It’s no secret that airlines pretty much do what they want in terms of customer reservations. And the family history that you will discover below is totally incredible.
Indeed, the carrier Qantas Airways had the surprising idea of modifying the ticket of a 13-month-old baby to put him on a different flight from that of his parents. After traveling for almost four weeks through Europe, Stephanie and Andrew Braham had stars in their eyes and were particularly excited about their visit to the Old Continent, but their horizons clearly darkened once they arrived at the Rome-Fiumicino International Airport, in the Italian capital.
And for good reason, the flight, which the mother had booked nine months in advance, which was to take them from Rome to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam to Bangkok, Thailand, where the family wanted to spend a night before returning home. in Australia, really didn’t go as planned. As the little family arrives at the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines counter, which is a Qantas partner, they are informed at this check-in counter that their baby is not included in their reservation on the Amsterdam-Bangkok flight.
“She was on another flight that took off 40 minutes after ours. We originally had flights booked by Qantas with British Airways. A few months later I was informed that there was a problem with one of the connecting flights, and so Qantas put us back on those KLM flights, so I think that’s when the error occurred,” said Stephanie.
After more than an hour of discussing with several KLM representatives to find a solution, the flight finally left without them. The parents may have specified that given her age, their daughter would come on their lap, the staff told them that it was impossible because the flight was full. For its part, Qantas says it did nothing wrong and that the initial error was not its fault.
Thus, 6 hours after arriving at the airport to catch their return flight to return to Australia, the couple and their daughter went to a hotel very close to the airport to spend the night while waiting to find another time slot. departure the next day. Once settled in their room, they rushed to contact customer service to report their problem. But again, they said customer service was a real obstacle course.
For what ? Largely because the phone line was bad and often cut out while the father was explaining the situation. And to top it off, he fell almost every time on a new interlocutor, therefore having to repeat his story from the beginning several times. In the end, it took 55 calls to the company, 20 hours, 47 minutes and 13 seconds talking to countless customer service representatives.
The next day, thinking of taking their new plane in the afternoon to Bangkok and seeing the end of the tunnel, the little family unfortunately fell from a great height when they learned at the airport that Qantas had not issued their tickets correctly. plane. In the aftermath, the couple said they got no response from the company and asked all carriers at the airport to find them a flight back to Australia, but all the planes were full.
“It was so stressful because we didn’t know if we were ever going to go home,” Stephanie said. Eventually, an agent phoned them to tell them that the airline had reserved a seat for them on the next available return flight, on July 26, 12 days after the originally scheduled departure. Following this incredible affair, Qantas said it offered its “sincere apologies” to the family, that it was an “administrative error”and that the company would reimburse them for their accommodation costs, ie 130 euros per night. But then again, it’s hard not to feel aggrieved when you consider that the couple have spent approximately more than 9,700 extra euros out of pocket due to the additional accommodation, food, travel and entertainment they have. had to pay, as well as the income he lost by being off work.
Outrageous, isn’t it?
