lincasanova

Today, Friday, over 1,000 employees have staged a sit-in (on the runways, i believe), and the airport is totally closed which will create a domino havoc all across spain for the next few high travel days.

first the pilots and now these employees.

just warning all of you coming this way.
good luck.

cova

God, Lin ... it is being an stressful day at work ... and I am extremely happy to have decided not to travel to Bilbao this weekend ...

That domino effect will be absolutely awful late this evening ...

Rgds, Cova

lincasanova

cova.. are you in bcn or mad? i haven't paid enough attention to figure it out! ( or elsewhere!)

W9London

Reportedly Barcelona only. Flights from Madrid arriving normally in London. Also BA posted warnings for weather-related delay at Heathrow for today. Why do all those things HAVE to happen on summer Friday?

laclaire

I am writing this from the fuc#ing BCN airport where I arrived to complete mayhem. No planes leaving, none arriving. I was supposed to already be on the beach in Málaga. My friend is here though she should be getting her hair done for her brother's wedding. This is such hell you guys cannot even believe. The Red Cross had to come in with bottles of water for everyone, and there is general anger and unrest that is taking over everyone.

Dukey

How many times on this board have we heard people preaching to us about flexibility?

laclaire

I am flexible as a Cirque du Soleil performer, but it would have been nice to know this beforehand. Also, as they are still not officially cancelling anything, no one can make a move to get money back or change reservation. It is just a line that keeps getting bigger. I am going to go up to the rental car places and see if anyone is driving to Málaga and offer to take a driving turn and chip in for gas for a space.

lincasanova

the scenes on television are like a war zone. the police had to protect some iberia workers fearing they might be lynched by irrate crowds.

why is this happening? well..iberia lost their concession to ?? to run ground control, luggage, etc. at the airport, so they are angry and decided to ruin everyone's else's vacation/work day/ trip to funeral/wedding since their future is obscure.

give me a break.

Sue_xx_yy

laclaire

Can you get an AVE down to Seville? From there you could bus to Malaga.

cova

Sue, Claire lives in Barcelona. To get an AVE to Sevilla she should first get to Madrid,and we are also talking about the first weekend of the August holidays.

By bus it takes ages, more than 12 hours. By train, the only decent option would be the 21:30 trenhotel, arriving into Malaga at 10:00 (and I donīt think there will be any tickets left).

The best option for Claire is to find someone who would be renting a car to Malaga, but I donīt know how many cars might be left.

They know perfectly that by staging that strike today they were going to disturb a lot of people. Also, it wasnīt something that had been really announced (at least, with the pilots strike, I had time to organize alternative transport options).

Lin, I am in Madrid, and missing the beach very, very much. But there are also good things about living here (the Urban hotel rooftop bar and all the ambiance in Malasaña and Chueca ...).

Claire, good luck. I am really sorry for your friend.

Rgds, Cova

lincasanova

claire.. if you can read this and are exhausted but can get to valencia by bus or train or car.. and need to spend the night.. i live 2 minutes off the A7 bypass.

take a swim and get up super early and continue.
very bad traffic today.

i know 'i shouldn't do this but i wont be looking at this computer til much later.
my cell phone is 620 5969 23.

just call.
if bcn runs out of rental cars maybe there are more here.
i can take you to the airport to get one if you get this far.

jeez. what a mess.
good luck.