I came within an ace of strangling Singapore Airlines last August. My 85 year olld, disabled mother was on her own, flying from Perth to Heathrow with only the plane-change in Sigapore by way of a stop. At 8am in the UK, I discovered that Heathrow had been closed more or less, because of the bomb scare. I instantly rang my sister's mobile in Perth, to try to tell her to get Mum's flight changed till after the immediate fuss had died down but I was too late to prevent Mum from leaving Perth that day.
The Met Police and the Beeb were both burbling, "Contact your Airline." A chance would have been a fne thing. Not ONE of the numbers for Singapore Airlines in the UK was working apart from the utterly useless Kris Flyer call-centre in Belfast, who are professional about having no information about anything, ever.
Mum can't walk without a zimmer-frame and if she is tired, she needs her wheelchair instead, so there is no way she can cope with a seriously delayed or diverted flight on her own. My sister was in tears, asking me if she should catch the o1:00 flight to Singapore to be with Mum if need be. I said, "You go to bed for now. I'll ring if anything changes. I'll get them on the phone in Singapore and find out whether the London-bound flight is coming to London or diverting to Paris and stopping there, because the latest rumour on the tranny is that they are about to close Heathrow completely and divert the long-haul flights to Paris.
The crowd in Singapore not only didn't know where the flight was headed for, they didn't care either. They washed their hands of it once it left Singapore. I happen to speak reasonably fluent Malay (we used to live there) so I gave them an earful in Malay, which got their attention and they gave me some un-published UK numbers to ring. Which were not answered because the clot in Singapore transposed two of the numbers in the sequence of 4 numbers for the staff at Heathrow by mistake.
Eventually I rang Heathrow Police. The ONLY people who were the slightest use for the entire time of Mum's journey, apart from Virgin who had no concrete information but were doing their best. The cop said, "Yes. Ma'm. SQxxx is cleared for Heathrow, it is expected at 05:04, it will be the fourth one to land when the airport re-opens and it will be going on to Pier 6. Please do not worry."
My half-sister was collecting Mum at Heathrow and bringing her down to me in Southampton. By the time Singapore Airlines got their act up together enough for about 8 of them to ring me in quick succession from both London & Singapore, I knew that Mum had arrived safely and was on her way down to me.
One of the callers was a secretary who asked for my address. I was so angry with them by then that I gave it to her without asking why. Later that day, a huge bouquet of orchids arrived addressed to Mum & I jointly, and a card apologising profusely. The London Station Manager (a guy at Heathrow, apparently) said that nearly all the numbers on their website are numbers that are no longer in use. He was going to get the website fixed the same day. That was 8 months ago. I am still waiting.....
They are great in the air and on the ground unless the unexpected occurs. For that entire day, the ONLY airline that had the wit to set up a Hotline, give the number to the Beeb and man the Hotline with enough staff were Virgin Atlantic. They were in touch with Heathrow and were giving free help to anyone who called them, regardless of whether or not Virgin was involved. As events unfolded, their information turned out to be accurate, too. So simple to do, yet not ONE of the others bothered to copy them. They couldn't tell me where Mum's flight was or where it was headed, but they WERE able to say, "We don't think Heathrow is going to close to in-bound long-haul flights. If it does, do not panic. Eurostar are gearing up to run extra trains from Paris. We've been talking to them too. Singapore Airlines are required to provide your mother with whatever assistance she needs, so they will just have to assign a girl to travel with her to London if need be. Fear not."
Cheers
Gill
