Week 3 - Experiences

Experience

I asked those who have experienced delays to find out about what they did when they were delayed.

• We were frustrated and bored. Also, they weren't very apologetic. All Flybe said was that the plane got held up at Manchester, not very informative.
• On Easyjet about 5 years ago I was stuck in Belfast international for 16 hours when the breaks on the plane broke, they didn’t tell us much or compensate, we were then also flown to Gatwick, not Bristol and had to take a rental car home.
• 9 hours stuck in Newcastle airport, before a 9 hour flight to America with monarch. We just had to sit and wander around the duty free. There was nothing to do at all. We got free meal vouchers though, for the grand sum of £4 each.
• I got stuck in Lanzarote for an extra 3/4 hours in 2011. We booked through Thomas Cook and we were stuck in the airport for ages with no updates. I read my book and moaned.

Each of these experiences all had the same problems; nothing to do. The airline company should offer some form of entertainment for the passengers, as this will make their experience far more enjoyable. Even if it is something relatively straightforward like a film it would be better than nothing. Also, a designated space for the delayed passengers instead of sitting in the airport lobby would be better, with comfortable seats and perhaps even a space to sleep if the delay is a lengthy one, which would remove the need to send each passenger to a hotel, which would be very costly.

These images here show the sorts of conditions that delayed passengers have to deal with. Here it shows that some passengers chose to sleep whilst waiting for their delayed flight, (or at least further information.) This isn't comfortable and it takes up space for others to sit (when on chairs) and if you are alone you cannot easily sleep and leave your items unguarded.

The other image shows a serious lack of seating within the airport, and no obvious entertainment either.

While it is the airports that lack the facilities for delayed passengers, the airport companies themselves can introduce systems to improve conditions for their customers. Poor care and treatment on a flight can easily drive many people away from flying with that company, and there are plenty out there to choose from. In order to inspire loyalty and drive the people back, I feel it is important to take care of the passengers at the time when they will feel the most neglected and angry. Nobody likes being delayed, but forcing them to wait on a cold hard airport floor for several hours is just rubbing salt into the wound/making it worse.

Here are some things that airline companies should have/do when caring for delayed passengers:

• Designated seating areas
• Reduced/free food offers
• Entertainment systems
• Regular updates on flight
• Better staffing communications
• Areas to sleep
• Smart-phone applications that keep the passengers up to date with their flight situation. (This could also include on-screen offers for reduced food, which the passenger could just show to a member of the catering staff, and access to designated areas for passengers delayed whilst travelling with the certain airline.)

The aim for this is that when passengers experience delays on a flight, they will go away from it saying, “Despite the delay, we were looked after very well. I will definitely use them again and recommend it to others.” It is common for numerous flights to be delayed at once, as things like bad weather affect all airlines in the airport. However, the designated delay zones for the passengers using the new budget airline would give them comfort and entertainment while the problem is being resolved.

The other passengers of the different flight companies might ask why they don’t get a special zone during the delay, and it is because they’re not flying with x airline company. This will make x airline look good, and the others look bad, and may inspire more loyalty towards x airline.