ive never personly had a long delay, and touch wood will not have one soon. my parents went away for my dads 60th to cyprus and when they were ment to return home, they had a delay of about 24hrs. im sure you will be fine and all will go well, but i know what its like to worry, i do it from the time i book to when i get home.

but im sure you will have two (how lucky are you) holidays, enjoy and try to relax (sometimes easier said than done)

laura

I know, I've never had two holidays together!!
We booked Barbados ages ago and then my mum and dad said they would pay for the boys and I to go and stay in their Turkish Villa, an offer I couldn't refuse. Unfortunately, hubby has to stay home and work!!
The longest delay we have ever had was 6 hours! My friend had 48 hours but that was due to a hurricane.

To right i wouldnt refuse lol, Not to sure hubby staying at home is a bad thing at least he can get some more holiday clothes sorted for you :rofl.

well have a fantastic time on both holidays!, would love to do barbados, so let us know how you get on. fingers crossed all gos well and not a delay in sight x

laura

52 hours Flight MYT055 on 21st March 2003 from La Romana (Dom Rep) back to Manchester via Montego Bay. Shortly after take off from La Romana, the DC-10-30 (G-BYDA) we were travelling on (great aircraft) suffered a hydraulic problem. Upon landing in Montego Bay, the aircraft was grounded until the problem could be fixed. We stayed in Ocho Rios for 2 nights until an Airbus A332 was sent to bring us home. Most people would think that was awful but I got a 2 night extension of my holiday and loved phoning my boss to say I wouldn't be in work on Monday because I was lead by the pool of a 4.5* hotel in Jamaica with a cocktail, see you in a couple of days
It was inconvienient for some passengers, but I couldn't fault the way My Travel handled the situation. They sent an engineer from Manchester with spare parts, but they couldn't fix the problem (it took 2 weeks in total to repair the aircraft). Catering for 360 passengers in those circumstances is no mean feat. I loved my unexpected weekend in Jamaica!

An hour or two doesn't seem like a delay after that! There's nothing you can do so just have to make the most. Aircraft aren't delayed intentionally, these things happen and it's not always the fault of the ariline. It's just part of travelling.

Darren

I had a delay of about six or seven hours once coming back from Copenhagen, I think it was. Not sure though.

Wow Darren, if that happens to us, let's hope it's in Barbados not Turkey!!

24 hours.... from Manchester to Montego Bay with First Choice. First the flight was delayed because of a black out at Manchester airport. All flights that day were delayed by an hour or two. Then we get on the plane, moved a few feet stopped and the pilot says there is some mechanical problem. Fine..... They were going to fix it to be patient. 2 1/2 hours later it was fixed.... but next problem- The flight was going to be nearly 10 hours and the crew would have been over their allowed time. They tried to get a new crew together... no luck..... So, we were all shipped to hotels for the night.

33 hrs with XL last year returning from sharm . They put us back in another A/I just along the coast from where we were staying originally for the night and the next day ,but,couldnt really relax due to lack of info about when we would be picked up.

11-1/2 hours going to Orlando and 14 hours on the return journey. We should really have been grateful as we were the last flight to leave before the airport was shut due to a hurricane.

luci

Only 3 hours coming back from FUE. :).

I dont really know how some of you managed 52 HOURS :O. Mind you, I wouldnt mind being kept in jamacia for an extra 2 days :).

jamz1107,

It depends on the circumstances. I would rather have the 52 hour we had and spend the weekend in a luxury hotel waiting than 4 or 5 hours stuck at the airport. That said, it depends if there are any decent viewing areas airside as my 4 hour delay in Malaga last year made for some great sunset aviation photography!

Darren

Just an hour from Zaxynthos a few years ago. We're off to Crete on Sunday and for the last 3 weeks the flight has been delayed for between an hour and 75 minutes. I don't mind, if I can stay in the bar what I don't like is boarding, and then being stuck on the plane.

24 1/2 hours. This is going back around 18 years ago though, should have been BHX to Gran Canaria but ended up being coached to Manchester for the flight after being put up in a hotel in Bham overnight. The company went bust a couple of weeks later...at least we got our holiday I suppose. We also narrowly missed a 26 hour delay at Larnaca one year as they offered us the choice of flying to Gatwick instead.

Approx. 13 years ago we flew to Alicante with an airline called 'Air Operations of Europe'. Flight out was fine - albeit on a rather ageing aircraft but loads of leg room. Arriving at Alicante for our return we were greeted by a member of staff who said that there was a problem with the plane (little did we know they only had the one aircraft) and we were directed to Terminal 2 which despite its name turned out to be a marquee virtually on the runway!

Eventually after several hours they gave us 2 options on how to get back to Gatwick. We chose the one which went the earliest which meant flying from Alicante to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Heathrow with Iberia. That was fine in itself but our car was at Gatwick! We were promised that a taxi would meet us at Heathrow and take us to Gatwick but that did not happen and we had to catch the airport shuttle. Eventually we did get home - very much later than scheduled. We never saw or heard of the airlinr Air Operations of Europe again....................

Pippa

Thats a blast from the passed Pippa, Air Ops of Europe, I remember an artical in the Daily Mirror saying their Tristar L1011's were basically rust buckets but how the Daily Mirror would know this I don't know.

The mid-nineties seemed to be full of here today, gone tomorrow airlines.

Mark

it was 2 and a half days from America. We got put up in a hotel next to Universal Studios. It wasn't great though as they would only tell us every few hours what was happening so we had to stay at the hotel incase we were to be taken to the airport!

My neice got back to Manchester 08.45 this morning,she was due to fly back from Gran Canaria Saturday evening about 11.15.They were delayed 7 hours going.Flying with Air Malta.Flight Sat night from Fuerteventura also delayed and then cancelled.Seems Air Malta are in trouble.

Mary.

2 hours was the longest with Virgin Atlantic when I went to BGI earlier in the year, they blamed Heathrow saying they could not get the aircraft to a departure gate for us but in reality the aircraft was late arriving due to problems leaving Barbados the previous night. - I knew we would be delayed before I even went to bed the night before but even on check in they assured me it was "on time"

Why can't airlines just tell us the truth- people would be less hostile if the honest answer was given to them, even if it wasn't what they wanted to hear.

Our longest is 24 hours, about 11 years ago on our return flight from Goa. We flew with Caladonia on one of their Tristars, our flight took off ok from Goa.it was on the take off from Bahrain, after refueling that we had problems. 5 mins after take off we heard a loud bang and the plane started shaking, airhostesses were running up and down the plane looking out at the engines. One of the engines had caught fire, luckily we had three engines. The pilot anounced that a bird had flown into the engine causing it to set on fire and he was shutting down one of the engines and going to dump the fuel and then reland at Bahrain. The plane caried on shaking until the engine was shut down, we could see the fuel being dumped. The doors on the plane went to manual and the air hostesses placed the life rafts at the doors. I have never been as scarred in my life and thought my time was up,luckily everybody remained fairly calm. We eventually landed back at Bahrain. After about 1 hour they decided that we were going to stay overnight in the Hilton whilst they flew in another plane from Ireland. They couldn`t fix the engine straight away.

I was so glad to be on the ground and so gratefull to the pilot who landed us safely that I didn`t even think about complaining about being delayed. I also was thrilled to have a middle east stop over on route. The Hilton looked after us well, they fed us and we were given complimentry drinks on our return flight to Manchester.

Next time I do a middle east stop over I want to plan it preferbly in Dubai on my way back from Sri Lanka or the Maldives.