Yeah, the photo is on it's side. I can't flip it, whaddya gonna do
I was due to fly home Dublin - Chicago - Miami on Sunday morning, when I woke up on Saturday to a text from Aer Lingus saying reservation cancelled due to technical issues. They had re-routed to me Monday Dublin - London - Miami. An extra 24 hours in Dublin, sure how bad is that.
I spent the day and evening with mam and Katie. Which was lovely. We were woken up by a false (fire) alarm around 1am, my real alarm went off at 4.30am and then finally after I left, mam and Katie were woken up by an old set alarm on the clock radio in the room. But sure look, that was that. They said they got back asleep.
Delays with the Dublin flight meaning that it was very tight for my connection for the Miami flight. I alerted the crew and asked for any advice. Seems some other people did too because a few minutes later came a nice announcement confirming to anyone (me) that were flying on the Miami or SF llight that they were pushing out their departure by one hour in order for a group of us to make it. Arrived at my gate just in time to grab a coffee at starbucks right beside.
Okay! We are off! I send all my goodbye texts and we taxi off to the runway. There was a bit of a bang (boom) and jolt as we taxi and about 5 minutes later there is an annoncement from the captain that we had a tyre (tire for my USA readers lol) blowout and we are headed back to repair it.
It takes about 30 minutes before the engineers are on site. Takes about 2 hours for them to fix. We are sitting waiting for paperwork to be completed before we can go when suddenly it starts getting very hot. The effects of no engine and no AC and 500 people in a small space are kicking in. Two people ask to leave. Their bags have to be located (this takes time). A few more people want to leave...more time. You can see where this is going. One crew member goes out of their service time, we wait on their replacement. Looking like the remainder of crew will be out of time at some point - replacements are on call for them. Someone passes out upfront, paramedics called, their bags need to be located. Six hour mark - crew out of time, everyone is overheated, the captain calls it.
All crew onboard during this time were superb. We are told that there will be ground crew meeting us to assist with rebooking etc and God Love them but they were next to near useless. They literally told us they know nothing about helping to book, that first they were going to give us hotel vouchers and bus vouchers - could not advise where to get the bus from btw. I went to three different agents and each one literally had no valuable advice. I heard somebody mention the app which of course I did not have....because Aer Lingus rerouted me. I went on the British Airways website and filled in my booking ref etc and Lo and Behold I was already rerouted and rebooked for next day.
I have emailed BA my feedback from the flight (good - it was nobody's fault what happened) and the service on the ground and what I would do if I were those agents:
I would come armed with a Pack for each customer.
In this pack would be number 1 a cover note saying that right now, in the background, operations crews are working on rerouting you. That you can check on the app or on the BA website and see if this had happened already. That if you had not been rerouted automatically within one hour, call this customer service number XXXXXX and they would help you.
Second in the pack would be the Hotel voucher for the night
And third Transport voucher - including directions/map to where to get the bus
Literally just give one of these to everyone, ask them to review it and come back to you if any questions at that point.
Next morning I was up bright and early and back to Miami with no issues....except a $290 uber ride ahead of me to get home that evening for work the next day (and to see my cat and Patrick!)
I have since received compensation from both Aer Lingus and British Airways. I appreciate that. But hard to balance against losing all that time.....aaaaaand guess what I now have bronchitis and am on steroid medication (inhaler and tablets) and feeling quite dreadful.
That is air travel these days for you!
Me on the plane. Note the home made fan in he hand behind me that we were all using
