First published 9 March 2020 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nigel had saved a story from the last episode, and it started with one of his golden rules. He won't book a trip with a stopover or a change of planes. In 20 years as a speaker, almost every time he's done it something has gone wrong. Lost luggage, a lost passport, visa trouble, delays. Then he booked a "direct" flight to the Cayman Islands that stopped in The Bahamas on the way.
His gut told him it would go wrong. It did. A five-hour delay before they'd even left, so they got to The Bahamas too late to carry on and stayed the night. Next morning, on a 45-minute hop, the pilot turned back. There'd been an earthquake a couple of weeks before, and the runway couldn't take a plane that big.
So Nigel lost it. And he's the one who's written books telling people that losing it doesn't make the plane go any faster. A plane, as he put it, has no self-esteem. It doesn't really care.
In the end he grabbed his bags, flew back to Miami and got a small plane over. Waiting at the other end was a driver with his name on a board and a crate of Diet Coke in the car. The poor bloke had been coming to the airport for three days. Nigel's going back in November and going via Miami this time. He's apologised to BA for his rant (and yes, he got his compensation).
I got some credit for once too. After a year of stick about being late, I turned up at Nigel's house at 9:48, early. My sat nav has lied to me every single time I've driven there, so I planned round it. I also had a BA story of my own. They smashed a wheel off a fairly new suitcase, I went to the desk, they took photos, filled in a five-minute form, and a new case was couriered to me within a week. The old wheel's somewhere over the Atlantic.
Worth remembering
- If every connecting flight you've taken has gone wrong, stop booking them. Your gut usually knows.
- Shouting at a plane doesn't make it go any faster.
- Plan for the stuff that happens every day. The M25 is busy every day.
- When something goes wrong, find the right person and be polite. I had a new suitcase in a week.
Stuff happens, and when it happens, you need to be prepared.
Nigel Risner
I went and spoke to somebody, and actually being polite and approaching it the right way did get me somewhere.
Neil Martin
