Tiger Airways leaves students stranded in Darwin

[pauly7]

Another Tiger incident... you get what you pay for! Strange they weren't contacted though.... Love the QF response 'Um they don't exist!' haha

Tiger Airways leaves students stranded in Darwin

A GROUP of Canberra students were stranded in Darwin when they arrived to catch their Tiger Airways flight to Bangkok - only to be told the airline had not operated from the Top End since October.
Tiger Airways leaves students stranded in Darwin | Travel News | News.com.au

 

[NYCguy]

Caveat emptor.

 

[serfty]

A friend of a friend fronted up at MEL boxing day PM for a TT flight to OOL, only to find it had departed hours earlier than the times printed on his e-receipt. He declared he had no contact from anyone about this change. The sole TT rep there Friday afternoon offered to rebook for the next day or refund the money next year.

He purchased two QF tickets at at cost of over $350 pp and departed - intends to employ the services of VCAT to pursue TT for recovery of the additional costs.

 

[AlphaVictor]

Now if it were me, about 20 years younger and nothing to lose, and I get an email or phonecall from Tiger saying my circa $500 return flights to Asia were cancelled and my only choice for Christmas travel was to pay close to $2000 return on a mainstream carrier. I'd pretend I didn't get the notification, stamp my feet at the airport and hope someone would feel sorry for me, call the local press and make sure I was well stocked up on insurance. Sorta can't lose can they - or I'm just being mean and cynical?

Hands up who has ever turned up for a flight they knew was cancelled or heavily waitlisted and pleaded ignorance (perhaps even tears) and eventually got on to the same or similar flight? <hand up>

Bye 2008 / Howdy 2009

 

[docjames]

I love this quote:

"Thankfully we're not just out of school and a bit ditsy," Ms Govey said.

Uh, yes you are ditsy, you showed up for a flight that hasnt been in existance for months.

 

[pauly7]

A friend of a friend fronted up at MEL boxing day PM for a TT flight to OOL, only to find it had departed hours earlier than the times printed on his e-receipt. He declared he had no contact from anyone about this change. The sole TT rep there Friday afternoon offered to rebook for the next day or refund the money next year.

He purchased two QF tickets at at cost of over $350 pp and departed - intends to employ the services of VCAT to pursue TT for recovery of the additional costs.

Let us know the outcome, will be interesting to see if they take TT to task on it!

 

[JohnK]

I know it is quite easy to blame the travellers for not checking the status of the flight but surely the airline has to be the one responsible. Very disappointing.

To be honest I rarely check to see whether any of my flights have been cancelled if I have not received prior notification. I have always turned up to the airport and expected my flight to be operating but then I have never flown TT or JQ. Occasionally I will check Flightstats or the QF website to see if the flight is going to be delayed.

 

[straitman]

I know it is quite easy to blame the travellers for not checking the status of the flight but surely the airline has to be the one responsible. Very disappointing.

JohnK,

I agree entirely with you here.

As they say though. You get what you pay for and this type of thing for me is enough to avoid TT.

Any comment from the defender of TT, Sunstar320 :?:

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I know it is quite easy to blame the travellers for not checking the status of the flight but surely the airline has to be the one responsible. Very disappointing.

To be honest I rarely check to see whether any of my flights have been cancelled if I have not received prior notification. I have always turned up to the airport and expected my flight to be operating but then I have never flown TT or JQ. Occasionally I will check Flightstats or the QF website to see if the flight is going to be delayed.

I guess one also needs to know whether the student that made the booking left appropriate contact details...did not change their email addy (and with hotmail, yaho0 etc younger people often routinely swap email accounts..or an existing one with optus or whomever may have ceased when a phone account was stopped.)...or even delete messages without reading. The same goes for mobile phones. It is not unusual to see numbers change regularly as cheap mobile plans are chased....or the laest phone secured ona plan.

I mean TT pulled out of Darwin and I have not read about hordes of other TT passengers turning up to board flights. One presumes that many if not all had some contact with TT????

 

[Saab34]

Any comment from the defender of TT, Sunstar320 :?:

There is always a few people that always miss the boat. Bound to happen all the time.

Apart from that, TT/TR might not have the best of Call Centre's, but I would be greatfull there actually is one. I thought TT would have done a Skybus in the beggining and not even opt for a call centre...

I do have a feeling there is another side to this story, and I would like to see if their Contact Details are correct, as well as email. For all we know, the email could have gone into the "Junk" on Hotmail and after 10days they automatically delete it.

