Flight Cancelled - Africa can wait.

Flight cancellations are an inevitable part of travel. I’m grateful that airlines don’t just walk away and tell us to go jump in the lake. But, the airline really could have made this better.   

lines of confused fellow passengers

After the flight being delayed two hours, my colleague and I walked to the check-in desk to board the plane. The desk was untainted by any staff person or human presence from Lufthansa.  As though looking to heaven for answers, we looked up. (On the big giant flight departure board.) All it said was "Flight Cancelled.” Oh, so what do we do? We hit up the Air Canada Rouge staff next to Lufthansa. She tells us that other people are asking them, but they can’t find ANYBODY from Lufthansa. Perhaps they are all sitting around having sausages and beer after a long day, we do not know. I'm sure cancelling flights take a lot out of you. you'll need a hearty meal. 

We discover a long line of sad folks trapesing out of the area, we join the group, like unionists marching for better safety conditions. (without pitch forks). Mostly by following our noses and some, only some, direction from airport staff, we end up collecting our bags. After more nose following and listening to barely audible announcements, we find our way to a mass of passengers. Why would they not have an actual person or sign at the baggage area?   At no point has any person from Lufthansa appeared to tell us what is going on. 

After waiting for 30-40 minutes five woman arrive. One woman, who appears to be the leader, tries to talk to the crowd of a few hundred people in the echoeee hall.  Nobody can hear and the line is so long and she is so buried in the masses that many do not even know she is talking. She is from the company that has been outsourced to deal with such things.  It makes sense. They do this every day, I suppose. They often remind us that they do not work directly for Lufthansa. In reality, they are a cushion between the airline and us. Well played Lufthansa.

After 2.5 hours I get a number around my neck. Not sure what this means, there is little explanation but it must be good. I felt like I was being sent to camp mini-yahoo or something, but fine. It’s a system that works. Still no explanation of why the flight was cancelled. We hear rumours of weather. Rumours are always the best way for corporations to communicate their key messages.

Eventually, they shuttle us,  5-10 souls at a time to hotels. Another hour or more waiting to check in to a hotel.

In bed at 3:30 am. up at 7 am for breakfast. 

Cancellation (or consolation) breakfast.
 Also, there was eggs and sausage.
Had to be sausage, it is Lufthansa after all. Nice. 

Flights will be cancelled. Weather happens. The surprise for me was that the airline staff evaporated like a drop of dry water on the sidewalk on a hot summer day. We figured it was lightning, but nobody told us. And nobody ever said, "Gee we are sorry this has happened, here is why and here is what we are going to do." People commented that they felt like cattle, shunted off not knowing where they are going.  It is shocking that an airline of this size treats paying folks like this.

In the morning, a nice lady from the company camped at the hotel desk to answer questions. But many people, exiting their rooms at various times asked the same questions. When is the flight leaving what time is there a bus etc?

I helped Lufthansa with my graphic arts skills.
The bill for PR consultation is in the mail. 

As something of a disaster guy, (both helping and creating!)  I took it upon myself to make a sign and post it. Nice huh?  I am the real hero. Shucks, it’s nothing.  I heard her say the same thing to people over and over.. “check out, bus leaves at 12:30 etc.” It’s a bit surprising that they do this every day??  A whiteboard would have gone a long way and saved her answering the same questions. 

Nice lady, answering questions to about 100 or more passengers. 

She seems a genuinely nice person who was not helped much by whomever got her into this. She has a tough job but..holy smoke.

In the morning, they had organized buses for us. however, the bus held 38 people and there were about 100. There were not enough buses, oops.  Perhaps an abacus would help. Mostly we managed by asking each other "what was said and what did you hear." Finally, I got on the last bus. hey, I'm a patient guy. If nobody is shooting or chopping off limbs, I'm relatively happy.

We drove from the Don Mills hotel to terminal 1. My colleague discovered that we would now fly KLM to Amsterdam, then to Johannesburg, That means going to terminal 3. As we glided into terminal 1, the bus broke down. It seemed a perfect end to the day. A nice bookend. I quietly got off and made my way to the inter-terminal train. Upon arrival at the KLM gate, we discovered our flight was delayed two hours. An even more perfect end. At some point, you look forward to these minor (and they are minor) inconveniences.

As far as Lufthansa goes, I am grateful for a hotel and they tried. But in PR there is something called the sympathy or empathy statement.

“We are very sorry this has happened; I know it is frustrating, but for your own safety we had to cancel the flight, but still we know it is frustrating, and we are sorry for this. Here is how we will help you in this trying situation.” 

We never got this sympathy from anybody.  

That and clearly communicated explanations and updates would have gone a long way. NONE of that was offered, at least not in a way that most people heard. It is surprising for an Airline that I consider one of the best. Just not this time. 

As a side note, we discovered when we arrived in Amsterdam that we would be transferred to South African Airways in Nigeria. It just got better from there.

Thanks for playing. If you see typos or spelling errors, let me know. - peace.

Tom Hanks - The Terminal