Lufthansa Troubles...

Weekend 11/7-11/8

Lufthansa Troubles:

This weekend I actually planned to go to Lisbon Portugal. Yah, I know what kind of logic is that going from Joburg to Lisbon for a weekend!? It’s called Miriam’s logic! Ha ha ha, well I got the Friday off, my back pack was packed, the company pays for my flight, got friends to visit and places to see…so why not???

Off I went! Before boarding my flight I stopped at a bar to have a beer or few and a smoke to celebrate my long overdue “DAY OFF”. Not to mention the fact that I was tremendously looking forward going as I hear so many incredible things about Lisbon that I just had to go find out for myself! Sat in my seat of Lufthansa, got organized, relaxed as I was psyching up for the trip I watched the lights in the distance pass by as we were rolling from the gateway to the runway…

GRRR… STOP! Not so relaxed anymore I watched lights to pass me by as we were rolling from the runway BACK to gateway! Well I know I had couple of beers but am I really dreaming? The captain comes on “Ladieeeeeeeeees and gentleman…announcing in his deep circus announcers voice in funny German accent “We have a technical difficulty with hydraulics on the wing, we are looking at the issue and we should be moving in 30 minutes” An hour later, he tells us “hmm the problem is bit bigger than first thought, we are currently looking for the spare part in Johannesburg” Now he got my attention!!! Oh shiatze!!!! They are looking for a spare part on Thursday night @ 9.30 in Joburg??? Good luck! We are not leaving!


Well my assumptions were correct, after 4 hours on the plane, with no air, food or water, they finally announced that the flight is cancelled and rescheduled to Friday. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I wanted to scream out loud!!! I wanted to kick someone’s ass so badly!!! But nothing I would do would make the situation better! Hmm my wheels were spinning…but there was nothing I could figure out to do, even though for the most part I can quite excel in crisis management, I quickly realized that this one is out of my hands. To travel the next day (Friday) for me is not good!!! As it would literally mean get to Lisbon, see some historical sites, have some fun and come back! So I decided to completely cancel the trip and come up with plan B.

Ahhh I was so so heartbroken and disappointed. But I guess me trying to find the positive in everything, I figured it’s better to be on the ground and safe, rather than discover the “mechanical problem” up 30,000 feet! Anyways I also made a conscious decision that from now on I’ll never fly Lufthansa again as their fleets are way too old and I am NOT risking to miss another trip!