Good news on this one: From Mary Ryan in the Aer Lingus chief excutive’s office comes a letter dated 20 December, written in a nice friendly tone and assuring us that the money has been refunded. OK, Aer Lingus you’re back in my good books – and please, please, please don’t become Ryanair with seat bookings!
(The earlier entry)
Earlier this afternoon, I started booking a flight for my mother to Edinburgh. In our family, we stick with Aer Lingus because we trust we will be treated as human beings; how wrong we were proved to be.
Just after I had pressed “purchase” I noticed a line which said “name as on passport”. Because in the case of my mother, this is different to the name on her credit card, I thought it best to change it. Since we had not completed the transaction by selecting a seat, I assumed we could go back and start again.
Only when I went to my emails did I realise that the first booking had gone through. I called the Aer Lingus help line and after about ten long minutes listening to a machine, got an operator (female and obviously young). She told me that of course she would cancel the first booking but that it would costs Eu21!
Excuse me? I alter a booking after just 15 minutes and for that I pay Eu21? I’m sorry but this is an absolute disgrace.
Even Ryanair once changed a spelling mistake on a ticket for me, with the girl saying in a friendly jokey way that just this once she wouldn’t charge me since it was a slip of the keyboard. This is the way normal humans beings behave; with a bit of give and take.
Is this all a sinister plot to stop us flying? If it is, in my case it is certainly working. Unless that Eu21 is refunded, I will be doing my best not to fly Aer Lingus again(although I’m off to Paris on Wednesday…).
And by the way, it’s not the money, it’s their profoundly dispiriting attitude. Anyone out there ready to start up an airline company that treats its customers as human beings?
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