Aer Lingus Flight Cancellation Fiasco

brian_rbk

My parents were due to fly back from Prague last night, but the flight was cancelled due to the weather conditions. Nothing could be done about that. The customer service they were subjected to afterwards was nothing less than a disgrace. A text message was sent informing them to either access aerlingus.com to reschedule the flight online, or call aerlingus on a dublin number.

My parents called me, informed me what was happening and I went online to change the flight. Because the flight was due to leave within 2 hours of getting the text message, I couldnt change anything on the website so I called their call centre.

The person who answered the phone told me there was no problem getting them on the flight for the next day (Tuesday) and proceeded to put them on the flight (or so we thought). My parents arrived at the airport today ready for their departure when they were informed at the check in desk that they had not been put on the flight, and the flight was now fully booked.
I rang back the same number today and spoke to a girl who said that there was no record of them on the flight, and no record of us calling last night. She implied that I was lying and that I had infact not called at all. When I told her I was able to produce phone records proving the phone call took place, she changed her tune saying there was absolutely nothing she could do other than put them on the next flight from prague to dublin which is Friday! I was not happy. This was clearly their mistake as there were seats available on the flight when we called last night. I got no joy from the agent who answered this call so I asked to speak to a manager, who said the exact same thing. Nothing we can do... No we cant pay for a hotel etc etc. They were willing to put them on a flight from Berlin tomorrow (Wednesday) … a 5 hr train journey away which we reluctantly accepted as there was no other option.

This was an extremely frustrating experience. The manager on the phone today expressed no interest in investigating why or how something like this could happen. He simply repeated 'I can't get them on this flight, it is full' over and over again.
Also, they informed us that only TWO people were answering the phones last night … even though most of their UK flights had been cancelled. That explained why it took me over half an hour to get through to them.

So, the lesson is .. if you do ever have to make changes to your flight over the phone, make sure you get the name of the agent who took your call, and demand a confirmation email before you hang up. Unfortunately, I presumed Aer Lingus' customer service was have been far better.

Brian
:mad:

jor el

You'll want to get in touch with the Commission for Aviation Regulation, and tell them the whole story. Get that record of the call you made to Air Lingus from your TeleCo, and I hope you got the name of the rep on the 2nd call, as well as the manager.

brian_rbk

Will do, thanks. I have their names.