CONCERN OVER HANDLING OF DELAYED PASSENGERS

My wife flew on Cathay Pacific’s CX251 flight from Hong Kong to London last December 8, and in midair smoke was detected in the cockpit. This, of course, caused great fear and panic among the passengers. Even the pilot made announcements in a shaky voice, she recalled. Fortunately, the pilot managed to land successfully in Wuhan, central China at 2am.

That’s where the nightmare continued; for nine hours, the weary passengers were airside with no proper meals or accommodation. After being ferried back to Hong Kong, they were again deprived of food and lodging and left to fend for themselves until they departed on another flight, almost one day later than scheduled.

Maintenance issues often happen, but how they are handled set good airlines apart from others. In this case, CX certainly performed poorly. I wrote an email to Marco Polo Club, which offered only 5,000 miles as a “goodwill gesture”.

In response to our request for compensation, CX wrote: “Regrettably we do not offer compensation in such instances, since the carrier will deliver the passenger to their final destination as ticketed in accordance with our Conditions of Carriage.”

But you must agree with me that the fear caused and the much delayed departure was a bit too much to forgive and forget. I see this as a case of arrogant customer service attitude, and I don’t think I’m wrong in thinking so.

CATHAY PACIFIC REPLIES:

Thank you for sharing with us the feedback from Mr Chen. We strive to offer quality services to all our passengers and we welcome feedback from them which helps us to continuously improve our services. We would like to take this opportunity to provide some more information on the situation.

Cathay Pacific flight CX251, which departed Hong Kong on December 8, 2012 en route to London, was diverted to Wuhan as a precautionary measure when the captain reported a smell of fumes in the cockpit. The plane landed uneventfully at 0207 on December 9. We offered all possible assistance to the affected passengers but hotel accommodation could not be arranged as the local authorities only allowed the passengers to stay in the restricted area of the airport.

We fully appreciate the frustration our passengers might have had, and did everything we could to assist them. We offered refreshments and blankets to the passengers and at the same time, our focus was to bring passengers to their destination as soon as possible. Alternative flight arrangements were

made for passengers to fly back to Hong Kong on another aircraft at 1135 on December 9. We also arranged an extra sector at 1600 on December 9 for the passengers to continue their journey to London. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and we appreciate our passengers’ kind understanding.

AIRPORT SHORTCOMINGS

For a first-time user of Haneda Airport (HND), I had good impressions, especially after I started observing its architecture, which compared with its outdated sister airport Tokyo Narita, is outstanding.

But nothing prepared me for the two frustrating experiences I encountered before boarding my flight SQ633 for Singapore at 0030.

Having arrived early for check-in, I anticipated a short queue time, given that it was 2200. But that wasn’t the case. It was then that I realised the huge load of night flights had created an immigration catastrophe. I spent about 80 minutes just queuing up to get my passport stamped.

The second inconvenience was finding out that none of the retail shops remained open after 2300. I was going to spend the next hour waiting for my flight and deprived of any opportunity to shop.

I guess many airports may have excellent hardware but lack good software to match. This has taught me a lesson – to make sure my next flight out of Tokyo is scheduled during the day.

HANEDA AIRPORT REPLIES:

Thank you for giving us your valuable opinion. First, we apologise for not having sufficient shops that stay open until midnight. We have passed on your complaint to the appropriate department in charge. We are scheduling the introduction of new facilities and stores – please expect the development of this terminal in the future.

Secondly, our check-in counters are used in common by all airlines in order to utilise the terminal effectively. This is why the airlines are required to open their check-in counters 2.5 hours before the flight. We have reported your complaint about the long waiting time for passport control to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau.

We apologise once again for your inconvenience, and hope that you will come to Japan again and have a great time here in our terminal.