TIFU by booking my flight and having an adventure

Submitted by Crylysis t3_120j6t1 in tifu

This happened last month. I(m20) am a music composer and I am working on the soundtrack of a movie. I live in Spain but because of the movie's production stuff i had to go to the UK to solve some things. That's fine so I prepare for the trip and buy my tickets. The website I was using displays the date of your departure on the top with arrows that you can click to go forwards or backwards one day.

So I select 17 of February as my departure, select the flight and everything. And I click next to do the same for my return. The website goes to the 18th, I click the arrows until the 27th and buy my ticket back. So far so good. The trip continues I go to the UK and everything goes well. I solved the legal stuff, checked some musicians visit some studios, a really nice trip. Only downside was that I wasn't able to sleep on the bus on my way back.

Until I am at the airport going back home. I arrive, with my self check-in paper and walk until the scanner. But when I put in the scanner it says that there are no flights with that information. I get confused, I try a few times and always the same result. I ask the staff for help and they try their best until we all noticed. And that's when the adventure starts.

When I clicked to check the return flights it didn't took me to the 18th of February because it was the next day of my departure. It took me to the next date with an available flight, the 18th of march. One month ahead and I ended up buying my flight for the 27th of march. So now I was stranded in London. The staff couldn't do anything because I bought it normally, it wasn't a mistake they made, just my ADHD and poor user interface.

After some time of despair and anxiety I had two options. Option one was to take the next flight available, five days ahead. Which was not on my budget to do so. Or option too. Get a flight next day to another city that is two hours away from where I live and get a train there. However the flight would arrive one hour before the last train and the airport was far away from the station.

I got option two. I waited 26 hours in Gatwick airport. My anxiety was through the roof and I couldn't sleep at all. I think I never felt so much boredom in my life. Watched a few movies, walked around, ate just a simple sausage sandwich. Eventually the time comes. I board the flight and for my despair. It gets delayed like 15 minutes, which is not much but I had a train to catch.

We arrive and I immediately start running, get yelled by security to stop running, and start to walk as fast as I could. They check my passport and I go get a taxi. I explained the situation and the taxi driver was awesome. I'm pretty sure he broke the speed limit a few times. I pay him with a tip, leave the taxi and go running to the station. In the way there it started to rain a lot so I left the taxi, ran through the rain, slipped and fell in a puddle of street water and got in the station. I was the last person to board that train. But I got it. 26 hours in an airport 34 hours without sleep, one sausage sandwich, a mildly sprained ankle and a lot less money in my bank account but I got there.

When I arrived home I took a shower and slept for like 16 hours.

TL;DR: I bought a plane ticket for the 27 of march thinking it was for the 27 of February. Had to stay 26 hours in an airport 34 hours without sleep, one sausage sandwich, go to fly to another city and get a train, felt in a puddle and got a mildly sprained ankle, almost lost the train and had lot less money in my bank account but I got there.

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ExoPihvi t1_jdhgisa wrote

Now this was a adventure all right.

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Tip_of_the_nip t1_jdhkou9 wrote

Hope that that soundtrack is awesome. Sorry for the trouble. At least you handled the stress and no sleep well. Good luck getting better

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ShadowDV t1_jdhst7n wrote

Could have gone with the American solution; rented a car and been back home in less time than you spent waiting at the airport.

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Crylysis OP t1_jdhu79d wrote

It would be more time, probably more expensive to be honest. And I don't drive so yeah

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ShadowDV t1_jdhvdm0 wrote

More expensive? Damn. In the states getting a last minute flight costs 3-4 times more than a 24 hour one way car rental. And it looks like London -> Barcelona is only a 17 hour drive, but yeah, the whole not driving thing makes it a moot point.

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GlowQueen140 t1_jdi27fq wrote

Not to mention the United States is ONE country as opposed to renting a car and crossing different country borders with different laws and regulations involving rental vehicles. Also, London is right hand drive and Spain is left hand drive, not to mention the countries in between both, so that might be an issue as well. Lastly, which rental company would allow you to rent a car from country A and leave it in country B without having to pay a fortune for retrieval or something?

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ShadowDV t1_jdi4mo0 wrote

That’s why I called it the American solution.

