Jana's folks departed this week for a trip to Oviedo, where they are joining us for a bit of travel around Spain and France before we head back to the states. Their experience getting here was interesting, frustrating, and holds some lessons for troubleshooting travel. Here's the situation and a few things we can learn from it.
So, the basic story of what happened. It was more harrowing as it unfolded than it is in hindsight, but still, not the most fun experience to this point.
The Morgans (Harry and Kathy) are traveling on a somewhat complicated itinerary. They are flying from Philadelphia to Oviedo (connecting in Madrid). But we'll be traveling around for a while and it was more convenient for them to fly back to Philadelphia from Paris. So, it's a non-standard trip. On a non-standard trip like this, it is often cheaper to book with an agent. That's a rarity these days. I almost always try to book directly with the airline, but on this itinerary, Orbitz was saving hundreds of dollars, so Orbitz it was for the purchase flying on US Airways for the flights from and to the US, with the connection to Oviedo on Air Europa. Pretty straightforward, really.
They get to the airport in Philadelphia to check in with US Air for the flight to Oviedo through Madrid. As they are checking in, they are told that the original Air Europa flight (scheduled to arrive in Oviedo at about noon) they were booked on no longer exists, they should be booked onto an Air Europa flight later in the afternoon, which would get them to Oviedo about 4 hours later than initially planned. However, they cannot be checked in or confirmed on this flight by the US Airways agent because the Air Europa flight is too far in the future and US Airways is no longer in direct partnership with Air Europa. They need to call their travel agent to get this worked out.
So that's what they do. After holding for 45 minutes, they explain the situation and are told that they need to be transferred to an international specialist. OK. Back to hold. Specialist gets on the phone but says he cannot hear what they are saying. Mobile phone number is given for a call-back which never happens. One demerit for Orbitz.
Now it is time for them to board. They've informed me of the situation and hand the troubleshooting to me in Spain. So, this should be easy. All I have to do is solve a travel problem with a travel agent based in the US while in Spain with very incomplete information about what's going on while the actual traveler is in the air over the Atlantic. No problem. I'm on it.
After hearing how little help Orbitz was on the phone, I decided to go the Twitter route. Orbitz has a customer service twitter account, so I tweeted at them that I needed help and a bit about the situation. We got connected pretty quickly via a direct message on twitter and they got all the details they needed and said they'd get back to me by email. Well, at about 4:30am Oviedo time, they emailed to basically say they could not do anything and the travelers would need to just go to the Air Europa desk in Madrid to sort it out. But I knew from looking at bookings that the next Air Europa flight with any availability would be the next morning, as in an overnight in Madrid before they could get to Oviedo. The afternoon Air Europa flight that US Air said they could get on once in Madrid was completely full.
At this point I'm starting to think about contingencies. I checked about rental cars and trains as backup options. The car would be possible but it would be a lot better to get them on an Iberia flight later the same afternoon. But seats were at a premium. The trains were completely full.
While I was working on this, I was still getting the occasional email from Harry while on the plane since they were delayed and just sitting on the tarmac. So, now, they also end up being delayed by over three hours prior to departure from Philadelphia. This trip is not going well so far to say the least.
I decided to go to sleep, finally, and just deal with it in the morning since they were so delayed anyway. We get up on Wednesday morning and call Air Europa, operating under the assumption that it is Air Europa's flight cancellation that was causing all the problems, so they needed to fix it. Once we talked to them we were informed that the original ticket was a US Air ticket all the way. They were part of the the itinerary, but it was US Air's product. So, they could do nothing, and since US Air had not checked them in while Harry and Kathy were in Philadelphia, Air Europa had them as no-shows and they had them cancelled out of their system. This is now really not sounding good, because nobody seems to be able to take care of this, and nobody is taking responsibility for owning this itinerary. I'm very frustrated at this point because I'm pretty good at solving travel issues, and it was beginning to look like there may just not be any options. At least not any options that would get them to Oviedo on the day they planned to get here. I understand travel interruptions happen. But in this particular situation, not arriving the same day as initially planned would not be a successful outcome.
With all the information to this point, I decided to go back to US Air. They owned the itinerary. They issued the tickets. Their agent had screwed up at check in. How? The check-in agent saw the flight they were originally booked on was not there. They assumed the reason they could not confirm them on the next Air Europa flight was due to it being too far prior to departure time. But that was not it. It was that the flight was full. They should have gotten them scheduled on another partner airline right then and there. But they failed to do that. And they misinformed Harry and Kathy that this was Orbitz's issue. Now Orbitz was not very helpful at all, but this is not an issue if that initial agent gets this right. So I called US Air ready to fight. Instead, I got a good customer service agent. She found the next available flight from Madrid to Oviedo, got them booked, and told me what to tell Harry and Kathy to do once in Madrid. The new flight would arrive at around 6:45. So much later than original, but not much different than what would have happened given the weather delay in Philadelphia anyway. Since they were not booked through to Oviedo while in Philly, their bags had to be retrieved in Madrid and then re-checked, but that went smoothly. They arrived safely, and US Air even provided meal vouchers in Madrid for their trouble. That is a positive outcome.
A few takeaways. First, always argue with an agent who is telling you they cannot do something. They have a lot of ability to deal with things but they often times need a kick in the pants. They have a lot to do, and if you're not a squeaky wheel they'll be happy to let one of their colleagues deal with you later. Second, don't assume the information you're given by an agent is correct. This probably could have all been cleared up with a call to US Air right away. Third, always book directly with the airline if possible. That way you know who to deal with and you don't have to rely on service from so-called online travel agents. Fourth, companies are increasingly responsive to complaints on social media. Especially if you have any number of followers, public complaints get their attention. I got much quicker service by tweeting at Orbitz than Harry did by calling. And, finally, be thankful when you do get good customer service. The people at Air Europa were very clear about everything that was going on and really clued us in to what the real problem was so we could solve it. And the final US Air rep was very good. Things go so much more nicely when you find someone who can and will actually help.
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