Monday, December 6, 2010

Running Apparel With Sayings On It

Coercion at the airports

main link to the booking server of the British Airline
transfer to the well-meaning attempt on 12 August 2006 failed ...

Who does a journey that can sometimes tell a lot - including good and bad experiences. The following trip reports documenting experiences that feel like a passenger than coercion, but of airlines and EU authorities are classified as normal events in the area of "force majeure". Nevertheless, there are differences.

In the following examples is the one, English airline to blame for the breakdown and tries still within their power to limit the damage. The other, British airline is not interested in their passengers and the situation worse by subtraction of the staff and unavailability of all transfer options.

from the EU authorities No help is expected. They know from experience not even design a pamphlet in which the word "liability by acts of God" is mentioned at all. Also, arbitration organizations are powerless against the lawyer groups and coercion of the airlines. At major airports, there is simply anarchy.

experience at the Madrid airport

Airport Madrid-Barajas (English Aeropuerto de Madrid Barajas ) of the English capital of Madrid is the largest international airport in Spain, Europe after London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt Rhein-Main and in 2008 was the fourth largest in the world according to Wikipedia, comparison of all airports in 11th Place. Some of these airports I have made in recent years, some experience.

wanted after a week-long round trip from Madrid to Granada, Seville, Cordoba, Toledo and we fly back on Sunday, 12/05/2010 back Fraport -Airport in Frankfurt am Main. The over 150 participants large tour group was already known that as of Friday afternoon 03.12.2010 in Spain a wild strike by pilots from the fence was broken. The strike came at a particularly inopportune time because it coincided with the beginning of a long weekend in Spain.

To cancel this only to Christmas expected air traffic controllers strike, the English government had the first alarm call since 1975. This measure defined in the Constitution is meant for special emergencies, such as earthquakes, floods and major fires and epidemics, food shortages or the failure of important services such as the air traffic. The alarm gives the government special powers across the country. It authorizes about to take over control of key sectors to mobilize all the emergency services and to require officials and public employees to the service. Objectors can immediately suspended and a judge will be presented.

On Saturday evening 04.12.2010 informed us the tour guide that the pilots, the arrangement of the government accepted under protest and that our flight would take place normally. On English television reported that the air space is completely open. It could still take several days until the air traffic normalizing. According to the airport company about 300,000 passengers were affected by the strike.

On Sunday morning we were woken up at 4:00 clock at 5:30 and were ready for the approximately 1-stundige ride to the airport Barajas . On arrival at the airport to the enormous departure lounge was already full. A few dozen passengers were lying on the bare, tiled floor and slept. The rest lined up in long queues at the counters. After all, the English airline responsible for us the matter was relatively well-organized. Nearly all (300) passengers had already prepared their tickets and luggage stamps on the accounting machines. The queue at the transfer switch was about 10-20 people relatively short.

After about one to two hours waiting in line at the check-in desk we were able to achieve our Abflugtor time clock at 8:15. As the clock was scheduled departure time 8:55, but the flight was about half an hour late. managed the huge, four-engine aircraft of the type A340-300 get it but the delay to a large extent, and we landed in Frankfurt, with little delay. On board there were also many travelers who had already want to leave on Friday. They had already Friday queued on the runway, when the air traffic controllers strike, making her long weekend in a Madrid hotel.

In this case we were lucky that the English airline, the regular flights unraveled preferred and transported us immediately. Some years ago have been released all passengers on the other hand completely 300000-400000 their fate ....

The "Heathrow Hassle" there is only "force majeure"

On 12 August 2006 ended a wonderful holiday to Cornwall abruptly in the terminal Heathrow. There were already several days before terrorist messages, but our British Airline adopt very cool: there is again a Heathrow Hassle , the Englishman an incredible cause chaos. The main airline, whose name I made aware wrote off my mind, is simply not available. It includes all the switches in such cases immediately, leaving the stranded passengers to their fate. Helpless apprentices went around and push us handouts with a phone number and a web address to rebook our flight in the hand. Of course, missing from these notes and any reference to liability by "force majeure"


1: The only info for BA passengers without mention of force majeure but useless phone numbers ( Please click to enlarge)

Unfortunately, the phone number for rebooking was never (answered no to three-Clock at night) and crashed the website when completing the booking on principle. The staff of the airline was ready to receive any passenger was smoking a cigarette behind closed gating grid after the other. Obviously they were preparing for the weekend and completed bets, perhaps, would take as long as the vacation time ... (The Englishman known to bet on every conceivable event in principle).

