Panic at Gatwick

I had already forgotten my toughest day in London, but today I received the fifth email that I’ve interchanged with Easyjet claiming for my rights! I’m quite upset with them!

So yes, so far, my toughest day in London has been in an airport….

Friday 21 Dec,

14.30 h

I left the office eager to get the airport and to fly to Madrid. My flight leaves at 16.50 h. I have prepared my mind to be off some days and I was only thinking of the things that were waiting for me there (what a good time I had in Spain in the end!…). I had organized an informal dinner with my friends that Friday, a nice meeting before going to my home town, my beloved “ROA, la Villa del Duero”, the best place in the whole world J

I took the Gatwick Express. First alarm: I almost can not find a seat. It is full of people! I got the airport with plenty of time. 30 minutes in the queue for check in and I was ready to pass the security control. Hopefully it didn’t take me more than 10 minutes.

15.30 h

I’m inside and there is a crowd of people looking at the screens, watching the departures schedule. “EZY5479 Madrid please, wait” OK, time to go to the duty free, I thought. I was looking around and couldn’t avoid buying the last presents: Irish Whisky, biscuits and toys from Harrods…I come back to the screens “EZY5479 Madrid, please, wait”. Ok, I think I’m afraid that the dinner is going to be at 10.30 h rather than 9.30 h! As more time passes, more people are closer to the screens. And suddenly it occurs; all the Easyjet flights that are supposed to depart after mine are cancelled! It seems that the motive is the fog that is causing some delays that are being accumulated and therefore making impossible to operate the flights planned for the late afternoon. The People become to protest obviously, a man with a microphone shouts to announce what we have already seen. I go to speak with one of the representative workers and he confirms me that my flight is still open and it is supposed to be operated. Ufh, what a relief! Although that’s good news, I don’t feel confident at all. I keep in front of the screens drinking a bottle of water. There is still another delayed Easyjet flight for Amsterdam. Time goes on and nothing changes. A girl that was prior to me decides to sit down on the ground, she seems very tired and without hope. Some faces start to look tired. Most of us are there because of the flights that go to Madrid and Amsterdam. I can’t stand up more time and I go for a seat in the middle of the room.

18.30 h

The next announcement comes:”EZY5479 Madrid delayed until 8.50” “Amsterdam goes to 36”.

Hey! At least I’ll sleep in Madrid. Even though I’m going to land at 1 am I’m still up for one drink tonight in Madrid. – I thought - I decided to go for an English burger on the first floor. I had to wait for a long queue.

19.15 h

I was about to order my burger when I can listen to the bad news: “The flight EZY5479 is cancelled”. I leave the queue quickly to go downstairs and check what is happening. No doubt, it is confirmed, I have to stay in London. We go for our luggage, the feeling is strange, and we are waiting for the luggage as we had landed right now but after almost 4 hours at the airport we have to come back home.

Hopefully I met two very nice Spanish girls there. Sonia and Mónica. We tried to encourage each other and the most important thing, we tried to help us to find a new flight to go to our Country! It was a difficult moment as almost all the flights were sold out … for some moment we were very nervous and I could see some tears on the faces of some people in the surround … but hopefully after half an hour giving calls to our friends to get their support, we managed new flights for the 23 and the Monica’s case for the 24. Hopefully I had my laptop I could do just there on myself. But can you imagine the situation for old people in their sixties? I could listen to some comments like: “I’ve booked a new flight for the 24th in the afternoon”. I’m sure that more than one didn’t been able to meet their family for the “Nochebuena” (Christmas dinner in Spain that is celebrated on the 24th night). Easyjet’s representative didn’t do anything to help us that were very disappointed and we were very put off by them. I was very upset but it was better to get calmed as we couldn’t do anything there at that time. They only gave us a sheet with some information about the telephone numbers that we could phone to claim the reimbursement of the cancelled flight. It was a shame.

23.00 h

Fortunately I got my apartment, but very tired and exhausted. With the presents that I had bought at the airport, what a bad joke! I was a little down for that night thinking about the time lost.


