Tiger airways just earned themselves a black mark
Right now I should be sitting on a plane, gearing myself up for a weekend away in Melbourne. Instead, I’m sitting at home cursing the name of Tiger Airways.
Today they cancelled my flight to Melbourne for my long weekend away.
Bastards.
I don’t know the reasons why it got cancelled, but it appeared that the issue goes beyond people flying out of the Sunshine Coast. Reports from twitter say that people flying back into the Sunshine Coast having problems as well, getting diverted to Brisbane instead. It certainly can’t be the weather since it’s an absolutely stunning day on the Sunshine Coast. So for reasons unknown, I received a call this morning to inform me that my flight had been cancelled. Maybe everyone else knew that Tiger was terrible, thus I would have been the only one on the plane. It wouldn’t surprise me. Ahem. Anyway, I hadn’t heard my phone ring so it went to voicemail instead. It was only when I was talking to my friend later that he looked at the website and noticed there was a big “Cancelled” sign attached to it. Uh oh.
Half an hour of hold music later, a customer service rep finally answered the phone. At the same time I tried to turn the phone off speaker, and instead accidentally hung up on them. FUCK!
Another twenty minutes of hold music later I finally got through again, except this time I got someone that barely spoke a bar of english and was incredibly difficult to understand. When you’re already in a grumpy mood that’s not something that you want to deal with. I took a deep breath though, and explained that I had been advised my flight had been cancelled, and what options did I have. Another 20mins later and a refund was on its way.
After hunting around online to see what other flights there were to Melbourne, it appeared I could either drive to Brisbane and get on a plane that would get me into Melbourne at midnight, or just take another flight from the Sunshine Coast with rival carrier Jetstar. The second option is meant to leave at 7pm, which will get me into Melbourne at a much more reasonable 9.30pm. Thankfully the only problem I’ve ever had with Jetstar before is a delayed flight, so at least I can remain confident that I will be getting to Melbourne today at some point in time. Currently Virgin Blue remain my favourite domestic carrier; I’m yet to have a single issue.
On the plus side it means I get to revise my rushed packing from this morning, and I’ll be able to wash my car and straighten my hair. But still…DAMMIT. I’m missing out on an ice hockey game in Melbourne tonight, all thanks to Tiger Airways. This was going to be my first time flying with them, and in my eyes it’s certainly left quite the stain on their brand. I’m flying home with them still on Monday morning, so it had better be one helluva flight to get them back into my good graces.
I can’t say I’m expecting too much though.
