Travel: Waiting game

SOME PEOPLE have all the luck. John Carter, of ITV's Wish You Were Here . . .?, writes in with a tale of a three-and-a- half-hour delay at Kuala Lumpur airport - 'the first time this has happened in 30 years of travelling'. If that is the worst air delay that has befallen him, Mr Carter has been extremely fortunate. Perhaps journalists who get free trips enjoy a different experience to the rest of us.

Our files are full of tales of flights delayed or abandoned. Reasons include 'too much paint in the hold' (BA to Frankfurt) and the two passengers who delayed a Czechoslovak Airlines flight from Heathrow to Prague by four hours because they went to Terminal 4, not Gate 4.

Jane Garvey, presenter of Radio 5 Live's The Breakfast Programme, clearly does not have the same clout as ITV personnel. She has just returned from a week in Greece which turned into an aviation nightmare. Her flight to Kos was 'tolerable', with an hour's delay from Gatwick and a wait of two hours for luggage (Kos airport has only two baggage carousels, which is a disadvantage when three flights arrive at one). On the return journey, however, Ms Garvey suffered almost every misfortune that can afflict a package holiday: having to check out of her apartment hours before the flight, a last- minute 'rescheduling' which shifted the departure time to the middle of the night, a tardy bus transfer to the airport and finally a one-hour wait in the dark before checking-in - 16 hours after checking out of her apartment.