Too funny not to share

[fireheart]

So I watched the TV show "Airways" tonight. Basically, it's similar to it's UK cousins "Airline" and whatnot, working from a particular carrier. In this case, it's Tiger, which is notorious for its very picky guidelines. (it's a low-cost carrier with lower prices, but they make up for it by charging for checked-in luggage. Hand luggage up to a certain weight is free though. It's very handy if you're going interstate for a day or whatever like my mum did for a job interview.). Three very hilarious scenarios ensue:

Story the first: Guy apparently wouldn't sit down when the seatbelt sign turned on. He apparently "needed to go right this minute and couldn't hold on" during take-off. Not sure, but I suspect that he may have done something else, since apparently he needed the Australian Federal Police (i.e. FBI) to meet him at arrival. The guy got blacklisted and warned.

Story the second: Guy ran late to the airport and missed his flight. He was pissy at first and tried to get the airline to bend the rules. His girlfriend got on, he didn't. So after he managed to get his flight rescheduled and his baggage checked in, he decided to go for a swim near the airport. In the nude. The funniest part was a fisherman at the docks was like as this guy decided to make the best of a bad situation. (and yes, he made his flight) (I think it may have been Coolongatta airport since this story was up on the Gold Coast. There is a beach near the airport and no, it's not a nudist beach. Which just makes it funnier )

Story the third: Woman gets pissy because her hand luggage exceeds the limit. She doesn't want to pay the charge for the extra weight. The limit is 10kg and she has sixteen kilos of hand luggage. (evidently, she was trying to get around the checked luggage price I think ) In an effort to beat the system (having paid the substantial total of $50 for a ticket), she opens up her bag and proceeds to put on SIX KILOS of clothing. I kid you not. She even tries to walk in two pairs of shoes!
In the end, she still ends up forking out the extra $25 for some luggage, but still gets through.
The airline staff were more concerned for her health and gave her some water, but seriously, talk about triyng to beat the system and FAILING!

[KatherineB]

Actually in the third story, she had to pay the $25 because she should have checked in online and didn't. The money was to cover the cost of her checking in at the airport. Another prime example of a CS not reading the rules. I was just glad to see they actually enforced their own rules and made her pay!

[fireheart]

Actually in the third story, she had to pay the $25 because she should have checked in online and didn't. The money was to cover the cost of her checking in at the airport. Another prime example of a CS not reading the rules. I was just glad to see they actually enforced their own rules and made her pay!

Ah, that's what I missed. I had it muted in places because I was trying to start my assignment and failing. >.>

[Beckpatton]

I laughed so hard when she got stung that $25 charge! She kept going on and on about how she's this big traveller who flies all the time, books her flights all the time blah blah.. then why couldnt she read her booking this time?

[PepperElf]

I laughed so hard when she got stung that $25 charge! She kept going on and on about how she's this big traveller who flies all the time, books her flights all the time blah blah.. then why couldnt she read her booking this time?

because she's too special to read things like contracts

[fireheart]

Two more stories from another episode that my boyfriend watched and cajoled me into watching...

-Guy had booked a ticket to Launceston via a third party website. Problem was that the airline does not fly to Launceston. The guy got pissy, demanded that they give him first-class treatment and get him on the next flight to Hobart or similar, something along those lines.
The kicker? When you book a ticket on that site, it actually shows you which airline you're flying from. The guy had gone to the WRONG airline altogether because he'd never had a booking in the first place!

-This isn't a sucky one, more of a bad situation story. Woman had let her son order the tickets and the (almost adult) son hadn't advised her of one of the policies (something to do with either the transfer or luggage). She only had $40 on her card and no cash. The ATM wasn't spewing out $20's. The poor woman was running the risk of being stuck on the Gold Coast as they also wouldn't accept a credit card over the phone. In the end, a good samaritan gave her $60 from his wallet, even though she only needed $50. He told her to keep the money to buy something in-flight.

[NorthernZel]

I remember one episode I saw:

A customer went all pissy about the check-in deadline and demanded either an exception or extra perks on the next flight, while walking all around the terminal cussing and swearing "well I was just outside having a effing coffee, how the eff could I know they had made last-calls over the loudspeakers?!".

