Bad experiences with Airlines

[gkd_uk]

Hi

What is the worst experience you have had with an airline company?

[Will]

I joined the check in queue well before the 1 hour cut-off, but by the time I got to the front it was only 59 mins before the departure time and my seat had been given away. It is normal to overbook. Anyway, they wanted to charge me and my girlfriend full fare from Hong Kong to the UK. My girlfriend turned on the waterworks and we got it for free. The moral of the story is "always turn up in good time" and if you are late don't just join the back of the queue.

Will

[Tony]

That's pretty rough Will at least you didn't have to pay in the end. The worst experiences I had was having a jug of milk spilt over me by the stewardess at the beginning of a thirteen hour flight from London to Japan. The stewardess was mortified which made me feel terrible - typical British reaction.

[Paul Carcone]

Any experience with budget airlines tend to wind me up. I utterly detest booking a flight with FlyBe or Ryanair and having to pay to take luggage with me...!!!

[Paul Carcone]

I've just had a complete nightmare with Ryanair and a voucher I was given.

I was given a £20 voucher for Ryanair by my sister-in-law to visit her in France this summer.

What they don't tell you is that you need to spend about 15 minutes on the phone as you MUST use the premium rate telephone booking service.

Then, I find that the idiot (who could barely speak English) who I had at the other end of the phone got my name and e-mail address wrong...and thus I was never sent a confirmation e-mail.

This then meant that I had to spend another 15 minutes at an extortionate rate, sorting this out on the emergency line (which is the only way you can talk to Ryanair at the weekend).

As such, most of the £20 voucher will have disappeared in phone bills!

Needless to say...I'm not best pleased.

Paul Carcone

[Jeddo]

That sounds like a real pain, Paul. It makes you wonder sometimes if anybody actually stops to think these promos through.

I've been relatively lucky on the couple of occasions I've flown Ryanair. All I had to endure was the cattlemarket boarding they go in for at Pisa Airport. I did the trip twice last year and was very anxious the first time as no one tells you anything and it seems as if you are going to miss your flight as the departure time ticks ever closer and you're stuck in an unmoving queuing 'maze'. The second time I travelled, it was identical and I was perfectly calm in the knowledge this was the norm. I was even able to allay the fears of several panicking Brits around me in the queue.

[freddyb45]

I've only flown with a budget airline once, that was Jet2 going from Leeds Bradford to Rome. All seemed to go quite smoothly in my opinion - although we were waiting for our cases a little longer than usual, but that's no gripe of mine.

[GlasgowGirl]

The worst experience I ever had was flying with FlyBe from Glasgow to Southampton. There was no food on board, the flight was delayed and the plane was full of very grumpy businessmen who were complaining bitterly to the staff. For some reason the flight was being provided by British Midland on behalf of FlyBe, and they kept emphasising that all the problems were not their fault and that they would never treat their own passengers like this. The last straw was when it transpired that we were actually flying to Bournemouth and transferred onto buses to Southampton! As it happened that suited me fine, since Bournemouth was my final destination, but my goodness me those businessmen were annoyed!

[Paul Carcone]

Erm...I've just had a bit of a nightmare today...I've just been charged over £2,000 for a ONE-WAY flight from Heathrow to Tblisi (Republic of Georgia).

So...here's a top-tip...don't go to Georgia if you don't need to!

In all seriousness...there is a point to be made here. The flight was originally booked with BA but BMI operate the flight with a code-share. When I told BA that I needed 100kg of baggage allowance (which I do!), they told me that they couldn;t let me on the flight at all and that I'd need to re-book with BMI with a massive per kg excess baggage charge.

I'm really pleased that it wasn't me that was paying for the flight!

PNC

[glider3560]

Touch wood, I've never really had any problems with airlines