John Coleman, a reader from Skerries, in Co Dublin, got in touch about Aer Lingus cancelling flights, but the airline got back to him so fast when he complained to it that he now has little to complain about.
On Monday he wrote We are a group of 31, including 24 12- to 14-year-olds, from Skerries Town Twinning Association going over to Rennes, in France, for a week of sporting activities with our twin town of Guichen. We were booked to fly with Aer Lingus on June 30th, returning on July 7th. Aer Lingus cancelled those flights, so we rebooked through Paris, with a TGV to Rennes at some additional cost. Aer Lingus phoned yesterday, incredibly, to tell us that it has gone and done it again and cancelled the return flight from Paris. It is offering an earlier flight the same day, at 5.10pm instead of 9.50pm. The TGV tickets, which cost €60 per person each way, are neither transferable nor refundable, however. So we either book an earlier TGV – not easy, either, as we had to go through a travel agent to make the group booking with Rail Europe in the UK – to catch the 5.10pm flight or take a 4.45pm flight from Rennes to Cork, then take a coach to Skerries. Transfer time is much of a muchness. Either way, we would like to seek reimbursement of the additional cost from Aer Lingus. Do we have good grounds to do so? We are really getting messed around.
On Tuesday he got in touch again, writing Aer Lingus sorted out the problem for us yesterday. It agreed to either pay for new TGV tickets so we could get to Paris for the 5.10pm flight to Dublin or pay for our coach from Cork to Skerries. We have decided to get back by flying from Rennes to Cork and taking a coach. So all’s well that ends well with good customer care from Aer Lingus in the circumstances.
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