Emergency flights...

[DodgyGeezer]

This might sound like a daft question but... if there's an emergency and you need to get home PDQ how easy is it these days?

I'd imagine that if you're in the USA/Europe you can pretty much just rock up to the airport and take your pick of flights but what if you're in Argentina/Thailand/Japan (for example) is it still that straightforward?

[alangla]

Taking your Argentina example, I put Buenos Aires to London one way, leaving today, into Skyscanner and it immediately offered me routes with Avianca, Lufthansa, Air Europa and others. Prices don’t look that unreasonable, £864 for a 19 hour journey on Lufthansa.

[Crumpet]

It’s not unusual for me to be at work sat around in a hotel in some far flung place and an email come through asking me how soon I can be at the airport. 2-3 hours from email to airborne is common and, on a number of occasions, they’ve called me while queuing for check-in to say I need to catch a different flight to somewhere else instead. (I’ve also been called when the aircraft doors are closed to ask me to offload myself - which isn’t worth the hassle).

So the answer to the question is that if you have the resources behind you (I.e. a travel department) it’s quite easy to go from being stood in an airport with no ticket to airborne on a flight to a different continent within 60-90 minutes.

[DodgyGeezer]

I must admit that I thought that these days just getting on a plane was if not an impossibility certainly not 'easy'. I suppose I should say, at this point, that I'm looking at this from the perspective of a private person, so no travel department help.

What's brought this on? Well we had a parental health-scare earlier in the holiday (thankfully it turned out to be 'not serious') which got us to thinking about the ins and outs of getting back if needed

[Alexandra]

It's fairly easy. There are apps to book flights on demand, but obviously the costs are higher than commercial seats as you're likely booking the whole aircraft. As an example, we've gone from NY to any number of places with about an hours notice, or just enough time to pack and get to the aircraft. No need for security checks, you bypass the terminals and go straight to the plane.

[DJC76]

DodgyGeezer said:

This might sound like a daft question but... if there's an emergency and you need to get home PDQ how easy is it these days?

I'd imagine that if you're in the USA/Europe you can pretty much just rock up to the airport and take your pick of flights but what if you're in Argentina/Thailand/Japan (for example) is it still that straightforward?

Yes it’s extremely easy still. Some routes at the moment are a bit capacity constrained so you might have to go via some weird and wonderful places but you can get airborne very very quickly to pretty much anywhere.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

As a medical courier, I actually have this issue every few months, normally due to a delay in collection I haven't been able to make my planned flight, but I absolutely need to get back the LHR pronto.

Funnily enough, the 2nd last one was in Buenos Aires. I was due to fly Lufhansa via Frankfurt, and ended up going about 2 hours later on KLM via Amsterdam.

Then in early Feb this year, I missed my connection from Durban to Jo'burg so couldn't catch my overnight BA flight back to LHR, and I couldn't wait 24 hours for the next one.

Ended up flying overnight to Durban to Dubai, and then a flight onwards to London. Was meant to be in London around 6am, ended up getting in about 3pm which was better than 6am the next day.

I thought I would be in the same position again on Wednesday this week. I was picking up from Santiago Chile and collection was delayed. Luckily, I made my booked overnight flight to Madrid and from there back to LHR as planned.

AI is your friend. "I'm in X, leaving in a hour what's my quickest way to Y?"

Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Friday 27th March 20:02

[Sheetmaself]

Luckily I was in Japan when i woke up at 0600hrs with a call from my Sister that my Dad was dying. I managed to get a flight home early afternoon and got back within 24hrs of finding out.

It did cost a huge amount, as in more than my business class return journey for the one economy leg but i guess they know they have you.

[HocusPocus]

I received that dreaded call last year. I had handed over care of my elderly dad to my brother in Hong Kong, and flown to Europe for respite. On landing at Paris CDG, several messages pinged.

By the time we got to the gate 15 minutes later, I had decided to abandon my booked connection to UK which meant I couldn't use the international connection system. When we reached the gate, Skyscanner offered a single to HK which departed in 75 minutes. So I had to exit, joining the Brexit brothers immigration queue, paying for flight and inputting passenger details whilst waiting in the queue, speed walking around the outer donut at CDG and riding the train into the correct terminal, security, Brexit brothers passport queue for exit and walk to the gate. Just had enough time for a wee, but not coffee, before last call boarding plane for Zurich; and then connection to HK. Just 90 minutes between wheels down and up in Paris.

Total door to door travel time was 37 hours. So emergency travel can be done with modern booking services.

Edited by HocusPocus on Friday 27th March 23:50

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Sheetmaself said:

Luckily I was in Japan when i woke up at 0600hrs with a call from my Sister that my Dad was dying. I managed to get a flight home early afternoon and got back within 24hrs of finding out.

It did cost a huge amount, as in more than my business class return journey for the one economy leg

Wow!! If that had been me, I would have been livid if he'd got better!

[iphonedyou]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Wow!! If that had been me, I would have been livid if he'd got better!

You seem lovely.

[redrabbit29]

Crumpet said:

It s not unusual for me to be at work sat around in a hotel in some far flung place and an email come through asking me how soon I can be at the airport. 2-3 hours from email to airborne is common and, on a number of occasions, they ve called me while queuing for check-in to say I need to catch a different flight to somewhere else instead. (I ve also been called when the aircraft doors are closed to ask me to offload myself - which isn t worth the hassle).

So the answer to the question is that if you have the resources behind you (I.e. a travel department) it s quite easy to go from being stood in an airport with no ticket to airborne on a flight to a different continent within 60-90 minutes.

What do you do and do you enjoy that kind of thing? I'd imagine some would find it thrilling and exciting, whereas others would just be on edge

[Pete102]

When you travel a lot its normal to have a couple of back up plans in place. Taking my own situation, I regularly fly back to the UK and for the most part the flights are on time. Every so often, however, the weather throws a curve ball or some global event kicks off and usually in these cases the prepared people win.

For instance, if a flight is delayed and its looking like it may stray into the area where it might get cancelled, I am already looking for alternative flights that I can rebook onto (or book new completely). Additionally I will have a pretty good idea of the back up plans in terms of train options, flights from other airports nearby or, in a last resort - drive via Calais.

Unfortunately the last time time I was rushing back, I had a missed call from my Mum when the plane landed....I instantly knew it was bad news and my Uncle had died while I was in the air.

[Screenwash]

With apps like Skyscanner it seems simple to book a flight whilst in a taxi heading to the airport. Simon Wilson on Youtube makes it look easy!