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Airline companies are utter

Danishfurniturelover

the prettiest spice girl
****s.

i fly quite a lot and for years have always printed my own boarding passes because it is easier especailly when i only have hand luggage. Been so busy the last few days did not have time to do it.

Caught a flight from latvia to denmark where i had to change for a connecting flight to Heathrow, this was the only flight i could do in the time frame i needed, was not able to print the boarding pass for the copenhagen to heathrow leg as i was so busy for the 2 days before. I turn up at the transfer centre in copenhagen and they print me a pass with no seat number and tell me to go to the gate.

At the gate they inform me that they have no seat for me despite the fact i have paid £300 for a seat, never knew this is what they did if you do not book in online they resell your seat despite the fact you have paid for it.

So far all they have offered me is a discount on a future flight despite the fact that i had to sleep in the terminal catch the first flight the next morning and have a seriously sore neck.

My advice never fly scandinavian airlines.

I like capitalism but the way the airlines are so desperate for making money is bang out of order im left with a stiff neck and was late for a meeting yesterday, utter ****ing ****s.
 
Similar , but not that pricey, Ryanair knock to Luton, couldn't print boarding pass , got to airport 140 euros for boarding !

Qatar air, best in the world, do any and every thing to help you . Would recommend to anyone.
 
But is this legal? i did not see anywhere on the ticket that you had to book in online or the ticket was void. Does not usually matter but in this instance was not anywhere near a printer for a few days before the flight.
 
There used to be a thing a while back where you were supposed to re-confirm your flights/booking but think it was mainly for long haul. I never did it and didn't have any issues anyway but think it's died off now anyway.
 
I **** you not I saw some people boarding a Ryanair flight with hand luggage and eating a packet of crisps. They held him up to try and charge him additional for thw packet of crisps as they classed it as another item of luggage! ****s
 
I fly a hell of a lot, mostly long-haul, and must admit to only ever having one problem with an airline. That was American Airlines on the way to NY from London.

Absolutely THE worst cabin staff. Rude, ignorant and simply did not want to help.

I normally fly Emirates or Singapore and they are outstanding.
 
This is the price everyone is now paying for the rise in "low-cost" airlines.

Having worked in aviation since 1986, I have seen the industry decline, standards wise, purely because of these cheap carriers.
And I make no apology for being a bit snobbish over this. Air travel used to be a cut-above as regards travel.

No longer.

Sure, it has opened up travel to the masses, but with that has come a disgusting at***ude from the type of people travelling. I've seen air passengers change from polite, patient types to absolute scum who speak to staff with no respect at all, and have physically assaulted staff for nothing more serious than a 1 hour delay.
My own wife was threatened by a Ryanair passenger with a punch in the stomach when she was (quite obviously) several months pregnant, and all because his booking had been cancelled by HIS travel agent and he was forced to pay............wait for it..............£25 to get re-booked.

You see, despite the "low-cost" claim, the airlines could not run if they sold tickets at the price you first see. Not even Ryanair.
They have to build in charges somewhere, and chich's example above is just one of the ways.

When I have time, I'll explain how and why ALL scheduled airlines in the world overbook flights. A fully justified reason it is too.
 
I like the trick of letting you get all the way through to boarding the plane with hand luggage and then telling you the luggage is too big and needs to be checked in at a cost to you.
 
I fly a hell of a lot, mostly long-haul, and must admit to only ever having one problem with an airline. That was American Airlines on the way to NY from London.

Absolutely THE worst cabin staff. Rude, ignorant and simply did not want to help.

I normally fly Emirates or Singapore and they are outstanding.

They are who I try to fly with all the time. Air NZ gets an honourable mention too. Virgin are inconsistently excellent when I have flown with them. The first two are outstanding considering the sharp decline in customer service I have personally experienced. I do my absolute best never to fly budget airlines unless I am forced to.
 
I like the trick of letting you get all the way through to boarding the plane with hand luggage and then telling you the luggage is too big and needs to be checked in at a cost to you.

See my answer above.

In the old days, all that would happen would be the bag would be tagged and put into the hold, not charged for.
 
They are who I try to fly with all the time. Air NZ gets an honourable mention too. Virgin are inconsistently excellent when I have flown with them. The first two are outstanding considering the sharp decline in customer service I have personally experienced. I do my absolute best never to fly budget airlines unless I am forced to.

The thing a lot of people get wrong here, is confusing their highest level of service with airlines like Emirates/Singapore. These two, and others, operate a full blown First class service, whereas my company offer an enhanced Business class type cabin. Big difference. And for what you pay a pretty good deal, TBH.
So many times I hear "oh, your First class is nowhere near so-and-so airline"........well, that's because it's not meant to be.
 
The thing a lot of people get wrong here, is confusing their highest level of service with airlines like Emirates/Singapore. These two, and others, operate a full blown First class service, whereas my company offer an enhanced Business class type cabin. Big difference. And for what you pay a pretty good deal, TBH.
So many times I hear "oh, your First class is nowhere near so-and-so airline"........well, that's because it's not meant to be.

Are you with Virgin Crawley?

Edit - Not sure what happened there, lost the rest of my post.

Basically, I was agreeing with what you posted! It's not fair to compare airlines in that manner, I would only judge based on what I paid. As far as I'm aware, Singapore and Emirates place huge emphasis on their in-flight experience and service and therefore tend to be more expensive irrespective of what class one is flying with.

I enjoy flying with Virgin and to be honest, most of my issues I have had with them have been pre or post flight. They did once put me up in an obscenely decadent and luxurious hotel for 24 hours when my flight was cancelled ;) I'm a fan of the Branson as well.
 
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Are you with Virgin Crawley?

Edit - Not sure what happened there, lost the rest of my post.

Basically, I was agreeing with what you posted! It's not fair to compare airlines in that manner, I would only judge based on what I paid. As far as I'm aware, Singapore and Emirates place huge emphasis on their in-flight experience and service and therefore tend to be more expensive irrespective of what class one is flying with.

I enjoy flying with Virgin and to be honest, most of my issues I have had with them have been pre or post flight. They did once put me up in an obscenely decadent and luxurious hotel for 24 hours when my flight was cancelled ;) I'm a fan of the Branson as well.


:-$
 
See my answer above.

In the old days, all that would happen would be the bag would be tagged and put into the hold, not charged for.

It happened to us on an Oman Air flight from Muscat to Dubai. There are a few options for that (very quick and regular) route. It's basically a bus service. The same distance as London to Saudi Sportswashing Machine. Still, you pay a high price for a such a short flight and the service definitely does not match that.
 
This is the price everyone is now paying for the rise in "low-cost" airlines.

Having worked in aviation since 1986, I have seen the industry decline, standards wise, purely because of these cheap carriers.
And I make no apology for being a bit snobbish over this. Air travel used to be a cut-above as regards travel.

No longer.

Sure, it has opened up travel to the masses, but with that has come a disgusting at***ude from the type of people travelling. I've seen air passengers change from polite, patient types to absolute scum who speak to staff with no respect at all, and have physically assaulted staff for nothing more serious than a 1 hour delay.
My own wife was threatened by a Ryanair passenger with a punch in the stomach when she was (quite obviously) several months pregnant, and all because his booking had been cancelled by HIS travel agent and he was forced to pay............wait for it..............£25 to get re-booked.

You see, despite the "low-cost" claim, the airlines could not run if they sold tickets at the price you first see. Not even Ryanair.
They have to build in charges somewhere, and chich's example above is just one of the ways.

When I have time, I'll explain how and why ALL scheduled airlines in the world overbook flights. A fully justified reason it is too.

I understand about falling profit margins that has happened in all industries. What i am getting at is no where can i see any mention of having to book in before your flight. All im asking is for the thing i paid for to be mine. Why would i book a flight if i was not going to take it?

Sure there maybe times when someone books a flight and can not make the flight for personal reasons but in that case all that should happen is the person next to them gets more leg room. If i wanted to book a flight to Tokyo for next week and have no intention of getting on it that is my problem a company should not be allowed to sell something they have already sold to me.

Now if somewhere in the small print they had said you have to book in online or call in to register your ticket a day before the flight i would have called in(bad internect connection in the corner of latvia i was in) but the was no mention and then to sell my flight and not give me a refund but to make me wait overnight, nope im not impressed and i can not belive this is legal.

For sure not everyone who works for an airline is bad and i did not mean to offend you crawley, i was actually fairly pleasant to the staff at the gate because i did not think they had anything to do with it and they seemed a little scared of me. Im rather tall and broad shoulders and speak like ray winstone.
 
I wholely detest anybody who will deliver a blasting to the front line staff who are simply working within the realms of what the actual decision makers have decided.

I equally detest those who hide and are not 'man' enough to find out how these policies affect the front line staff and adapt accordingly.

What is needed is for the costs to be clearly stated up front to avoid the abuse of customers and minimise the chances of the idiots kicking off. Expectations have to be set from the outset properly or you will get this kind of **** from ignorant ****s.
 
I understand about falling profit margins that has happened in all industries. What i am getting at is no where can i see any mention of having to book in before your flight. All im asking is for the thing i paid for to be mine. Why would i book a flight if i was not going to take it?

Sure there maybe times when someone books a flight and can not make the flight for personal reasons but in that case all that should happen is the person next to them gets more leg room. If i wanted to book a flight to Tokyo for next week and have no intention of getting on it that is my problem a company should not be allowed to sell something they have already sold to me.

Now if somewhere in the small print they had said you have to book in online or call in to register your ticket a day before the flight i would have called in(bad internect connection in the corner of latvia i was in) but the was no mention and then to sell my flight and not give me a refund but to make me wait overnight, nope im not impressed and i can not belive this is legal.

