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x_losOur story begins thirty hours before it ends. Dig the hate.
***
On Wednesday, I was scheduled to fly with Jet Airways from Newark
Airport to Brussels at 6:35 pm, and then on to London at 10:15 am
(Brussels time). I was upset at being told that my flight would be
delayed until 1 am (by six and a half hours), but I understood the
situation was beyond your control, and thought the $15 meal voucher
the staff provided me a thoughtful gesture.
At customs in Newark, about 11:30 (my flight was, as I've said,
scheduled for one, and this was the boarding time I'd been given), I
tried to go through customs. I asked the woman working, "Should I
throw away this full coffee?" She said "No, you have at least an hour
before you need to come through security at all. Go back and finish it."
I did so for about 40 minutes, and wandered back. A crowd of your
employees had gathered, and when I went through, they complained that
they'd nearly left without me, despite it being 12:15, and both my
boarding card clearly stating that boarding would finish 15 minutes
before the flight left, i.e. at 12:45, half an hour from my time of
presentation, and the advice of airport personnel.
One of your employees, who no doubt intended to be kind and
reassuring, was hideously patronizing to me. "We've been looking
everywhere for you," he kept repeating--I was RIGHT outside the
security terminal, just--sitting there, finishing the coffee, so this
was clearly untrue. Also I heard no announcement of any kind.
"We've called multiple times," he said, "you really SHOULD have given
us YOUR phone number." I was, on this flight, moving to England to get
my MA, and I don't have a working American phone. My dad booked the
tickets, and calling him late at night several times probably
unnecessarily worried him, helpless as he was to assist me or the
flight crew. Additionally his condescending tone made me feel as
though I'd been wrong to have a family member book the flight for me,
or to cancel my phone plan before I left the country for four years,
rather than that they'd been wrong to alter the information on the
boarding card without telling me and to give the airport personnel the
impression they intended to clear later than they actually did.
Escorting me to the plane, he asked what I'd been doing, where I was
going. Actually I'd been dealing for two weeks with a hellish crisis
regarding my visa, and though his conversation was no doubt intended
to be friendly, it made me feel even smaller than I already did for
having potentially inconvenienced the crew and my fellow passengers.
At one point during this flight, dinner trolleys came by, but I was
too exhausted to want to eat them. By the time I was awake and
starving, there was no food on offer. Drinks service was rare, and at
one point, while one of said rare drinks trolleys was entirely
blocking the alley, I decided to try the first class bathroom. The
stewardess who was uninterested in getting me some water appeared,
terribly interested in lecturing me about the other bathrooms I should
be using (which I had no means of accessing due to her trolly's
position). I find airline classes a bit ridiculously stratified on the
best days, but I'm sure even the snobbiest first class passengers
don't really begrudge me a few squares of toilet paper.
I got out in Brussels about noon (Brussels time), expecting, though
obviously the plane had been so delayed I could not make my original
connection, to make the following one. There's literally NOTHING
guiding me, and no one to help. I ask some random airport employee
where I'm headed, showing him my ticket, and he says, back through
customs to the B gates. And so I go, and I wait two hour in front of
the airline I'm supposed to get on's booth, and the 'transfer
information' sign. By this point I'm exhausted and hungry. No one from
Brussels Airlines comes. I have someone else who worked for the
company in the adjacent booth try to ring their central place. No one
answers.
I ask someone else working for the airport which way I should go to
speak with someone who can help me, and he just rudely goes "further
along," as if it wasn't obvious to a child that I'd walked from the
other direction, and was going Further Along, and wanted to know where
my gate was, or a booth--anything.
And then, when I went to talk to the flight people for the next
available Brussels Airlines to LHR that I THOUGHT I was just about to
get on, they told me no, I wasn't, and lectured me about what to do in
such situations re: making sure they print me out a fresh boarding
pass at the first airport (their advice turned out to be incorrect).
As though I were the one who needed to substantially alter my future
behavior, here. Without warning, Jet Airlines had booked me on another
airline's flight at 7:20--British Airways.
Maybe in future I WILL ignore that guy who says "go through terminal
B" in order to MAKE SURE they've rebooked me, even though it seemed
they already had from our whole previous conversation about it. But
really, at that time I was so exhausted their unsolicited advice
seemed monumentally inappropriate.
