Poor start for Low Cost Airline
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Poor start for Low Cost Airline
Oh, dear . . .
From Las Provincias, translated by Google and me.
When the last Friday the school pupils from La Eliana (Valencia) flew to Dublin to enjoy a summer program with host families, they did not imagine the ordeal in which they would make the trip. Days later, most of them expected their suitcases to arrive in the Irish capital; however their luggage did not arrive with their flight. The group of schoolchildren made a stopover in Madrid and Iberia, the company responsible, asserts, "the bags are still missing there."
It appears that the confusion is due to a problem with loading luggage on airplanes. According to Alejandro Monzonís, director of IALE, " the tickets were bought with Iberia but we delegated the Iberia flight to Iberia Express, the 'low-cost' arm of the company. These new aircraft support less load, so this caused a jam of bags'. So far, only 6 of the 100 students have their suitcases with them.
Because of the setback, "there are children who are desperate," he complains. The host families had to buy the necessary garments, "in the form of pyjamas or underwear, which could be washed every day for children to wear", says Alexandro.
Also, to come to some agreement with the airline on compensation is an additional difficulty: "We do not agree that the responsibility is Iberia' an Iberia Express spokesperson says. 'We can not undertake to return the bags'. For now, each pupil has been allocated 50 euros a day, although "we are told that you can only recover the money by placing a claim," says the director, who also expressed a sense of powerlessness. "Parents of students are very rebellious and ready to go to Madrid to demand an explanation."
On Monday another group of 50 student arrived at the Irish airport from Valencia via Madrid and Iberia Express, of which 31 have not yet recovered luggage. For its part, the head of Iberia has declined to comment for this newspaper about the issue.
It appears that the confusion is due to a problem with loading luggage on airplanes. According to Alejandro Monzonís, director of IALE, " the tickets were bought with Iberia but we delegated the Iberia flight to Iberia Express, the 'low-cost' arm of the company. These new aircraft support less load, so this caused a jam of bags'. So far, only 6 of the 100 students have their suitcases with them.
Because of the setback, "there are children who are desperate," he complains. The host families had to buy the necessary garments, "in the form of pyjamas or underwear, which could be washed every day for children to wear", says Alexandro.
Also, to come to some agreement with the airline on compensation is an additional difficulty: "We do not agree that the responsibility is Iberia' an Iberia Express spokesperson says. 'We can not undertake to return the bags'. For now, each pupil has been allocated 50 euros a day, although "we are told that you can only recover the money by placing a claim," says the director, who also expressed a sense of powerlessness. "Parents of students are very rebellious and ready to go to Madrid to demand an explanation."
On Monday another group of 50 student arrived at the Irish airport from Valencia via Madrid and Iberia Express, of which 31 have not yet recovered luggage. For its part, the head of Iberia has declined to comment for this newspaper about the issue.
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How can an airline deny any responsibility for lost luggage?
Then there's this:
Check-in. Where do I begin? I arrived 3 hours prior to flight as I normally do for this trip. My cousins fly Monarch to Manchester who, as it happens, are checked in by IB staff for a 12:10 departure (ZB683 I believe). Normally an IB person, whether working the Monarch flight or another, will take me, seeing I'm an IB J class passenger (I'm assuming they'd do same for Y class passengers), check me in and send me on my way. Not anymore folks. I was told by the IB agent I asked to check me in to go see the manager. Stunned I went to the manager and was told now that we are IB Express at ALC we only check-in 2 hours before flights per IB Express rules.
Needless to say that wouldn't work for me as I wanted to go through with my cousins and spend time with them before they boarded their 12:10 flight. I had a 5-7 minute back/forth with the IB (I guess now IB Express?) manager when he said, "OK, I will do you a favor and ask one of the agents to check your bag). Folks, I paid over $2k for this ticket and it was about 2 hours 45 mins before departure. He then left his ticket booth, went to the agent who had rudely told me to go away and said, 'as a favor to me,please check this person in to Madrid and JFK." Clearly perturbed she tagged my bag (all of 15 seconds), entered my passport info (15 seconds), issued 2 boarding passes (15 seconds), handed it to me and put her head down. Entire thing was 90 seconds, I timed it.
My cousins watched in disbelief what I had to do to check-in for a trans-atlantic business class flight... in any event, the message was very very clear from the former IB staff, now IBE staff. We no longer do what we used to normally because we're told differently around customer service when it comes to checking passengers in. 2 hours is the new rule. So what used to be standard fare for IB at non - MAD cities where they had a presence in checking in pretty much all day is now, along with decent leg room in business class, a thing of the past.
The new F/As in their shiny grey and red uniforms were lovely. The meal service in J an improvement over previous IB but the ground serviceand seating is horrendous.
As you can tell I was quite underwhelmed with Iberia Express. I looked back to see the seating in the rear was even worse, probably something akin to 30" in pitch. One thumb up for the crew and service, one thumb way down for the ground staff and seating which makes it two thumbs down overall. I'm unimpressed Mr. Walsh.
From: Iberia Express MAD-ALC-MAD — Trip Reports Forum | Airliners.net
At present they only fly from Edinburgh and Dublin. Watch this space!