 

[markis10]

I am beginning to think Tigers existance is purely for the purpose of taking the heat off Jetstar/QF:

No full refund for Tiger flight swap - Breaking News - National - Breaking News

A Melbourne woman who was booked on a non-existent flight from Hobart, then was not told of her replacement flight until an hour after it departed, has been denied a full refund by Tiger Airways.

 

[pauly7]

I am beginning to think Tigers existance is purely for the purpose of taking the heat off Jetstar/QF:

No full refund for Tiger flight swap - Breaking News - National - Breaking News

A Melbourne woman who was booked on a non-existent flight from Hobart, then was not told of her replacement flight until an hour after it departed, has been denied a full refund by Tiger Airways.

I haven't tried Tiger and to honest it is becoming more and more unlikely I ever will now!

 

[JohnK]

I agree. Not likely I will ever use TT.

I can't understand how they get any customers? But then again even some dodgy retailers continue to have customers and remain in business....

 

[MelUser]

Interestingly I was picking 2 pax up from MEL airport [not the main part of MEL airport but a cheaper, shed like building adjacent to MEL airport] who were arriving on a Tiger Airways flight late last year. I could not find a system on the computer site to check whether the flight was on time or not.

When I rang the call centre, I found it difficult to get the call centre operator to understand my question - she just kept checking the timetable. I gave up.

In relation to the recent Tasmanian story, I don't think that the woman in question should have relied on that airline to get to work. Perhaps she would have been better off with this one:

..:: TTAIRLINES ::..

 

[comint]

[not the main part of MEL airport but a cheaper, shed like building adjacent to MEL airport]

You mean T4, Tiger’s low cost terminal. By utilizing an airconned “shed” they keep their overheads low! I don’t think Tiger sets out to be a High Cost Carrier.

I could not find a system on the computer site to check whether the flight was on time or not.

http://www.melbourneairport.com.au/fids/fidsResults.asp?SearchTerm=TT&SearchType=Domestic+Arrivals&whichSP=OnlineArr&x=10&y=12 (Not brilliant, but better than a timetable.)

 

[dajop]

Perhaps Tiger could solve this problem with a link to the booking on the email confirmation and a note that "PASSENGERS SHOULD CHECK FLIGHT ARRANGEMENTS ONE MONTH, ONE WEEK, 72 HOURS, 24 HOURS AND 12 HOURS PRIOR TO SCHEDULED DEPARTURE"

 

[canabear]

i had the misfortune of flying TT/TR melbourne to singapore via darwin last year with a social group who insisted that dollars mean't more than full service non stop flying (against my very loud protests)

Will never again entertain the thought. Call center is a joke. Delayed for several hours in Darwin. Staff don't care. It is very true that you get what you pay for. We didn't pay much (circa $650 return after paying for extra baggage) and we got even less.

If there is a next time i will be happy to meet them there and fly QF by myself for the extra $$$, what with lounges, food, entertainment etc

 

[straitman]

There is always a few people that always miss the boat. Bound to happen all the time.

Apart from that, TT/TR might not have the best of Call Centre's, but I would be greatfull there actually is one. I thought TT would have done a Skybus in the beggining and not even opt for a call centre...

I do have a feeling there is another side to this story, and I would like to see if their Contact Details are correct, as well as email. For all we know, the email could have gone into the "Junk" on Hotmail and after 10days they automatically delete it.

Sunstar320,

Maybe they need to try the JQ method of requiring a response to the email notification :!:

I'd have to say that booking on a LCC (eg TT) then using a Hotmail account is asking for things to go pear shaped. Trouble is that many, many people are not as savvy about the workings of airlines as most around here.

 

[comint]

Maybe they need to try the JQ method of requiring a response to the email notification.

They do. And (as of, December?) if you don’t respond, they try to contact you again via telephone closer to your departure date.

Reading between the lines, I’ll take a stab at what happened. The article notes the passenger’s phone was out of range (presumably for the few days before travel). As many of us know, there is often a delay after returning to a mobile coverage area, before missed messages are relayed. My guess; this phone service delay caused the passenger’s handset not to receive the notification until after the flight.

 

[kamchatsky]

I only flew TT once with my family members (6 of us), MEL-OOL on 1 Nov last year, we paid like $89 per person (at the same time DJ and JQ is 100s+) ...... "The shed" is a bit far from normal domestic terminal, as well as "simplistic". The plane actually left on time, and also arrived on time. The plane itself is quite clean and we had no problems with it.

I booked it online and have hotmail address but I do check the mailbox regularly and also check junk mail folder from time to time to ensure that they don't just cancelled on us.

I guess we are quite lucky that the plane wasn't cancelled at all. Otherwise my in-laws would not be impressed