lol my flight got diverted because of a medical emergency and they landed us in reykjavik in the middle of the night and deplaned us and sent us through passport control and then the crew vanished and then british airways sent us links to book an overnight hotel room but for a hotel at heathrow everything is closed. they won't let us have our checked bags. no one is here to answer our questions or help us. so we have no food no clothes and no recourse. lol. lmao. it's like there are a few hundred edward snowdens trapped at the iceland airport but we're all from portland and are too nice to demand our rights while on the plane the flight attendant got on the comm and literally told us he'd strand people in iceland if they resisted or objected to the diversion lolllll was literally like "i am in charge and the safety of our customers is tantamount." then at passport control the crew cut ahead of all the passengers and ✨vanished into thin air ✨ leaving us to mill around texting the british airways chatbot with increasing urgency we have found our way out of the airport through a series of uniformed icelanders (airport employees?) telling us to not follow the directions in the british airways emails and get on the buses instead so now i am on a bus, i do not know who has taken us or where we are going, i have either been taken tenderly into the embrace of the EU regulatory framework, or someone has kidnapped me and a bunch of other tired and confused PNWers a two-year-old in the back just sighed, "what a day" and everyone did a polite/panicked titter in response you have not lived until a guy in a posh accent weirdly aggressively threatens to strand you in iceland i'm starting to get worried about how long this bus ride is wanna hear something funny? i drank extra coffee on the flight to get my body back on pacific time got to a hotel. we are not, as far as i know, kidnapped. but we also have no toothpaste or change of clothes or food etc. does anyone know if like. there's a way to doordash myself toothpaste to an icelandic hotel. my problem-solving capacity is becoming increasingly more diminished lol there is no delivery of anything where we are until 11 am tomorrow i am staring at the tiny shampoos and conditioners and thinking about brushing my teeth with them another hilarious problem: no one knows how we're getting to the airport tomorrow morning. we think we are getting bussed back but no one has told us we are or what time the bus is leaving the front desk did not have toothpaste or toothbrushes, and we have decided that walking for 20 minutes to the nearest 10-11 while in this dazed state might be unwise. however we have acquired dinner (potato chips and mini bottles of wine) girl dinner
just remembered that we only got on the buses because a passenger walked over and was like "hey i guess there are going to be buses over there, supposedly?" THERE WAS NEVER AN INTERCOM ANNOUNCEMENT OR A TEXT OR AN EMAIL OR ANYTHING LOL so theoretically there are still passengers stranded at the airport because they went to the bathroom at the exact time we all decided to take our chances with the hypothetical buses of unknown origin on advice of commenters, i found a faq website for uk261. my partner turned it into a qr code. you fucking bet i'm showing it to every passenger i see at breakfast i've always wanted to visit iceland sure wish i hadn't been holding that monkey's paw when i said it good morning: yes, i am still trapped in iceland, and the departure of our promised flight out keeps creeping back. we have received a bus departure time. by my calculations we will arrive at the airport 40 minutes before check-in even opens. basically everything is timed in a way to be maximally painful without any freedom to go do something pleasant in the interval so while i appreciate the fun little suggestions about stuff to do in reykjavik, i'm starting to feel like tantalus over here ok i'm done being polite. do not mention these fucking hot springs to me again. i do not have fresh socks or a fucking toothpaste, i am not getting in the goddamn hot springs in this state lol like 40% of BA's official communications have conveyed false or logically impossible information. like at 9:40 we received an email that said buses would pick us up at 9:00. since early morning hotel has had a printed sign out that the passengers of the BA flight will get picked up at 11 the most accurate and helpful information during this ordeal has come from paper printouts in arial font and random passengers conveying hearsay british airways chatbot, british airways email, and british airways SMS: one always tells the truth, one always lies, and one every email has arrived with hilarious timing. the email telling me that they have organized "coaches" for us arrived 30 minutes after i boarded the unidentified mystery bus and had no instructions on where to find the bus or who to contact to ask about the bus the way the information is disseminating is genuinely perplexing. the hotel appears to be as confused by BA as we are and when we asked if the pickup time was correct the reassurance they had on offer was that another passenger had gotten ahold of BA on the phone to confirm bsky.app
at this point where is the hearsay even coming from? are your fellow passengers praying to various divine or demonic entities and receiving wisdom related to bus scheduling?
