When you don't have much money, when you don't fly very often and an annual journey becomes almost the highlight of your year, it's more than a little annoying and inconvenient if disruption and delays ruin your experience. The one memory I will take from my recent week in PHL is of being "stranded" at the airport on my way home. Instead of the premium treatment I paisd for, and had been looking forweard to for months, I was shoved into cattle class, hours late, arrived at the wrong terminal at LHR and had to trek across the airport to get to my car being further delayed by an incident on the cross-terminal train when the doods closed and jammed someone between them etc etc.
My daughter is still recovering from her delay as she was back at work early the next day and instead of returning early evening got home very late.
Om both occasions no information is provided about claiming compensation, nobody offers a proper apology just mumblings of "sorry". On daughter's delayed flight, the aircraft galley was not working so they were offered complementary cold food (cake slices from what I gather) and cold drinks aftert being held over 3 hours.
I still maintain that LGW should have had the "back-up" runway in a satisfactory condition such that it did not have to be closed for repairs after just a handful of planes had laned on it.
Maybe most of you on here have far more money that my daughter and I, maybe you travel far more often than we do, and are used to delays etc - but I'm not.
Why should I cease travelling? It's one thing that distinguishes us from most animals - our ability to travel and stay somewhere different at will, instead of having to return to a "nest" at night? I love travelling and love to explore new places; I wish I had the money and time to travel very often, however the travel industry does seem to do its utmost to frustrate and annoy me on almost every journey I make !
Am I really living in a fantasy world when I expect planes (and trains) to run to timetables/.schedules that have been constucted by people in far more senior positions that I hold and who are no doubt paid far more than I am, yet who so frequently get it wrong?