10,000 Miles.
Jan. 5th, 2010 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveI arrived back in my house in the UK at 3.30am today local time, after home in Chapel Hill at 3.30pm Saturday 2nd Jan (local time). Yes - it really did take that long to get here.
Long Story: My usual airline made a mess of my original reservation, and I ended up having to fly into the US with one airline, and out of the US with another, neither of which were my usual carrier. Getting /in/ wasn't the issue - in fact I was one of few that Saturday 19th that actually managed it. However, getting /out/ was quite another story altogether.
I worried so much about not getting into bother at work for not getting back in on time that I allowed my better judgement to be overruled, and I took the flight out of RDU to EWR, knowing I was going to miss my connection. The woman at the check in counter was absolutely /useless/ (making a mockery of their C/O's message about having the 'best staff' that they play as one of their PA anouncements before taking off), and could offer no solution to the problem. I felt a little better when the gate staff got me 'backed up' by booking me back to LHR via Madrid. They told me I had to pick up the docs when I reached EWR.
So I land in Newark, and the promised representative that will 'meet the flight to deal with connections' is nowhere in sight, so I find where the Madrid flight leaves from and ask there - they direct me to the service centre. At the service center, HUGE line - everyone's stuck because Conti-- because the airline can't seem to get their planes off the ground on time to save their lives. Eventually I get to the service agent, tell them what they'd done in RDU, only to be told, completely unsympathetically, "Yeah well, in the meantime Iberian Airways that operate the flight out of Madrid to LHR have told us they have no seats on their flight."
"Okay, so what do we do now?" I asked. I have to point out at this point how very distressed I was, barely holding it together in fact. Should have stayed in Chapel Hill.
I was told there was nothing she could do except to put me on standby for the flight that left at 9am the following morning, (Sunday 3rd - local time). So I spent a night catnapping in the airport, because - Hey, another lie by the outgoing airline - "If you're on an internatonal flight and get stuck in transit, we'll get you a hotel." Um - no actually they'll give you a stinky voucher for 'discounted' hotel accomodation. Not impressed! What they also don't tell you is that they won't return your checked luggage either, because of course the airport where you get stuck is not your final destination. So I'm left at the airport, worrying, upset, wishing I'd stayed, just... yeah - you live and learn.
Morning comes...5am to be precise, as soon as security opened, I went back into the terminal, back to the service centre to see if they can confirm me on that flight. Nope, still on standby. At the gate there is much teethsucking by the agent who doubts very much she can get me (or any of the other standby passengers) on the flight, and further says that all the flights for the next 3 days are fully booked too. By this point it had already been established that I was telling airline C to send me back to RDU and book me out of there, but still... contrary to what the gate agent said she managed to book almost everyone on the flight... which, surprise surprise - was delayed by an hour and some.
The delay meant I didn't land in LHR until 11pm or after local time on Sunday 3rd. Then had to wait for a coach for an hour, to then get me back to Leicester and cab to my house to get in a 3.30am - having to get up for work in the morning.
This afternoon I called my usual carried to see what they were going to do about the sorry mess that started all this sorrier mess in the first place. After much talking and being passed to a supervisor (on their suggestion not mine) I've been given a voucher to use against my next flight and 10,000 air miles - and they've passed the matter on further in their customer services dept. So there might be more to come.
Long Story: My usual airline made a mess of my original reservation, and I ended up having to fly into the US with one airline, and out of the US with another, neither of which were my usual carrier. Getting /in/ wasn't the issue - in fact I was one of few that Saturday 19th that actually managed it. However, getting /out/ was quite another story altogether.
I worried so much about not getting into bother at work for not getting back in on time that I allowed my better judgement to be overruled, and I took the flight out of RDU to EWR, knowing I was going to miss my connection. The woman at the check in counter was absolutely /useless/ (making a mockery of their C/O's message about having the 'best staff' that they play as one of their PA anouncements before taking off), and could offer no solution to the problem. I felt a little better when the gate staff got me 'backed up' by booking me back to LHR via Madrid. They told me I had to pick up the docs when I reached EWR.
So I land in Newark, and the promised representative that will 'meet the flight to deal with connections' is nowhere in sight, so I find where the Madrid flight leaves from and ask there - they direct me to the service centre. At the service center, HUGE line - everyone's stuck because Conti-- because the airline can't seem to get their planes off the ground on time to save their lives. Eventually I get to the service agent, tell them what they'd done in RDU, only to be told, completely unsympathetically, "Yeah well, in the meantime Iberian Airways that operate the flight out of Madrid to LHR have told us they have no seats on their flight."
"Okay, so what do we do now?" I asked. I have to point out at this point how very distressed I was, barely holding it together in fact. Should have stayed in Chapel Hill.
I was told there was nothing she could do except to put me on standby for the flight that left at 9am the following morning, (Sunday 3rd - local time). So I spent a night catnapping in the airport, because - Hey, another lie by the outgoing airline - "If you're on an internatonal flight and get stuck in transit, we'll get you a hotel." Um - no actually they'll give you a stinky voucher for 'discounted' hotel accomodation. Not impressed! What they also don't tell you is that they won't return your checked luggage either, because of course the airport where you get stuck is not your final destination. So I'm left at the airport, worrying, upset, wishing I'd stayed, just... yeah - you live and learn.
Morning comes...5am to be precise, as soon as security opened, I went back into the terminal, back to the service centre to see if they can confirm me on that flight. Nope, still on standby. At the gate there is much teethsucking by the agent who doubts very much she can get me (or any of the other standby passengers) on the flight, and further says that all the flights for the next 3 days are fully booked too. By this point it had already been established that I was telling airline C to send me back to RDU and book me out of there, but still... contrary to what the gate agent said she managed to book almost everyone on the flight... which, surprise surprise - was delayed by an hour and some.
The delay meant I didn't land in LHR until 11pm or after local time on Sunday 3rd. Then had to wait for a coach for an hour, to then get me back to Leicester and cab to my house to get in a 3.30am - having to get up for work in the morning.
This afternoon I called my usual carried to see what they were going to do about the sorry mess that started all this sorrier mess in the first place. After much talking and being passed to a supervisor (on their suggestion not mine) I've been given a voucher to use against my next flight and 10,000 air miles - and they've passed the matter on further in their customer services dept. So there might be more to come.
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Date: 2010-01-05 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-05 05:55 pm (UTC)