On a Pamflet with the promising name "Air Passenger Rights 2 "are very clear in EU directives, in which has an airline to keep. By force majeure in this pamphlet is no question. Obviously, the competent EU authorities work no idea such as airlines and the passage on" Force majeure " just forget

2: Air passengers' rights without exclusion by force majeure - as of. August 12, 2006
(Click to enlarge)

Confident that an airline owes us on every case, a return flight, we decided - on the scoreboard after all a new Lufthansa flight ticket for the next best with a competent airline procure - BA flights the next day even with the heading " canceled " were inscribed. We paid to more than 900 British pounds and then put us on the cold floor of the air port to "rest". We slept, however.

course, there was no food this evening. There was coffee, tea and biscuits by Air France and Alitalia - A British airline is not responsible for such a service to have. But we were lucky in the pitch because we could lie down on mattresses. Less successful have passengers on the bare, cold floor may or wrapped in aluminum foil on a metal "bed" to sleep ... I was naturally applied also to a hotel room. According to the British Airline fliers paid 100 pounds for a double room, but at a Heathrow Hassle the hotel prices rise in 50 km radius to 100 pounds once per person! Then we prefer to stay at the airport, hoping for better times.

The next morning we had a group of hundreds of compassion ends at 5:30 clock hurry to move to another terminal. Also at this time of the departure hall Lufthansa and some other airlines was already overcrowded with sweaty passengers. Crying passengers begged a standing in the queue. The police already took the baton relay on hand to evacuate the building when we noticed a friendly and competent staff and Lufthansa for help was (and I've locked him fervently for this benefit since then in my evening prayers). He showed us the switch for automatic check-in, which the British airline had never heard of, and infiltrated us with the luggage to the quick switch, where we could get rid of the baggage within 5 minutes.

then we actually flew himself by crane within an hour of Stuttgart. I felt like the last Americans from Saigon by helicopter of the was flown ...

In this plane we were told by other passengers stranded BA that the leaflets referred to the phone numbers will work for any passenger to rebook. Thus, the British airline on the only prescribed way was probably not attainable for stranded passengers. Instead, you should:

  • a German mobile phone with fully charged battery and unlimited credit accounts to have on hand to choose
  • a number one Deutsche BA subsidiary
  • and will then initiate a transfer there.

would be the only way they managed the to get hold of space in the Lufthansa plane ...

The battle for reimbursement of additional costs

We now feel confident that we would get the cost of € 1,500 refunded by the airline. This hope has not materialized. Although we had submitted the documents immediately, said the British airline for months did not initially. Then it was: the flight would not have been canceled and would have lifted even with only a slight delay ... Because the flight was not canceled, there was simply no compensation. It would be a denial of boarding procedure yes, the same compensation due.

About the malfunction of the telephone system to rebook, the British airline us then responded only after one and a half years (ie after several hundred inquiries ) that the phones we know of the responsibility of the Heathrow airport category and is therefore not the responsibility of the airline are .

"force majeure" (in English, "Act of God")

the rest - so says the British airline - it would be a terror alert, which is known to exclude any liability for damage to the airline. I should go on the internet times and look around there might read the terms and conditions. Since the daily chaos at Heathrow is a standard case, however, this airline can collapse at any bird droppings on the runway, with expulsion by force majeure relinquish responsibility. It will - as we were later to learn more - also supported by EU authorities!

legislation in support of the stranded passengers

It is a clear legal situation in support of the stranded passengers at a higher power. I have the following note in found Internet :

"Even a so-called low-cost airline should passengers have to stay on the ground due to weather conditions, not simply left to their fate. The airline has a duty to offer their assistance to the passengers, to allow for example a bus transfer to another airport. It violates this duty, passengers are entitled to compensation "(OLG Koblenz, Az: 1 U 983/05)..

This ruling is but from 2006, but appears on a duty to help in case" force majeure "to . fit for such judgments but are interested in the British airline, the EU authorities, the Federal Aviation Authority, and the like .... at all instances was in a long dispute with the British Airline it, in my experience only a supporting point: the European Consumer Centre Germany, which has disappeared for reasons of cost now already back.

Conclusion

are taken exactly been the stranded passengers in both the cases described in Madrid as a victim of an assault at Heathrow. In both cases, some hundreds of thousands of passengers affected and the total losses are probably comparable. The English airline earned but not so the British Airline my appreciation for their efforts in solving logistical problems.

The British airline and its home airport London-Heathrow are however only recommended for sadomasochists. In any case we are not willing in any British machine to rise or at all to fly to Heathrow even if you offer us a free flight would ...

At some European airports, with the approval of EU authorities airline passengers stranded in "force majeure" to high costs forced, because the airlines and their legwork unable or unwilling to do their homework are to do, what you also a functional approach to should expect collapse with wildcat strikes, weather conditions or breakdowns. Not even a clear definition of the situation acts of God you hold with the airlines and authorities necessary. This will find the stranded passengers then fine after months of correspondence with the airline ...

who book a holiday, should consider whether to choose a package tour is not better, in which the tour operator is liable for the conduct of flights. That's still less expensive than, say, a Heathrow Hassle into the clutches of an incompetent airline to come.

Here are some links to reviews, which are already some years old (was in the company's policy still not changed) eg the instructive report "British Airways in the storm - and the brink of bankruptcy?" with a BA experience of a Swiss on a trip on Friday the 20th July 2007.

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