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Wafted from paradise to Luton Airport
"MC" wrote in message
ster.com "Bruce" wrote in message ... On 12 Oct 2009 08:43:40 GMT, Adrian wrote: "Ian F." gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying: Did you have a bad experience, or are you just reacting to the chattering campaign about them? I've had a couple of bad experiences - herded around like cattle, talked at by snotty-nosed ground staff like I was a piece of ****, shown no respect whatsoever... I'm a reasonably frequent flyer and I'm too old and dyed-in-the-wool to worry about saving a few pennies to be treated like that. I'd far rather spend the extra and be shown some degree of care. And this is not just me - I know dozens of friends and colleagues that feel the same way. I have always found easyJet to be far superior in every way to Ryanair, although, understandably, not on a level with the major airlines. I would travel with them like a shot, but I will never, ever, ever travel Ryanair. I've never flown Ryanair - nor do I ever intend to, mainly because of their attitude to quoting a cheap fare then chiselling every penny out of you in compulsory "extras" - but I've also sworn off SleazyJet after direct personal experience about ten years ago. I was meant to be flying back from Schiphol to Luton, on a late evening flight. The plane had a technical problem, so wasn't available for boarding. It happens. What SHOULDN'T happen is all the passengers being left at the gate with no staff, no information, no access to refreshments - for SIX HOURS. We finally got to Luton at about 3am, IIRC. I used to commute weekly from Heathrow to Schiphol in the late 1980s. I had a similar experience with BA, involving a five hour wait at Schiphol on a Friday evening, with the aircraft still not having left Heathrow on the preceding flight. No attempt was made to transfer us to KLM, which would have saved several hours, and only after many complaints were refreshments provided. I decided to reject BA in favour of BMI (called British Midland in those days). It happened twice more with BMI, once with a four hour delay and once with a seven hour delay, meaning I arrived home in West London about 2:00 AM. But the overall service of NMI was so much better than BA that I stayed with them. Plus, it was only two flights in around 50, so it wasn't too bad. My point is that flag carriers such as BA and "full price" airlines such as BMI have similar problems to the low cost, as do rail operators. What they all share is that they are all spectacularly bad at dealing with them, in most cases. However. it was one area where GNER absolutely shone. Er... this was 20+ years ago. How can you compare your experiences with modern flying trends. The airline industry and regulations have moved on enormously since then. Budget airlines were still only a twinkle in the eyes of a lot of the current budget airline bosses. I have flown almost exclusively with BA in that last 8 or 9 years and have never had a problem with them apart from one occasion when we had to wait for 2hrs, onboard, before we could depart. However, the crew were very good with refreshments etc... during that time. Had I been sat on a Ryanair plane I somehow doubt the "FREE" refreshments would have bee so forthcoming. The only times I have ever had reason to complain was when I have flown with budget airlines. One time was BMI Baby the other Thomas Cook Airlines. I've had a couple of occasions when BA cancelled flights because of bad weather at Heathrow. In neither case did it deal with them well. I'd agree with Tony that British Midland was better than BA in the 1980s, but it lost its way later, when it couldn't decide what kind of airline it wanted to be. |
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