I´m Stuck in Madrid

censuspro

My flight was cancelled from Madrid to Dublin with EI this morning. Went on the website to change the flight and kept getting an error message. Kept going back on the website and now there are no flights until Monday! Ive been on hold for 30 mins on the EI helpline.


Does anyone know what my recourse is, really need to get back to Dublin?

BuffyBot

Have you spoken to the ground handling staff at the ticket desk?

highlydebased

If you dont get any resolution with EI, both Iberia and Ryanair also fly to Dublin.

lasno

How did things work out eventually for you? Did Aer Lingus take care of the passengers?

censuspro

I eventually got back at about 1am this morning. All flights out of Madrid were booked until tonight which meant I had to get a flight to Barcelona and go from Barcelona to Dublin. To make matters worse the flight from Barcelona was delayed about 2 hours because they couldn't get a plane out if Dublin on time!

The most annoying thing was when I first found out my flight had been canceled I went onto the website to change the flight times and kept getting an error message. Waited 58mins on the telephone help desk and by that stage all the other flights out of Madrid were fully booked.

Was Aer Lingus the only carrier to cancel flights at the weekend or were there any others?

zagmund

I flew from Dublin to Luton on New Years day with Ryanair. We were delayed about 2h30 but got off 'on-schedule' in that once we were given a revised time they stuck to it.

While we were sitting there we heard an announcement that about 10 Aer Lingus flights were cancelled. Passengers were to go to the arrivals hall, pick up their luggage and leave the airport. The crazy thing was that the announcement said people should go to the Aer Lingus website and rebook. This was in their own home base where you would have to assume they would have customer service staff available to help people rebook.

If my flight was cancelled I would have been really, really, really annoyed at this approach - go home and rebook your own flight (assuming you have access to the internet) instead of just taking the bookings at the desks.

Incidentally, when we arrived at about 0900 on New Years morning there were huge queues all around the airport. It turns out they were *only* for Aer Lingus bag drops. We had no luggage and were through security in 2 minutes. I definitely would have been annoyed if we had queued that long to drop our bags and then having gone airside being told we had to go pick them up again and go home . . . especially when we saw that other airlines were able to send their planes off no problem.

z

censuspro

zagmund wrote: »

I flew from Dublin to Luton on New Years day with Ryanair. We were delayed about 2h30 but got off 'on-schedule' in that once we were given a revised time they stuck to it.

While we were sitting there we heard an announcement that about 10 Aer Lingus flights were cancelled. Passengers were to go to the arrivals hall, pick up their luggage and leave the airport. The crazy thing was that the announcement said people should go to the Aer Lingus website and rebook. This was in their own home base where you would have to assume they would have customer service staff available to help people rebook.

If my flight was cancelled I would have been really, really, really annoyed at this approach - go home and rebook your own flight (assuming you have access to the internet) instead of just taking the bookings at the desks.

Incidentally, when we arrived at about 0900 on New Years morning there were huge queues all around the airport. It turns out they were *only* for Aer Lingus bag drops. We had no luggage and were through security in 2 minutes. I definitely would have been annoyed if we had queued that long to drop our bags and then having gone airside being told we had to go pick them up again and go home . . . especially when we saw that other airlines were able to send their planes off no problem.

z

But do passengers have any recourse? Surely airlines must have some duty of care and obligation to fulfil their contract?

gihj

I travelled through 3 different airports between new years eve and the 2nd.
The common theme seemed to be cancellation after cancellation after delay with regard to Aer Lingus.
I was so confused i had to check the news expecting to read of a security alert or similar despite the cancellations involving numerous airports.
My own flight was cancelled leaving me no option to get a flight to another airport the following day.
I'm finished with Aer Lingus (i swear it this time).
An absolute shower of gangsters and the sooner O'Leary gets his greedy yet professional and efficient hands on it the better.
And before anyone asks,yes i will pay monopoly money if it gives me the service Ryanair presently offers.

zagmund

Not an EI issue, but just a general comment on the New Year mess-up at the airport. I checked the DAA website before leaving home at about 0815 on Friday morning. It was showing some flights cancelled, but everything from 0700 had departed (if we were to believe the report) so I reckoned things were operating normally.

About 5 minutes after leaving the house, the man on the radio was telling me that Dublin Airport was closed and all flights were postponed. I didn't get the exact wording but the vibe was "don't come to the airport". Of course I ignored this and drove on, but I'm sure some people did what they were told and missed their flights.

When I got to the airport it looked like all flights to Heathrow were cancelled and a few others too, with a few (including mine) delayed by 60-180 minutes, but other than that everything seemed to be going off correctly.

So, what's the story with the reports that the airport was closed and not to come ?

z

dolliemix

A few years ago I was coming back from London (to Dublin). The weather conditions had been bad but were back to normal by the time I got there. However there was a big backlog and loads of flights were delayed. I met a guy that I knew at the airport. He was flying Aer Lingus and I was flying Ryanair. His flight was due to take off 10 mins before mine. When I checked in the woman at the desk advised me to go straight to the departure lounge. My friend's flight was already up as being delayed by at least 40 mins. When I got to departure lounge, we were told to board the plane immediately. We took off on time and actually arrived back in Dublin 5 mins before we were due.

