The last I actually
wrote a blog was January, wow. But what happened to me recently really bothered
me so much that I had to rant about it.
So the other day my
parents were traveling to India from one of the most 'reputable' airlines here
in the city. Now when you think of reputable you actually think of really high
standard service with not even a speck of irresponsibility whatsoever but this
airline proved to be the complete opposite of it, two times in a row. Please
note this is completely my opinion or rather my take on the airlines, everyone
has a different story.
My parents had to
leave the city in a rush and hence they were going only for four days because
of some really urgent work which couldn't be delayed further because of
appointments that had already been fixed. They both left on a weekday so clearly
there's a clash with work and it was really hard for them to take these days
off but they had no other choice. Upon reaching the terminal, a lady sitting on
the counter informs us that we need to "run" with our bags to the
last counter in order to get a "seat" on a flight that my parents
were "confirmed" on by our travel agent.
Not like we had any
choice, so we went to the last counter. Their flight was supposed to
be 9:55pm and they were supposed to reach early morning, rest for a
while and head for the scheduled appointments. Now I repeat this was really
freaking urgent work which couldn't be delayed further. So this guy on the last
counter tells us, "Sorry sir you have a confirmed ticket, but there are no
seats available." His next sentence just left me baffled, "this
flight is overbooked." And I was just like, ‘how can a flight be overbooked?
What kind of shit is that?’ Are you trying to tell me that you sold extra
tickets for a flight and hence it was overbooked? I didn't understand the
system there and I don't even want to, but what made sense to me was: A flight
for instance had say 110 seats; instead of giving out 110 tickets, they gave
out 120? That's the only legit reason for a flight being overbooked.
On the counter next
to ours was a lady convincing all the other passengers with the same reason the
guy gave us. Now of course they need to give us something so that we could let
it go, so they gave people coupons ranging from 100 to 200 Dhs, extra tickets
to fly back anytime again and all of that nonsense, but they do not get what
passengers really want. The way they go about this is as such, they see
your ticket and find out how long you're going for, if it's a mere week then
it's urgent and hence you're given complimentary tickets to compensate. If you're
going for a vacation then its coupons *laughing out really loud at this
bullshit*
My parents didn’t
care about the extra ticket they were giving us as compensation, they didn’t
care if they got coupons or not, they had to fly out that day and that was it!
I learnt in economics once, ‘People respond to incentives’ and much to our
obvious, that’s what they were doing.
Moving on, my parents
had to leave for four days and these guys tell them the next flight
is tomorrow morning at 9:00pm, while my parents have an
appointment tomorrow morning at 8:00 (lol). So the lady in the next
counter took my parents tickets to see how many days they're going for and
figures out its urgent because hell its four days! (HOW OBVIOUS CAN IT GET) So
she tells him, "there's a flight at 3:00 in the night sir, we
will give you a hotel to stay at till then." And so my parents agree as
they'd reach early morning then and that's fair enough, again not giving a crap
about the hotel lol.
Then they tell us to
wait for five- ten minutes while they arrange seats for us on the 3:00am
flight. Now please note, the lady on the next counter understood that my
parents had to leave in a hurry and spoke to some person on the phone who
"confirmed" seats in the 3:00 flight. She kept the phone
and said, "Sir it is done, I just made a call and now he will make your
tickets for you." Of course that's exactly what a reputable
airline/organization would do; get them on the next flight because that's the
right thing to do. And that's exactly what didn't happen! I told you didn't I?
*smirking like a madman*
Now this is where it
gets so twisted!
They called us back
to the counter and of course we are anticipating tickets for the 3:00 flight
but guess what we get? She then said, "I'm sorry sir, but this flight is
also full" and I was like (in my head of course), 'then why did you
confirm?' And my parents had to go out as early as possible (I know I'm
stressing this point too much but it was really urgent). My dad then asks,
"What’s the next flight" and she says, "9:30 tomorrow"
which is utter bullshit because they didn’t even give a rat’s ass about how
urgent this really was. They could not care less of the fact that this was
their responsibility and they have to do something about it.
I was infuriated
and frustrated at how careless these people really were, at how under the name
of a reputable firm, they do things which are so not acceptable. To cool things
down, they offered my parents a flight in another airline altogether at
midnight from a completely different airport (ofcourse), which was a transit
from one place to another and would reach their destination only after our
scheduled appointment there, so what's the use? They took the flight anyways
because this airline didn't leave them any other option but to travel by a
completely different airline. They didn't care about anything that we had to do
there urgently; they only cared about getting rid of us.
And then they shifted
us from one airport to another. Where we had to stand in congested lines and we
got through finally after all the bullshit that firm put us through. After this
incident, I know for sure I'm never ever going to travel by this 'reputable'
firm ever again.
My only question
being how can you give us a ticket for a flight timing that wasn't even
available for seating when we reached there? If a flight ticket says a
particular time, then heck you're supposed to fly that time only, we don't care
about the God damn complimentary tickets you give us for not flying in the
plane only because it was full. HOW CAN A FLIGHT BE OVERBOOKED?!
By the way, they let
go off ten passengers including my parents because of the same reason and that
means that's 10 dissatisfied customers. That's literally such a sad loss!
It's just a name,
that's all.
