Flight Cancel
On Feburary 2017, my flight to Thailand has been cancelled (China Southern flight CZ328) due to mechanical problems. After 20 hours of being thrown back and forth of promising a flight to Bangkok, we gave up and asked the airline company to re-reimburse our tickets. In the beginning, we were so excite for the trip because this was going to be our first family trip in a long time. And, Thailand is an excellent choice.
On the day of the departure, we arrived to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) really early at 18:00 to pick seating. Our boarding time was at 22:20, but due to mechanical problem, no passengers are allowed to board the plane. By 23:40, the announcement was made that our flight got cancelled, due to a troubled mechanical part which needed to be replace and will be resolved tomorrow. The airline agents informed everyone to go back down to the counter and get a re-routing tickets. After an hour of chaos and confusion, only 2 couple were able to get and agreed to the re-routed tickets and the counter was closed. Then airline agent told us that we have 2 options: A) get our own hotel and the airline will give each individual $150 credit, or B) hop on the bus and check-in the hotel that will be provided by the airline. So, we decided to take option B because we don’t have a car to get to a nearby hotel. We jumped on the bus at 1:30 and drove 50km to Downtown to a nice hotel. After arriving to the hotel, we were greeted to a long check-in line. While waiting, I asked one of the airline agent what is the wakeup time and where to meet. She told me and others to meet at the lobby at 13:00 pm and told us to have a good night. She also added that during our rest, the agents of China Southern from China will resolve all the flight issues including the layover. That early morning, we did not receive our room till 3:00.
The next day at 9:00, the airline people pounded our hotel room door, and told us to get ready immediately to board the plane by 13:00, and there are people waiting in the airport transport bus. When arriving to the bus, we found out that we were the first to be on board, and end up waiting for 1.5 for the others passenger to show up and the bus was finally full. After that, the agent checks everyone boarding pass from last night, and we finally drove off from the hotel at 11:00. During the ride, I asked the agent if we, 300+ passengers, were able to board the plane. He assured me that the part for the downed plane (yesterday night) arrived last night was installed and ready to take off at 13:00 today. I told him that I doubt that we are going to take off at 13:00, but he just smiled at me. We arrived to the airport at 11:30 and got to the ticket counter at 11:45 to find out that there were no plane available and not re-routing flight was made. At this time everyone was weary, hungry, and irritated, so they told us to have lunch and come back at 15:00. They were nice enough to give us $16 pp airport food voucher. We did that, and check with them back at 15:00 and there were still not flight and no re-routing flight. At this time, a lot of the passengers were very irritated. The China Southern agents were stress and tried to put together for us a re-routing tickets. I asked the counter if there is a sure tickets for a party of 4, and they say no guarantee for tickets. Then, the attendant give everyone an options for a refund or stick around to see if they can put people on other flights which could take up to 2 days. Because I have a 3 years olds child and an elderly whom were getting weary, we have no option but to ask for the refund on our tickets.
The next day, I called up my travel agent, Priceline, and gave them the details of what happened to my flight. Priceline called up the China Southern, and China Southern told Priceline that they can only refunded me $600 for all of the 4 tickets. Reason is that there will be four empty seats from Guangzhou to Bangkok, and empty seats from the flight back to LAX. I did not agrees to refund. So, I contacted the airline 2 days later, and they said that they will be giving out full refunds for passengers of that flight. I called the Priceline again, and the agent checked with China Southern and I was able to get my refunds in full.
Now, that was quite an experience for my family. All of my years of flying, I have not encounter such chaos, but only heard of it. During this ordeals, I was able to get full refunds for ½ of my hotels, and play only the cancellation fee.
The lesson learned here is that, cancel fight is not fun, but there are practices that you can do to lessen the pain of re-routing flights and financial lost.
