The longest flight delay I have ever experienced* is 11 hours — waiting for a charter jet to take me from Glasgow to Malaga for a package holiday on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
The reason given was urgent repairs to the plane — which, to be honest, is fairly compelling and mitigates the boredom of being stuck at Glasgow airport for half a day. I’m not so sure how I would’ve reacted if the reason was that they forgot to load the toilet paper.
That, according to this report in The Sun, drawing on tweets from passengers, was why a British Airways flight from Gatwick to Barbados was held up at the London airport for four hours.
It quoted a BA spokesperson as saying: “We are sorry customers were delayed after some of the many items needed for the flight weren’t loaded on to the aircraft.
“We gave customers refreshment vouchers so they could get something to eat and drink in the terminal and we got them away on their holidays as soon as the aircraft was ready.”
I don’t know what BA offers in compensation, but I got a £5 voucher to spend at one of the food outlets. That could’ve bought me a burger and chips, but I dipped into my own pocket to have something more substantial at the restaurant.
Travel tip: frequent travellers know to carry a small pack of tissues in case of toilet-related emergencies.
*I was once booked on an Air Pacific flight that was postponed by 24 hours, but was informed before check in, so I went home and came back the next day.
Once transferred in New Zealand on way from US and reported to Qantas stewards that there was no soap in toilet.
“That’s not our job,” they said before getting back to their gossip, leaving passengers to use private hand wash for rest of the trip.