At the baggage area, you could sense there were people who'd been hanging around for ages waiting. I got ready for a big wait, so I went to the toilet, got myself a drink from the vending machine and found a place to sit and read my book. I had just got the book out of the bag when my luggage came out!

I told a guy I know who works in the airport about this and he told me that probably what happened was Ryanair just skipped the queue of planes in London. They're well known for doing this. They get fined but they reckon the fine is worth the business of keeping to schedule.

The guy I'd met in London getting the Aer Lingus flight had to wait another two hours after the initial flight time before his flight even took off

BuffyBot

what happened was Ryanair just skipped the queue of planes in London

You can't just "skip the queue". It's not like overtaking on the motorway

dolliemix

BuffyBot wrote: »

You can't just "skip the queue". It's not like overtaking on the motorway

Yeah I know :rolleyes: Thanks for pointing that out!

Thats what I thought but the guy I was talking to in the airport told me thats what happened. The whole experience was really surreal. The weather was dodgy. All the aer lingus and other airline flights were delayed by about two hours. We were ushered on the plane, on time, as if there was some kind of panic, and we ended up back 5 mins before we were due.

What else could have happened?

hinault

My flight from Munich was cancelled last Friday morning.
Dublin Airport was closed due to snow/ice.

I did not know the flight was cancelled until I arrived at checkin at Munich airport.
I spoke to the Aer Lingus rep and she agreed to put us up overnight in a local hotel until the next morning.

On saturday, Dublin airport was still closed to flights : so we were given the option of either flying to Belfast or Cork.
I flew to Cork and made my way home from there.

Contact the airline rep. would be my advice.
Aer Lingus were very helpful

Goldman82

censuspro wrote: »

My flight was cancelled from Madrid to Dublin with EI this morning. Went on the website to change the flight and kept getting an error message. Kept going back on the website and now there are no flights until Monday! Ive been on hold for 30 mins on the EI helpline.


Does anyone know what my recourse is, really need to get back to Dublin?

Poor thing! I once got stuck in London City and couldn't fly to Geneva, also due to bad weather. Was rerouted to Heathrow by BA and the metro broke on the way causing me to miss my Heathrow flight. I had to claim it all from my insurance that paid me in a year after I had to collect all the letters from BA and London Underground. I am flying with Ryanair on Saturday and chances of flight cancellation seem very high.

mikedragon32

dolliemix wrote: »

Yeah I know :rolleyes: Thanks for pointing that out!

Thats what I thought but the guy I was talking to in the airport told me thats what happened. The whole experience was really surreal. The weather was dodgy. All the aer lingus and other airline flights were delayed by about two hours. We were ushered on the plane, on time, as if there was some kind of panic, and we ended up back 5 mins before we were due.

What else could have happened?

What could have happened is that the Ryanair flight had a slot and was able to keep it by pushing back from the stand on time. The Aer Lingus flight may have already had a slight delay due to a late arrival say, and then had to await a new slot and that's where serious delays can kick in.

Your mate in DUB may be misinformed about how serious an issue it is for pilots to disregard instructions from the tower. No plane moves so much as a yard without permission from the tower. It wouldn't just lead to a fine it could cost the pilot his licence.

zagmund

Absolutely zero chance of skipping the queue. Planes don't just go tootling around the apron looking for a way to overtake yer man from the other airline.

As above, what happens is that your flight is given a (time) slot by the tower. If (like Ryanair) you hustle your passengers you have a chance of getting them on board, the doors closed and the plane pushed back on time. At that stage the controllers work out how to get your plane to the end of the runway - this is where some planes are 'queued' on one taxiway while others head off to the runway. You see it a lot in the States (or at least I do when I'm stuck there). There's an element of shuffling in this. You may be lucky or you may not, but it's up to the tower and not the pilot. One thing's for sure - if you are still on the gate with one person not boarded your plane isn't going anywhere.

If (like Aer Lingus) you tell your passengers that the flight is delayed then they all head off to the bar, shopping, jacks, anywhere but the gate. As a result, if something happens and your slot becomes available again you have no chance of using it because your plane isn't loaded up.

Ryanair know this, and they work the system in their favour.

z

dolliemix

Mike Dragon and Zagmund thanks!

That fupper lied to me :eek:

As zagmund said, planes cannot just 'skip the queue'. There would be more than fines if that were to happen - the airline would be shut down. Indeed, Ryanair just deal with things differently to Aer Lingus. They will keep the passengers waiting at the gate (or on the plane), hoping a slot becomes available, whereas Aer Lingus announce that the flight is delayed, meaning that people go off to the bar or whatever, and any slot that does become available can't be used by Aer Lingus. Things change really fast - I've often been sitting on a plane having been told we'd be 40 minutes late taking off and then suddenly the pilot announces we're departing immediately. Also, there are many different reasons for a flight being delayed. Perhaps on this occasion, the incoming plane was already late or AL had some other operational problem that had nothing to do with the airport itself.