Jump to content
Do Not Sell My Personal Information


I Will Never Fly With Flybe Again


cfc1
 Share

Recommended Posts

Having booked an E-Ticket with Flybe to get Mrs-cfc1 and myself home from Manchester to Edinburgh we were left stranded.

We arrived in plenty of time for our flight but it was cancelled.. to save a long story I will post a copy of the E-Mail I have just sent them.. I'm sure you will work out the details from there.

Dear sir/Madam... I am writing to you in connection to Flight Number BE7230 from Manchester to Edinburgh on the 5th November 2007 at 18:35pm Can you give me your details of this flight? My wife and I arrived at Manchester Airport at approximately 1.00pm for this flight to Edinburgh, upon arriving we checked in, before we checked in we asked if it was possible to get on an earlier flight and were informed that it was if we paid a fee of £151.00 per person, so we kindly declined and said we would wait for our booked flight. We were asked if we would be leaving the airport and said we wouldn't... and checked in in the normal manner. To pass some time we walked around the airport visiting the shopping areas and cafe's etc, I was also talking to a good friend who works at Manchester Airport and looked after us during our stay. We continually checked the screens to confirm the flight times didn't change as did my friend. After a while we went through security as to avoid queues nearer our boarding time, we went through security at approximately 4:30pm. Again we visited the shopping areas and the cafe's, we also continued to check the screens for any changes to our flight. At about 5:30pm the screens showed that our flight (BE7230) was now delayed and was leaving at 8:40pm. I contacted my friend who informed me the delay was due to "technical difficulties" I asked if there was a chance of the flight returning to the earlier time, I stood infront of him as he, and his collegue, checked the computer to see if it was an estimated time or a calculated time and it turned out it was calculated... and as such the time wouldn't get earlier. We continued to monitor the screens for any changes and at approximately 20:05pm the screen said to report to Gate 16. So we went straight away, after a short walk we arrived at Gate 16 with 2 other passengers also hoping to catch the same flight (BE7230 to Edinburgh) we sat down in the seated area and waited for someone to arrive. After a short time a lady informed us that our flight had been cancelled at 6:00pm. We and the other 2 passengers made our way back to the departure lounge, we contacted Flybe representatives who informed us that announcements were made and that our names were called to report to the earlier flight. We and the other two passengers denied that this happened.. I again contacted my friend who was very surprised as he also never heard any call, the information he had was that the flight was still flying and should have left Manchester at 9:10pm. BMI staff also confirmed that there was infact NO CALL put out. Feeling VERY aggrieved at this point and very let down by Flybe we continued to debate that a call was made for us.. We were taken to a different part of the Airport by a male member of Flybe staff to meet his Supervisor to get an explanation... as the Superviser (A Blonde haired lady) was stating her side I informed her that we had 3 kids at home and really needed to get back home, at this point I noticed that the male member of staff (a scottish man) who escorted us to her was standing with a SMIRK on his face... he seemed.. no, he most definately was.. taking great pleasure in our situation and found it very funny. As you can imagine this angered me and I asked him "what the ubik are you laughing at?".. that was a mistake on my part, as after that the Supervisor refused point blank to speak to us and they locked themselves in a room. A few minutes later another member of the Flybe staff came up a flight of stairs.. I approched her to ask for her help in sorting out this situation, at that point there was a loud knock from the window where the other members of staff were, I looked at the window where I saw the Scottish man and the Supervisor , the Scottish man drew his finger accross his throat (what he meant by this I'm not sure, but where I come from it is a threat of a cut throat) then put his finger to his lips in a "shhhhhhhh" manner, the member of staff who came up the stairs quickly said she couldn't help and hurried herself into the same room locking the doir behind herself. We could hear laughter coming from the room at this point. This behaviour is VERY unprofessional and done absolutely nothing to ease or resolve the now serious situation. I feel strongly that Flybe are in breach of the terms and conditions laid out in the contract. I will check out the terms of the contract and if it is the case then I will instruct my solicitor to take legal action against Flybe. Can I have your thoughts on this matter? Mr. D. Kerr.

Has anyone here had any experience with Flybe? from what I have been told by various members of staff from different companies that operate in Manchester Airport this is highly typical of the way they go about their buisness.

What are your thoughts on this?.. would be good to hear them.

EDIT: The email I sent looked better than the way it has appeared in the quote above :lol:.. something lost in the C&P somewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Incase any of you are wondering how we eventually got home... we had to catch the train at 3:40am, finally arriving home at 9:45am, a full 14 hours later than planned :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had the same problem with them, They have no customer service ethic.