Before you buy your ticket(s), ALWAYS, ALWAYS, called your credit card company regarding over the flight cancellation, lost in personal items, and other insurance policies. I do emphasis that you should call all of your credit card companies, and find out what is the best credit card to use before you buy your tickets and throughout your trip. A lot of the time, the first person you talked to will give you the overview of your coverage. If that happen, have them forward you to the insurance group and talk to them. Like the old saying goes, “The devil is in the details…”
In my case, the person who went over my insurance for using the credit card just know the general of the coverage. If I recalled correctly that the support person for one credit card company (which I will not name) said that the card will reimburse me in full if a flight got cancel due to bad weather, or mechanical problems, or personal emergency. Well, that sound great. So after, I called and proof that my plane got mechanical problem, the card company call the airline and found out that the airline plane that I was going to be on does have mechanical problem, but because the airline said that they tried to reroute my tickets to another flights (which could take up to 2 days and we might have to travel separately), the insurance is no good. So the rule of thumb is to call your credit card company to send or email you the travel insurance policy. And, go over the policies in detail the minutes that you found out that your flight got delayed.
After you hear the dreadful words of your flight got delayed, you should immediately go online to find a reroute flight from your current airport to your destination from any carriers in the next 3 hours from your smart phone, tablet, or any devices that allows you to get to the Internet. The reason is that if your flight got announced that it is cancelled, you can show the airline the reroute flight that you want to take with your group of travelers. This way, it will lessen the chance that your family will travel separately. If you let them do the rerouting, most of the time, they will go cheap and you will end up at the lay over more than a day, or too many lay overs. Also, if you hear that your flight got cancelled, immediately go back out to the airline counter and see if they can rebook to another airline, and most of the time they will do that for you. The key here is speed. Do not wait till the airline personnel tell you to get in a single line and make everyone go out to the counter to be rerouted. I’ve realized that it takes 25 minutes to have 2 couple rerouted to another flight. By the time I got close to the counter which was 45 minutes later, all reroute flight for that day was over.
If you happened to be the one who are waiting in line to be rerouted after your flight got cancelled, you should keep yourself busy by getting online to find alternative flights, so when it is your turn to the counter to do the reroute flights; at least, you will have flights that you wants ready. Don’t forget to have more than one alternative flights. Afterward, if you still on line waiting, it is time to call or email your hotel that you will not show up for the first day or cancelled your booking as a whole. One of my hotel was kind enough to give me a voucher for the missing my first day stay. This is fine because I will be going to Bangkok anyway later on in the near future.
Finally, baggage. If your flight get cancelled, most likely that you will not get your luggage within a few days, or weeks, or in my case a month. We have a total of three check-in luggages. One of the three luggage, I was able to get within 2 days, and the other two somehow made it to Bangkok. Only one of the two that made it to Bangkok, has returned home a week later. The last luggage for some reason, the claims department has a hard time in getting it back to LA. As I’m writing this, it has been 26 days, and the claims department cannot seem to get my last baggage back; even though, they said that they do have it in Bangkok. Claims department can only write to Bangkok airport to have it deliver to LAX, but have not gotten a response for 2 weeks now. I also file a claims and not have heard from them. I’ve called almost every day and was told that they are waiting form Bangkok Airport to response. Honestly, I was losing hope, and was thinking about telling my mom that her luggage was lost.
On the 28th day, the claims department wanted me to fill out a form. The form was straight forward, until it wants to know what is inside the missing bag. I wrote down that the luggage was full of name brand clothing like LV, Coach, etc., expensive moisturizer, and the bag is very expensive. The total cost was over $3,500. Two days later, I received an email that my case was created and a person will be assigned to find the missing bag. I thought that the airline was doing some lip services. But load and behold, my bag was returned and appear on my door step in 3 days. So the lesson learned is that you have to exaggerated a bit; else, I think that they will pay you like $500 for losing your luggage.
Well, I hope that you have learn and be more prepare from my mistake. This was not really a great experience for me, but an eye opener of what really can happen or worst. Overall, I’ve lost money from this trip, like round trip flight from Bangkok to Phuket and round trip ferry tickets to Phi Phi are not refundable, 2 hotels charged me a fee for cancelling on them.