Early Friday morning, the 26th, my parents-in-law in Sweden got on a plane to Frankfurt, fully expecting to connect to a flight to North Carolina, and from there to Savannah, the closest airport to us. They were going to be here for nearly two weeks and carefully-timed arrangements of vacation time (for us) and dog-sitting (for them) had been calculated, and they were to return to Sweden in time for their son’s wife’s first child’s due date.
Except they’ve been in Frankfurt now for two days and the insulting excuse for an airline, US Airways, has no plans to get them to the United States before Tuesday and doesn’t even seem all that interested in getting them here then. FIVE DAYS AT AN AIRPORT! Come on, this trip should take 20 hours door-to-door, max.
First they waited four hours to get on their cross-Atlantic flight, and then boarded, only to be told the plane had mechanical problems and they had to stay the night and leave 24 hours later. That next day, the flight left three hours late, flew for two hours, and then turned back. And all flights until sometime next week are already overbooked, and the airline is telling them to get their luggage and get a hotel and just, what, wait and hope the third time’s the charm? And it’s affecting some 200 people, elderly, people with little kids, just waiting…
Meanwhile, when Husband or his brother call US Airways, we’re told they’re on a flight right now. And when we inform them that indeed they are not, they “customer service” people are like…”Uh…well…let me give you this number to call.” Or they want my bewildered in-laws to call an American 1-800 number from Germany on their Swedish cell phone. WTF?
Honestly, I think at this point, since we are seemingly unable to get them on another airline and this “air carrier” is clearly unable and unwilling to carry people in the air, we might just have them sent back to Sweden and give right on up. The kicker is today is my father-in-law’s birthday, too. What do they say in Frankfurt? Scheisse?
27 June 2009 at 12:14 pm
That’s just shocking. I hope they are able to get somewhere soon!
27 June 2009 at 2:16 pm
Let me count the ways that Air Chance (as they apparently call Air France, because there’s a chance that you could actually get on a plane and go somewhere) has screwed me over on international flights. Oh never mind. It’s too lengthy.
Normally, the airline would book them on the next flight (from a different carrier if necessary), or get a new plane – whichever was quicker. I guess that’s the problem with the downturn in the tourist industry. There are fewer flights available. Anyway, I’d be harassing people on the phone until someone went and got your in-laws personally!
Good luck – I hope they can still visit.
27 June 2009 at 2:52 pm
That is total crap – can their travel insurance do anything about this? You would have thought they could have flown them to London or Paris or Amsterdam all of which have zillions of transatlantic flights. I hope they get there eventually.
27 June 2009 at 9:13 pm
Okay, after a LONG time on the phone we managed to get them on a flight on Monday, so I guess they’ll just have a vacation in Germany until then. Ridiculous.
28 June 2009 at 12:22 am
WOW! I mean, I’ve had my fair share of airport/airline nightmares, but I’ve never been stuck in a foreign country (neither the one I live in nor the one I’m traveling to)for any period of time. Just wow…
28 June 2009 at 11:08 pm
Ridiculous is right! Most people don’t have the luxury of waiting five days to start their vacation. Sheesh. They should get some free tickets out of this.
29 June 2009 at 10:41 am
HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!
And I thought Un1ted was crappy.
29 June 2009 at 12:24 pm
I hope they arrive safely on Monday.