Dumped Tiger Pax rant goes viral

[markis10]

Duped Uni Student's Tiger Airways Rant Goes Viral - Pedestrian TV

From struggling student to social media crusader (but still a struggling student) in 12 short hours. Such was the journey for Tiger Airways doormat Nathaniel Martin, whose vitriolic response to being shunted from a Hobart to Melbourne flight attracted over 50000 likes over night.

 

[lovestotravel]

I just don't know where to start, there is no point pulling apart the article, some people just don't understand life

 

[docjames]

In the comments section the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/TigerAirwaysAustralia/posts/508594385865862

 

[jetlagger]

Think there is an acronym for Tiger Airways somewhere... :shock:

 

[samh004]

Nice to see his situation was resolved, but only because of Social Media... they're still very poor in customer service. Wonder if VA will change any of that if they are allowed a stake...

 

[harvyk]

I just don't know where to start, there is no point pulling apart the article, some people just don't understand life

Whats there to not understand? It's not like he wanted first class service, it appears his anger is towards TT because they oversold the flight and left him with little recourse at the airport and as a result he has had to spend big $$$ to buy last minute fares. He had pre-purchase the airfare a month in advance, and short of anything going wrong and the flight being delayed I think he was well within his rights to believe that he would be on the flight he had paid for.

I also tend to agree with Mr Martin, overselling a flight is tantamount to fraud. In just about any other industry, selling something which you have no ability to fore-fill (in this case a qty of seats on a flight beyond what you are able to provide) would at a minimum have the ACCC asking questions and it would most likely have the company taken to court, and yet with the airline business it's just considered part and parcel. If airlines want to oversell flights, fine, but they must also be required to re-book the person onto another flight, even if it means re-booking with a competitor, at the airlines expense, in a similar class to what has been book on the original carrier. The way TT simply throw their hands into the air and leave pax stranded should not be allowed.

 

[docjames]

I also tend to agree with Mr Martin, overselling a flight is tantamount to fraud. In just about any other industry, selling something which you have no ability to fore-fill (in this case a qty of seats on a flight beyond what you are able to provide) would at a minimum have the ACCC asking questions and it would most likely have the company taken to court, and yet with the airline business it's just considered part and parcel. If airlines want to oversell flights, fine, but they must also be required to re-book the person onto another flight, even if it means re-booking with a competitor, at the airlines expense, in a similar class to what has been book on the original carrier. The way TT simply throw their hands into the air and leave pax stranded should not be allowed.

The problem with this being when the competitors are also sold out.....

 

[samh004]

<redacted deleted content>

The problem with this being when the competitors are also sold out.....

That's where appropriate compensation in terms of cash, accommodation, F+B and the next available flight comes into being...

 

[harvyk]

The problem with this being when the competitors are also sold out.....

Yes but in this instance the competitors where not sold out as he was able to nab a JQ seat.

 

[lovestotravel]

Whats there to not understand?

Everything about his little rant is pathetic

Complaining about the price of luggage, which is clearly listed on the website (last time I checked)
Uni student living on $9000 per year - I don't care if someone earns 100K or 9k pa they deserve the same treatment
Ranting about overbooking - Airlines/hotels/car rental agencies overbook - That's life
Mentioning an AFP member - Relevance to the story at hand ?
The FA (from another airline)/AFP member mentioning how another business should be run, in terms of who should have been denied boarded ? I forgot that everyone is an expert in how another business is run/managed. Why was an AFP member "helping his family"


Oh and since he has his refund it seems all is forgiven.

I guess he has forgotten to chase up this bit

"and an assurance that you will never deliberately oversell a flight again"

The way TT simply throw their hands into the air and leave pax stranded should not be allowed.

It's a LCC - If you want full service fly with QF/VA and then expect to be looked after

 

[turtlemichael]

Everything about his little rant is pathetic

Complaining about the price of luggage, which is clearly listed on the website (last time I checked)
Uni student living on $9000 per year - I don't care if someone earns 100K or 9k pa they deserve the same treatment
Ranting about overbooking - Airlines/hotels/car rental agencies overbook - That's life
Mentioning an AFP member - Relevance to the story at hand ?
The FA (from another airline)/AFP member mentioning how another business should be run, in terms of who should have been denied boarded ? I forgot that everyone is an expert in how another business is run/managed. Why was an AFP member "helping his family"


Oh and since he has his refund it seems all is forgiven.

I guess he has forgotten to chase up this bit

"and an assurance that you will never deliberately oversell a flight again"








It's a LCC - If you want full service fly with QF/VA and then expect to be looked after

As a passenger dumped by an airline in circumstances where he has done nothing wrong he has every right to use every argument he can even if they do not stand up to forensic examination by someone who didn't suffer his frustration. Good luck to him and he eventually got what was reasonable in all the circumstances.

