25 Years of Marriage - 43 Hours of Hell

Happy 25th Anniversary Andee and Sherrie Rubi. Ahhh...25 years ago...what a different time. Gas was $1.38 a gallon, the average cost of a new home was $83,000, and the Rubis were married.

Flash ahead: 2006. The Rubis go to the Fiji Islands on Air Pacific Airlines and somehow get rerouted to a flight on the return trip from hell. (Yes, many of us have been on that flight. Many airlines excel at them.) Oh, and like SO MANY airline "customers," the airline that was more-than-happy-to-take-their-money to get them there, seems to have suddenly lost interest in professionally handling their return – or even returning their correspondence.

Their entire letter to Air Pacific Airlines, a nice outline for Stephen King's next novel, is too long to include here, but you can find it the first "Comment" under this posting here and under the category I'm sorry. Did I Inconvenience You by Flying on Your Airline? Mrs. Rubi's e-mail to me opens with: "This is a copy of the letter I sent to Air Pacific through my travel agent. It has been one month and the letter has now gone out again to other parties, higher up I hope, with no response from the airline. Any Suggestions???"

She also adds that her unresponded-to correspondence (funny how correspondence is SUPPOSED to go BOTH WAYS) has been sent to Louise Waqanisanini [email protected]. She then forwarded it to: [email protected] and Mr. Richard Yamashita, LAX Airport Manager [email protected] and Matilda Cakobau [email protected].

If anyone knows any of these people, please tell them Sherri and Andee Rubi would like to say hello. If Mrs. Rubi has any of the addresses wrong, please Comment at the end of this entry and provide her with the information.

We at Aircomplane.com™ also realize that there may be two sides to every story. Perhaps you at Air Pacific Airlines may feel that the Rubis are not entitled to any consideration for what they went through? That’s why this is a blog (read: interactive) and not just a website.

Many airline passengers are just fed up with not hearing back from the airlines AT ALL when they have what they feel is a legitimate issue. Feel free to drop us a note or “Comment” on this blog entry. The Rubis would love to hear from you one way or the other.

 

Thanks,
Your Friendly Aircomplane.com™ "Spite Crew"

Comments

[Your Aircomplane.com Spite Attendant]

This is a copy of the letter I sent to Air Pacific through my travel agent. It has been one month and the letter has now gone out again to other parties, higher up I hope, with no response from the airline. Any Suggestions???

Mr. & Mrs. Andee Rubi

November 1, 2006

Air Pacific Customer Service
“Louise Waqanisanini [email protected] she then forwarded it to: [email protected] and Mr. Richard Yamashita, LAX Airport Manager [email protected] and Matilda Cakobau [email protected]”

Dear Sir or Madam:

On the occasion of our 25th wedding anniversary, we chose to celebrate by planning a trip through All Horizons Travel, Inc. and Brendan to the Fiji Islands. Other than minor glitches along the trip, every thing went smoothly until we began our journey home. We checked out of our hotel at 11:00am on October 29, 2006. Our transport picked us up at 6:00pm for a trip to the Nadi airport. We arrived at 7:30pm for a scheduled flight at 10:50pm. This is where the trouble begins.

At approximately 10:15pm there was an overhead announcement that our flight was suspended. This created quite a stir amongst the passengers and people with cell phones began to call the desk. We were told that a representative would be up in 15 minutes to explain the situation. We sat down at the café and had a bite to eat and the flight showed up on the board at 8:00am and then suspended and then at 10:50pm and then at 3:30am and then suspended again. We waited until 11:45pm and went downstairs to the Tour Managers Lounge and made ourselves comfortable along with several other folks, all the while trying not to sleep for fear of missing an announcement. At about 4:00am, a couple came in the lounge and told us what had been going on upstairs. There were no overhead announcements to the passengers, a few representatives went to the boarding area and began selectively asking people in a whisper if they were on the flight to Los Angeles, if they were awake, and told of the mechanical difficulties and the availability of a hotel room for a few hours and that the flight would be taking off at 5:00am. Still, no overhead announcement was made until 4:15am. There were passengers sleeping, resting and even shopping in other areas of the airport that were not made aware of the option for a few hours of peaceful rest. I don’t know if this was a financial or discriminatory action. We feel this was extremely unjust.

I called home twice to explain the situation and have a bill for over $100 for the phone calls. With no boarding calls, and only the single announcement made, passengers began queuing up for the flight. Presumably all have boarded and just before takeoff, Andee is asked for his boarding pass and passport with no explanation. No one else is asked and then the flight takes off. We are left to wonder why??? The flight is only half full with lots of empty seats, but when we notice our entertainment system is malfunctioning, we are told, we will try to fix it, but people are sleeping and you must stay in these seats. We now get to endure 9 hours of snoring and children crying with no headphones or entertainment to block this out.

