Surviving a flight delay
Yo! How you doing? Me? Oh, I’m writing this sat in Budapest airport suffering a 4-hour flight delay. The silver lining is that it’s given me an idea for this weeks email - How To Survive A Flight delay! ✈️
Before we get into that, let's give you a rundown of what's been going on with me. ⏪
I’m currently flying back from Budapest to London after the Hungarian GP (what a result by the way 💪) after spending the last 10 days in this BEAUTIFUL city. 😍
Honestly, if you’ve never been to Budapest it needs to be on your radar, it's one of my favourite European cities! The food, the people, the architecture, the history, there's just so much to be seen here!
This was actually my second time in Budapest, and the weather difference was insane. The first time I came here was at the start of January 2017 and it was -10 degrees in the evenings… that wasn’t a typo - MINUS 10 DEGREES - it was cold! 🥶
This time around, however, it was 37 degrees when we got in, almost a 50-degree difference! 🥵
If you know me you know I’m a big sun person so this was much more my type of weather, even if we were working in a sweaty garage all week!
Made a few videos, edited some vlogs for you guys (Miami Vlog coming out tomorrow actually), took A LOT of photos and drank some dope coffee, it was a good week!
SO back to it. I’m sat in an airport because of this 4-hour delay, but this isn’t my first rodeo. How do I survive a flight delay, let’s get into it!
(This works for long lay-overs as well)
Get good at finding a comfy base. You’re likely to do the majority of the wait in one place, so make sure it’s a good one! You want to be on the hunt for somewhere with comfy seats, power and decent WiFi. Bonuses are access to food/drink (coffee/coffee) and toilets nearby. This is where we want to set up camp. I normally head straight for a quieter coffee shop, find a seat with power and the WiFi is normally half-decent.
Contact the airline for compensation. I’m not sure on the exact delay lengths to qualify for any compensation but if it’s more than an hour or two most airlines will give you a voucher for purchasing food/drink at the airport. It’s worth getting in touch with them ASAP to try and claim this. Either use their website’s live chat features or head to a desk with a representative there and see what they can do.
Investigate compensation. If it’s a 3-hour or more delay, you may be entitled to some money back and hey, it’s not like you’ve got anything better to do right now! Jump online and find out what the compensation scheme is like for that airline, how to claim etc, and set yourself a reminder to process the claim when you finally land.
Move around the airport. Tip one I said you’ll likely spend the majority of your time in one place. Depending on the length of your delay, sitting in one place all day can get boring as hell, this is why it’s important to move around the airport when you feel the need to. Mix up your scenery and go on a walk - it’ll make a big difference to your morale.
Try and use it productively. You reading this is an example. I could’ve spent this delay complaining about how long it is and watching YouTube videos or scrolling social media, but instead, I’m trying to use it productively. I’m sitting here writing this email for you guys, I spent about an hour editing next week’s YouTube video, and once this is done I intend on planning out my key goals for next week. You may as well put the time to good use.
Stay hydrated. It’s a simple one but it’s so so easy to just drink coffee and no water; stay hydrated. On that note, I need to go get myself a new bottle…
Finally, don’t let it ruin your day. It is what it is. It’s not the end of the world, it’s a delay. It can be frustrating and it can have a knock-on effect on your arrival plans but at the end of the day, you can’t change the situation. No amount of sitting there raging at the airline will help, it’ll just ruin your day. Embrace that it has happened and crack on. This too shall pass.
Flight delays suck but they happen. I’m refusing to let this one get me down, in all honestly it’s probably leading to a more productive day because I had no intention of doing the work I’ve done during this today!
So that’s all for this week, catch you next week guys - PEACE ✌️
