Delays delays delays
Dear Comair, Kulula, British Airways. kulula Britishairways.com
I really hope that this message will reach someone and that some action will be taken, perhaps not for me but for fellow passengers making use of your airlines in future.
I ask that all passengers on BA6404 and BA6438 on the evening of 14 June will also express their disappointment and experience, so we as a group can hopefully have a voice so something in the system can change.
Please share as far as possible and tag any relevant parties, please also recommend any other pages/website I can share this post to.
On 14 June 2019, at 21:05 our flight BA6404 was suppose to depart from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
The whole flight left for the runway just to return minutes later due to fog. The flight delayed until the next day.
All this was fine, weather is unpredictable and passengers safety is important. We understand that.
However, in situations like these we assume that Comair and ACSA staff will be trained to handle this situation promptly and professionally and perhaps even have more ground staff on standby to deal with the volumes of people.
The whole process in dealing with the situation of getting passengers onto new flights and into hotels was just disastrous. We were left stranded at the airport until 2am not having been checked into a hotel yet and no hopes of ever reaching our destination. Around 5-6 unenthusiastic staff members were aiming to assist probably around 300 passengers.
No one was helping or doing their jobs promptly as expected in an emergency situation.
Comair promised us that we will be on the same EXACT flight the next day with the same seats and boarding passes and that the shuttles will pick us up from the hotels early to get us back to the airport on time.
We were supposed to be on the very first flight of the day, however our flight was yet again delayed to 12:30 (15 June).
Come Saturday morning, no shuttles were available and we were left to organise and pay for our own transport.
The service at the airport was disastrous and when we got to the check-in counter we were told that OUR flight, the one WE were on already last night is full. How is this even possible? There is nobody to speak to at the counters, no one with authority or any real knowledge of the situation and they just expect us to accept this as is and be put on an even later flight. People had made plans and had real obligations waiting in Joburg and Comair just has no regard for our time.
Yet again, we are stranded at the airport, incurring more and more costs of taxi fares, food, etc. which was not supposed to be incurred, all waiting in hope of getting onto a new flight.
We understand that weather situations occur and that delays are bound to happen. But the utter disregard of any of the passengers’ time and well-being and no ability or willingness to actually help us is unacceptable. And no haste and no proper protocols and systems in place is what makes this unacceptable.
We trust that this message will perhaps reach someone who will aim to ensure better processes are in place in future.