Ben Stanley: Sleepless in transit lounge

When you're stuck thanks to a cancelled flight with just your carry-on luggage, it can be akin to a night in one of Dante's Seven Circles.

Opinion

Ben Stanley's nine hours in Houston International Airport feel like torture.

I couldn't sleep. The lights were blindingly bright, and the country music played loud. A cleaner moved past with his vacuum cleaner on full blast.

Leaning against the wall in Terminal A of Houston International Airport, I rubbed my eyes and looked down at my phone: 3.03am. Three more hours of hell to go.

Travel internationally long enough and, sooner or later, it will happen: you will be marooned at an airport overnight.

You will look up at the late-night departures board to see the coding of your flight and the planned departure time followed by the word "CANCELLED".

For some travellers, sleeping at an airport is a planned and accepted part of it all. You score a cheap flight, meaning a six- or seven-hour overnight stop at an airport.

You justify things to yourself - you're saving cash otherwise spent on a hotel, as well as the money saved by boarding the flight with the crappy early-morning departure. You can bring pillows, blankets or anything else you might need to make those long hours easier.

But when you're stuck thanks to a cancelled flight with just your carry-on luggage, it can be akin to a night in one of Dante's Seven Circles.

My "longest night" came earlier this year.

I'd flown from Indianapolis and spent an hour waiting for my connecting flight to Oklahoma City.

I was in good spirits, having spent my trip to Texas talking music and women with a punk guitarist from Los Angeles, but looking forward to my motel bed in OKC.

Arriving at my gate, I realised quickly it wouldn't be coming that night. "UA3827 9.15PM TO OKC," the board read. "CANCELLED."

A thunderstorm over South Texas meant I would be flying out at 6.30 the next morning, and would be sharing Houston International with hundreds more unlucky souls.

Pitiful is the word I'd use to describe my next nine hours on this planet.

I avoided the airport chairs - anyone who has been in my position knows how uncomfortable those bastards get - and found a small corner behind a check-in counter, but sleep wasn't happening.

The terminal lights shone brightly throughout the night, and terminal stereos blared Garth Brooks and Carrie Underwood non-stop.

But although most airports are ill equipped for the overnight brigade, some are better to crash at than others.

The website sleepinginairports.net names its top five airports to sleep at as Singapore's Changi, Seoul's Incheon, Amsterdam Schiphol, Hong Kong and Helsinki's Vantaa. Changi even boasts free showers and "special reclining sleep chairs".

There are none in Houston though, or in most airports around the world. One must simply stick it out, dream of how comfortable your hotel bed will eventually feel and hope your rescheduled flight boards on time.

Mine did, thank Christ, but every time I hear Garth Brooks again, I'll have even more reason than before to shudder.