The personnel's response? In a post-interview, a supervisor shrugged and said: "well, this is the THIRD time this has happened to him, one should think he'd learnt from it..."

[ozcatbug]

Just saw one last night where a woman had bought tickets online for Adelaide to Melbourne return. So she is in Melbourne, and turned up at Tullamarine to return to Adelaide, only her return flight is flying out of Avalon. So the EW obviously didn't make a mistake, and what was the airline going to do to fix their mistake. They tried to tell her that she made a mistake in her booking, which would have been easy to correct at the time of the booking, but no, she didn't make the mistake.

Well they could transfer her to the same flight the following day, still flying out of Avalon, but that was no good because she was at Tulla, and she was going to fly out of that airport, since it wasn't her mistake. They could put her on to a flight later that day from Tulla, but it would cost $200 extra, as flying from Tulla is more expensive, plus the cost of the transfer, but no, EW wouldn't be paying any extra as she has already paid for the flight, and it was their system that made the mistake, not her.

They had already had a supervisor speak to her, but EW would only be satisfied with getting on the flight that she thought she was booked on, and nothing would change her mind. A higher supervisor was called, and was told everything that had been offered, and refused by the EW. He (I think it was a guy) ended up saying, "well it's her mistake not ours. She's at the wrong airport." I don't know how it ended, but I know if I was there I would have told her to get her arse to Avalon if she wanted to fly, and to read her booking before she clicked ok next time.

It was obvious that the EW didn't realise that there is more than one Melbourne airport (she kept saying she was flying return from Melbourne to Adelaide) and wouldn't accept that Avalon IS a Melbourne airport.

[Beckpatton]

Just saw one last night where a woman had bought tickets online for Adelaide to Melbourne return. So she is in Melbourne, and turned up at Tullamarine to return to Adelaide, only her return flight is flying out of Avalon. So the EW obviously didn't make a mistake, and what was the airline going to do to fix their mistake. They tried to tell her that she made a mistake in her booking, which would have been easy to correct at the time of the booking, but no, she didn't make the mistake.

Well they could transfer her to the same flight the following day, still flying out of Avalon, but that was no good because she was at Tulla, and she was going to fly out of that airport, since it wasn't her mistake. They could put her on to a flight later that day from Tulla, but it would cost $200 extra, as flying from Tulla is more expensive, plus the cost of the transfer, but no, EW wouldn't be paying any extra as she has already paid for the flight, and it was their system that made the mistake, not her.

While I agree 100% that this chick had an attitude and that it was her mistake, I felt a teeny tiny bit sorry for her (like maybe 3%) as she had come from ADL into MEL, and had booked a return flight. Somehow when making the booking the return airport got changed from Tulla to Avalon.. So while that little 3% of me understands how it could have been missed, the other 97% of me reminds me how whenever I make a flight booking I double check, triple check, a 100 times check EVERYTHING!

Names all spelt correctly
Departure/Return Dates and times
Departing and arriving airports (Because I have this weird fear of accidently booking two outward bound flights instead on an outward and return!)
Names all spelt correctly!!!

So when it all comes down to it, she made the booking, not an agent, not the airline, so it's her fault. Flights from Avalon are generally cheaper so it wouldn't suprise me to think that she booked it this way on purpose and figured she'd bully her way onto a Tulla flight..

[wolfie]

(checking computer) There is a flight out of Tulla we can get you on to. It's a QB-727, and you'd be the only passenger. Would you like a seat in the front row of first class?

Note: location and occupancy changed to make it fit this SC.

[Seshat]

My husband was on a flight from the US to Australia, stopping in New Zealand.

They were just half an hour from Auckland (NZ) when alarms went off and the oxygen masks dropped. It turns out that some idiot was sneaking a cigarette in the toilets. Couldn't wait half an hour.

Well, he got escorted off the flight at Auckland, ranting about how was he supposed to get to Melbourne, yadda yadda....

Husband says he spoke quietly to one of the stewards, and it turns out he lives in the US, planned to go to Melbourne, planned to take a flight back: and that no airline is going to fly him now.

His problem, not hers. :P