Aer Lingus Flight Cancelled-shame on them

[feltox]

Just wondering what people make of this cancellation. Today I was booked on 3.10pm flight from amsterdam to Dublin.

Email below sent to my email which i did not see at 9am. but it was confirmed by text message to phone at 2.46pm(a bit late)

My understanding reading email and text message is that aerlingus at 9am are saying they have problem with weather and flight not going ahead which is understandable based on current forecast.

To-day the lunchtime flight from dublin came in and went out at 1.10pm per schedule in amsterdam( I saw people get on plane, no weather problems)

At gate after 2pm and security getting ready to check bags etc, at about 2.30 they are told flight not going ahead and head off (got €5 voucher for food). The security at gate confirmed to me the operational reason was that only 40 people booked on flight so Aer Lingus in Dublin cancelled flight blaming weather

Per messsge you are entitled to refund or get next flight- You have to get next flight to get home

We are then booked on next flight out at 5.10pm which goes ahead fine.

I have no problem with weather excuse if true but to me this was a pure lie to save money.

To me it is the principal of the thing- They should have honoured the booking and flight should have gone ahead as per schedule

Is this common. I lost a lot of fate in Aerlingus to-day. Can a person trust them in future if you fly to some country where they have one flight a day- they could leave you their

Does anyone have a contact in aerlingus where I can make a offical complaint- I dont want automatic reply?

What would you do. I know they are a big company but honesty costs nothing

If anyone in Aerlingus is involved in making decisions to cancel flight to save money and lie about it should think of the people who had transfers to make, people to pick them up etc

They bascially cancelled flight on a whim






From:FlightsCancelled@aerlingus.com http://javascript<b></b>:;Sent:08 December 2010 09:01:03To:







Dear Sir/Madam,

Aer Lingus regret that due to Operational reasons as a result of recent weather disruptions your flight today has been cancelled. Please go to Aerlingus.com to rebook free of charge for alternative date/flight, if you decide not to travel you may request a refund. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Aer Lingus

..For low fares and great deals on hotels, car hire and travel insurance
visit http://www.aerlingus.com
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[gallogly]

hey feltox,

You could write to the Chairman of Aer Lingus and you should probably cc your local TD (we are still shareholders I believe).

However, there are a number of things worth considering (even bearing in mind what the ground staff/security said):

1. Did your aircraft even arrive in amsterdam - the aircraft that was scheduled could have been caught at another airport (not necessarily in Eire) in bad weather;

2. If the plane was already in Amsterdam and they were having scheduling issues - they may have decided just to lump the two flights together so the later plane could be rescheduled.

My point is the weather (somewhere else) could have in fact caused airplane scheduling problems that resulted in the two flights in Amsterdam being amalgamated ..... the cause could still be weather and not cost saving.


cheers Gallogly

PS no connectinos to the airline industry at all

 

[PetrolHead]

Have to agree with Gallogly...

There are most likely wider issues that prevented that particular flight from going. Airline scheduling must be massively complicated, especially in the 'current climate'.

Ultimately all that happened is, you were delayed by two hours and got a free sandwich. Considering the widespread disruptions over the last couple of weeks I don't think this is too bad.