so like every now and then a Chosen Passenger receives correct information and somehow it's relayed to hundreds of other people who choose to trust the waterstained arial font printout over the emails with the BA logo, because we all know better there was a bus outside. asked the hotel reception if it was ours. she did not know, but showed us the arial font sign, said, "maybe you should hurry." imagine a video game meter but for my nerves, ticking down into the "thin shaking sliver of red" zone. got on bus. still no indication this is ours i assume we are in the right place only because i am starting to recognize other passengers, despite not being very good with faces a baby is howling. the mother mumbled "she would like to be home now" and we all laughed sadly you blew my mind lol. you're absolutely correct bsky.app
Presumably they are wearing the same clothes as last night.
people keep mentioning this, but here's the thing. i actually do carry an emergency bag on (1) flights away from home, (2) any flights with layovers. i was on a nonstop to home originating at a major hub airport. diversion to iceland is not a reasonable threat model bsky.app
Having similarly been stranded overnight without my bag (which somehow made a later flight I was not able to get on), I am considering always carry toothpaste and an extra pair of socks in my carry on.
went to go print my new boarding pass lmao
switched kiosks. input the info. you truly cannot make this shit up
now standing in a line for the one (1) BA counter in the airport, along with hundreds of my new best friends the counter does not appear to be open yet lol passengers are all comparing notes on which hotels they got sent to and which conflicting departure times they were given oh we're at 3 hrs before departure now, but check-in isn't open for another 15 minutes, which was one of the logistical mysteries i was contemplating earlier. "fortunately" the bus was delayed in leaving for the airport so we're not standing in line for an hour bsky.app
From bitter experience it’ll probably open exactly 3 hours before take off and not a minute earlier. If the flight is delayed, the counter delays its opening
the counter opened on time. while waiting my partner acquired toothbrushes and socks. 🎉 i am still in line. i told other passengers about uk261 with the caveat that BA will fight. fellow passenger: "i'm ready to be a karen" some but not all of us have received emails notifying us that there will be no food on the flight (i understand why but also lol) everyone in my mentions seems to hate keflavik airport but iceland has done nothing wrong. keflavik innocent impression of iceland so far: great tap water, lovely vistas, reasonably nice people who aren't necessarily helpful but do not threaten you or lie (huge ups to iceland for that). one teensy tiny little complaint: the coffee. what's the deal with this coffee another great detail: no one in a BA uniform has been remotely apologetic, even performatively. everyone keeps acting like this is a normal delay. the closest thing we've gotten is a guy at check-in saying "we're doing our best" (no sorry, no sympathies) i don't know if i conveyed this but every on-plane communication took the following form: - a pilot making a reasonable announcement that people hated to hear but accepted - the posh cabin crew guy repeating it but imperiously while strongly implying the guy having the emergency is in first class we're boarding now. a gate attendant literally screamed at us to board by boarding group... and a hundred people just laughed in her face. we have formed a self-governing society at this point and her attempt to order us around is oddly funny we are lined up waiting to board and we're all just swapping details on which conflicting information we've received about what the flight will be like and one guy is like "i genuinely do not trust that they won't run out of water" we have now been traveling for over 24 hours together ok i thought we were stalled on the jetbridge to the plane but the line finally started moving and i rounded the corner to see.... a bus lmao this bsky.app
AND THEY NEEDED YOU TO GO BY BOARDING GROUP?!
bro this bus isn't even taking us to another place on the tarmac. we're on what appears to be an actual highway through rolling pastures ok i think i see our airplane so i probably have not been kidnapped we were lined up outdoors inching along as we boarded. and then it began to rain i laughed out loud, not least because we're already obviously past the previously scheduled departure time
they are telling us on the plane that how to apply for a refund....................... "you can purchase the inflight wifi and go to the website" posh guy on the comm told us "the majority of customers have been understanding and patient" LMAO and then went on to congratulate himself for the safety procedures that diverted us to iceland everyone i've seen has been incredibly patient and enduring except for occasionally laughing powerlessly in the face of BA personnel the guy with the medical emergency allegedly is in intensive care right now. i do not know how trustworthy that update is lol on behalf of the self-governing collective of LHR-PDX, i wish him well i misunderstood about the refund. he was explaining how to apply for a refund for the wifi. dldjkdksjslalsks i will NOT be doing that. see you all in portland in 8 hours or something. or in greenland. or in hell.