Air Travel News Update

Airline Chaos
Things fall apart for Star Alliance but Austrian weathers the storm

On Wednesday 30th September, passengers travelling on Star Alliance airlines were faced with chaos as their computer systems broke down. Computers appear to be controlling our lives these days so much so that when they fail to operate, all hell breaks loose. During these chaos, Austrian, especially, weathered the .storm very well except for one “Cruella de

Ville” customer services agent at Vienna, I would have handed them four gold stars. They efficiently hosted and re-routed all stranded passengers who had missed connections because of the delays caused by the computer breakdown. I would especially commend the Austrian team at the re-booking and lost and found desk in Vienna who were on duty between 1430 and 1730 that day, except for the dark-haired middle-aged agent at the re-booking desk who was stroppy, rude and very unhelpful. All the others were very helpful in managing the very tired passengers.
The following day, 1st October, at 11.30am when I dropped by to follow up on my flight, every staff was helpful and once again “Cruella de Ville” was on duty with a closed sign in front of her but even stroppier than before. I needed to make a telephone call and she snapped at me for asking her question when she had a “closed” sign in front of her. One would wonder why people like her choose to work in customer service – perhaps to simply annoy the already stressed passenger?
On another note, we gather that while Austrian served snacks and meals on its flight, bmi passengers from Scotland to London did not even get a cup of water for the £341 cost of ticket they paid for the journey! If this is true, then shame on them especially after the hype they made about British Airways not providing in-flight catering.