Travel is a complicated business and the way airlines ferry us all over the place all the time and mostly without incident is nothing short of miraculous. But, as keen-eyed readers of this page will know, things go wrong. Strikes and weather can cause chaos, machines can malfunction, delays can happen and people can make mistakes.
We often think it is not how well an airline manages its everyday business but how it manages when its customers are under great stress or when trying to navigate significant problems. That should be the measure of its operation and were it so, Vueling would be found wanting in the extreme based on a highly stressful story a reader called Laura shared with us last week.
She was travelling from Barcelona’s El Prat airport on Tuesday August 20th with her husband and four kids when, as she put it, “the nightmare began”.
It all started with the self-check-in of the family’s baggage.
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“We arrived at the airport at 4.10pm, printed our boarding passes and began to load our luggage on to the self-check-in belts. One bag was accepted at exactly 4.21pm while the other two would not go on. The machines were malfunctioning and a lot of other people were having the same problem,” she says.
“The machine said someone was on the way to help but in fact nobody was coming as the man in the area was inundated with passengers with the same problem. We asked for his help at about 4.35pm and he sent us to the last-minute desk. We spoke to a woman member of staff at 4.45pm who said she would not help and we would have to pay for new flights.”
That sounds stressful enough but Laura’s story was only starting.
She explained to the Vueling staff member that her family “could not afford new flights and that boarding wasn’t starting until 5pm and [another] member of staff said we had time, but she actually said ‘I’m not helping you, not my problem’ and she instructed us to bring the two 25kg bags to the plane through security and pay for them at the gate. She obviously knew what would happen when we got to security.”
What happened is that the family were told by security staff that there was “no way could we bring cases for the hold through”.
‘My eight-year-old son had a panic attack and was finding it hard to breathe and was crying because he thought his daddy would be stuck in Spain and he just wanted him. It was such a traumatic experience for the children’
Her four children “were panicking” because her husband “had to go back to customer service and the rest of us were trying to make the flight. Only when we had gotten through security did the realisation dawn on me that I had my husband’s phone and wallet. I explained to security what had happened and they too were shocked at what we had been told to do,” she continues.
“One of the security staff explained to the airport police what had happened and a policeman walked me out to the check-in area to find my husband. As he didn’t have a phone I couldn’t contact him. He asked if he could use the phone at the Vueling customer service and they refused.”
Her husband managed to borrow a phone from a German couple and he called Laura to say he would meet her at the customer service desk.
“I just handed him his phone and wallet and ran. I had to make it back through security where my children were waiting and we ran to the gate. My eight-year-old son had a panic attack and was finding it hard to breathe and was crying because he thought his daddy would be stuck in Spain and he just wanted him. It was such a traumatic experience for the children,” she writes.
“We got [to the boarding gate] at 5.25pm, 15 minutes before departure, and the gates were closed. I begged to be allowed on and explained what had happened with the baggage. ‘No, book a new flight, not my problem,’ I was told. We watched as the flight took off and I called Budget Travel who I had booked the package with but was told to contact the airline as there was nothing they could do either. I was also told our baggage would be at arrivals, belt number three. I was told to just wait when I inquired, and it was not on the belt. We waited ages and no bag.”
While Laura was waiting for the no-show bags, she called Vueling customer service and was told she could get a €125 per passenger rescue fund and that the next available flight would be the following Friday with a stop in Paris.
“I asked if I could call back once I had found my husband as I needed to see what we would do as he needed to be back [at work] as soon as the next day. I was told that was fine that I could call back once I knew.
“When I met my husband, we went to the customer service desk again but he had already been told by four other Vueling staff it wasn’t their problem and they wouldn’t help him. The rudeness, hostility and coldness was just appalling. I have never seen such atrocious customer service in all my life. We made two complaints on paper at that desk.
“Anyhow, we went to the desk together where I told the female staff member that I had spoken to someone on the phone who said there was a flight on Friday.”
Laura says she was told she could not book it there. “I said I was refusing to leave as it was the airline’s fault the bags would not check on but she just said: ‘What do you want me to do, ma’am? Schedule a flight just for you?’ I could not believe the rudeness and lack of help. It was such a horrible experience. I refused to leave and she said she would call security to which I replied, do. I asked to call her manager and see if something could be done. She made a call and said nothing could be done and all I could do was call customer service again.
“As there was nothing more I could do, I called customer service back to see if we could get the next available flight to which I was told the offer of the €125 rescue fare was gone and no longer available to me as more than an hour had passed since the flight had been missed. I could not believe this, I was never told I only had a certain amount of time to accept. The other lady told me to call back once I could.”
‘I am just so disgusted and the whole experience has left me drained and feeling hopeless’
So Laura, her husband and four children ended up having to spend the night sleeping in the airport before flying with EasyJet to Belfast the next day on flights that cost €1,400.
Their car was parked in Dublin so they had to then get a bus from Belfast to Dublin city centre and from the city to Dublin Airport. “It was a totally nightmarish experience and my children never want to fly or go on holiday to another country again, and nor do I for that matter.”
When the family eventually got home our reader applied for a refund for the flights and the compensation as set out for those denied boarding in the EU regulation EC261/2004, but Vueling has responded to say they were not denied boarding.
“It was not our fault the bags would not go on and we had to wait and try to get them on the plane and four staff members refused to help. They all ran the clock down to make it impossible for us to make it to the plane on time. Nobody would tell us what time the one bag that got checked on went at. Each time we asked we were told they couldn’t see that, but when we made another complaint the following morning before leaving for our flight at terminal two, I asked the lady was there any chance she could see what time our bag was checked on and she said 4.21pm. We asked if we could get a printout of this to which she replied, ‘no, it’s confidential internal information.’ I am just so disgusted and the whole experience has left me drained and feeling hopeless. There must be something that can be done. I apologise for bothering you but I don’t know where to turn.”
We contacted Vueling to get its version of events.
This is what came back.
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience that your reader and her family experienced during their recent journey with us and the service that they received. Providing our passengers with a smooth and pleasant journey is always our top priority, and we understand how upsetting it can be when things don’t go as planned.
“Our records show that the flight was missed because the passengers arrived at the boarding gate after it had closed. Due to security protocols and airline procedures, no additional passengers can be allowed to board once a flight has been closed. It is also important that passengers are aware that bag drop facilities close one hour before departure for flights leaving the Schengen zone. We do not have any record of a technical issue with the bag drop system at Barcelona airport on this day.
“We are absolutely committed to continuously improving our service, so we will thoroughly review this case. Thank you for bringing this to our attention – we value feedback from all our customers.”
