Have you ever had a visitor take a flight (prendre un vol) to come visit your company?
If so, I’m sure that you’ve had to deal with (faire face à) all sorts of problems: lost luggage, delayed flights (les vols retardés), cancelled flights (les vols annulés)…the list of potential problems is endless!
(If you could just cross your fingers for me here, I’d appreciate it! I’ll be flying home to the US on Thursday and since the holidays are a peak travel period (une haute saison pour voyager) , I’m sure there will be at least one problem. Remind me to tell you the story of my worst flight home ever someday…)
Air travel arrangements and your visitor’s flight make great discussion topics.
But you need the vocabulary to have a smooth conversation. There was probably enough turbulence on the flight, so welcome your visitor with a fluid, easy conversation where you have all the right vocabulary.
An easy conversation certainly makes your visitor feel welcome, and makes you feel comfortable and confident in your English.
On today’s episode of Speak Better, Feel Great TV, you’ll get vocabulary you need to master one common small talk conversation topic, including a few VERY useful expressions with the verbs “get” and “take”.
Now, I’d love to hear from you.
What’s your worst air travel story?
Share your story in the comments. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours 😉
Remember that thousands of other French-speaking professionals come to SBFG to boost their English and boost their career. Your contribution may be exactly what someone else needs to build their confidence, speak better English, and feel great about themselves.
Thank you, as always, for reading, watching and sharing your experience. Tuesdays fill me with such excitement, and part of that is thanks to you.
Have a fantastic week in English,
Christina
P.S. Got a colleague who is flying soon? Share this week’s episode with them. They’ll thank you, I’m sure.
P.P.S. During my 3-week (Yes!) stay in the US, I’ll be sharing some photos on both my Facebook page and my Instagram account. If you want a little glimpse into my life in the US, I’d love to see you on those networks!
My worst air travel story was when I had a transit in Hong Kong and the airline clerk told me to sleep at the airport for the morning flight next day . I couldn’t get good sleep on the couch with unsafe feelings . I was all alone and awake all night .
Hi Mollie! Glad to see you on the blog! That is awful. I can’t believe the clerk just told you to sleep at the airport to wait for your flight. And I can understand that you didn’t sleep well. I don’t think I would have slept well either! Hopefully you managed to sleep on the plane! Thanks so much for your story!
Dear Christina, I discovered your website few weeks ago and I really enjoy watching your videos.
So, thank you very much for this great job !
I would like to share with you and your followers my worst travel experience.
As I was back from a package tour, the tour operator forgot to confirm our second flight.
Unfortunately, it happended on a peak travel period : so there were no direct flight available anymore.
And our two-hour flight was replaced by a three-day journey with stopovers all around Europe !
Hi Beatrice, and welcome to The SBFG Community! I’m glad you enjoy the videos, and I’m sorry to hear about the flight experience. I hope you didn’t travel with that tour operator again! By the way, nice use of the vocabulary expression “peak travel period” 🙂 Flying all around Europe was probably hell! You probably could have walked home and arrived more quickly 😉
OK, guys, I promised I’d tell you my story if you told me yours!
One time, we were traveling back to the US. We had booked a flight that went from Lyon to Paris (by TGV), then Paris to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Mississippi. But there was an SNCF strike, so we had to convince the SNCF to change our ticket. So, instead we got a flight from Lyon to Amsterdam. But the flight from Lyon took off late, and of course we missed our connecting flight in Amsterdam.
So, the put us on a later flight from Amsterdam to New York (which would then eventually take us to Memphis, then Mississippi). In New York, we got our boarding passes for our flight to Memphis and then got on the airport tram to change terminals, but just before we arrived at our stop, it turned around and went back the other way. I don’t know why! So we had to get another tram. Thankfully we had a very long layover!
Once we got off the tram, we saw that the flight to Memphis had been canceled due to bad weather. So then, we went back to the ticket counter and they put us on a flight to…Atlanta! We got the flight from New York to Atlanta, and then FINALLY from Atlanta to Mississippi, and arrived at 11pm instead of 4pm as planned.
Of course the bags didn’t make it, but they arrived a few days later. Although I had to call the airline to ask about where our bags were. They were in Brussels (!) and they couldn’t send them to the US until someone called to tell them to do so!
Now, I’m leaving for the US again tomorrow…let’s hope this flight is much, much smoother! Cross your fingers for me 🙂
hello Christina
Here is my worst travel flight:
I was in New York with my best friend and we planned to spend few days in Montreal, we took the bus to go to JFK airport we weren’t worried at all about the driving time but when we arrived at the airport we realized that the flight check-in has just closed. So, we were almost crying in front of the guy at the check-in office when he said: “Ok this is your lucky day I register both of you on the flight right now but you have to run to the boarding gate !”
We were so relieved and happy so we ran through the airport (and the security gates) to find our boarding gate (at the other side of the airport, of course) and when we finally arrived to this gate the two stewards told us that the plane has just taken off one mine before… We were so pissed off but fortunately we have succeed to negotiate with the company and they put us on a flight the day after, for free!
Hi Fanny,
Good to see you on the blog! Thanks for sharing your story, and I’m glad it all ended well.
Each time I’ve had air travel problems, I’ve found the airline employees to be helpful and understanding if you’re kind and respectful to them. I hope you enjoyed your trips to both Montreal and NYC and that you have good memories (despite the bad flight experience!).
All the best to you!