https://thepointsguy.com/2016/09/travel-itinerary-includes-47-year-layover/When it comes to air travel, not all passengers have the same mettle. While some people are perfectly content finding ways to entertain themselves during a five-hour layover, other travelers start to get antsy around the 60-minute mark. But even the most patient travelers would agree that there’s a certain point where a layover becomes a nuisance — and that spending more than 47 years (yes years) at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) to get from New Zealand to London would not be the most efficient use of one’s time. Yet that’s exactly what travel search engine Skyscanner recommended to Lincolnshire, England-based customer James Lloyd when he searched for the best possible itinerary to plan a trip to New Zealand.
After being presented with a return flight that included a 413,786-hour layover in Bangkok, Lloyd — who clearly had a sense of humor about the glitch — took to Facebook to see if Skyscanner had any suggestions as to how he might pass the near-half-century wait.
Good thing Skyscanner noted that the Bangkok layover would be a “long wait.” Image courtesy of James Lloyd via Facebook.
Fortunately, Skyscanner did not disappoint in its response. The company’s social media manager, Jen (who, given her epic reply, only needs one name), offered this:
When someone chastised Lloyd for not responding immediately to the clever reply, Jen proved her one-upmanship once again by stating, “I reckon he’s too busy planning the next 47 years, Adam. It’s a lot to get sorted! – Jen”
Lloyd then jumped back into the fray to explain his delayed response: “Sorry, I’ve been busy filling out my application forms for Thai citizenship!”
When one of the more than 1,000 people who replied to the original post pushed Jen to reveal her last name, she paraphrased Game of Thrones, noting that “A girl has no (last) name – Jen” – which only set the internet into more of a frenzy.
As a thank you for all the fun, Skyscanner — via Queen Jen — sent Lloyd a little something for his upcoming airport residency:
He kindly thanked them “for being wonderful sports” and invited Jen and the Skyscanner team to come and visit him in Bangkok “any time in the next half century!”