[STRESSED MOTHER]

Originally Posted by familyofthree

We were exactly the same yesterday at Manchester. Flying thomson departure meant to be 11am. Got to check in at 8.20am to find no one going anywhere. Told that system was down for checking esta status and apparently an error message was coming up and not allowing the rest of the check in process to be completed. It was asked if there was a back up system and the answer was no. Also over heard that virgin and Thomas Cook had the same issues.

We spoke to a couple at the front of the queue and they had printed their esta approval out as they were delayed last year for the same reason. The wife had been checked in and issued a boarding pass and the system had gone down when they started he checking in her husband. Made no difference that they had their esta approvals printed out.

We had a lovely 2.5 hour wait in the check in area before it finally came back on line, just as they started handing food/drink vouchers out to everyone, they gave £3 per person, very generous! Thankfully the flight took off only 1.5 hrs late and the pilot made up some time so we only arrived just over an hour after our scheduled time.

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I think we really drew the short straw as an Emirates flight from Dubai came in whilst all this was going on and then went back out
before us- think they May have had superiority lol- I dont think the ground crew could cope either. As for other airlines having probs - most of the virgin flights from Manchester, Glasgow and Gatwick on that day into MCO were all on time according to the flight stats website.