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Post by marielouise on May 28, 2016 16:31:01 GMT
Last night my daughter and partner were supposed to fly to London from Calgary with BA and then connect today to Madrid. It was a late night flight leaving at 10.15pm, but after sitting on the tarmac for over an hour, they were told there was dent of a couple of mm and after further time the flight did not leave. They were given a drink and then told to fill out the immigration and customs forms, which were then stamped did not fly and collected their luggage.
Then they had to line up for a long time at a BA counter and got a taxi voucher, which was hardly worth it since they had only a short ride.
They were told to either call the BA office at 5 am or come to the ticket counter which only opens at noon. They called at 5 am and I think they were told to go to the ticket counter which they refused to do. Finally they were re assigned seats for tonight's flight and I hope they got their connection too. This took more than an hour on the phone.
They then went to bed before 8 am. The flight is earlier on the weekend, so probably will have to leave their house at 4 pm. I hope they get some sleep. My daughter is upset at how they handled it and that the seats should have re assigned in a more timely fashion.
I understand they are not adding any more flights, so I don't understand how they will be able to carry all the extra passengers unless some are put on Air Canada flight. Their flight was not full. My husband and I would have had a hard time handling this at our age, not being able to stand for long times.
I was just wondering if any of you have had similar experiences.
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Post by chech on May 28, 2016 17:03:49 GMT
My Air Canada flight to Toronto was cancelled due to fog last July. I found out on my way to the airport, so I went in to the counter at the airport and they said there was a bus being put on to take people to Gander (4-5 hour drive) where the plane would take them to Toronto. Since that would be no good to me as I would still miss my connection to Zurich, I opted to do the same flights the next day. The counter agent gave me the phone number to their cancellation line and I called from the car. Took about 15 minutes and they had me on the same flights the next day and even gave me the same Premium Economy seat I had on the missed flight. In 2011, I had my AC flight from Las Vegas to Toronto delayed by a timed out crew so we got to Toronto too late to catch my connection to St. John's. As I deplaned, there was an AC rep at the top of the ramp with a voucher for a hotel and the phone number to call so that I could rebook the next day on any flight I wanted. Took about 10 minutes to rebook once I got to the hotel and I picked the late morning flight so I could sleep in. I was very happy in both cases. And last year my sister was on a flight from Toronto to St. John's in January. As it came into land, there was a flash freeze event and the runway was shut down. The plane went to Stephenville and waited 3 hours but the airport wasn't reopened. So, the plane went back to Toronto. Same thing happened for her - voucher and cancellation line to get another flight the next day. My sister fondly recalls the event as a flight from Toronto to Toronto in nine hours.  |
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Post by marielouise on May 28, 2016 17:43:17 GMT
Lol about the 9 hour Toronto to Toronto flight.
My daughter-in-law, last year was travelling with a 5 month old baby and her father from St John, New Brunswick and I don't remember the circumstances exactly but they got stuck in Ottawa late at night, there were only a few hotel vouchers and they really had to fight for them, this was Air Canada. I don't know why there weren't enough hotel vouchers.
The problem is mainly when cancellations happen late at night and there is no one to contact. I think they made it home after 3 am and then stayed up to phone at 5. They were finally able to go to bed just before 7.
They are sleeping now, I hope, but it is day in Europe and I doubt they will be able to sleep on the plane so they will probably really suffer from jetlag. There is an 8 hour time difference, also they will now really only get 1 day in Madrid since they are leaving on Tuesday for Barcelona.
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Post by purvis on May 28, 2016 20:02:30 GMT
Several years ago my son from Saskatoon and myself from Edmonton met up in Calgary where we were to fly Lufthansa to Frankfurt then onto Prague. In Calgary we were informed our Lufthansa flight would be 7hours late. We were given a dinner voucher and no explanation as to why the delay either before boarding our late flight or after boarding the plane. We missed our connection to Prague but did eventually arrive at our hotel late at night. So much for Lufthansa airlines. I have flown with Air Canada many times and so far have had nothing but good experiences. The food however needs major improvement. Have booked flights for this fall to London so hope our luck holds. Purvis
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Post by californian on May 29, 2016 1:51:38 GMT
So sorry it happened to your daughter, I think that sooner or later is bound to happen to everyone. My two grandchildren and I spent the night at LAX (I live about 20 min of it), but I did not rest until I got a different flight, departing at 6 in the morning the next day. By then it was midnight so I decided that to be in time we had to get up about 3, and I knew I wasn't going to sleep anyway, the kids slept, and I read. We lost one day of the tour, but I was reimbursed by the Insurance, (the United flight bound for London was canceled after taxing to the runway, came back to the terminal, we had to wait for the luggage as if we had just arrived form elsewhere) It was the last time I departed the day before a tour, since then I always have a little cushion of a day or two. Years before I missed a connection to Rome from Heathrow and that was a nightmare!
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