Couple outraged after two-day trip from Glasgow to Shetland
Michelle Nichols
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MIDDLE-AGED couple travelling from Glasgow to Shetland had to endure a gruelling 40-hour journey by road, air and sea for a trip that would normally have taken just four hours by plane.
When Harry and Catherine Ratter boarded their Loganair flight at Glasgow Airport, they expected to arrive home just a few hours later, but instead spent two days travelling by plane, ferry, bus and car.
After a mistake with their flight left them stranded in Aberdeen, the couple were forced to embark on the nightmare journey that took so long they could have made a round-the-world trip from Glasgow via London, Sydney, and Los Angeles in the same time.
And, remarkably, their luggage that had been lost along the way managed to arrive home in Shetland before they did.
Mr and Mrs Ratter were told they would have to wait a week for a connection flight to Shetland after they were flown from Glasgow to Inverness instead of Aberdeen. So Loganair staff suggested the couple spend £100 on a two-hour taxi trip to Aberdeen so they could board the ferry to Lerwick.
Mr Ratter, 55, a crane driver, said: "It was unbelievable. We normally fly via Aberdeen but we were told at the last minute we were flying to Inverness, which was quite strange.
"When we arrived at Inverness airport we were told it was too foggy to fly. The weather didn’t seem that bad but the staff at the airport said it would be six days until we could fly to Shetland.
"When we asked if we could fly back to Glasgow, they said it would be another week before we got a flight, which was ridiculous."
Despite being assured by staff at Loganair that a cabin had been booked for them on the ferry to Lerwick, they arrived to find they did not have a reservation and were forced to pay £140 for the 23-hour journey - which was spent sitting upright on plastic seats.
When the couple, who live in Ollaberry in Shetland, eventually arrived in Lerwick at 7.30pm the following night they then had to travel another 28 miles to Sumburgh airport where they had left their car.
Mr Ratter said: "Ferry staff eventually booked us on a coach and we finally got home at ten o’clock that night. We had left our daughter’s flat in Glasgow at six o’clock the previous morning.
"Our luggage was sitting waiting for us at the door of the house. There must have been a flight to Shetland from Inverness because I don’t know how else it would have got back. Next time I’m going to travel with the luggage with a name-tag on my back. I would have a better chance of getting home."
Mr Ratter, a father-of-three who has lived in Shetland all his life, said it is ridiculous that people living on the isles have to spend a small fortune just to fly to the mainland.
He said: "Flights are so expensive, it cost us about £170 each for a ticket home and that was because we booked them months in advance. Although the money was wasted since we didn’t get to fly.
"Oil-workers get priority on cheap-flights and if there are any cancelled flights they get first choice on the next one. Yet us locals are shunted from pillar to post and have to survive an incredible journey before we get home."
Mr Ratter said he was disgusted at the way he and his wife Catherine, 51, had been treated and hoped Loganair would pay them compensation.
A spokesman for Loganair said yesterday: "We would not fly passengers in bad weather. Alternative arrangements are always made for passengers on cancelled flights but I cannot comment on what happened in Aberdeen. They should have had seats reserved on the ferry."