I am at a loss where to turn, and so am looking for some help and advice.
I am an FAA Instrument Rated PPL, and enjoy flying a Cirrus around europe.
Last week I flew a new SR22 back from the factory near Duluth in the USA to London UK.
I took an Instructor that we use in the UK to the factory with me to recieve his CSIP (Cirrus Certified Instructor Program) training and accreditation.
On the last day my instructor was due to Fly Duluth - MSP and then back to Gatwick.
On the same Day I wanted to visit a pilot shop near Minniapolis, so rather than dump my friend at Duluth airport 5 hours before his flight, I offered to give him a lift in the new Cirrus to MSP to pick up his long haul leg there.
He checked in for the London flight just fine, they took his ticket, and his bags. He told them that he was not using the Duluth section of the ticket.
This was in MSP before the Duluth flight left Duluth.
He then wandered arround and eventually got to the gate an hour before the London departure, just as the staff at the gate appeared. He immediately talked to them and asked if he could have a seat change. They said thay would call him. They took his name.
Twenty mins before the flight he is called. He thinks "great seat change", but no such luck. They said they had "been trying to find you" and that they would "off load his bags....."
They said that when he did not show up for the Duluth flight they canceled his ticket (even though he was checked in for the London flight at at MSP already!) They then sold his London seat to someone else, (Dispite taking his bags and giving him a boarding card)
So my poor friend, after waiting in the airport and gate for hours - checked in and everything, was being told just twenty mins before departure that he could not get on the flight and home to London!!!!
They then said that the ONLY WAY he could board the flight was if he BOUGHT ANOTHER TICKET!!!
His total round trip fair was about £480 (I know I paid for it!). Now they wanted another $1850 for a single (about £1000), and he had NO CHOICE!. They said to get a cheap fair he must stay in the US two weeks longer!
So my poor friend gets his credit card out and buys another ticket for the plane he already has a ticket for, and on which his bags are already on!
He was incensed!
This really does seem like the airline ripping someone off on an opportunistic basis, just because their ticketing staff and their check in staff are not communicating.
A gross injustice....
What should we do???
Ian
www.cirrus147.com