I hope you can sue them, make them pay

:bash:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm afraid that is the way all budget airlines are these days, cancelling flights, moving take off times etc etc. That's no ecuse for the unprofessional behaviour of its staff, I think you were very restrained! I'm sure somebody will point somewhere to the small print that says they can do what they like to cancel of move flights so tough t1tties :censor: :censor: :censor: I think your right to complain, but I'm not sure how far it will get you,

Strike them off your list of people you deal with, I have a few blacklisted companies on mine, lol

Kingo :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear of your plight Dave, given a choice I would never fly with Flybe again either. I had a similar situation flying back to Glasgow from

Leeds Bradford. Flight delayed, then cancelled, no information, no staff member gives a stuff. After waiting 5 hours, eventually got put on an

alternative flight. No explaination for flight cancellation given either. It was a one day business trip, I could easily have driven there and back

in a day, but decided not to risk the traffic. Never again. :no::no::no:

edit, and the ticket price, over £300 !!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites


I know I probably won't get anywhere with them.. as it WILL no doubt be in their small print, however.. there is a very small possibility that there own terms and conditions have been breeched with regards their legal obligation to passengers. Perhaps my threat of legal action "should I find that to be the case" will force their hand in my favour.

The flight being canceled and the loss of £100 (not a lot of money I know) is one thing... (I can put that down to experience and put them on "my list" of companies not to use:lol:) but it is the way we were treated by the staff that really gets up my nose... compassion, friendliness and above all professionalism costs absolutely nothing.

I would also like to thank a member on here for all his/her help with this... you went out of your way and done everything you could to to help us.. you also looked after us at the Airport which again I appreciated very much... you know who you are ;)... thank you :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anything like that happens to me on the way home I'm spending a night in the cells, it's simple. Credit to you both for showing restraint in such appalling circumstances

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thats Trevor McDonald material!

Was there any CCTV around? Thats absolutely disgusting - if you don't get a reply I'd send a letter by post to the MD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the end of the day, the staff couldn't of controlled what happened to the flight, but there actions are truely shocking!

I work in customer service (as many people on here will do) and if I behaved in such a manner I'd expect to be given the boot! Never would I ever expect to get away with anything like that!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a shocking story Davy.

It's bad enough being stuck in an Airport for 5 hours waiting for flight but then to have it cancelled without notice and worst still treated in the manner you were is appalling.

I hope you get some compensation off them......but I have to say, that I fear that you will not.

I was going to write something about Budget airlines........but I remembered this is a family forum, so I'll leave it at that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not interested in getting my money back tbh.. I'm more dissatisfied by the casual way the Flybe staff treated us, I was shocked to say the least and if I lived closer to Manchester Airport I would have no hesitation in going to see them about it.

Anyway.. here's an update...

I received a letter this morning...

I have been forwarded your details with regard to the above flight with Flybe and the situation that arose at Manchester Airport.

I understand that upon arrival at the Costomer Service Desk your flight had already departed. It is known that disruption had been experienced that afternoon and some flight changes were made with your own flight being combined with flight BE7232. An announcement was made requesting passengers to attend the Costomer Service Desk in Departures to obtain new boarding cards.

That said, I am also aware that this announcement was only made in departures and therefor any passenger that was still was still Landside would not have been aware, especially in view that flight BE7230 remained on the information screens as it would be positioning once the techinical fault had been corrected. Actions have been taken to avoid any such situation reoccurring including the assurance that announcements of this nature will now also be made to the main terminal.

Whilst I can appreciate the situation in which you were placed and the disappointment that will have been felt our Staff at Manchester made every effort to assist you with rebooking and alternative arrangements. I have however, been advised of your abusive behaviour towards our Staff and Agents and indeed, preventing one of the Ground Staff accessing the office area at what was officially the end of her shift. This behaviour is not acceptable and I would like to advise that any reoccurrence will result in a ban from utilising our services

Now... note that the end of the letter refers to my behaviour... this letter was sent out to me BEFORE THEY RECEIVED MY EMAIL to them. Their staff have obviously reported the incident to their bosses before I had the chance to report them for their lack of professionalism in an attempt to cover up their ineptitude. I mean.. why report something when you don't know if a complaint will be made against you?

It also states that I "preventing one of the Ground Staff accessing the office area at what was officially the end of her shift."... well, another member of Flybe staff came up the stairs, I politely asked her if she could help us as her colleagues had decided to lock themselves in the office and wouldn't speak to us. I did not prevent her from going anywhere... infact it was at this point the 1st two members of Flybe staff knocked on the window to tell her not to talk to us etc etc.

