Really Shit Travelling Experiences

IdleRich

IdleRich
One good thing though. She was chatting to Saul and moaning about being trapped in Amsterdam and to cheer her up he has sent her the new Fat White Family album - as it is now at least - which is nice I guess. She says it is a really different sound, she used the word "proggy" and says it's much more of Saul singing and less of Lias than previous ones. Of course it could (will even) change a lot before it comes out, it's at a stage where many of the songs are still untitled, but from her description it seems it will be a totally new direction. I think that's gotta be a good thing, most bands just stick to the same formula cos it's easier for them to do and it's obviously easier to sell to fans, but from an artistic viewpoint you've gotta think doing that is a little pointless, I'm glad to hear that it sounds as though they're not doing that.
 

Leo

Well-known member
JFC, rich, that was exhausting to read. flying have definitely gotten worse due to airline consolidation, less competition means they care less than ever about canceling and inconveniencing passengers. we're not customers who they should attempt to satisfy, we're cattle.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I hoped that I'd managed to master that trick that was discussed in one of the literary threads in which form and content coincide - in this case I conveyed the frustration and boredom of the journeys and their various elements by writing in a particularly frustrating and boring style at great length.... I commend and thank you for reaching the end Leo.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
i'm not an expert and it's never happened to me, but she'll probably get some kind of compensation for the cancelled flight, although it probably won't cover all her expenses. there's eu rules about this kind of thing. apologies for posting the most boring post in the history of dissensus
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
i don't understand why the dusseldorg megaclub didn't simply send a limo for you and your entourage both ways
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
i'm not an expert and it's never happened to me, but she'll probably get some kind of compensation for the cancelled flight, although it probably won't cover all her expenses. there's eu rules about this kind of thing. apologies for posting the most boring post in the history of dissensus
I reckon I can top it though.... she is a UK citizen so can she benefit from EU rules?
Though I think it's agreed that she is being given the flight on Wednesday to make up for it. I still think it's wrong that she has to pay and then reclaim it when it's such an open and shut case, what if she lacked the money to do so? And also will they pay interest on the time when she is out of pocket? And how can it be right that they will only pay for her to go on a flight two days later, what if she needed to be in Lisbon earlier than that? I don't think that a flight two days later should count as full compensation for a cancelled flight today, especially as it necessitates paying to stay for two nights. They have said she can apply to get that money she spends on accommodation, but there is no guarantee that she will get it. It's really a total mess.

But in a way the b&b is even worse. Cos she travelled for aaaages to get there and was never informed it was cancelled, she just discovered when she arrived and there was simply no hotel there any more. In itself it's a pretty unpleasant experience to be completely alone in a foreign country in the middle of nowhere at 8pm and with nowhere to go. At that point she had to find another one and pay for an uber to take her there and it cost more than 300 euros more than she had paid originally. Now again, she will get the money back for the cancelled one, but that doesn't compensate her fully - in my opinion airbnb should pay the full price of the replacement and the extra travel costs she incurred getting there. Which at this point it may or may not do - even though it's absolutely clear that the only reason she had to pay for such an expensive one is cos they had misled her so she thought that she was already booked in. And in a fair world they should give her extra on top of that I think, for the time wasted going to the wrong place and the inconvenience and difficulty and - yeah - in fact the worry of being in the middle of nowhere with, at first, nowhere to go. Luckily she had just enough money available to do it but what if she didn't? I couldn't help her cos I was on a plane and thus totally incommunicado.

I do feel bad for her for both of those to happen on the same trip. And also for the fact that the train arrived hours later than it should have too - even though she paid specifically to get the fast one. It's a sad little story that she set off thinking how nice it would be to get a train through Germany then the Netherlands just as she used to twenty years back and for it to end up like this. Of course, in the grand scheme of things and with everything else that is going on in the world it's hardly worth mentioning. Although luckily some twat had created a thread it fitted in perfectly.
 

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
that sounds terrible. although stuff like that can also be fun IF you have some money and time and the weather is good, it'll be like a little adventure. obviously that was not the case. how was the festival though? did she enjoy that at least?
 

Leo

Well-known member
I reckon I can top it though.... she is a UK citizen so can she benefit from EU rules?
Though I think it's agreed that she is being given the flight on Wednesday to make up for it. I still think it's wrong that she has to pay and then reclaim it when it's such an open and shut case, what if she lacked the money to do so? And also will they pay interest on the time when she is out of pocket? And how can it be right that they will only pay for her to go on a flight two days later, what if she needed to be in Lisbon earlier than that? I don't think that a flight two days later should count as full compensation for a cancelled flight today, especially as it necessitates paying to stay for two nights. They have said she can apply to get that money she spends on accommodation, but there is no guarantee that she will get it. It's really a total mess.

But in a way the b&b is even worse. Cos she travelled for aaaages to get there and was never informed it was cancelled, she just discovered when she arrived and there was simply no hotel there any more. In itself it's a pretty unpleasant experience to be completely alone in a foreign country in the middle of nowhere at 8pm and with nowhere to go. At that point she had to find another one and pay for an uber to take her there and it cost more than 300 euros more than she had paid originally. Now again, she will get the money back for the cancelled one, but that doesn't compensate her fully - in my opinion airbnb should pay the full price of the replacement and the extra travel costs she incurred getting there. Which at this point it may or may not do - even though it's absolutely clear that the only reason she had to pay for such an expensive one is cos they had misled her so she thought that she was already booked in. And in a fair world they should give her extra on top of that I think, for the time wasted going to the wrong place and the inconvenience and difficulty and - yeah - in fact the worry of being in the middle of nowhere with, at first, nowhere to go. Luckily she had just enough money available to do it but what if she didn't? I couldn't help her cos I was on a plane and thus totally incommunicado.

