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After an entire day of calling, listening to the shittiest hold music imaginable twice, e-mailing requests for refunds, and looking at some *very* strange air routes, I managed to reroute my co-worker's travel to Europe so that he flies to Madrid (which was never threatened by the ash cloud). The poor guy has to fly via Ecuador (yes, really), but he's flying, just as the other airports slowly begin to open and the ash cloud drifts eastward toward Siberia.
Of course, this doesn't help the airlines that lost billions of dollars in business; what money they saved on jet fuel and hourly wages went straight into maintenance, covering the planes' engines so ash wouldn't drift in while the jets were grounded, spoiled food and beverage, insurance for the jets and the employees, loss of good will, refunded fares, and the salaries for all pilots/stewards/maintenance workers on standby, not to mention the poor customer service workers and ticket agents who somehow had to straighten out this epic mess. Simply furloughing everyone for a week is not realistic when dealing with multiple carriers in a dozen different countries, especially since the airports in southern Europe never shut down.
As for the poor people who are stranded...I can't even imagine what that must be like. There are hotels near airports, yes, but they tend to be expensive (you're paying for proximity) and would have filled up almost immediately. Add in that a lot of the stranded are students with limited funds, or people on a one week vacation who likely will lose wages for the time they're stuck sleeping in a chair in Schipol or DeGaulle, and that one way tickets right now are *averaging* $1600 if you can get them, and the Eurostar is booked solid until the 30th....
God bless and keep those without the money and the ingenuity (or the local contacts) to deal with this except by staying in the airport, and bring them home in safety. That could so easily have been me two Januaries ago when I went to Italy, or nine Augusts back when I went to Wales.....
Of course, this doesn't help the airlines that lost billions of dollars in business; what money they saved on jet fuel and hourly wages went straight into maintenance, covering the planes' engines so ash wouldn't drift in while the jets were grounded, spoiled food and beverage, insurance for the jets and the employees, loss of good will, refunded fares, and the salaries for all pilots/stewards/maintenance workers on standby, not to mention the poor customer service workers and ticket agents who somehow had to straighten out this epic mess. Simply furloughing everyone for a week is not realistic when dealing with multiple carriers in a dozen different countries, especially since the airports in southern Europe never shut down.
As for the poor people who are stranded...I can't even imagine what that must be like. There are hotels near airports, yes, but they tend to be expensive (you're paying for proximity) and would have filled up almost immediately. Add in that a lot of the stranded are students with limited funds, or people on a one week vacation who likely will lose wages for the time they're stuck sleeping in a chair in Schipol or DeGaulle, and that one way tickets right now are *averaging* $1600 if you can get them, and the Eurostar is booked solid until the 30th....
God bless and keep those without the money and the ingenuity (or the local contacts) to deal with this except by staying in the airport, and bring them home in safety. That could so easily have been me two Januaries ago when I went to Italy, or nine Augusts back when I went to Wales.....
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Date: 2010-04-21 12:15 pm (UTC)From: