I got an e-mail today from US Air, informing me of a change in schedule. I BOUGHT non-stop tickets from Philadelphia to Shannon, and now that non-stop flight is going to Dublin first! What's up with that? It doesn't affect us in any great way. We will just arrive in Shannon about an hour or two later, but what if I was on some kind of tight schedule? I don't understand how the airlines can arbitrarily change the flight schedule. Am I naive?
The sad truth is that the airlines have all the rights and privlidge and we, the customers, have none. Zip. Nada. Less than zero.
Deregulation brought us lower prices through increased competition, but the price we pay for those reduced prices is shrinking seats, disappearing ammenities and a feeling, at times that the airlines have traded in their customer service skills for improved cargo handling, wherein WE are the cargo.
There has been noises about enacting a 'Passenger Bill of Rights', off and on for years -- most notable immediately after some fiasco like the recent spate of "STRANDED PASSENGERS" events that happened to NorthWest, Jet Blue and just the other day, in Texas, with American. Each time, the airlines have cried poverty and ASSURRED Congress, "Never Again", and still, it DOES continue.
The EU is much better at setting MINIMUM standards of passenger protection rules, but they are hardly generous. I fully expect that the Open Sky Act is only likely to FURTHER erode what little SERVICE still remains in Customer Service.
OK, I'm climbing down off the soapbox, now.
WHAT CAN YOU DO???
Write a letter to Customer Service expressing your dissatisfation and disappointment. Someone I trust once said that SIGNIFICANTLY LESS than 10% of all disgruntled customers ever make the effort to complain. In the world of the Bean Counters, that is interpretted as meaning that all non-complainers are, in fact, SATISFIED CUSTOMERS. So, if you don't complain, it will NEVER get any better.
On the up-side, they MAY attempt to 'buy you off' with a Travel Voucher worth a couple of hundred against a future flight, or some OTHER freebie, like seat upgrades (doubtful, but we can dream!) or use of their Club Lounge.
Something to (Possibly) make you feel better, by at least knowing you aren't being 'Singled Out' for all this abuse: It COULD be worse. Last trip, Continental decided to change the departure time of my final flight leg, so that it left Newark a half hour before my Shannon flight arrived, then didn't even notify me. I only discovered the change because I periodically recheck my flight info, religously. Their arbitrary change converted my TWO hour Newark layover to EIGHT hours! Fortunately, I was able to convince then to re-route me to a more expensive destination that was as convenient, for me, as the original.
Know too, that the extra two hour delay CAN compound. We were about 45 minutes late taking off, on one trip, due to overbooking so we arrived 45 minutes late, into Shannon. That meant that THREE large trans-Atlantic planes all arrived within a few minutes of each other. That created a gigantic mess at Passport Control and THAT backed up Baggage Claim AND Customs. When we FINALLY made it into the Arrivals Hall, the lines at the Rental Car counters were about 25 deep. We were SUPPOSED to arrive about 8 AM. We actually arrived closer to 9, but because of the added congestion, it was after 11:30 before we drove out of the parking lot (car park)!
In simpathy,
Bob
__________________
Bob
Help Us to Help You. The more you tell us about your plans (dates, interests, budget), the better we can tailor our advice to suit!
When Continental dropped our 1:15 p.m. flight coming out of Shannon and put us on the 9:00 a.m. instead, when I called to see if we could rebook the rest of the flight (no desire to sit in Newark for four extra hours) a very nice lady was most helpful and we got it fixed. But, one of the first things she said to me was that the fine print gave them the right to do this, a CYA if I ever heard one. Although probably it did say that in the fine print. She said something blaming the air traffic controllers or some such as to when they could land and take off.
I guess the brief answer to your topic question is, Yes They Can, and Do. The answer to your final question is, We Are All Learning Together and Unfortunately Becoming More Cynical and Less Naive in the Process.
Well, thanks for clarifying what I suspected. Believe me, I WILL complain. I was born and raised in NYC, and New Yorkers expect to get what they pay for.
We also, were de-railed by the airline (Aer lingus) and sent to Dublin instead of Shannon on Both ends of our trip resulting in the net loss of one entire very precious travel day. I have resolved it, until the inevitable next time, by using dollars to re-schedule and get my dream back. I am probably playing into their hands by doing this, but nothing is going to get in the way of breakfast on the shore of Lough Derg.
