Damon shares his unexpected December holiday fail
His bags were packed and everything was ready for his holiday that he so eagerly waited for, but things took an unexpected turn...
I finished work on the 21st of December, and I was due to fly to Mauritius on the 22nd. It had been months of planning and since booking my ticket, it had honestly been a case of an epic countdown.
On the morning of the 21st, while I was actually on air, I happened to check the weather in Mauritius and spotted a cyclone heading towards the island – but I didn’t really think too much of it as I hadn’t really heard anything about it. Then, as the next few hours passed, more news came in about Cyclone Cilida which was due to pass dangerously close to Mauritius.
Those hours leading up to my departure flight the next morning were just a nightmare. As more reports came in, at about 4pm, I called the airline to see if they could give me any more information.
There was no reply from the airlines at their Durban office, but I was re-routed to the Johannesburg number where I spoke to one of the reservation consultants who told me that everything was running as normal. They did add that the flight the next day "may be cancelled if things got worse." I was also given an emergency cell number I was told to use "if I needed to inquire about anything" and also to get updates on the flight.
As the cyclone seemed to be getting worse, at about 7pm I tried to find out more information. I called the emergency cell number and spoke to the airline employee who abruptly told me: "The flight is running as normal and we’ll call you if there are any changes." I actually remembered putting down the phone and feeling bad for even calling.
About half an hour later, I got a call from another airline employee who sounded very confused and I battled to work out what she was trying to tell me. Eventually, I was told that the flight might be running an hour earlier the next day but it wasn’t confirmed as yet and the airline would also only make a decision on whether the flight would leave or not at midnight. No disrespect, but the call was such a mess - I thought one of my friends was playing a sick joke on me.
We just seemed to be completely up in the air (pardon the pun). So we waited and waited. Eventually, I called on a friend in the travel industry to see if she’d heard anything. She then told me she’d been told the flight was leaving an hour earlier the next day in order to avoid the cyclone.
However, even later that night, there was still nothing confirmed from the airline, so by about 9pm, I called the emergency number again and asked the same lady I’d spoken to earlier if there was any updated information. I also told her we’d heard the flight was leaving an hour earlier.
I was then literally moaned at because my phone number and email details weren’t in the booking. I was asked how I expected the airline to get hold of me if the flight was going to leave earlier if my number wasn’t in the booking. I was gobsmacked. If there was no contact number in my booking, how did the other employee manage to call me?
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The way I was spoken to left me feeling really angry and disappointed I’d chosen to book the airline I did. I was just a passenger trying to find out more information on a 'need to know' basis.
I was in a moment of crisis. Trying to make a decision about a holiday that I'd paid lots of money for, and even if the airline didn’t have any confirmed answers, they should have provided clear communication, right? For me to call an ‘emergency line’ and get moaned at and spoken to with complete disrespect shows service levels at their worst.
By the Saturday morning, I still had no clear information on anything, so I decided to cancel the flight, and I’ve been charged cancellation fees and a 'no-show fee'. It’s not like I didn’t show up. I cancelled. I was told they’d get back to me by last week with some answers but I still haven’t received any response from them.
Here’s the thing - yes, I cancelled the flight so I get that they charge me a cancellation fee, however things could have been so different. As an airline, to speak to your passengers (who are supporting you) the way their employee spoke to me is unacceptable, and then to not even know what flight I was on is a joke. I pity any passengers who have to fly with them in the future.
Let's just say that it was a holiday nightmare that I would not hope to experience ever again.
Did you experience a December holiday fail? Share your stories with me below.