For sure not everyone who works for an airline is bad and i did not mean to offend you crawley, i was actually fairly pleasant to the staff at the gate because i did not think they had anything to do with it and they seemed a little scared of me. Im rather tall and broad shoulders and speak like ray winstone.



OK. What you have to accept here is they have not got rid of "your seat" because you did not check-in online. Because, even if you had not checked-in, the seat would still be there, no?
Think back to the days before online check-in.......everyone turned up at the airport, joined a queue, and got a boarding card with a seat number, right? Only difference is you can get your boarding card early and avoid the queues now.

This is what happened.............

ALL airlines flying scheduled services, all over the world, sell tickets for the various class of travel you choose (First, Business, Economy etc) but sell the tickets at different rates.
What this means is, the more you pay for a ticket, the greater your flexibility when you need to change the flight or cancel the booking. So, example (NOT real figures):
Passenger A pays £25 for an economy class ticket to Paris. He is restricted to THAT flight, on THAT day, at THAT time, and if he decides not to travel, is unlikely to get a refund.
Passenger B pays £100, also for economy class, but may, for a small fee, be allowed to switch days or flights, and may get majority of refund if he doesn't travel.
Passenger C pays £250, still for economy, but can switch flights/days even airlines at will, and will receive full refund if he cancels.
All these people have opted to travel in the same class, but it is the flexibility of their ticket that matters to the individual.

Now, imagine, with all the flights across the world, on each day of the week, how many people do actually change/cancel/miss flights............thousands.
Every airline has, within it's reservation department, a section that studies trends (for want of a better word), that encompasses every flight, on every day of the year, for that particular airline.
What they are looking for is the number of booked passengers who do not travel despite holding a booking (known as No-shows). Obviously, depending on routes, days, times and destinations, these figures vary greatly. In my time on passenger services in the past, I have seen flights have as many as 70 people "no-show" for a flight.
Now, just think, if all 70 of those held fully refundable tickets, and opted to take the refund...........that airline has just flown a sector with 70 empty seats, and will not be making any money from it as a result.

So, the section studying this, builds a picture over time of the likely percentage of "no-shows" on each and every flight, and then sets a figure for that flight that the reservations section may "over-sell" by. In other words, they sell more tickets than seats available due to the expected number of no-shows.
This is done to ensure they are getting maximum revenue for each seat (profits are so tight now, they need load-factors of over 90% to make anything on a flight).
Once again, in my time, I have seen flights "over-booked" by as many as 60-70 people. And guess what? It still went with empty seats.

Of course, the downside here, is it can, and does backfire. And this, Chich, is what I guess happened to you. Because I doubt very much there is a rule that says you HAVE to check-in online.

By the time you reached your transfer point, it sounds like everyone had already checked in for that flight, including oversales (remember, it's not YOUR seat until you have sat in it). As such, you were sent to the gate on "stand-by" in the hope that someone would "no-show" and free up another seat. Obviously, it didn't work this time.
(One of the biggest pains for airlines now is the number of people who check-in online, taking a seat, and still don't turn up for the flight. Causes loads of disruption).

If you have paid a particularly low fare, your options will be limited, but you should still be re-booked onto something, and given some type of compensation. You need to ask what exactly went on and push for this. But everything points to what I have typed above.
 
Crawley mate!??! WTF?? punched in the stomach whilst pregnant??? What happened after that? I hope they jailed the f*cker!?
 
Nice explanation, Crawley.

However, there is one flaw in the argument as a justification for the policy. If the low cost seat is non-negotiable and non-refundable there is no risk from no-shows. Flying with the empty seat won't cost any more and might cost slightly less on fuel. So what the system is doing is saying we want to get high paying customers and fill the seats if they don't show, but if they do then we'll screw the person on the cheap seats. That is unfair because it is asymmetric. The budget custom loses out if they can't fly for any reason and gets inconvenience (or worse) if the airline can fill the seat with a higher paying customer.

If the terms and conditions were clear and prominently highlighted so customers know that a budget seat was only available if a higher paying customer was not available then it would be fair. Effectively all budget seats are stand-bys where you have to pay in advance.

You also have to ask why other businesses can't do the same. Why shouldn't Spurs operate a similar system with expensive tickets and cheap tickets. There are always no shows, but if there are less than expected, deny entry to someone who paid less.
 
Favourite has always been BA business, Virgin is OK too (excellent Heathrow facilities) but I do prefer BA for some reason...but have been on United a lot the last couple of years. Their business seat is nice enough, does what I need, but the service is sometimes ropey. Emirates are just a step above to be honest; their business seat remains the best I've been in the past few years, I had the bloody massage function on for the entire 14.5 hour flight LOL...

I sympathize Chich. Poor form. And I think Crawley's explanation makes sense, however I did aways think that your seat was guaranteed as long as you arrived at the gate within a certain amount of time, even on transfers. Sounds to me like a combination of poor luck and the dreaded overbooking. I agree with the postee who discussed not screaming at the front line folks; I've always got much much more from being wholly empathetic to their plight and also not getting steamed up...
 
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