Travel chaos

Everything was going smoothly, apart from my hangover, after leaving Malaga, until we got an announcement from the captain that Qatar had closed its airspace and we were being diverted to Istanbul. We all reached for our phones to see what was going on and it soon became clear that Iraq was launching missiles into Doha after Mr Trump's latest antics and were striking against a US Air Force base situated not far form Hamad airport. Diverting the flight instead of trying to land at an airport not far from where missiles were being fired into made sense to me, but my thoughts immediately turned to my connecting flights.

Because of my change of travel plans I needed to get to Doha then to Riyadh, check back into a flight to Doha and then go on to Auckland - complicated but necessary for this trip unfortunately. After 7 hours on the tarmac in Istanbul and not being able to get out of the plane we were on our way to Doha again. I had a decent layover in Doha anyway so I assumed I would still be able to get my flight to Riyadh and continue on my merry way .... WRONG

Hamad Airport is one of, if not the largest hubs in the middle east and when it works well, which it almost always does, its a joy to pass through. This was not one of those times - closing the Qatari airspace for 6-7 hours had enormous knock of effects for the tens of thousands of travellers who pass through there every day.

I am lucky to have lounge access at Doha but it was no good to me this time as the place was completely full and you couldn't get a seat anywhere - after hours and hours of no flight announcements it soon became clear that my flight to Riyadh wasn't happening so I was told I had to go and wait in the queue for the transfer desk to rearrange my flights. 9 hours later I was still in the same queue with no end in sight, my Riyadh flight had since left but there was no way I was going to be on it, so my luggage was on its way to Riyadh, but I wasn't.

Not to worry, my flight to Auckland left later that night so I just had to make sure I was on that, but because I hadn't made it to Riyadh to check into my next flights I was worried that my flights may have been cancelled. As I stood in this god forsaken queue with my phone battery on 5% I had the brainwave to call the only person I could think of that could help me ... Joan. Joan was a champion and called Qatar airways in Auckland who confirmed that because I didn't check in in Riyadh I was considered a no show so my Auckland flight was cancelled. I could have cried I was beyond tired at that stage after over 24 hours in the airport with no sleep and all I wanted to do was go home so I asked Joan to get me on any flight she could from wherever I needed to get to so I could get out of this place. I turned my phone off and told Joan I would turn it back on in an hour when hopefully I would get some good news. Like an idiot I stayed in this queue of the damned for another hour and didn't move at all so when Joan called me back and told me I was on an Emirates flight out of Dubai to Auckland the next morning and a flight to Dubai from Doha in 2 hours I have never been so happy in my life. I skipped out of the queue form hell and bolted for the gate for my escape from Hamad International Airport - I was asleep before we took off and had to be woken up by the stewardess in Dubai. I headed straight to a sleep pod and got 4 of the most needed hours sleep of my life before getting on that plane and finally heading for Auckland.

An absolute nightmare of a journey that I hope I never have to repeat again.Read more