I booked a flight to Hurghada on XL.com for a week, the flight departure time was 11:30am, we boarded a little late (nothing unusual about that) but then we sat in the plane for couple of hours while we are told very little.
After about 2.5hrs we are told that the engine needs a spare and we are going to go back to the stand so the engineers can check if it's available at the airport.
Another hour or so later we are told the part is not available and needs to be sent from another place and we will have to wait about 2.5hrs more while they fix this, so everyone off back to the lounge and are given a £7 voucher to have refreshments.
By this time it 3pm!!! only 4 hours late !
After harassing the information desk we are told next update will be at 4pm, so not so bad another hour to wait.
4pm no update, next update 6pm aaaarrrrhg!
Wander around the airport for another couple of hours, by this time people are getting a little pissed off. We are told that it will either fly or we will probably have to stay at a hotel until morning, only 6.5hrs late!
Around 7pm we are told that the engine is ok and they are testing it, half hour later we are ready to board again, we should be off at 8pm only about 7.5hrs late!!!!
We all board and wait.....and wait....and wait......
Until finally at 9pm we take off for Hurghada only 9 and half hours later
I was really surprised at how a plane load of people (about 400) waited for 9.5hrs for their flight and no one got angry, they were all just happy to be on their way finally.
What can be done now, can xl.com just get away with this sort of crap? seems to me they are doing their maintenance on customer's time rather then taking planes out of service to work on them.
What is the best way to get compensation for this, is there a way?
I have had a few delays, but this was the worst ever, if I could have got my bags I would have told them to stick their plane and gone home.