Delayed and Cancelled Flights With Easyjet

Last weekend I was in Zurich to meet friends from Singapore. 

Maybe it's my bad luck but flights from Gatwick are normally delayed. Once I was delayed 5 hours and the experience still haunts me today. I was on my way to Ibiza. To kill time I was walking around like a zombie because the shops had closed for the night. No one was happy.

This time my flight at first was 50 minutes delayed, then it was two hours. I had to figure out how to get from Zurich to Luzern late at night. The train ticket I pre-paid couldn't be used for another journey so I have to by a new one. 

When the flight landed at 10.45pm, I ran from the plane to the train station. The last connecting train to Luzern was departing at 11.02pm and somehow I made it to the platform just on time. Even after taking an airport train and passing passport control. I was that quick!  

As I arrived on the platform (sans new ticket), the train was ready to depart. On an impulse I jumped on. The carriage was packed and with ten minutes to Zurich main station, it was unlikely I'd be checked for a ticket. I don't recommend doing this but I had to make that train or I'd be stranded in Zurich for the night. 

I did buy a new ticket when I got to the main station though.

On the way back to London, my flight was an hour delayed. Only at the boarding gate, were we told the flight was cancelled with no reason except "the plane hasn't arrived and we don't know when it will." I found out on twitter, there was an power cut at Gatwick. Why don't the ground staff tell us this and save some anguish for us passengers?

People swarmed the boarding gate and I sat a safe distance away from the mayhem. It was my first cancelled flight after all these years travelling. I waited an hour for people to be given overnight accommodation and when it got down to the last 20 passengers, we were told they ran out of rooms.

I refused to overreact and trusted that things will work out. I joked around with a couple of random Aussies which relieved some of the boredom. A few people were mad and there was one elderly lady in a wheelchair who I felt sorry for. Finally the phone rang and they said the got rooms for everyone at the Marriott. Hooray!

It wasn't until we were on our bus to the hotel, we realised how lucky we were. People given accommodation earlier were still waiting for their bus to the Holiday Inn. Apparently the bus was only picking up women first. 

So lesson learned. When travelling, don't overreact when a situation is out of your control. It wasn't Easyjet's fault the flight was cancelled. To accommodate a full flight at the last minute is a massive effort. 

It paid to wait things out because the budget accommodation was taken up first and they had to use the Marriott. After being stuck at the airport for hours, I was ready to dive into bed!

I had a spacious and modern room with a huge comfy bed. Breakfast was delicious. I wish I stayed longer. I felt really lucky in the end although our flight the next morning was delayed by an hour. I was tired of being in limbo and as much as I love Switzerland, I was grateful to be going home.