Airlines: How not to treat passengers

This is an interesting news article on some airline companies that do not take care of their customers well.  Read on:


The way some airlines in the country treat passengers, who book their flights is not only unsatisfactory but also unbecoming in recent times.
Air passengers in Nigeria go through pains not only when buying ticket but also during check-in. The pain experienced by air passengers in Nigeria is more pronounced when airlines cancel flights. What should originally be more expense for the airlines, which cancel flights now shifted to passengers, who are not the cause of the cancellations.
Today, the treatment passengers get from airlines is not in line with the Standard and Recommended Practice (SRP), practised in developed aviation countries. In other part of the world, when an airline cancels its flight, it is the duty of the airline to give passengers refund or rebook or in the alternative ensure that they are well taken care of.
An air passenger by any standard is supposed to be catered to by the airline he bought his ticket from, most especially when the cancellation or fault is from the airline.
But here in Nigeria, the reverse is the case, as airlines treat their passengers without the fear that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) may sanction them. Though, for some time now the regulatory body has looked the other way, as it has not been able to call airlines such as Aero to order.
There have been a series of complaints by passengers against Aero in particular and other airlines in the country. The complaints range from inability to get seats despite booking on line especially on the so-called promo seats. The ‘I-don’t –care attitude’ has been going on without the Consumer Protection Directorate of the NCAA doing little or nothing to ensure that passengers are well treated.
This treatment has also elicited a lot of comments from passengers, who now see airlines as entities that are only concerned about selling tickets and not taking passengers to their destinations within the scheduled time.
Why is it so difficult for airlines to make refund when they are at fault? Air passengers are usually on their own any time there is what the airlines term ‘technical fault’ with a particular airplane. This practice is fast creating a bad image for airlines such as Aero, which has laboured for 50 years to build a good image for itself.
Only recently, angry Aero Owerri bound passengers, whose flight was cancelled, besieged the airline’s counters at Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) Terminal 2, Lagos threatening a showdown if they were not flown to Owerri or given a refund.
The passengers, who bought the airline’s tickets to fly from Lagos to Owerri were shocked when the flight was cancelled.
One of the angry and disappointed passengers, who spoke to our correspondent, said that the flight from Lagos to Owerri was not just cancelled but that before the airline cancelled the flight, they were delayed and no official of the organisation was on hand to explain why it was so.
The passengers blocked the entrance of Aero’s ticketing office at the MMA2 demanding a refund or to be rebooked, when efforts to know from the airline why the Owerri bound flight was delayed and later cancelled proved abortive.
One of the affected passengers, who narrated their ordeal on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the airline told them that the Owerri flight had been moved from 2.20 pm to 3.pm but only for the airline to tell the passengers that the flight had been cancelled without prior information as to what was going on.
At MMA2, the passengers did not only create a scene, but they were heard raining abuses on the airline officials, who were making efforts to resolve the issue.
The passenger also alleged that no reason was given for the cancellation and that the airline just told the passengers that the flight had been cancelled.
The affected Aero passengers were not only angry because the flight was cancelled but that the airline rebooked them for Port Harcourt when they bought tickets to fly from Lagos to Owerri.
Aero did this without any arrangement of how the passengers would move from  Port Harcourt to Owerri. What would it cost Aero to provide transport for the passengers from Port Harcourt to Owerri? How will Aero feel if, for instance, passengers who bought tickets to fly from Lagos to Benin now force the airline to take them to Abuja? Since the delay and eventual cancellation of the Owerri flight was Aero’s fault, the airline should be responsible for transporting the passengers from Port Harcourt to Owerri.
According to one of the passengers, “I don’t know anybody in Port Harcourt. Who will pay the transport fare from Port Harcourt to Owerri”, he asked.
On that same day, the airline was also alleged to have delayed its Calabar flight to from 2pm to 5pm and this further made situation tense.
“Look, this is injustice without regard for people’s right. How can they come and tell us now that they are cancelling a 2 pm flight by some minutes before the hour of two and expect people not to be rowdy and even insult them,” one of the affected passengers lamented.
“I will collect my money and to be frank, I think almost everybody here is waiting to do the same. If they planned not to go at least they would have given us a heads up before now and then we can plan, right now I am supposed to be in Owerri but look at me,” he added.
Another passenger, who could not understand why the airline had to treat passengers this way, said that he booked the flight online and did not even understand what the airline is saying.
According to him, “I booked my flight online and the lady was just telling me to wait as if I was not supposed to be a bona fide passenger on that flight even after I showed her my ticket. I am just waiting to see what she would tell me about this breach of agreement.”
Few days after passengers of Aero went through a harrowing experience, a passenger, Mr. Adeola Osifowora, who was to fly an Air Nigeria flight 44 Abuja to Lagos, said the flight from Abuja to Lagos was scheduled to take off a 7. 25 pm but that it was delayed till 9.30 p.m.
He added that as the passengers were about to board, the airline asked them to hold on the excuse that the pilot needed to put off the plane’s engine and that 30 minutes after he put the engine, on for the passengers to board.
“We boarded after and the flight took off and t 20 minutes after takeoff, the pilot said there was cabin pressure and that the plane could not attain 25000 heights”.
According to Osifowora, “It was a terrible experience and there was no one to even attend to us. We were only rebooked for the next morning”.
One is not saying that the airline should not take precautionary measures to ensure the safety of passengers by returning to take off point as was done in flight VK 44 incident, what the passengers are saying is the treatment meted out to them when the flight was aborted was not the best the airline could offer.
According to him, though the airline rebooked them for early morning flight, the attitude of the airline officials when the airline returned to Abuja was not satisfactory.
The treatment exhibited by airlines towards passenger is not restricted to the airlines mentioned above. There are other instances where passengers simply accept what befell them and keep quiet. A time airline officials treat passengers as if they are doing the passengers on their flight a favour.
The airlines should realise that they are in existence because passengers patronise them. Even if the airlines are carrying out cargo operations, if people do not send in cargo, the airline automatically stops operations.
The NCAA Consumer Protection Unit must address this issue, to assure air passengers that it can protect their interest any day any time and equally encourage them to continue to fly.


more from here: http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=23700