We all know things happen in any field of work and as a frequent traveler, I understand this, however, what happens after the mistake/problem is what sets a good company with respect to their clients from a bad/unprofessional company that seems to forget the reason they are operating.
Enter my worst travel experience of all times. April 29, 2017, I was traveling from Paris ORLY airport to Barcelona - El Prat, booked my first ticket with this airline (Vueling) on the day before, did my online check in several hours prior to my travel time. Went to the airport, through security, it was time to board, scanned my boarding pass via the smart phone, and the gate agent told me that the ticket was canceled, by who?, Vueling, why?, couldn't tell. She said I have to (NOPE, NO PLEASE SIR) go back to the vueling ticketing desk in other to find out why, mind you, that is on the other side of the security check, which means I have to go back through security, which means there is no way I can make my flight. Anyhow, I went anyway because I had no choice. At the desk, 35 minutes later, it was my turn to get help instead, I was treated like garbage. Long story short, the agent carelessly told me that they basically couldn't tell me why my ticket was cancelled, showed them my bank statement to proof that my payment went through, but that obviously didn't help. She referred me to call their customer service. I was so ticked at the time, confused, and not understanding why a customer service desk of such an big airline could not provide me the simplest explanation. So I asked for a manager, at first she was like they don't have one, but after a few back and forth, (of cause I was mad at the time), sure enough, the manager showed up from the back room. The manager was even far less professional that the employee, basically talked over me each time. An hour later, I was just done with them, so I decided to book another flight with another airline and deal with it later. Unfortunately, it was already late, they were the only airline with an available flight to barcelona that night. So I had no choice but book with them again.
Booked my second flight with them at 6pm, the departure (earliest flight available) was 11:30pm. Okay, no problem, I waited 5hours. Mind you, this time I checked in and got a hard boarding card from their own office, time to board, the same problem again. Only this time was even worst because I was being yelled at by the agent at the gate, passed around my passport, made me and everyone around think there was something wrong with it, like I was some kind of criminal, I felt like garbage. At the time, the airport is closed because it's a small airport. Went back to the vueling help desk, the agent basically walked out on me saying they are closed, tried calling customer service, they were close too. Needing to get to Barcelona to see a sick friend, I slept at the airport and finally traveled to my destination at 6am the next morning with a different airline with no problems took three tickets later, haha, I know, most of you will be like F this, am going home.
Again, like I said in my first paragraph, things happen. But check this out, both flights were cancelled by the airline atleast 5 hours prior to my flight time, NOT a single email from the airline telling me that my ticket was cancelled, instead, they let me wait all that time, just to get disgraced in front of everyone at the gate - all because something that's not even my fault and if you can put yourself in my shoes, you will understand how I felt. I know, some of you will be like, my situation was a rare one, that it was just an unfortunate situation and you are right, a bit. But imagine what a difference it would make if the airline had good empathetic staff, or atleast exercised their most basic customer service responsibilities by emailing me that my flight was cancelled?
IT IS JUNE 3RD, A WHOLE MONTH LATER, I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED MY REFUND FROM THIS AIRLINE. Also, I called their customer service 5 times, no one can still tell me what the reason was. As you can see along with other reviews here, this airline is the last you wanna travel with, period!, DO NOT make the same mistake, they are not worth your money! read more