AerLingus Online booking beware

damienirel

Hi all,
Just bringing to attention what happened me personally whilst booking a ticket online.
I made the mistake of not being alert while booking and instead of putting the other persons name who I was booking for down I put my own.
Hence double booking a flight. I rang aerlingus to chane the name on one of the tickets and of course they charge.
€81 is what it cost me to sort it out.
So be warned and be careful.

I will try and avoid aerlingus in the future - they don't have a customer care department only a postal address/fax no. for complaints they never answer.
Very comforting to know isn't it?!

:mad:

Ruu_Old

The name change fee is fairly standard by now, read the Terms and Conditions, you do have a chance to read them before agreeing to pay.

damienirel

But what annoys me is the lack of effort made to help the customer.
It was an honest mistake - a least try to meet the customer half way and have a minimal charge for such a situation - €81
- it's very typical of monopoly companies ripping people off in Ireland at the moment.

Ruu_Old

Yep I know, a couple of people within seconds of booking rang to fix the mistake. No dice, money please. Their customer service is a load of tosh, I agree.

damienirel

Like the title of a David Holmes Album "This films crap let's slash the seats"
Once I board that plane I'll be looking for ways to get my €80 worth maybe break something on board. Since I'm not gonna get any satisfaction from a lousy unionised company. Hopefully Michael O'Leary sorts the whole mess out - if wasn't for him we's still be paying 5 times what the actual flights are worth.

BuffyBot

It was an honest mistake

Imagine how many "honest mistakes" they meet in a day. They have a rule, they have a charge and to be honest, how are they to know who's honestly made a mistake and who hasn't. Change fees are pretty standard practice in most airlines now. Such is life.

Once I board that plane I'll be looking for ways to get my €80 worth maybe break something on board.

Real mature. Are you 12? Break something so someone else misses out, or indeed the plane has to be taken out of service and a plane load of passengers (and possibly more as the knock on affect kicks in) just because you weren't paying attention. Nice.

mikedragon32

Aer Lingus are not operating a monopoly.

Aer Lingus aren't the only airline to charge for amendments to the booking. In fact it's quite possible that Ryanair could charge more for the alterations.

YOU made the mistake. Why should the rest of us suffer because you want to break something?

How long between booking and making the amendment. The charge is usually set on a "per leg" basis and then if there is a difference in the cost of the flights between when you booked and when you make the amendment, that is also applied. You could have ended up paying a lot more.

Expensive lesson, but you'll be more careful in future.

killbillvol2

damienirel wrote:

Hi all,
Just bringing to attention what happened me personally whilst booking a ticket online.
I made the mistake of not being alert while booking and instead of putting the other persons name who I was booking for down I put my own.
Hence double booking a flight. I rang aerlingus to chane the name on one of the tickets and of course they charge.
€81 is what it cost me to sort it out.
So be warned and be careful.

I will try and avoid aerlingus in the future - they don't have a customer care department only a postal address/fax no. for complaints they never answer.
Very comforting to know isn't it?!

:mad:

So, where it says Adult 1 you typed your own name. And then, where it says Adult 2 you typed your own name?
And that's the fault of Aer Lingus and you should damage their plane because you can't read? :rolleyes:

Irish Salfordia

This is getting a bit heavy.

We flew to Glasgow last week with Aer Lingus. Booked online, booked reserved seats on line. Cost €5 each going out and €1 each coming back plus the usual taxes. Better planes and lots more leg room than Ryanair without all the pushing and shoving because of the reserved seats.

Sorry about the mistake, but thanks for making us all aware what we need to look out for when we book.

BuffyBot

BuffyBot wrote:

Imagine how many "honest mistakes" they meet in a day. They have a rule, they have a charge and to be honest, how are they to know who's honestly made a mistake and who hasn't. Change fees are pretty standard practice in most airlines now. Such is life.

Its not public knowledge but if you make a mistake on even the most restricted ticket on ba.com,they'll fix it for free by using an insurance policy that the have.
I found that out from a supervisor and had to use it twice.
It works if you ask within 24 hrs only and only the supervisors are aware of it.They explained to me that they accept that people make simple mistakes all the time with online bookings.Now that is customer service.

okidoki987

May be customer service but at what price?
Probably twice what you would have paid with Aer Lingus or Ryanair.

smashey

okidoki987 wrote:

May be customer service but at what price?
Probably twice what you would have paid with Aer Lingus or Ryanair.

Originally Posted by Tristrame
Its not public knowledge but if you make a mistake on even the most restricted ticket on ba.com,they'll fix it for free by using an insurance policy that the have.
I found that out from a supervisor and had to use it twice.
It works if you ask within 24 hrs only and only the supervisors are aware of it.They explained to me that they accept that people make simple mistakes all the time with online bookings.Now that is customer service.

Looks like good customer service to me.

delly

Oh damienirel, you make me laugh. What you should have done was simply bought a third ticket and kept the first two so you could have extra space.

Seriously, you messed up and think that Aer Lingus are wrong to charge you for your mistake, to the point your going to break something on the plane? Well I hope your other passanger is an adult, because I think children under 12 need to have a mommy or daddy on board to hold their hand :rolleyes:.

damienirel

What's the worst that can happen? I'm only 12 apparently!
Sorry for complaining about aer lingus. They're a great company:D

However I was incorrect in saying they are a monopoly.
Because technically, they're not!
- But I don't think they have lost some of the ideology they had when they were a monopoly for so long.
People I'm only bringing it to your attention.
I'm not looking for justification from a bunch of random bloggers.
Just bringing the topic up.
Yes "this honest mistake" is very obvious, it sticks out amongst a lot of "honest mistakes" - A ticket on the same flight was booked in the same name twice - I mean come on are you 12? Can you not spot that it's not a scam I'm not gonna get a suicide bomber in that seat am I??

Base

Irish Salfordia wrote:

Better planes

So you feel Airbus produce better aircraft than Boeing is it?

Noelie

damienirel wrote:

Yes "this honest mistake" is very obvious, it sticks out amongst a lot of "honest mistakes" - A ticket on the same flight was booked in the same name twice - I mean come on are you 12? Can you not spot that it's not a scam I'm not gonna get a suicide bomber in that seat am I??

I think the 12 year old remark was about you plotting to damage some part of the plane.
and i agree with the others who say you've learned a lesson at a cost, it may have been an honest mistake but if you had of read the webpages before you eagerly clicked the next button you would have seem that you incorrectly put your name in twice, I believe there is a page the shows all the names before you purchase your flights.