Within the space of 24 hours, my relationship with airlines underwent another rollercoaster ride. Loves to travel, hates to fly … is fast becoming my new mantra.
It all started when we tried to change the dates of my husband’s British Airways ticket from London to SA. We tried everything … from the travel agent, to the airline watchdogs to a friend at Expedia who we thought might “know someone who knows someone” … to no avail. We were down £500 as the ticket was completely non refundable. Our own fault for not reading the fine-print admittedly … but still, the experience did not leave me feeling warm and fuzzy. I was left with the impression that BA was heartless, inflexible and archaic. And just as I was vowing to never fly with them again … they managed to show me the flip side of the coin.
Last Friday London traffic came to a halt due to some flooding. The roads were grid locked and the tubes experiencing severe delays. I was stuck in the midst of it frantically trying to get to Heathrow to get home for my friend’s wedding. To cut a very long and nerve wracking story short … I arrived at the check in desk at 8:45pm. The flight was leaving at 9:15pm. By all accounts I should have been turned away. Instead, the ground crew made a plan and got me on that plane. Ok, I was crying hysterically … so possibly they took one look at me and thought I’d break down completely if I wasn’t on that flight! But their compassion and assistance was in such stark contrast to the stone wall we’d face earlier.
Just as my faith in airlines was being restored … I had a 4 hour delay in JHB while waiting for Nationwide’s flight to Durb’s to materialise. The thing is, they kept us waiting for over an hour before bothering to tell us what was going on. (A “technical difficulty” apparently … whatever that means.) And so the saga continues and my love/hate relationship with airlines is still up in the air.
Are all airline’s full of hot air?