There was no purchasable food in terminal B (given that I had almost
no Euro on me, having only anticipated a quick morning layover after
an adequate dinner and sleep), where I sat until 7:40 pm waiting for
the new flight, which had already changed from the one I thought I had
at around 6, and was again delayed from 7:20 to 7:40. I had to chose
between my thirst and my hunger, and pay my 3.30 euro for a coke, and
eat an 8 hour old big mac from the airport in America that I'd
forgotten in my bag.
By the time of my eventual arrival in England, I'd been traveling
about 28 hours total, including my journey previous to your
long-delayed flights. I found that British Airlines had lost my
luggage. The recovery staff were polite enough, and they have returned
it to me about 22 hours later, but after this hellish journey I was
without necessary documents, clothing, underwear, toiletries (I
couldn't carry liquids on the flight), English money other than the
little I had on me, and the books I wanted to review for my MA
program, which begins Friday.
I completely understand that you couldn't control the industrial
action that caused the various delays, and appreciate the kindness of
the all-too-few competent and professional employees of the three
airlines. But while disasters are no one's responsibility, the test of
individuals and organizations is whether they respond to disasters
with competence and decency. Perhaps decency sounds over-wrought--what
I mean is, when someone buys a ticket from you, you're sort of in loco
parentis, aren't you? You've made a contractual commitment to get them
and their belongings from point A to point B in something like the
amount of time agreed upon, at the price agreed upon, in reasonable
conditions. Flying internationally can be confusing, disorienting, and
a bit scary at the best of times, and I see it as your responsibility
to do the necessary damage control, and, even in emergencies, to make
sure things are handled professionally, and people inconvenienced as
little as possible.
This was not the case. Many people came to the Brussles Airlines
booth--the Mancunian au pair who only barely knew when her new
connecting flight might be, the confused elderly Canadian couple, the
two American businessmen who waited with me, then wandered off like
lost sheep. All of them are owed apologies, explanations, and
potentially reparations. I for one feel owed something--I spent money
I didn't have trying to buy internet in these airports to contact and
reassure my family and the people waiting for me, to get food, and am
in hot water with my new job for having missed work today, Thursday,
due to my exhaustion and lack of suitable clothing. Of the 14 times
I've made long-haul intercontinental flights, this was by far the
worst.
***
On Wednesday, I was scheduled to fly with Jet Airways from Newark
Airport to Brussels at 6:35 pm, and then on to London at 10:15 am
(Brussels time). I was upset at being told that my flight would be
delayed until 1 am (by six and a half hours), but I understood the
situation was beyond your control, and thought the $15 meal voucher
the staff provided me a thoughtful gesture.
At customs in Newark, about 11:30 (my flight was, as I've said,
scheduled for one, and this was the boarding time I'd been given), I
tried to go through customs. I asked the woman working, "Should I
throw away this full coffee?" She said "No, you have at least an hour
before you need to come through security at all. Go back and finish it."
I did so for about 40 minutes, and wandered back. A crowd of your
employees had gathered, and when I went through, they complained that
they'd nearly left without me, despite it being 12:15, and both my
boarding card clearly stating that boarding would finish 15 minutes
before the flight left, i.e. at 12:45, half an hour from my time of
presentation, and the advice of airport personnel.
One of your employees, who no doubt intended to be kind and
reassuring, was hideously patronizing to me. "We've been looking
everywhere for you," he kept repeating--I was RIGHT outside the
security terminal, just--sitting there, finishing the coffee, so this
was clearly untrue. Also I heard no announcement of any kind.
"We've called multiple times," he said, "you really SHOULD have given
us YOUR phone number." I was, on this flight, moving to England to get
my MA, and I don't have a working American phone. My dad booked the
tickets, and calling him late at night several times probably
unnecessarily worried him, helpless as he was to assist me or the
flight crew. Additionally his condescending tone made me feel as
though I'd been wrong to have a family member book the flight for me,
or to cancel my phone plan before I left the country for four years,
rather than that they'd been wrong to alter the information on the
boarding card without telling me and to give the airport personnel the
impression they intended to clear later than they actually did.
Escorting me to the plane, he asked what I'd been doing, where I was
going. Actually I'd been dealing for two weeks with a hellish crisis
regarding my visa, and though his conversation was no doubt intended
to be friendly, it made me feel even smaller than I already did for
having potentially inconvenienced the crew and my fellow passengers.