22 Dec

Just after getting up and having breakfast, I was reading the conditions of Easyjet and as I suspected, they were obliged to manage us a new flight and to pay for the cost of the staying until the new departure. So, if you have a similar issue in the future, please, don’t stop claiming for your rights no matter the reason why the company cancelled the flight.

Monica, Sonia and me were talking about it and hopefully that morning at least had already got the reimbursement of the flight. It was easy to be put through the customer service, at least, one good point for this company. Since then, I’ve also managed the cost of the transport to Gatwich on the 21st. I’m still claiming for the difference between the cost of the new flight compared to the original one, but without success. I’m afraid that I’m going to heat the tune of my emails as my initial polite approach hasn’t been enough.

23 Dec

15.00

I travel to the airport very worried about the new fog … but hopefully there was no any sign of this when I got it.

20.00 h Madrid

Viva España! I’m in Madrid. I wait for my luggage and the last surprise…my luggage comes out without a corner, it means, it has been crashed! The end couldn’t be other way. But at least I’m at home.

Speaker's Corner

My apartment in London compared to my flat in Madrid is small. It has a living room with a kitchen, the bathroom and a bedroom. But I like it very much. One of the reasons is the abundance of natural light. After having dinner and some drinks in Noting Hill with my friends last night, I expected to be lazy to get up. But a ray of light woke me up relatively early. My bedroom’s window faces the east and occupies almost the full left side of the room. So, when I got up and moved the curtains I had almost to wear my sun glasses and I couldn’t stay in bed!

When it is sunny in London, the activity in the city goes up as it was the last time that we are going to see the sun. People go to the street and to the parks and you can see a lot of traffic in Bayswater roads with people driving their convertible cars. The terraces are full of people, even with only 5 or 6 degrees that it is really funny for Spaniards. So I decided to behave as a real Londoner. I had a light breakfast: some fruits, cereals, coffee (made with my new “Senseo coffee machine”) and I was ready to go outside.
As I live beside Hyde Park, I couldn’t find a better way of beginning the day as going jogging to the park. I entered from Bayswater road and I followed the way toward KnightBridge.

It was very lively, with a lot of people making exercise or just walking. I crossed the Serpentine (a sort of lake) through the bridge and I surrounded it looking for the Hyde Corner, in front of the “Wellington Arch”. I stands a tribute for other hero in Britain. The scene was wonderful. It wasn’t like in the summer when you can see everything in a bright green or like in the autumn where leaves died add a wide range of new colours. But even in winter the park has plenty of beauty.

On the way to come back to home I found a group of about 10 people, walking very slowly. It called my attention as they were walking also in silence with a person standing a sign in the head of the group where I could read: “Please, join us in silence and just walk”. I never thought that people could join themselves just to walk in silence, very slowly in a row as a therapy. They conveyed a lot peaceful and I was about to join them for a while but I decided that I hadn’t sweated enough and I kept running.

After some minutes I found the famous Speaker’s Corner. That’s one of the examples of the tolerance and diversity in Britain. Everyone can apply to speak freely from there about what ever you want. There were two people speaking and separated only by 50 meters, one with a speech about the good things of Muslim religion and the other one denouncing their crimes in general and specifically in Africa. The good thing was to be able to watch both of them speaking freely and trying to convince their audience with their words. I was attending the second one and could see the discussion between the speaker and one attendant as this one started to call him liar several times concerning some statements that had came up previously. The dispute was going up and I could hear some sentences like “I’m sure you don’t pay your TV license!!!” Concerning this I want to make a remark, that is a sample of the concept of “civil education” that there is here. It is not possible for the government to check who uses a TV at home and therefore who should pay for it but everybody pays. And if you don’t pay it, it is considered as a shame for you. Could you imagine it in Spain?

At the end, the good thing was that nothing became really unpleasant and both could get across their arguments. And again I ask myself, when would it be possible in other countries? Even in Spain, it is not possible, at least in some regions unfortunately …

As you have realized as time goes on, I’m happier to live here. Of course I miss some things like the food, “los Reyes Magos” (¡Felices Reyes!), the sun and specially “my people”. But fortunately ... I have a cheap phone tariff and …“Skype” exists! and today ..... it was very sunny in London.