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Taken March 2003 from Athens to Herlaklion (Crete)

Our Olympic flight was due to depart at 9:00 am, but when we arrived at gate No. 26 (the gate from where the flight was due to depart) it was being used by Agean Airlines.

No Olympic hostesses were present, and the electronic board showing Olympic flight departure times listed no delay.

After a two hour wait, we were told that the flight had been cancelled, and we were re-booked on a flight leaving at 12:20.

We arrived at the gate again at 11:45, and after a long delay we were taken to an ageing ATR 72 parked about a mile from the gate.

The aircraft was cold and filthy. The lids from the seat ash trays had been removed and each ash tray was full of cigarette ash.

We sat there in the cold for about 30 minutes. Then the pilot arrived. He looked as though he had slept under a hedge the previous night.

This was when we decided to call it quits. I told the stewardess that we had decided not to travel with this aircraft, and asked her to call a bus to take us back to the terminal.

30 minutes later a filthy bus arrived, and we went into the airport hotel and had lunch.

Later I was informed that after a two hour delay this particular flight had been cancelled and that all the passengers who had been sitting in that cold aircraft were taken back to the terminal.

Finally we left for Crete with Cyprus Airways via Larnaca.

NEVER, NEVER AGAIN OLYMPIC!!