At one point during this flight, dinner trolleys came by, but I was
too exhausted to want to eat them. By the time I was awake and
starving, there was no food on offer. Drinks service was rare, and at
one point, while one of said rare drinks trolleys was entirely
blocking the alley, I decided to try the first class bathroom. The
stewardess who was uninterested in getting me some water appeared,
terribly interested in lecturing me about the other bathrooms I should
be using (which I had no means of accessing due to her trolly's
position). I find airline classes a bit ridiculously stratified on the
best days, but I'm sure even the snobbiest first class passengers
don't really begrudge me a few squares of toilet paper.
I got out in Brussels about noon (Brussels time), expecting, though
obviously the plane had been so delayed I could not make my original
connection, to make the following one. There's literally NOTHING
guiding me, and no one to help. I ask some random airport employee
where I'm headed, showing him my ticket, and he says, back through
customs to the B gates. And so I go, and I wait two hour in front of
the airline I'm supposed to get on's booth, and the 'transfer
information' sign. By this point I'm exhausted and hungry. No one from
Brussels Airlines comes. I have someone else who worked for the
company in the adjacent booth try to ring their central place. No one
answers.
I ask someone else working for the airport which way I should go to
speak with someone who can help me, and he just rudely goes "further
along," as if it wasn't obvious to a child that I'd walked from the
other direction, and was going Further Along, and wanted to know where
my gate was, or a booth--anything.
And then, when I went to talk to the flight people for the next
available Brussels Airlines to LHR that I THOUGHT I was just about to
get on, they told me no, I wasn't, and lectured me about what to do in
such situations re: making sure they print me out a fresh boarding
pass at the first airport (their advice turned out to be incorrect).
As though I were the one who needed to substantially alter my future
behavior, here. Without warning, Jet Airlines had booked me on another
airline's flight at 7:20--British Airways.
Maybe in future I WILL ignore that guy who says "go through terminal
B" in order to MAKE SURE they've rebooked me, even though it seemed
they already had from our whole previous conversation about it. But
really, at that time I was so exhausted their unsolicited advice
seemed monumentally inappropriate.
There was no purchasable food in terminal B (given that I had almost
no Euro on me, having only anticipated a quick morning layover after
an adequate dinner and sleep), where I sat until 7:40 pm waiting for
the new flight, which had already changed from the one I thought I had
at around 6, and was again delayed from 7:20 to 7:40. I had to chose
between my thirst and my hunger, and pay my 3.30 euro for a coke, and
eat an 8 hour old big mac from the airport in America that I'd
forgotten in my bag.
By the time of my eventual arrival in England, I'd been traveling
about 28 hours total, including my journey previous to your
long-delayed flights. I found that British Airlines had lost my
luggage. The recovery staff were polite enough, and they have returned
it to me about 22 hours later, but after this hellish journey I was
without necessary documents, clothing, underwear, toiletries (I
couldn't carry liquids on the flight), English money other than the
little I had on me, and the books I wanted to review for my MA
program, which begins Friday.
I completely understand that you couldn't control the industrial
action that caused the various delays, and appreciate the kindness of
the all-too-few competent and professional employees of the three
airlines. But while disasters are no one's responsibility, the test of
individuals and organizations is whether they respond to disasters
with competence and decency. Perhaps decency sounds over-wrought--what
I mean is, when someone buys a ticket from you, you're sort of in loco
parentis, aren't you? You've made a contractual commitment to get them
and their belongings from point A to point B in something like the
amount of time agreed upon, at the price agreed upon, in reasonable
conditions. Flying internationally can be confusing, disorienting, and
a bit scary at the best of times, and I see it as your responsibility
to do the necessary damage control, and, even in emergencies, to make
sure things are handled professionally, and people inconvenienced as
little as possible.
This was not the case. Many people came to the Brussles Airlines
booth--the Mancunian au pair who only barely knew when her new
connecting flight might be, the confused elderly Canadian couple, the
two American businessmen who waited with me, then wandered off like
lost sheep. All of them are owed apologies, explanations, and
potentially reparations. I for one feel owed something--I spent money
I didn't have trying to buy internet in these airports to contact and
reassure my family and the people waiting for me, to get food, and am
in hot water with my new job for having missed work today, Thursday,
due to my exhaustion and lack of suitable clothing. Of the 14 times
I've made long-haul intercontinental flights, this was by far the
worst.