 

[oz_mark]

It's a LCC - If you want full service fly with QF/VA and then expect to be looked after

I think it is quite reasonable that if you have purchased a ticket, to expect that they will transport you.They took money for the excess baggage, they checked him in, then they bumped him. Pretty terrible and the excuse that it is an LCC doesn't wash. I don't buy the excuse that LCCs can ride roughshod over basic consumer rights.

 

[lovestotravel]

As a passenger dumped by an airline in circumstances where he has done nothing wrong he has every right to use every argument he can even if they do not stand up to forensic examination by someone who didn't suffer his frustration. Good luck to him and he eventually got what was reasonable in all the circumstances.

If he had of stuck to the facts of the story and didn't bring rubbish into it, I may have cared slightly more

I think it is quite reasonable that if you have purchased a ticket, to expect that they will transport you.They took money for the excess baggage, they checked him in, then they bumped him. Pretty terrible and the excuse that it is an LCC doesn't wash. I don't buy the excuse that LCCs can ride roughshod over basic consumer rights.

What basic consumer right/s ? Not sure that there are any consumer laws/rights that specify that if an airline can't fly you on the date/time they have to pay for meals/accommodation/expenses etc.

Assuming the flight is overbooked and he was "stuck" in Hobart, he mentioned his family was there, from his rant he was also travelling with $0 of spare cash or access to cash which is far from a smart way to travel.

Added to that it seems his family was in Hobart anyways so he wouldn't have been "stuck"

I don't agree with overbooking, however it's a fact of life in many companies. However expecting a LCC to do more than "sorry" is just expecting way too much.

 

[oz_mark]

What basic consumer right/s ? Not sure that there are any consumer laws/rights that specify that if an airline can't fly you on the date/time they have to pay for meals/accommodation/expenses etc.

He's been checked in for that flight. They have taken money from him for luggage on that flight. It is reasonable to expect he will travel on that flight.

 

[harvyk]

Everything about his little rant is pathetic
<snip>
It's a LCC - If you want full service fly with QF/VA and then expect to be looked after

It's a rant, it's not meant to be all about good English, they are often highly emotive, it does not reduce the message which is being given.

As for "It's an LCC", so what? Since it's an LCC I can expect that I won't receive the free feed / check bags / in flight movies, like was standard until recently. It should not mean that I will fly from A to B only if the airline feels like taking me. There should be a general expectation that unless something completely outside of the airlines control comes up you will be flying on the flight which you paid for, and by outside of the airlines control I am talking weather / aircraft safety issues / an unexpected number of crew taken ill etc, and even then I would expect the airline to do what it can to get me from A to B within a reasonable time frame. Sure don't provide me with anything more than a seat if you're an LCC, but do provide me that seat which I have paid for.

 

[turtlemichael]

If he had of stuck to the facts of the story and didn't bring rubbish into it, I may have cared slightly more

You are fully entitled to care or not care as am I. It remains irrelevant. I'm just glad he got a just outcome and may have set a small precedent for, or change of attitude to, others in the same predicament

 

[lovestotravel]

He's been checked in for that flight. They have taken money from him for luggage on that flight. It is reasonable to expect he will travel on that flight.

Of course it is, and it's not idea that he received his boarding pass and was then denied boarding, but it happens. Yes it's reasonable for him to travel on that flight but it's not always going to happen.

But again it is Tiger and he booked it likely as it was the cheapest fare, so expecting the best service is not going to happen.

 

[lovestotravel]

You are fully entitled to care or not care as am I. It remains irrelevant. I'm just glad he got a just outcome and may have set a small precedent for, or change of attitude to, others in the same predicament

Can you point me to where the overbooking policy of Tiger has been changed because of this ?

As for "It's an LCC", so what?

You get what you pay for and that includes customer service.

We don't have regulations in Australia in term of overbooking. If this had of happened in the UK he would have received 250 GBP which still wouldn't have allowed him to fly home.

It is fair ? No, but Tiger is not going to go out of their way to look after you when somethings goes wrong and that has been documented many times!

 

[harvyk]

You get what you pay for and that includes customer service.

Disagree, personally I think that not stranding someone at an airport away from home is not customer service but an integral part of the contract of sale. Sure on the flight itself, they run out of cans of coke, or the call center has long waits, or even check in closes very early in comparison, those are genuine cost savings which the airline can and in TT's case has implemented.

But failing to get the pax from A to B forms an integral part of what the pax has paid for, furthermore I believe that airlines should not be allowed to simply wash their hands of the pax. There are certain industries which there is gov't mandated minimum service level's, and I think with this new breed of airlines popping up which have no problems stranding pax in far away ports do need to be told "this is the minimum which you can sink to".

 

[777]

Everything about his little rant is pathetic

I'm so pleased to hear you taking a stance against gratuitous whinging.