I assumed the EU would have some mechanism in place to make it viable, but damn, just checked the one way rental prices from Calais to Spain (didn’t even think about the left/right driving), and the rental fee is 65USD/day, but a one-way fee of $978 and $208 in sales tax. For a Fiat 500 manual….

I see now.

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InvincibleJellyfish t1_jdijdvl wrote

UK is not in the EU

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ShadowDV t1_jdijhuy wrote

Last I checked Calais is though.

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InvincibleJellyfish t1_jdijsfx wrote

My point is that it's probably almost impossible to do with a rental car from UK.

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ShadowDV t1_jdijwoo wrote

Read my post you replied to, I realized that.

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MonsiuerGeneral t1_jdifwiy wrote

> Also, London is right hand drive and Spain is left hand drive, not to mention the countries in between both, so that might be an issue as well.

The idea of driving on the other (wrong) side of the road is already weird enough... I can't imagine swapping between left lane/right lane driving during the same trip. Sounds pretty awful tbh.

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ferozliciosa t1_jdpsj9i wrote

'Muricans simply do not worry about these trivial details /s

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dysphoric_amalgam t1_jdims3h wrote

How does the switchover happen? Is there like a junction point where the road just splits and reforms?

This is confusing as hell to me.

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MattGeddon t1_jdjc1xf wrote

The UK is an island, so there is no switchover. But in other places where it changes, yeah there’s a big junction where the roads switch sides.

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ShadowDV t1_jdl8p74 wrote

It’s an island with a Chunnel to the mainland… the switchover absolutely happens.

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keslol t1_jdlv61f wrote

best example you can see is probs the lotus bridge in macau

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Crylysis OP t1_jdhwr3s wrote

It's about 23 hours until where I live if I drive non stop. I live in the opposite side of Spain than Barcelona

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xxxBuzz t1_jdl8m83 wrote

That is hard to comprehend. You can drive that long down some highways and barely see anything but fields.

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EaseConsistent7016 t1_jdhqg67 wrote

I once took the cheapest available price to get from Scotland to Australia to see someone. 56 hours door to door. Connections were so shit that I didn't sleep at all. I was afraid that if I fell asleep I'd be robbed. Trip went from Scotland to London, London to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to China, China to Australia. On the way back the same.

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burned_artichoke t1_jditajl wrote

If it makes you feel better, I have also done this while mid migraine. Thankfully I realised when I got the confirmation, but I'd already paid for a fairly expensive flight (I booked the month I was in instead of like, in 3 months time), I had to pay a fee change it, and because it had to be with the same flight operator and there wasn't a lot of choice I ended up getting a very expensive taxi to the airport at 4 in the morning.

Executive dysfunction is expensive.

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bunnyrose9 t1_jdjgvfb wrote

This is one of the best tifu I've read, that was truly an adventure you won't forget! Take this trophy emoji an award haha! 🏆

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Berloxx t1_jdk47il wrote

But you got that train. You boss. Awesome 💛😁👍

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Ok_Risk_6867 t1_jdlnmzn wrote

Additional time would be necessary.gif

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Robobvious t1_jdpposw wrote

Can security detain you for running? I don’t think stop running is a lawful order if you haven’t committed a crime. Running itself would have to be a crime. Not like you’re gonna win anything by not listening to them but I think they were power tripping. Sounds like they were protecting the airport from a slip and fall lawsuit rather than protecting you or anyone else there. Anyways congrats on making it home!

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Crylysis OP t1_jdptwwp wrote

I mean he didn't detained me he just said "excuse me sir you can't run here be patient"

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Robobvious t1_jdq11vi wrote

Sorry I wasn’t trying to say he did. I’m moreso asking if it’s not a crime, what can he do if you don’t listen? Is it an enforceable lawful order if there’s no rule against running? Idk what would happen if that came to be challenged in a court of law and I’m just generally kind of interested in the mechanics of the legality of all that. It’s like an interesting thought experiment to ponder, but I also think there’s probably a correct answer that someone more knowledgable than me would know. We’d have to ask Attorney Tom or something, and he would probably say “It Depends.” Lol

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