Next I phoned Flybe to reply to their letter and told the Costomer Relations Manager the rest of the story.. I told her exactly what I asked the male member of staff.. I told her that I wasn't abusive or threatening in anyway (I did only ask a question... albeit I used 1 single swear word), I told her the staff made no effort whatsoever to help us. I also told her that a few BMI staff witnessed their antics and later on during the course of the evening were far more helpfull and compassionate to our situation than Flybe staff were.

So I am now waiting on the Costomer Service Manager completeing further investigations into it all.. I told her to contact the BMI staff and also to get any CCTV that is available should she need visual proof too. I told her I have nothing to hide and that at the time of the incident asked if the police should be called, the Flybe Supervisor said it was my choice as she had NO REASON to call the police... but, If I was abusive and threatening wouldn't that constitute a reason to call the police???.. I know for certain they would have done if it had been the case. So their goes their argument of me being abusive towards their staff... and CCTV will proove I never prevented staff entering the office.

I still don't expect anything to happen.. they will hide behind the fact that I used a swear word in a perfectly viable question to the male member of staff who was finding the situation rather funny... (what the f*** are you laughing at?)

We wait and see... we were asked to give them time to do further investifgations... I hope they ask BMI staff who witnessed it all.

Incidently.. a female member of BMI staff heard what I said and approached me and told me she would have reacted the same way.

As for their statement about an announcement.. I have been told by Service Air and BMI that as far as they know, NO announcement was made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Another Update..

Just received this letter from Flybe..

Further to my letter on the 8th of November and receipt of your own email. may I firstly offer my sincere apologies for the situation at Manchester.

I have now received further reports from all staff concerned at Manchester and I have to say that their own recollection of events does differ somewhat from your own, as may be the case at such times.

I note your acceptance that swearing is not acceptable and I believe that in doing so the staff, who by rights do not have to accept this behaviour, may well have over reacted. It would appear that their behaviour was not acceptable to either you or Flybe and I can assure you that our managers at Manchester are fully aware of your recollection of the situation.

I would like to confirm that calls were made in respect of the flight changes however, these were not made landside at anytime and were only audible in the departure area. This is an Airport policy that since the 5 November has changed and calls will be made both airside and landside in future.

I have today authorised for our Costomer Accounts Refunds Department to refund the unused tickets and this will be processed to the original form of payment and will appear on the accounts within the next 3 - 5 working days. Should any additional costs have been incurred in returning to Edinburgh, please feel free to forward receipts to me when I would be happy to arrange a further refund reflecting the cost of the unused Flybe tickets.

May I again apologise for the way in which this situation was handled and do hope that we may welcome you on board our services again, in entirely satisfactory circumstances.

So.. A refund is on it's way and luckily I still have the receipts of our train tickets which I will forward on to Flybe (recorded delivery).

It also appears that their staff are to be dealt with too.. albeit probably a slap on the wrist for their behaviour.

Result?.. I think so.. but a shallowish one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Another Update..

Result?.. I think so.. but a shallowish one.

Better than nowt Davy, but IMHO they are a bunch of James Hunts :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

just had 3 delayed flights with Air France which ment that I missed the 4th flight and I was stuck in Paris

also in Paris the Air France bus crashed into another large vehicle

can I claim some compo, didnt really plan to stay in Paris for more than an hour, I only had my shorts and t-shirt (it was -1oC) and I had no Euros with me

and had a bit of an argue with the french police, had to tell them about 7 times why I was in St Martin for 4 days

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well done Davy. I fly with Flybe on a weekly basis and they are normally OK. Unfortunately some staff at airports feel that we are just an inconvenience to be put up with. Aberdeen is particularly bad but Belfast George Best Airport is good. I had a set to with FlyBe but did not win. Airlines will cancel a flight if there are not many passengers to save money and say it is a technical fault. Seen it happen alot on my travels.

Jon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jon.. you hit the nail on the head... not enough passengers to fly, so a technical fault is blamed.

As my wife works at Edinburgh airport, Flybe knew she would have been able to check what time the aircraft arrived at and prove what they told us was claptrap, (the plane arrived at Edinburgh empty that night... don't know what time, but it arrived).

From what I have read about Flybe, it seems Manchester and Aberdeen are the two worst Airports for Flybe staff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share





×
×
  • Create New...




Forums


News


Membership