Imagine traveling and being separated from your accompanying party.
While it might not be a big deal for someone airline actually booked a 13-month-old baby on a separate flight from her parents causing complete chaos.
And just wait until you hear what the parents had to do to fly home with their own baby.
The flying nightmare started when parents Stephanie and Andrew Braham were traveling through Europe with their baby trying to get home to Australia.
Qantas had canceled and rescheduled their flight…
… except they had their 13-month baby flying solo on a different flight.
But instead of Qantas simply admitting they messed up and fixing their error – Stephanie and Andrew were forced to spend almost 21 hours on the phone – calling 55 separate times to talk to someone at customer service would help them.
The exasperated couple shares the horrific ordeal they went through – just to get home
Business Insider reported:
“The pair were on the phone to the airline all night trying to rebook their flight home. They said customer service was a nightmare to get through to because the phone line would cut off and they would have to call again and explain the whole situation repeatedly.
Overall, the couple told Insider they phoned Qantas 55 times and collectively spent 20 hours, 47 minutes, and 13 seconds speaking to customer-service representatives.”
Can you even imagine!
All this couple wanted to do was fly home with their baby – and it took calling in 55 times and over 20 hours to talk to someone competent who could help them.
But it gets even worse.
While Qantas agreed to book them on the “next available flight” …
… that flight ended up being 12 days after they were originally scheduled to fly home.
The couple claims to extend their vacation by an extra 12 days cost them approximately $15,000 with food, accommodations, travel, and time lost from work.
After the story went viral, Qantas was finally forced to apologize and admit their error.
Business Insider continued:
“Qantas said in a statement to Insider that they “sincerely apologize” to the family, saying it was a “backend administrative error” and that the airline would reimburse them for accommodation.”
Give me a break!
A “backend administrative error” is not booking a baby on a flight separate from her parents and then refusing to immediately fix it forcing the family to spend nearly an entire day on the phone – having to explain the same story 55 times (literally)…
… and then still not flying them out for 12 days.
That’s massive incompetence, not an “administrative error”.
We’ve all had stressful travel experiences – but this one is pretty high up there.
Thankfully the family got home safely and were all able to fly together – but not because of Qantas.
It was only because of Andrew and Stephanie’s persistence that got the problem was fixed – and allowed them to fly home – WITH their own baby on the same flight.
Sounds like Qantas needs to train its employees better.
What would you do if your child was booked on a separate flight from you?
Do you agree Qantas should reimburse the family for everything they spent out of pocket?
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