The Stories Behind London's Streets eBook: Peter Thurgood: Amazon.co.uk: Books
There are no prizes for knowing where Downing Street is or who lives there - but how many of you know about the secret tunnels beneath number 10? Read about this, and much more in my book.
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Monday, 16 July 2012
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Looking for a cheap flight?
Paddy seemed a nice guy - the sort of guy you can trust - so I booked my flight to Spain with his airline.
The first mishap was when my wife and I checked in our one piece of luggage. "You are 6 kilos over-weight" we were informed, "that will be £120 to pay". After I picked my wife up from the floor, where she had collapsed, we agreed to pay their extortionate fee, "no, you can't pay it here" she snapped, "you must go to Zone E where you will find a desk where you can pay it"
On the way to Zone E, we saw some weighing machines with other people milling about, trying to rearrange their baggage - well if it could save us £120 let's give it a go we thought. To weigh your luggage cost 50p but the machine did not give any change, so we had to put in £1 coins - three of them, trying each time to sort it out. When we didn't have any more coins and time was running out, we rushed as fast as we could to Zone E and joined a long line of people, who were there to purchase airline tickets - make general complaints and book in for places like Geneva etc. It was only when we got to the front of the line that we were told they only accept cash - no credit cards. I wasn't allowed to save our place in the line while my wife rushed off to get cash from the nearest cash point, so once again it was lining up from the back again and eventually paying - only to be told that the £120 was for one way only - if our luggage still weighed the same when we returned, we would have to pay the fee again. After this it was run as fast as we could back to check in, where they had a whole pile of overweight bills waiting to be shown proof of paying before they let us check in. At that rate I would guess they are making something like £3000 an hour on top of the price the customers have already paid.
Next mishap was when my wife tried to take her "liquids" through check-in in a plastic bag, the same one she has used on numerous flights with other airlines. The female Gestapo officer at the gate told me to stand where I was and do not move - she then ordered my wife to go back outside and purchase another bag - Why, when every other airline lets you use that size? Just another way of getting every penny they can out of you!
Needless to say the queue to get on the plane was as chaotic as the rest of our experience, with iron baggage holders on each side of the queue to make sure your hand luggage is so small that another large number of passengers will have to pay £50 each for the privilege of taking that on board. As no seat numbers are given there is just a mad free for all once on the plane, where, incidentally, all the hand baggage lockers displayed picture adverts of of luggage the airline was selling.
Our flight was quite early in the morning and my wife was unfortunately very hungry - I say unfortunately, because the had the misfortune to buy what they described as a cheese panini, which was like a soggy mass of wet bread and plastic tasting cheese and all for just £7.50. How they have the cheek to serve this rubbish up as food I don't know!
Once we were finally in Spain, we bought another holdall and transferred some of our clothing etc from the main bag into that. We also bought a weighing machine to make sure all our luggage would be accepted - which it eventually was (thank God)
This airline doesn't exactly lie to you or withhold information, but they do set out their rules in the smallest of writing possible, so my advice to anyone looking for a cheap flight, is to go with a reputable airline - not Lyan-Air.
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