On the bright side, I saw this toward the end of the week
So, I left Antibes nice and early for Nice Airport to travel for my spring break. Shortly before boarding, an announcement came on to say that there was a security strike in Frankfurt, but that passengers with connecting flights should not worry. That was about 9:35am, and my flight landed at about 11:36am in Frankfurt. I get there, just managed to make the terminal to my connection with multiple other passengers...gates just closed about 5 minutes ago. 20 minutes later, the airport closed down. No one goes past security, and now I'm stranded overnight with thousands. When I finally got an internet connection, it was just long enough to tell my friend I was stranded, then it blipped out for an hour. I finally managed to get a somewhat stable connection, and I noticed a new e-mail, sent at 10:36am, while I was in the air between Nice and Frankfurt: that there was a strike in Frankfurt and please expect delays. My friend had also linked me an article he'd found to find out why I was stranded, and as it turned out, the airport and all airlines had been notified of the strike 3 days or so in advance, 'cause that's how the EU rolls, and it was supposed to have started at 2am. The advance notification was so that airlines could have enough time to notify customers of delays.
ARE. YOU. $%^*!@& KIDDING ME? LIKE, FOR REAL? MY AIRLINE HAD 3 DAYS AND SOME HOURS TO TELL ME, "Hey miss, there will be travel delays Friday in Frankfurt Airport, if you wish to reroute your flight, there may be an extra charge" AND THEY DIDN'T? ARE. YOU. SERIOUS? Of course, it just makes so much more sense to send an e-mail why your customers are in flight, as though you didn't know, that there is a strike and will be delays, but hey, your flight pattern will totes be okay.
Anyway, bitterness, anger, and frustration from sleeping in an airport's food court along with other stranded folks, I can say with 100% honesty that Frankfurt was certainly an adventure. They kept letting planes fly in, too (heaven knows why), so the field of view outside the food court windows was PACKED.
Angry blog post is angry. Hopefully this'll be the only disappointment of my study abroad trip. :I
Au. Revoir.
NOTE AS OF MAY 4TH, 2014: So I just found out from a German friend that according to EU legal rights, any traveller, whether or not a citizen of the EU, stranded in this was was legally supposed to have their airline cover food and provide lodging and pay for it. Thanks for nothing, US Airways. Oh, and as of June 18th, 2014, US Airways has ignored phone calls, e-mails, and paperwork sent through both them and American Airlines regarding this, even though I have the tickets and all paperwork from the incident still with me.
