Oct 21, 2006 01:44 AM
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Date of Travel: 07-October-2006, Flight No: BD781,Flight Details: London to Mumbai
My parents Mr. Raghunath Patil (73 years) and Mrs. Charusheela Patil (68 years) were travelling under stated booking reference.
A week before the date of travel, we checked BMI website and found that all the BMI flights to Mumbai were suspended.
I contacted BMI on October 02, 2006 and was told that my parent’s tickets would be transferred to Jet airways flight due at 9:30 a.m. on the same date. The flight was schedule to leave Heathrow at 9:30 a.m. which meant that my parents had to start 4:30 a.m. from our house in Kent for which we had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. in morning. Though it was not a convenient offer but we were forced to accept it. BMI should understand that at time of booking air travel, the choice depends upon the date and time of flight.
The BMI customer representative (BMI CR) suggested that I should call a day before the date of travel to confirm my parent’s flight tickets.
I contacted BMI on October 06, 2006.BMI CR confirmed my parent’s tickets for Jet airways flight 9W119 leaving Heathrow at 9:30 a.m. We were told to contact BMI ticketing desk on Terminal 1 to get our tickets endorsed and then we need to move on to Terminal 3 for Jet Airways check-in. BMI CRalso assured us that my parents do not have to worry about walk between terminals as there was a operational shuttle service.
We reached BMI ticketing desk around 6:20 a.m. Mr. David endorsed our tickets. We enquired about the shuttle service. Mr. David said that there was no such shuttle service and he did not comment on the guidance given by BMI CR regarding shuttle service. So we (my parents, wife, 2 month old baby and I) had to walk down to Terminal 3 along with the luggage.
At Terminal 3, my parents had to stand in Jet Airway check-in queue for 45 minutes before reaching the counter. On reaching the counter, we received the shock; my parent’s names were missing from the passenger list. It was at this point that we were directed to BMI staff Mr. Francis Barbier. Mr. Francis expressed his helplessness and asked my parents to go back to BMI ticketing desk. So, there it was my parents, wife, 2 month old baby & me walking back to Terminal 1.
On reaching Terminal 1, Mr. David told me that my parents have been booked on the flight and he provided me with facsimile message (enclosure no. 1) which he claimed had been sent to Jet Airways. He also provided me with letter address to Mr. Francis (enclosure no. 2). My parents, myself and my family had to rush back again to Terminal 3 to catch the flight.
At Terminal 3, we met Ms. Giselle of BMI at Jet Airways check-in counter. I showed her the copy of the fax and letter from Mr. David to her. On talking to Jet Airways, it was concluded that no such fax was received by Jet Airways. Jet Airways had allocated seats in consultations with Mr. Francis. Ms. Giselle requested that we handover the copy of facsimile message to her which I refused.
At this point, Mr Francis arrived stating that there were seats available on Air-India and that he would try to place my parents on that flight. I told Mr. Francis that my parents were old and too exhausted to walk down to Air-India ticketing desk. Mr. Francis said that if my parents want to travel, they have to walk. This is quiet rude. So my parents were dragged on with their luggage with me keeping close rank with Mr. Francis. Mr. Francis told us that it was Mumbai bound flight with stopover at Delhi. I protested since we had chosen BMI over Air-India while booking since it was direct flight and now we were forced to fly with flight with stop-over. A flight with stop-over would mean longer journey time and more exhausting travel. Finally, my parents got their tickets endorsed for Air-India flight. At this point, Mr. Francis suggested that since my problems were resolved, I should handover the copy of facsimile message to him which I refused.
Earlier when we arrived at Heathrow, we had parked our car at Terminal 1. This was because we were required to approach BMI ticketing office for ticket endorsement. So after my parent’s check-in, my wife, 2 month old baby and I had to walk back to terminal 1.
On arriving at Terminal 1, we approached Mr. David so as to enquire how our confirmed tickets were issued to others. At this instant, we found that Ms. Giselle instead of listening to our concerns laughed at us in mocking manner and walked away from the customer counter. Here, I would like to say that Mr. David although whatever mistakes he might have made in ticket confirmation was patient enough to hear us through. I would also like to commend another lady who listened to us attentively and offered us a customer comments card to seek feedback.
There are number of questions to which BMI is answerable to me
When BMI confirmed my parent’s tickets on October 06, 2006, what was confirmation about? It was based on this confirmation that we started from our house in Kent at 4:30 a.m. in morning. BMI endorsed our tickets on October 07, 2006 for Jet Airways flight 9W119, why were our confirmed tickets allocated to others? Why were customers being mislead about the shuttle service between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3? My parents and my family had to undergo following hassles because of BMI Suspension of BMI flights forced us to accept alternative Jet Airways flight which was schedule to fly at 9.30 a.m. In order to catch this flight we had to start at 4.30 from our house in Kent. It was because of errors on part of BMI, that my parents, wife, 2 month old baby and I had to run between terminals, various ticketing desks and check-in counters. This left us all physically and emotionally stressed, It was rude behaviour of BMI staff like Mr. Francis and Ms. Giselle that we had to suffer un-warranted stress.
