I am guessing that almost everyone if not everyone has heard of the Volcanic eruption in Iceland last year when Eyjafjallajökull caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over an initial period of six days in April 2010. During that time there were lots of so called experts on various things related to air travel among other things on television.
Either way, when going through some of my notes earlier I found a letter I had emailed and thought I'd share.
Hello Geraldo,
Just to let you know, I work for an airline at JFK and I just arrived home and switched on the TV and saw your show on. Everyone would agree that the volcano in Iceland is creating a huge problem for travelers. No one would know that more than the travelers and those airline employees that have to assist them.
I say you were misled and I sincerely mean it. You had a woman on the show who is from California and with a group that helps those passengers who are stranded. It is good that she is helping but this is where she is wrong. Ask any airline for a copy of the contract of carriage and they will gladly give it to you and you can see for yourself.
We at the airport and specifically at Delta have been trying our best to reroute people as the connections become available. However, there is almost no way we can get people out right now. The flights have been cancelled for a few days. There is a huge backup and when the European airports reopen, we have extra segments going in there to get our passengers out.
We cannot provide accommodations to all of these stranded passengers even if we wanted to because hotels are full. Also, for acts of nature or weather as well as air traffic delays or cancellations, NO AIRLINE will give accommodations to anyone. It is simply beyond our control, think about wanting to sue a bus company if you are on it and get to work late because there is a traffic jam. We have been working with the Red Cross and been sharing out cots and blankets for those stranded at the airports. Also, we managed to get in touch with NYC and Company to get discount rates to passengers who want a hotel on www.nycgo.com. For passengers who come from other places to travel to Europe, we even send them back home at our expense if they want to do that. Think about someone coming from Miami connecting at JFK going to Heathrow. Since we have no Heathrow flights, I send them back to Miami if they want, at the airline expense to travel when all is well or when they choose to. We have been giving meal vouchers to people to get something to eat several times a day. All of this we do not because we have to because we do not have to, we do it because we provide customer service and try to assist in whatever way we can. And she says we provide no customer service? I sincerely beg to differ.
She mentioned that giving vouchers or money for delayed flights or cancelled flights. That is true and I am usually one of the first to give a passenger whatever is due to them, HOWEVER, it is true when it is controllable. That is, if it can be controlled by the airline whether it is a delay or cancellation of our own making, eg; if the airline had a mechanical problem, maintenance, late crew, ship swap, or a passenger service delay or anything directly related to the airline that is controllable. It is NOT for acts of nature. I don't know about her, but I don't happen to have God on my speed dial to tell Him to stop the volcano. It is beyond our control.
I can honestly say that her information is not accurate and for the sake of the stranded passengers, please avoid having someone bashing the airline industry when I know for a fact we are doing all we can and even more.
I can try to answer any other questions you may have but I honestly had to write when I saw you were being misled on national televison and we in the airline industry are made to look like villains.
Respectfully Yours,
Samuel Singh
P.S If I made any grammatical errors, kindly excuse them.
( was addressed to Atlarge@foxnews.com" Atlarge@foxnews.com)
Either way, when going through some of my notes earlier I found a letter I had emailed and thought I'd share.
Hello Geraldo,
Just to let you know, I work for an airline at JFK and I just arrived home and switched on the TV and saw your show on. Everyone would agree that the volcano in Iceland is creating a huge problem for travelers. No one would know that more than the travelers and those airline employees that have to assist them.
I say you were misled and I sincerely mean it. You had a woman on the show who is from California and with a group that helps those passengers who are stranded. It is good that she is helping but this is where she is wrong. Ask any airline for a copy of the contract of carriage and they will gladly give it to you and you can see for yourself.
We at the airport and specifically at Delta have been trying our best to reroute people as the connections become available. However, there is almost no way we can get people out right now. The flights have been cancelled for a few days. There is a huge backup and when the European airports reopen, we have extra segments going in there to get our passengers out.
We cannot provide accommodations to all of these stranded passengers even if we wanted to because hotels are full. Also, for acts of nature or weather as well as air traffic delays or cancellations, NO AIRLINE will give accommodations to anyone. It is simply beyond our control, think about wanting to sue a bus company if you are on it and get to work late because there is a traffic jam. We have been working with the Red Cross and been sharing out cots and blankets for those stranded at the airports. Also, we managed to get in touch with NYC and Company to get discount rates to passengers who want a hotel on www.nycgo.com. For passengers who come from other places to travel to Europe, we even send them back home at our expense if they want to do that. Think about someone coming from Miami connecting at JFK going to Heathrow. Since we have no Heathrow flights, I send them back to Miami if they want, at the airline expense to travel when all is well or when they choose to. We have been giving meal vouchers to people to get something to eat several times a day. All of this we do not because we have to because we do not have to, we do it because we provide customer service and try to assist in whatever way we can. And she says we provide no customer service? I sincerely beg to differ.
She mentioned that giving vouchers or money for delayed flights or cancelled flights. That is true and I am usually one of the first to give a passenger whatever is due to them, HOWEVER, it is true when it is controllable. That is, if it can be controlled by the airline whether it is a delay or cancellation of our own making, eg; if the airline had a mechanical problem, maintenance, late crew, ship swap, or a passenger service delay or anything directly related to the airline that is controllable. It is NOT for acts of nature. I don't know about her, but I don't happen to have God on my speed dial to tell Him to stop the volcano. It is beyond our control.
I can honestly say that her information is not accurate and for the sake of the stranded passengers, please avoid having someone bashing the airline industry when I know for a fact we are doing all we can and even more.
I can try to answer any other questions you may have but I honestly had to write when I saw you were being misled on national televison and we in the airline industry are made to look like villains.
Respectfully Yours,
Samuel Singh
P.S If I made any grammatical errors, kindly excuse them.
( was addressed to Atlarge@foxnews.com" Atlarge@foxnews.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment