My Abuja Nightmare!

A day trip to Abuja for the National award ceremony turned out to be a nightmare. The ceremony went well even though it was extremely long; it was presided over by the President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR. We had lunch and headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Lagos. The 17:25 Virgin Nigeria (renamed Air Nigeria) flight at the international terminal was cancelled with no apology or explanantion. We rushed to the local airport to try and find another flight to Lagos.

The next avaibale flight was Dana Air, I tried to get on that flight but it was fully booked. I was promised by a random person who knew my father ( I know! I know! Don't say it!) that he could definitely get me on an Aero Contractors flight to Lagos. He introduced me to the Aero Station Master who confirmed that he could get me a seat on one of their two flights to Lagos that evening. The airport terminal was getting busier and busier by the minute and people started shouting and fighting to check-in and buy tickets. When I realised that so many tickets had been sold in front of me, I spoke to the Station Master again but all of a sudden he seemed very aloof and unhelpful. By this time I had received a call from the Virgin Nigeria check-in staff, who confirmed that he had a seat for me on the 19:25 flight, which I would lose if I didnt show up anytime soon. He eventually had to release the seat to another passenger and I was still trying to get on the next Aero flight! Why didn't I just take that flight??!??

Eventually, I was issued a boarding pass at 21:00 to get the last Aero flight to Lagos. I dashed across the tarmac, climbed the stairs to board the flight, and was told at the door of the plane by the flight attendant that "there were no more seats". The Station Master boarded the flight and checked the plane and came back to confirm the same thing! In fact, at this point the pilot in the cockpit saw me standing by the door through his window and asked me "Do you want to get on this flight?" of which I answered "Yes!" The crew went back to see if there was anyway of getting me a seat on the flight but came back empty-handed! bummer! I was then asked to disembark. I was practically in tears! Why would an airline issue a boarding pass without verifying if there was actually space on the flight?? only in Nigeria!

I demanded for a refund on my ticket before eventually leaving the airport at 21:30. I had spent 5 hours at the airport to no avail! A frustrating and tiring experience. I ended up spending the night in Abuja with no change of clothes!

I had to get to the airport at 6am the next day to get any available flight back to Lagos, which turned out to be the 8am Virgin Nigeria flight.

Sometimes when things like this happen, one often wishes there was an underlining meaning to the whole experience, I am yet to find out what it is........ I have also been told this is normal occurence in Abuja from Wednesdays to Fridays.... why didn't someone tell me this before I got there??!??

All because my flight got cancelled... my Abuja nightmare.......