We arrive in Los Angeles, go through customs and are told a representative would meet us by the luggage carousel, if we had missed our connecting flight. After waiting for a few minutes, we ask a customs agent, who tells us Air Pacific representatives are on the other side of the gate. We wait in line and they tell us we need a voucher for another flight. We are then told to get in another line to get this voucher. The clerk named Eileen then told the people behind us to get in front of us and when we questioned her about this, she threatened to call the police and have us arrested. We finally get our voucher at approximately 8:45pm and are told to walk over to the United terminal to get tickets for a 10:30pm flight. We are also told the United terminal is the next terminal over. The United terminal is located at the opposite end of the airport. After walking 20 minutes across the airport, we get in another line to present our vouchers for the upcoming flight. We did not get to the front of the line until 10:15pm, since most Air Pacific passengers were sent on this same journey across the airport. Needless to say, we are then extremely angry and disappointed at not being able to get home on this day. We also feel that with someone on the staff should have realized that there was no way we were going to get on that flight in that short period of time and offered us accommodations on the spot. Instead we are threatened with police, forced to walk across the airport in search of a flight, while others are being given morning flights, with meals and accommodations and to top it off we call the customer service number they give us and it is a baggage handler who is not even at the airport and can not help us or give us a number to the Air Pacific counter. We then get our flight booked at 6:00am on Monday October 30th and now have to walk back across the airport to see if anyone is at the Air Pacific counter who can help us with a hotel room for a few hours so we can get some rest. When we approach the counter we are told it is closed. We explain our situation and ask for someone who can help us with our situation. Eileen then comes out and says,” I can help you with a voucher for a room”, and then proceeds to once again go across the counter and help someone out first. At this point, after being threatened by her once already, we do not say anything and just wait. We finally get a voucher and get a room at 11:30pm and must be back at LAX at 4:00am. We call home again and then hear the stories our family was told. The first story was the plane was on time and would probably arrive 15 minutes early. The next time they call they are told we will arrive at 7:00pm and will be whisked through customs for a 7:35pm flight to SFO. The final insult comes when we are charged by United for $100.00 for excess weight on our luggage. We finally touchdown at SFO at 7:30am on Monday, 39 and one half hours after we checked out of our hotel, 43 hours after we awoke with only 3 hours sleep $225.00 lighter from this trip home and a very bitter feeling towards Air Pacific. It is a shame to have these people representing your company and calling it your national airline. They do a great disservice to the very warm and hospitable people of Fiji.

Thank You,

Mr. & Mrs. Andee Rubi

[Michael Peahl]

It sounds like there were some problems with the flight. But it really doesn't sound that different than many other international flights from smaller airports on off name airlines. Surely you knew going into this trip that international travel often involves glitches.

So the airline found the people who were awake to offer a limited number of hotel rooms to, your headset didn't work (there's a shock on a retired Qantas aircraft), and you took the long way from the TBIT terminal to the United terminal? Did I miss something?

Here's my guess: you were treated badly because you were the stereotypical arrogant air ragers.

As far as being helped last--we can only guess why that would happen.

I've never seen anyone threaten to call airport security without a valid reason.

You should feel lucky that Air Pacific didn't also charge you for the excess weight in your bags--$100 means a whole lot of overage on a domestic flight, it might have been even more on an international one.

Finally, I don't understand how you got a flight voucher at 8:45, took a 20 minute walk across the airport, and still missed your 10:30 flight. An 1:45 minute wait in line? That's a United problem, not Air Pacific's. They gave you nearly 2 hours to connect.

I'm not saying that airlines do no wrong--believe me, they do, but one reason we all have a more difficult time flying these days is because of passengers like you who don't understand the process and react angrily because of it.

The reason you haven't heard back is that the airline has already done everything for you that they're required to do: they got you where you were going, and they put you up when you couldn't complete your journey. What exactly are you hoping for? An apology that they didn't try to fly a broken plane? An apology that there aren't enough hotel rooms around the Nadi airport to put everyone up? An apology that some other airline couldn't process you faster?

[Kitty Lansing]

You know that old saying about enjoying the journey on the way to your destination? Even if the destination is home, you need to remember this.

Yeah, you were travelling for 43 hours. Newsflash: You went to Fiji, not Florida. You were on the other side of the freaking planet. These things take time. Mechanical problems happen. Delays occur.

If you wandered away from the gate for your flight then you should not expect to get the latest information. No airport in the world makes overhead announcements that they have hotel rooms available. If you aren't by the gate, the airline staff is going to assume that you are occupying yourself. They aren't going to search you out or wake sleeping travellers.

The Walkman was invented in 1982. I suggest you buy one. If you were not prepared enough to bring your own music and headphones on a 9 hour flight then you deserve to sit there listening to crying children.

I've never missed a connecting flight that was still on the ground while I was in the airport. If you are not familliar with an airport, ask for help, for Pete's sake! Get directions. Ask more than one person if necessary. Let someone from the airline know that you are on the way to your next gate.

It also sounds like you have an aversion to standing in a line. If people get ahead of you in line it is because you are not doing it right. Americans LOVE lines. They are the ultimate form of Democracy. Everyone gets a turn--stand there and wait patiently for yours!

As for the overweight bag fees, I can't believe that this was a surprise. If you are having trouble heaving your supersize bag onto the conveyor belt, it is too heavy.

Get a clue people! If you aren't prepared for a few bumps along the way, skip the trip and stay at home. You give travelling Americans a bad rep.

[Nike Shox Rivalry]

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