Have you ever seen a movie where people were running through the airport trying to catch their flight, so they don't get stranded on Christmas day sleeping on a bench in the departures lounge? If you did, it would be filed under the 'Horror' rather than the 'Holiday' genre. This is precisely what happened to us...
I too ALL the precautions for hassle-free holiday travel, but hey, s**t still happens! It was a real challenge when booking our Christmas eve flights to Rome. The regular Westjet overnight flight we take from Toronto to Gatwick was operating as per usual over the holiday season, and we wanted to use our discounted companion ticket to save money at this costly travel period. The catch was that all the regular British Airways flights to Rome were cancelled on Christmas morning, and the earliest flight out of Gatwick to Rome was late at night; this meant I had to patch together a 3 flight itinerary to hopscotch us through Europe to Rome. TIP #1: DOUBLE CHECK ALL FLIGHT SCHEDULES WELL IN ADVANCE FOR HOLIDAY CHANGES. I called up my sister-in-law Inge, who is a very seasoned traveller and asked for some advice. Inge gave me the best advice in the world, and I am glad to have followed every single word of it.
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| Departure Traditions |
Inge warned me adamantly about this next tip. TIP #2: LEAVE AS MUCH TIME AS POSSIBLE BETWEEN CONNECTING FLIGHTS OVER THE HOLIDAYS. If the weather is terrible or late passengers are getting onto the flight or the airport is just super busy, you could end up getting delayed by hours and missing your connection at the next airport. This would cost you hundreds of dollars to rebook another flight, and most of the flights during Christmas holidays would already be booked full, so chances are you would be hanging out at the airport for a LONG time waiting to get on a plane. Four hours is a minimum. So, I selected the flight connection that left the most extended amount of time between each change in aircraft. I figured a three-hour wait between flights should be enough time in a smaller airport like Gatwick. Insert foreshadowing here.....
As Christmas Eve approached, I watched the weather predictions and saw that it was going to be fair and quite mild out, so no chance of storm delays. Our flight had been moved up a full hour from 9pm to 8pm Christmas Eve, so that would leave a solid four hours between our arrival time in Gatwick and the next leg of our journey to Barcelona. No problem, right? WRONG!
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| Mountains Of Spain |
TIP #4: ARRANGE A SECURED PARKING SPOT AT THE AIRPORT. The last thing you want to do is waste time driving around the parking lot, looking for a long-term parking spot. Spring for valet service, so you don't waste precious time. We rolled our dice with the self- park lot at Park & Fly and found a parking spot straight away near the pick-up shelter = we were strangely in luck!
TIP #5: CHECK-IN ONLINE FROM HOME TO AVOID LONG LINES AT THE AIRPORT TICKET COUNTERS. We got to the airline ticket counter, and check-in was already done, and boarding passes printed and no luggage to check-in, so we breezed through the short security line = no problems. We went to have dinner at the Irish Pub at the airport, and everything was like a hassle-free dream. But things were about to turn into a bit of a nightmare...
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| Red Wine Fixes Everything |
The light snow turned into a freak snowstorm, and we looked worriedly out the window at our plane. Once we boarded the plane, we waited for a few late passengers to join us from a flight connecting in from Calgary that had been delayed due to bad weather. The delay only set us back 10 minutes at that point, but we waited for over an hour for the delayed passenger's luggage to be transferred into our plane because the loading trucks were getting stuck in the snow. Finally, when it was our turn to push off to the runway, our plane got stuck in the snow because we waited in our spot too long, and no one had ploughed around our aircraft for us to get out. We waited another hour and a half for a bigger tractor to come and push us off. People were starting to get really upset because they knew they were going to miss their flight connections at Gatwick, and we still had to go through de-icing the plane. By the time we got up into the air on Christmas Eve, we were three hours late. Meaning, depending on the flight conditions, we would have just under one hour in Gatwick to catch our plane to Barcelona.
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| Our Ride To Rome |
TIP #5: TAKE CARRY ON LUGGAGE ONLY AND SIT AT THE FRONT OF THE PLANE. This way, if your flight is delayed, you will not have to wait for your luggage at a carousel; you can just grab it and run off the plane. When you check-in online (try to be the first as online check-in opens or even pay to select your seats), try to get seats at the front of the plane. That way, you can be the first off the plane and sprint with your luggage to the next gate.
This is precisely what we did. We ran to border control, then sprinted to the train to get us from the North terminal to the South terminal in Gatwick. Then had to physically check-in at Vueling because our Canadian passports would not allow us to check-in online with an EU airline. Then we sprinted to security and did all that x-ray business, and then ran to our gate. All in 50 minutes, it was like a marathon. Thank goodness that Vueling was holding the plane for us because they saw that we had checked in. They literally closed the gates after us. If this were a big airport, there would have been NO WAY we would have made it!
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| A Toast To Inge!!! |
Panting and sweaty, we plopped into our seats on the Vueling flight to Barcelona. The skies were clear once we flew over Spain, and we caught breathtaking views of the mountains of Northern Spain. Once we landed in Barcelona, we cleared EU customs and headed to the terminal for some food. Many of the shops were closed for Christmas Day, but we managed to find some jambon sandwiches and wine. I sat and watched our plane to Rome get cleaned and prepped-not taking my eyes off it for one second in case something else went terribly wrong.
I couldn't help but think about the poor man who missed his flight to the Canary Islands to meet his fiance or the woman who was heading to Madrid for Christmas dinner with her grandchildren, and many other passengers who missed their connections. They were all stuck in Gatwick. I felt like we had a Christmas miracle.
But wait; there's more.....
We arrived at Rome Fiumicino airport 15 minutes ahead of schedule without any hassle. Our Airbnb host arranged a driver to pick us up for the same price as a taxi €48. Our driver had my name written on a piece of paper, and we found him straight away at the arrivals lounge, and he drove us to our flat, which was near our friends' house in Campo dei Fiore district of Rome. I was so happy, I could almost taste the Christmas dinner our friends had prepared for us! Our driver dropped us off 15 minutes early at the house address and wished us a merry Christmas and off into the night he went. What he didn't do is call our host to tell him that he dropped us off. |
| Roman Hospitality at its Finest |
It seems that it is too much for any Italian Airbnb host to meet their guest at the agreed meeting time and place. They want a call or text to say you have arrived at the rental, so you don't waste their precious time waiting around at the property. This happened over and over on this trip! So we stood outside the flat: 15 mins (we are early), 30 minutes (Italians are always late), 45 minutes (something is not right), 60 mins (he has forgotten us). My ex-husband was cheap, and would not get an international data plan for our iPhones because it is really pricey with our carrier. He figured we would be with our Italian friends the whole time we were in Italy so there would be no need for us to use our phones.
Because of this, I had no data, and I could not get a hold of the host by Airbnb messenger (hosts are told not to give out their personal phone numbers to guests). TIP # 6: HAVE A LIMITED DATA PLAN OR A LOCAL SIM CARD FOR AN UNLOCKED PHONE FOR EMERGENCY.
TIP #7: GET YOUR HOSTS PHONE NUMBER IF YOU ARE COMING IN LATE AT NIGHT OR ON A HOLIDAY WHERE EVERYTHING IS CLOSED! I had been insistent with our host that I have his phone number in case of a terrible flight mishap. I called him and texted him, but the number was not going through. There were no cafes or restaurants open on Christmas Day, so there was no wi-fi to be had anywhere! Giulio, our host, saw a strange foreign number calling his phone and figured it was me. He tried to call me back, but when I answered, the line was dead. My ex-husband took note of Giulio's number and went off into the night to find our friends' apartment to get some help. One and a 1/4 hours after we were dropped off in front of the flat in Rome on a cold and damp Christmas night, my friend Sara arrived with a flask in her hand saying she just called the host, and he is on the way with the keys. Tired, hungry and having to pee for what felt like hours, the flask of red wine hit the spot (yes, wine fixes everything.) Less than five minutes later, Giulio arrived with a bottle of wine and ample apologies for the mix-up. It seems the regular driver was off for Christmas, and the replacement driver forgot to call the host to tell him we had arrived. Giulio figured something had gone wrong, but when he saw my call come through on his cell, he thought he would check the apartment in case we were there. Why he didn't call the driver to see when he dropped us off is a vast mystery to me.
There is a happy ending to all this. Once we dropped off our luggage at the Airbnb flat, we walked over to Sara's house, where her partner Tomasso had made a huge Christmas dinner for us. The cheese, the sausage, the pasta and the wine....ohhhhh, the most incredible wine were perfect and made us forget all about our stressful travel experiences. But we did learn a whole new set of savvy travel skills for the winter holidays!
We topped the meal off with a traditional fig fruitcake and freshly picked clementines grown in Rome.
I don't even remember how we got back to our flat at the end of the night, I just remember a deep and peaceful sleep.
We were home.
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