hour journey. She has her young baby with her...so that would be a bit of a nightmare!
 
Rockin. said:
I know quite a few people stuck abroad, personally I wouldn't mind it.

The worst is one of them is stuck in Spain, she said that they're trying to get them on a coach back home - a 36 hour journey. She has her young baby with her...so that would be a bit of a nightmare!
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Whoa, if I were her I'd choose to stay there and wait until she can fly.
 
I have a friend who missed his holiday to Berlin because of all this. It really sucks but its better to have grounded planes than put people's lives in jeapordy.
 
well my ma and da didnt get their flight on sat morning. So they've amended their booking till tuesday. but they dont know if they will get away then either :S
 
I just got back from College because my teacher who is supposed to take afternoon classes is stuck in Goa in India and may be due back this week at some stage, hes stuck there because of the whole Ash situation :(
 
www.skynews.com have a special programe on at 8pm (in 15mins) on their website about the volcano and whats going on.

I booked to go to Cyprus with my boyfriend and parents back in February and our flight was suppose to be last night but obviously that got cancelled.

We've re-booked for May 14th but our airline said that we're on the "reserve list" and they don't even know if we'll be on tat flight :( It's all very stressful.

I've got lots of friends stuck in different parts of America and a couple of family memebers in Cyprus and they can't get back. My 2 cousins started school today but they're stuck in Cyprus and were told their next available flight would be May 2nd.......so who knows?!

Love Anna
xxx
 
sloride said:
I have a friend who missed his holiday to Berlin because of all this. It really sucks but its better to have grounded planes than put people's lives in jeapordy.
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This :yes:

I think most people forget about that.
 
Im finally back in London, heres my epic trip from Dublin to London

On saturday, I managed to book a foot passenger ticket on the Irish ferries boat Ulyesses leaving Dublin port at 8.05am on Tuesday 20 April. My confirmation email said foot passengers should check in approx 30 mins before sailing, but as I knew there would be alot of passengers on this sailing, I had planned to be there for 7am. In actual fact I arrived at Dublin port at 6.30 am, and when I went into the building, they had already started checking passengers in. I joined a short queue, handed over my confirmation email, and received a boarding card and baggage tag for my suitcase. Just like at the airport, my suitcase was tagged and once though check in , I placed it on a baggage conveyor belt, where it went into the hold, and I proceeded to the departure area.

There was alot of people in the departure area, as boarding had not yet started. I waited for about 10 mins and then the group of people started to move and everyone started boarding the boat.

Once on board, even though there was announcements that the sailing was full, everyone seemed to have found somewhere to sit and the food and shopping areas were busy but did not seem over crowded.

The sailing itself was very smooth and there were calm seas and blue skies all the way from Dublin to Holyhead.

Once in Holyhead though, the amount of foot passengers totally swamped the port and even though the staff were trying very hard to cope, it was obvious that the port and terminal were not set up for that huge influx of people.

The first major problem was the baggage reclaim area. The poor system just could not cope with the huge amount of checked in luggage. The staff were brillant, trying to make order out of chaos, but the simple fact was that the carousel was not big enough for the amount of checked in luggage. At one stage the crowd was about 5 deep, with unclaimed bags being piled up all over the arrivals area. It took me about 40 mins to find my bag on the carousel.

Once reunited with my bag, I made my way into the terminal building. The station staff and Welsh Police were brillant, very helpful and organised. They had random staff scattered around the terminal building with portable hand held ticket issusing machines for any passenger needing to buy a train ticket. As I had already prebooked and paid for my ticket I was told to join the short queue at the ticket office window, where I would be able to collect my ticket.

Ticket collected, I headed to the cafe/shop for something to eat as I had approx2 hours before my train. Next problem... due to the huge influx of unexpected passengers, the cafe was rapidily running out of sandwiches and coffee!! eek, anyway I managed to find something to eat and then headed to the train area.

WELL OMG!! ALL train passengers were herded into one long queue, up and down the train platform. It didnt matter if you had a reserved seat on a particular train like I had, or just a rail and sail ticket, EVERYONE had to join this huge queue. Most people were being advised to just get on the next available train and to change when necessary to get get to their final destination. There were trains arriving every 15 to 20 mins so the queue was moving.

I had a reserved seat on the 13.58 Virgin train direct to London, so I just waited till that arrived.

I must say, fair play to Virgin, they put on extra coaches and joined 2 trains together to get as many people on the move from Holyhead as possible.

The train was divided into 2 sections, 1 part for people like me, who had a pre booked reserved seat and the other part for people who had an unreserved ticket, ie sail and rail people.

Once on the train, my carriage was not full from Holyhead, but as we went along through Wales and England, many people joined the train, and when we arrived in London , my carriage was full.

I'm sure that in the unreserved seating carriages though, it must have been chaos, and many people would have had to stand in the aisles or at the ends of carriages.

Overall, my journey was long and tiring. The staff in the various transport companies were doing their best to cope with the huge influx of unexpected passengers. Passengers need to have patience and just go with the flow. Theres no point giving the staff agro cos most of them have never experienced anything like this and both staff and managers are doing their best to deal with the huge numbers and are thinking on their feet and trying to solve problems as they arise.
 
It's starting again :bugeyed Hopefully not that bad this time..
 
Nah, Ireland closed some airports but I heard they were open again today.......let's hope it stays that way.
 
I was in India, Was meant to fly home on the 17th April but couldn't get home until May 3rd. :bugeyed
 
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