(Concerning full refund or full credit with respect to services purchased but not received).
As a frequent flier through the last 50-some years,
I have been utterly lucky as I have never missed a flight and the most delayed
departure I have ever experienced was 8 hours some 10-15 years ago.
I fully understand and appreciate that flights can
be delayed due to several issues; I have no problem with that at all. I can
understand that airlines are on very tight schedules and that any delay, etc.
cuts into the profit. I have no problem with that at all.
Together with 280-some other passengers on flight
DY7063 which was scheduled from Oslo (Norway) to land in Oakland (California) around
6 PM, May 30 - 2015, we ended up being dumped off in San Francisco instead, on
June 1, at around 4:30 AM - a 36-plus hour’s delay.
It was not the delay in itself, and many agree with
me on that, but it was the seemingly total lack of interest from Norwegian Air
Shuttle (NAS), by miss-information and lack of information, which created the
feeling that we were of no interest to them (NAS), that we were more so a
nuisance than a situation they needed to solve – and fast, to fulfill the
contracts NAS had made with these 280-some customers. The service that NAS take
pride in was non-existent and that was a grave disappointment for anybody
involved and that’s what I have a huge problem with.
In planning our annual Europe trip, we decided to
try Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) for the first time. We flew from Oakland to
Oslo and from Oslo to Paris. Later on my wife flew from London to Stockholm and
I flew from London to Copenhagen. Returning to Oakland I flew from Billund
(Denmark) to Oslo and then from Oslo to Oakland a few hours later; at least
that was what I had bought. My wife flew back to Oakland from Stockholm a week
later.
So that is a total of 9 individual flights with NAS.
7 flights were on time including a few minutes of delay here and there – no big
deal. My wife’s flight Stockholm – Oakland was delayed in departure 2-1/2
hours, but they caught up an hour in flight so it was down to 1-1/2 hours delay
in arrival - we can live with that. But then it was the dreaded flight DY7063 –
and that is a very different story…
I arrived in Oslo from Billund somewhat delayed, but
as my flight to Oakland had a couple of hours in between, I was fine time-wise.
I did have to pick up my luggage and check back in – no big deal. At the
check-in counter I was told I had 1-1/2 kilo over the 20 kilo allowed. The not
very friendly counter-clerk told me it would be 90 NKR (about $12). I didn’t
feel like fiddling with removing 1-1/2 kilo dirty clothes and stuff it into my
carry-on, so I gave her a credit card. For some reason the card-reader she used
didn’t work properly; not that she didn’t try (while a ton of other passengers
patiently waited to check in). Finally
she more or less threw the card at me and told me the card didn’t work (which
was not true – the machine didn’t work), so she couldn’t charge me; and no
‘have a pleasant trip’ from her…
At the gate, about an hour before scheduled
departure at 4:45 PM, the first text message said:
‘Welcome on
board DY7063 30.May Oslo/Oakland Dep: 4:45 PM’
The gate area filled up as we got nearer boarding, but then nothing happened – absolutely nothing. Then the next text message
said:
‘...Dep:
4:45 PM …new gate: 51’ (texted at 4:51 PM – we should
have boarded by now, shouldn’t we?) And off the herd of cattle went to the ‘new gate’…
We got way past 4:45 PM and a short message came
through the PA system telling us that the flight had been delayed ‘indefinitely’. Look it up and it pretty
much means ‘forever’ or ‘open-ended’. And that was the entire
message, nothing about the problem causing the delay, no new departure time –
nothing.
So we sat there for a while longer patiently waiting
and another text popped up (and now it’s already 6:59 PM):
‘We regret to
inform that your flight is delayed… Dept: 4:45 PM. New estimated Dept: 5:20 PM…’
(So that was already 1hr 40mins ago??? Somebody is a bit screwed up with the
information stuff, huh?)
So we continued to sit there patiently waiting. No
NAS representation to answer questions – nothing. After an hour or so, masses
of passengers started to move towards some stairs and we had no idea what that
was about. So people got up and asked some of these fleeing passengers and
found out that the flight had been canceled and we would be staying overnight –
that was about all we could find out. So we followed the rest. Nothing was
texted and nothing over the PA system.
We found out (but not with any help from NAS at all)
that we needed to pick up our luggage and go to some NAS counter in the
departure area to be assigned a hotel and further instruction. So the cattle
were herded along – by themselves – nobody from NAS to help.
Arriving in the ‘counter-area’, I found out from
other passengers that I needed a number to be “served”. And then I waited and
waited as four NAS counter-persons tried desperately to serve 280-some
situations. It literally took hours.
Finally got the hotel information and fought for a
seat on a 60 passenger bus with over 150 people at that point waiting for
transportation to the hotel. It was a 50 minute ride and then another long line to
check in a get a room while constantly being texted about new departure times,
over and over.
I don’t feel like retelling this nightmare in full detail,
though it continued in full, but I can only surmise that NAS did not have an
interest in being of any service. Yes the hotel was nice, the food edible
(pizza), etc. but I had not planned and did not want to stay in Oslo for longer
than a couple of hours.
“New’ departure times changed about 6-7 times, and
we finally ended up leaving the hotel May 31 around 7:30 PM. We
were assigned an obscure, not very clean, old plane (EuroAtlantic) which no
doubt was ‘rented’ by NAS to fly us. More cattle herding:
When everybody had
sat at the gate for a long time, we were asked to leave the gate area. So everybody
got up and left and then we were let back in one by one – and some more
waiting. Nobody from NAS was around, and again nothing came over the PA system. So
the bottom line is:
I had purchased a ticket for a flight from Oslo to
Oakland May 30, departure 4:45 PM, arrival 6:00 PM. You had sold me that flight
promising:
Newer clean plane (ECO Friendly) with entertainment
(TV monitor, movies, games, etc.) / I
did not receive that.
Free Wi-Fi / I
did not get that.
We were all promised 90 NKR voucher for a snack
before boarding because it was so late and the last meal you served at the
hotel was at 1:30 PM – next meal (if any) wouldn’t be before 2:30 AM, 13 hours
later / I did not receive that.
I had purchased a Nice & Tasty Menu meal ($42).
Everybody got some unspecified chicken/fish / I did not get the meal I had purchased and paid for.
We were told 30 minutes before landing that it would
be at San Francisco not Oakland / You
did NOT deliver me at the geographical place I had purchased and paid for.
What about all the people waiting to pick us up in
Oakland? With the lack of Wi-Fi on board, it was hard to impossible to get hold
of them if they were not aware of the change in landing site?
You sold me high quality service (your words) / we got absolutely nothing of the kind. Etc. etc. etc…
It has now been over 2 weeks since I finally got
home and I have not heard a word from your company about an apology for the
utter inconvenience and the total lack of service you clearly exposed. Is that the
way to run your business?
Again, I have nothing against delays, but I most
certainly have a lot against bad to zero service. In the long run you’ll lose
customers if this is the way you treat these kinds of ‘situations'. We felt like
a herd of cattle and the above is not even half of the 36 hours we all went
through. If you had had the courtesy to apply a couple of NAS representatives
‘comforting’ us, letting us know you actually cared, answering questions, etc. would
have helped a lot – but you obviously didn’t feel it was worth it.
On this ‘flight’ you did not to any extent deliver
the product I had purchased, so I’m asking for either a full ticket refund or a
full credit for future travel. Yes, I will still consider flying with Norwegian
again, but that decision will be based on your response to this open letter to
Mr. Bjorn Kjos (CEO).
Sincerely,
Peter B. Steiness
PS. I have copies of all SMS’ communicated to me
from NAS, tickets, etc.
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