WTF – The airline lost my client!
Let’s file this one into the “smack your head in amazement of their stupidity” file. And I stress, I am not making this up. If I was making it up it would involve a rare species of bird and a police chase. This, on the other hand, is just stupid.
An airline (who shall remain nameless to avoid a lawsuit) actually managed to loose one of my clients.
Yep, as in “no we have no idea where he currently is, but we know he’s on a plane going… somewhere”. That’s actually pretty close to the exact words the agent said to me. At this point I’m staring at my phone in complete disbelief. You’re a freaking airline, moving thousands of people every day and with an incredibly sophisticated computer system, but yet you have no idea what plane you put my client on? You have got to be kidding me.
The situation was this: my client showed up at the airport in Cordoba, Argentina, only to be notified that his flight had been rescheduled and he’d miss all his connections, so he been rerouted. Instead of the planned route Cordoba to Santiago to Mexico City to Vancouver, he was now going Cordoba to Santiago to Los Angeles to Houston to Vancouver. Nice, eh? Ooh, surprise, you’re no longer even touching down in an entire country (where he had been supposed to spend the night and had a hotel reservation) and we’re sending you all over the Americas just for the hell of it. But because all these changes were made right at the check-in counter at the airport, his tickets were issued and he was on a plane even before the airline’s computer systems had time to catch up with the changes.
Luckily he had called his wife, who had called me, to notify her of his new schedule, so we (the important people) knew where he was at least supposed to be, even if the airline didn’t. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would have been like had his poor wife not known where he was and I wouldn’t have been able to give her any answers. I’ve had upset clients before, but she would have taken the gold medal for having the best reason to freak out. But alas, all was calm. Just dumbfounded.
On the upside, he arrived right on time and everything turned out great, but I just can’t help but wonder that if the airline could spend hours not knowing where a passenger is, what do they do to luggage? “Oh, I’m sorry, your bag had an emergency rerouting to…somewhere. You may get it back, but we really have no idea at this point”.
And get this: regular passengers out of Cordoba told my client that this wasn’t unusual. It’s like airplane roulette, you have a 50% chance of landing close to where you want, but nothing is guaranteed! Needless to say, next passenger I have going anywhere close to Cordoba, I’m monitoring their progress every step of the way so that even if the airline looses them, I don’t!
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Hi, posting here because I can’t find any contact info.
Looking for someone who can help me secure room for 2 (any sort of lodging) in Punta Del Este, Uruguay (South America) for New Years Eve 2010 (specifically 1/28/09 or 1/29/09 to 1/1/2010 or 1/2/2010). I am an assistant for and will be travelling with the chief editor from http://www.urbandaddy.com. This journalist would like to cover the city of Punta Del Este for Urbandaddy’s Jetset Edition, a segment of the magazine that covers exotic locations around the world.
From what we’ve seen the hotels down there are all booked
http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/11/19/04839/550/hotels/Who_Knew_Punta_Del_Este_Hotels_Are_All_Full_Up_for_New_Year_s_Eve_
but there may be something held for press
We’ll obviously pay for the room just need someone to do some phone calls and legwork to setup a place to stay(speaking spanish probably is a plus). We’ll be in Argentina 1/21/09 leaving 1/5/20.
we’ll pay $50 via paypal for helping us with this arrangement (this fee is negotiable). Payment will only be made after we secure acceptable lodging.
I’m looking as hard as possible, but so far I haven’t even been able to find a bed and breakfast or homestay with room. I will let you know the second I find anything