Problem
A woman fell or jumped overboard from a cruise ship off Croatia in August 2018. She was miraculously rescued ten hours later. Ten hours in the water! On Facebook a friend reported that somebody was claiming compensation for two days delay in Venice. The comment was, Lucky or not.
Lucky for the woman being picked up from the water. However, as for the delay, at first sight it could be good news for some.
What could go wrogn, go wrong, go wrong?
I wrote:
Lucky to sit in the sun. Lucky to postpone going home. Not so lucky if you have to sit all day in the hall waiting for the call, because the coach to a ferry or plane or muster point might collect you any time they arrange it.
I remember one year when we were on a flight from the USA at Xmas. We were on an American airline leaving American soil, so we knew our rights for compensation, or at least our fellow passengers did. On a flgight into the USA, or on another airline from outside the USA, the rules might be different. Check the latest.
The flight was overbooked and the airline staff made repeated requests for volunteers to be bumped. The compensation was a free flight. Plus, of course, a free night in an airport or city suburb or city centre hotel, but we were in transit, in a cold city, where good restaurants were all fully booked, and would miss a day of our short Xmas break in the Caribbean by the beach.
As the compensation increased, still not enough volunteers. As our hours of delay increased, I asked the people next to me why they had not rushed to volunteer. You'd think there would be a Ruby scrum of people fighting to get the free return ticket.
I heard these stories:
1 'I can't extend my long weekend break and take time off next week. I'm a surgeon and have operations booked. I would lose a lot of money, lose my reputation for reliability, and endanger seriously sick people.'
2 'I don't want to lose a day of my holiday. I can't take another day off. I am a teacher. I have to be back in school teaching my class. I can't abandon 30 children and upset them and their parents and the head teacher organizing a supply teacher, which costs the school more money.' (Again, she had to consider her own reputation for reliability, not to take a free holiday at the expense of being responsible to the pupils, parents, and staff.)
3 I am seeing my fiancee for a long weekend. We haven't seen each other for months. We had a special celebratory dinner planned for tomorrow. We'd miss the dinner and we wouldn't get our money back for the missed dinner.
4 What makes you think they will get you on tomorrow's flight? It will be overbooked like this one - with all the extra passengers bumped off today's flight as well?
We ended up getting a free flight.
On another occasion we were unavoidably delayed coming back from a beach resort to our home city. It sounded great. Unfortunately, I was dressed for the destination, Cold London, England, at Christmas. So I was plodding around a tropical hotel in boots and long socks, warm clothes and a coat.
The swimming pool looked lovely.
However, I had no swimsuit.
We had spent all our cash at the airport. At the hotel, for small items we could not pay with a credit card.
From then on we always made sure to carry onto planes: spare underwear, a swimsuit, and a book to read. I don't spend every last cent. I keep it for the next journey.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Please share links to your favourite posts.)
A woman fell or jumped overboard from a cruise ship off Croatia in August 2018. She was miraculously rescued ten hours later. Ten hours in the water! On Facebook a friend reported that somebody was claiming compensation for two days delay in Venice. The comment was, Lucky or not.
Lucky for the woman being picked up from the water. However, as for the delay, at first sight it could be good news for some.
What could go wrogn, go wrong, go wrong?
I wrote:
Lucky to sit in the sun. Lucky to postpone going home. Not so lucky if you have to sit all day in the hall waiting for the call, because the coach to a ferry or plane or muster point might collect you any time they arrange it.
I remember one year when we were on a flight from the USA at Xmas. We were on an American airline leaving American soil, so we knew our rights for compensation, or at least our fellow passengers did. On a flgight into the USA, or on another airline from outside the USA, the rules might be different. Check the latest.
The flight was overbooked and the airline staff made repeated requests for volunteers to be bumped. The compensation was a free flight. Plus, of course, a free night in an airport or city suburb or city centre hotel, but we were in transit, in a cold city, where good restaurants were all fully booked, and would miss a day of our short Xmas break in the Caribbean by the beach.
As the compensation increased, still not enough volunteers. As our hours of delay increased, I asked the people next to me why they had not rushed to volunteer. You'd think there would be a Ruby scrum of people fighting to get the free return ticket.
I heard these stories:
1 'I can't extend my long weekend break and take time off next week. I'm a surgeon and have operations booked. I would lose a lot of money, lose my reputation for reliability, and endanger seriously sick people.'
2 'I don't want to lose a day of my holiday. I can't take another day off. I am a teacher. I have to be back in school teaching my class. I can't abandon 30 children and upset them and their parents and the head teacher organizing a supply teacher, which costs the school more money.' (Again, she had to consider her own reputation for reliability, not to take a free holiday at the expense of being responsible to the pupils, parents, and staff.)
3 I am seeing my fiancee for a long weekend. We haven't seen each other for months. We had a special celebratory dinner planned for tomorrow. We'd miss the dinner and we wouldn't get our money back for the missed dinner.
4 What makes you think they will get you on tomorrow's flight? It will be overbooked like this one - with all the extra passengers bumped off today's flight as well?
We ended up getting a free flight.
On another occasion we were unavoidably delayed coming back from a beach resort to our home city. It sounded great. Unfortunately, I was dressed for the destination, Cold London, England, at Christmas. So I was plodding around a tropical hotel in boots and long socks, warm clothes and a coat.
The swimming pool looked lovely.
However, I had no swimsuit.
We had spent all our cash at the airport. At the hotel, for small items we could not pay with a credit card.
From then on we always made sure to carry onto planes: spare underwear, a swimsuit, and a book to read. I don't spend every last cent. I keep it for the next journey.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Please share links to your favourite posts.)
No comments:
Post a Comment