Aberystwyth Bound — Part 4.

Journal Entry — September 16th: Welcome to Hell v2.0!  “Now with 200% more lying assholes!”

Guess what?! Screwed again! Our plane developed “mechanical failures” right at the last minute.  We sat around while they tried their hand at repairs, then at procuring another plane, then it turns out ours was the best of the four available, so they had another go at fixing it.  Lots of ladders under engines and people climbing about.  I was surrounded by a sea of politely angry English folk, and had some good conversations while we all waited to learn our fate.

The broke-ass plane as seen
from the terminal.

We were pushed back from 8:25pm to 10:00pm to 1:00am.  We had till 2:00am before the pilots were going to leave.  The whole while we’re watching the ground crew scurry about like rabid little gnomes in orange vests… consulting their radios, their co-workers, even a thick sheaf of paperwork (schematics, I assume).  We were told it was a broken relay that controlled the reverse air thrusters on one engine (basically, the “air brake”).  I kept snapping out comments that were making the others giggle (“Hey, I think I just saw them pry a fried squirrel off of some wiring in the engine, that must be our problem.“) — and they were all thinking snarky thoughts, but were entirely too properly English to be rude and voice them… enter me, the big mouthed, frustrated American.  That’s me… Voice of the People.

At 1:00am they canceled the flight, and that’s when chaos erupted.  Hollering, pushing, shoving, cutting in line, torches, pitchforks, and burning the ground crew in effigy!  After much hullabaloo, they created a whole new flight just for us the next day, re-booked everyone, and issued hotel and meal vouchers, and sent us on our way.  It’s a sad thing that I was expecting this, and was — surprisingly — not near as distraught over the cancellation of another flight.  Pissed off, yes, but calm enough this time around to keep my head and do what needed to be done to ensure that I had a flight to be on the next day, and a place to get some rest for the night.  It’s a stupid thing to have to get used to.

More line waiting at the Holiday Inn (the hotel voucher I was issued), then an evening of sleep.  Woke up, checked out at 11:00am and went back to the airport.  Had a meal (for free), got a huge coffee (for free), then went and parked my ass at the gate and waited for the next disaster.

About an hour before the flight, they changed the gates and we had to hoof it all the way across the terminal to make the new one.  The silver lining: good weather, a plane that works and we were able to board!