Flight Delays & Status – How To Amuse Yourself at the Airport!

It’s First World Problems time again, this time it’s about flight delays at the airport!

It’s for those of us who like to whine at the superficial problems that people in the first world have to deal with all of the time, like running out of shampoo in the middle of the shower and having crap wi-fi so bad that it takes at least 10 seconds to upload some narcissitic selfie to your social media accounts!

This time, it’s about those annoying times that you’re flight is delayed at the airport!

Just remember, if you can afford to fly, you’re about 10 times richer on average than the person who can afford to travel by a car, and 100 times richer than those who travel on foot!

Anyway, it’s going to be inevitable at some point in your life. There are going to be flight delays for one reason or another, and you’ll just have to put up with it. I think you’re way better off spending hours in the airport terminal being alive than to be in a rush on a shonkily prepared aircraft that might fall out of the sky because the problem found wasn’t fixed the right way!

I’ve been delayed a few times before. For example, for a flight that I needed to arrive in time for a job interview! Plus there have been the double digit hour waits that I’ve endured in the past. But really, these things are all pretty trivial and no big deal in the scheme of things.

And remember, it’s magnitudes safer to travel via plane than it is with any form of transport. I always still get excited when I land my boarding pass because I know I’m going somewhere different that’s going to stimulate some new senses.

Sure, sometimes it takes me a little longer to get there, but these things happen.

But if for some reason you’re stuck for hours on end and you don’t have access to an airline lounge or have the option to go back into the city, here are some things that you could potentially do whilst you are waiting for your plane to start the boarding procedure! And some of these may not lead you to being arrested either!

Flight Delays – How To Deal With Them!

• Spot some weird airport people doing the rounds at the terminal – or maybe become one yourself!

• If you’re lucky enough to be delayed at Changi airport in Singapore, just keep racking up a large duty free bill to increase your chances of winning a million Singapore dollars! What a great way to buy more cheap booze and to become rich at the same time!

• Find someone who has a fear of flying and talk about the different ways a plane can crash or end up in an embarrassing incident!

• If you’re really bored, keep recalculating how long you need to stay awake to minimise jet lag every time you hear an announcement about your plane delay! You’ll probably cross a few time zones before you go to the boarding gates just by doing this!

• Keep cursing that the reason that you’re delayed is because you’re way too tight to pay for something better than the cheapest flight ticket possible. Because sometimes, it’s quicker to walk!
• Say that you’re so grateful that at least you’re not about to board some rust bucket Soviet Era plane that should be placed in a museum and not in actual use!

• Go through the travel alerts and warnings you should have heeded before buying your plane ticket and try to calm yourself down that you’re heading to a destination with a high likelihood of a fatal visit!
• Just go and get drunk at the airport bar. Who cares if you miss your flight, even if it is rescheduled to tomorrow
• Pray that your plane isn’t being fixed with duct tape

• Watch your favourite episodes of Air Crash Investigations all over again and marvel at how a simple part malfunction can bring a plane out of the sky!

• Try and think of a new travel quote to inspire those waiting for their broken down plane, like ‘I’d rather be delayed at the airport than have a crash which leaves me on life support’
• Be grateful that you’re not paying for something deemed necessary on a low cost airline

• Individually review every spam comment on your travel blog instead of pressing ‘delete all’
• Be grateful that your plane isn’t ‘experimental’

• Work off that travel fat that you’ve accumulated by eating and boozing too much by walking up and down the entire length of the airport until your flight is ready to take off
• Come up with one of your own Murphy’s Laws for frequent flyers
• Write your own witty flight attendant announcements so you can hand them over to them when you finally board the plane
• Think of some funny captions to write on your airline safety cards

• Start your own travel blog about being delayed in airports
• Fantasize that you’re actually Tom Hanks from The Terminal movie
• Carry around your statue of Priapus – with him hanging off your backpack

• Therapy is expensive, beer is cheap. Which one would you choose?
• Send a selfie of you waiting in the boarding lounge seat to the airline social media accounts that has delayed your flight every 5 minutes
• Write your own passenger boredom notes on your boarding pass
• Hurriedly go up to the other airline encounters and say that you’re a contestant from The Amazing Race and hope that they’ll give you an alternative ticket for free!
• Think of how you could repaint your delayed plane with a funny paint job!

• Pray that when you finally get on your flight that you’re not seated next to the worst possible passenger types going around!
• Be thankful that you’re not flying anywhere near the Worst Place To Be A Pilot

There you go!

If you’ve been bored out of your brain at the airport waiting for your flight because it’s delayed, what silly things have you fantasized about doing, or have actually done?

Leave your suggestion below, and I’m sure someone will Google it when they’re delayed at the airport!