I do feel bad for her for both of those to happen on the same trip. And also for the fact that the train arrived hours later than it should have too - even though she paid specifically to get the fast one. It's a sad little story that she set off thinking how nice it would be to get a train through Germany then the Netherlands just as she used to twenty years back and for it to end up like this. Of course, in the grand scheme of things and with everything else that is going on in the world it's hardly worth mentioning. Although luckily some twat had created a thread it fitted in perfectly.

now imagine having to deal with this without a smart phone. impossible to look up another place to stay, hail a ride there, deal with the airlines.

at least her phone didn't run out of juice.
 

Leo

Well-known member
btw, what do you think was the reason the girl accused you guys of being drunk?

it's also kind of a weird accusation because it's so easily disproved, the flight attendants would be able to tell you were sober and didn't stink of booze.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I just woke up to a phone call... the Airbnb place where she's staying flooded this morning... this is getting ridiculous, like a practical joke or something. I guess it's not fully flooded cos she said she is gonna stay there anyhow, she said she can't face booking yet another one, trekking round the city with all the bags trying to find it etc
AirB&B are refunding half the cost apparently.
 
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Reactions: Leo

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
I've actually been trying to work this out myself. Maybe angling for a better seat or something, but I think you can just ask so I dunno.
and you're sure you guys weren't actually drunk? (just asking)

it's such a mad accusation, and as leo has mentioned, so easy to disprove. on the other hand, i know this behaviour from german people, they can be real backstabbing, gossiping pieces of shit sometimes and the worst is they will almost always try to do it according to the protocol and have a talent of getting away with it.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
it's such a mad accusation, and as leo has mentioned, so easy to disprove. on the other hand, i know this behaviour from german people, they can be real backstabbing, gossiping pieces of shit sometimes and the worst is they will almost always try to do it according to the protocol and have a talent of getting away with it.
What the nerds call 'lawful evil'.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
and you're sure you guys weren't actually drunk? (just asking)

it's such a mad accusation, and as leo has mentioned, so easy to disprove. on the other hand, i know this behaviour from german people, they can be real backstabbing, gossiping pieces of shit sometimes and the worst is they will almost always try to do it according to the protocol and have a talent of getting away with it.
Ah... and now the questions begin to emerge I see. Interesting. I wondered who would be the one to ask that. Let me just note that down...

Full disclosure, when they accepted our baggage on to the plane I had one celebratory glass of wine (which cost about 8 euros in Lisbon airport!) however I could not have been described in any way as drunk and I don't believe that that could have been smelled on my breath or anything like that. My intended point being that I don't think that she said it believing that we were drunk or even thinking that she could sort of demonstrate that we were drunk somehow, I mean the stewardess was hardly gonna start smelling our breath or conducting an investigation.

My feeling is that we were a bit excited and happy because we had thought we weren't gonna be able to get on cos of the misleading text messages, maybe this woman didn't like the look of us, feared we'd be noisy (though actually I read my book throughout the journey) and wanted to move and thought her best chance of accomplishing that was a harmless little lie to the stewardess that we would never pick up on as we were ignorant English (which fair enough was spot on as far as it went - I never studied German at all). I dunno, doesn't seem much though does it?

Still, it was nothing compared to an, er, incident a year or two before which I think maybe I mentioned - when I asked the guy for a drink and he said "No, I'm not serving you" and I said "Why ever not?"* and he replied "Because you had an erection earlier". That one really caught me surprise I must say.






*I almost did not say "why ever?" but I've watching Poirot and seems I'm suddenly talking like Hastings.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Seems like the flood in the AirBnB was caused by someone opening her door in the middle of the night cos it has no lock on it (despite costing £160 per night). Liza just phoned me again and I was totally thinking "what fresh hell is this?" but it turned out she was just phoning to say that they had in fact fixed the lock.

So airbnb have refunded half of the cost of the room, but I still told Liza she should ask Easyjet for a refund on the whole price of the stay. I'm interested in what people think on that. My justification is that she had to book the room cos Easyjet's flight was cancelled and she had to stay in town for two extra days, so Easyjet ought to pay for the room. Then the fact that the room flooded means that she is entitled to a further compensation, if Easyjet only paid for the actual room cost after the discount then she would not be receiving any extra payment for the flooding. Does that seem just to you guys?
 

Leo

Well-known member
Still, it was nothing compared to an, er, incident a year or two before which I think maybe I mentioned - when I asked the guy for a drink and he said "No, I'm not serving you" and I said "Why ever not?"* and he replied "Because you had an erection earlier". That one really caught me surprise I must say.

hold on, what??
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Well exactly... what is the response to that? I rose above saying something like "If I had a bonk on you'd know about it mate" but I really didn't have much else to reply with beyond a kind of spluttered denial.
 

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
Seems like the flood in the AirBnB was caused by someone opening her door in the middle of the night cos it has no lock on it (despite costing £160 per night). Liza just phoned me again and I was totally thinking "what fresh hell is this?" but it turned out she was just phoning to say that they had in fact fixed the lock.

So airbnb have refunded half of the cost of the room, but I still told Liza she should ask Easyjet for a refund on the whole price of the stay. I'm interested in what people think on that. My justification is that she had to book the room cos Easyjet's flight was cancelled and she had to stay in town for two extra days, so Easyjet ought to pay for the room. Then the fact that the room flooded means that she is entitled to a further compensation, if Easyjet only paid for the actual room cost after the discount then she would not be receiving any extra payment for the flooding. Does that seem just to you guys?
i think it also depends on why the flight was cancelled? for example if it was cos of something they have no control over, a storm or something or an erupting volcano, then i don't think you can claim anything.
 
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