Business Travel Carnival- Travel Horror Stories

I was on my way from Tunis to London, via France. My flight was supposed to leave at 5 p.m. and arrive in Paris just past 7 p.m. This would give me time to get to my hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport for an evenings rest before my morning flight to London where I was scheduled to meet some customers. Little did I know that a short flight was going to become one of my worst traveling experiences.  As my flight from Tunis was international, I had to be there at 3 p.m. The flight leaving Tunis was delayed for several hours, and unfortunately the airline (Air France) chose to tell us about the delays in 30-minute increments. Each time we would get close to boarding time, the departure time was pushed back. At first there were rumours of trouble with the aircraft. What we found out eventually was that the air traffic controllers in France were on a one-day strike. Why no one from Air France in Tunisia, seemed to be aware of this initially, or why they would tell us about aircraft trouble, I have no idea. If this had been known- which Im sure it was in the rest of the world, I would have much preferred to move my travel plans back a day then spend my entire evening in Tunis Airport. What did Air France offer us for a delay of 7 hours? A can of soda or a bottle of water (one or the other- not both). Thanks Air France. But my night wasn’t over. Eventually the flight from Tunis did depart- we boarded just before midnight, landed in Paris after 2 a.m., and had collected our luggage at around 230 a.m. At this point I had a problem. I was not sure how close my hotel was to the airport, and I had a flight to London at 7 the next morning (meaning I would have to come back at 5); So, I decided to stay at the airport. Unfortunately at this time of night there is absolutely nothing open at Charles de Gaulle airport, and equally unfortunately there seemed to be many other passengers in similar situations. So I spent the next three hours wandering around, occasionally finding a spot to sleep; only to be woken up any time I seemed to get my eyes closed for more than a couple of minutes. Many times I was woken up by the machines that clean the tile floors. What a horrendous racket they make- not only from the brushes, but the machines also beep loudly. Unshaven, unwashed, and very unhappy, by the time I got on the flight to London I was little more than a walking zombie and when I eventually got to my hotel in London. I called my clients to cancel my meetings for the day and went directly to bed. Before you travel, in order to make the best of it, in the unfortunate case that you ever find yourself in a similar situation, do take a look at the website www.sleepinginairports.com. Charles de Gaulle is listed as one of the worst airports to spend an overnight. That does not come as a surprise to me.