I’m not saying this will work for everyone, but this is how my family got to spend 20 hours in London for free in the summer of 2016.

1. Spend 5 months on the Indian sub continent and be REALLY ready to leave India
2. Arrive at the airport to find that your flight has been delayed
3. Wait patiently at the airport until it is time to board the plane. After all, you have been traveling full time for a year, you know there is no reason to get worked up over travel delays
4. Settle into your seat and wait at the gate for a half hour, at which point the captain announces that the plane has a small technical problem that will take about a half hour to fix.
5. Attempt not to get claustrophobic on the warm, crowded plane while the captain announces every half hour that the repair didn’t work and another repair is being tried.
6. Become fairly certain that you are going to miss your connecting flight to Madrid
7. After 2 hours, be informed that the airport has permitted you and your fellow passengers to wait in the terminal. No mention is made of the impending riot that may have occurred if the sweaty, hungry passenger had been kept on the plane much longer
8. Oh, by the way, the flight has been canceled.
9. Try to hide your disappointment, as the shuttle bus takes you back to Delhi
10. Look on the bright side and enjoy spending the night in a fancy hotel after a year of being a budget backpacker.
11. Gorge yourself on the buffet dinner, but stick to the continental offerings because after five months of eating Indian food almost everyday, you don’t think you could eat another bite.
12. Spend the evening being seriously confused about when you will get to fly to London and what is happening with your connecting flight to Madrid
13. Finally sort out that the original flight has been rescheduled for the following afternoon.
14. Realize you might not get to London in time to make the last connecting flight to Madrid and therefore be stuck in London overnight
15. Get excited about being stuck in London overnight!
16. Try not to get too excited because you might make it to London in time
17. Enjoy a buffet breakfast at the hotel and take the shuttle back to the airport
18. Find out the flight has been pushed back another hour and you will definitely not make a connecting flight to Madrid until the following day.
19. At check-in request an afternoon flight to Madrid, so you have to time to spend the morning in the city.
20. Enjoy your free 20 hours in London*

• It will cost an outrageous £130 for 5 people to get into the city, but since you have had free food and lodging for the past two days, you will still come out ahead