A ‘cold, spreadsheet-driven’ Aer Lingus response to a young woman’s freak accident’

A reader called Treasa got one of those calls that every parent dreads recently. Her daughter, travelling in the US, had suffered what she describes as a “freak accident” and was being rushed into theatre for emergency surgery. The subsequent series of event prompted her to contact us to highlight how hard it was to engage with Aer Lingus “through any appropriate private channel (email, phone, social media) during [this] family crisis”.She said her correspondence with us was “the last resort of a customer who was left with no other way to be heard”. After hearing the news of her daughter’s accident, Treasa “applied for an ESTA immediately and booked the earliest flight available, which happened to be with Delta.” She says the ESTA – a digital travel permit required to visit the US for 90 days or less – didn’t process in time “and for three consecutive days Delta’s staff held the check-in desk open until the last possible minute, tracked the ESTA status with me, and rebooked my flight each day at no charge, until the application was ultimately denied. That risk was entirely mine to carry, and I knew it when I booked. Yet Delta is now considering a partial refund on a flight I never took due to a risk I chose to take.”READ MOREShe says she only mentions that as it stands in stark contrast with how Aer Ligus subsequently responded. Eventually the visa issue was resolved, by which time Treasa’s daughter had had two successful spinal surgeries and was ready to be repatriated to Ireland to continue her recovery.“Aer Lingus was the only airline offering a direct flight from that city to Ireland, so I booked a flight out to bring her home. Her original return flight [date] had already passed by the time she was fit to travel,” she continues. Aer Lingus had been told Treasa’s daughter would not make that flight because of the accident and she had been told that “given the circumstances, it could be rebooked. Once I reached the airport to fly out I tried to amend the booking to arrange her repatriation. I couldn’t locate her booking reference, entirely my own error, but the staff member I spoke to showed no real interest in helping me work out how to resolve this despite my explaining the situation.” [ An Aer Lingus customer trying to get €530 she is owed by airline: ‘I feel like I’m losing my mind’Opens in new window ]When Treasa landed in the US, her first priority was getting to the hospital and she figured that after that she would focus on the return flights. “That is when the real difficulty began,” she says.Her daughter’s return flight needed to be rebooked and upgraded to business class, so she could lie flat both in the airport and on board, as her recovery required. “That simple change proved impossible, despite hours trying: multiple phone calls, long periods on hold, dropped lines, and having to start the process over each time,” she says. While staff on the phone “were polite throughout” they “had to repeatedly consult others and put me on hold, only for the line to drop and the process to begin again”. Eventually she decided that booking a new flight would be the best way to proceed. She was quoted prices well “beyond what our card limits could stretch to. At no point did any of the staff I spoke with suggest an alternative. It was my sister, working it out independently, who told me that booking a new economy flex fare and upgrading via the app would save over €2,000 against the price of purchasing a business class ticket directly, and would bring it within our card limits.”She says a €100 change fee on the app for her own return date and upgrading her girl’s new flight “should have been the simple part”. It wasn’t.“An email arrived saying the booking needed to be confirmed by phone, and I could not get through on the number given. In the early hours of the morning, local time, I had to WhatsApp call home and have someone else phone Aer Lingus from another device.”Treasa says that check-in and wheelchair assistance at the airport on the day of travel went smoothly but that was not the end of the story. “We had arrived at the airport over three hours before take-off, as advised, given the medical assistance she needed. As our card limits would not stretch to upgrading my own ticket [and] at check-in, I asked whether I could accompany her into the lounge, where she needed help simply to sit, stand, and use the bathroom, and pay whatever that cost. I was told the lounge was operated by Qantas, not Aer Lingus, but that it might be possible if I asked them. Qantas had no objection, on condition Aer Lingus approved.”She says Aer Lingus “refused when contacted”.“Qantas staff said they would do their best to look after her regardless, and I was grateful she would at least have somewhere to lie down while waiting to board. Then they noticed, from her passport, that she was under 21, and under the state laws governing the venue’s licensing, she could not be admitted to a lounge serving alcohol unaccompanied.”Treasa points out that the “business class contract explicitly stated that passengers under 18 needed to be accompanied; she was over that age. So between the age requirement and her need for physical assistance no unaccompanied passenger could reasonably be expected to manage alone. Qantas again contacted Aer Lingus,” she continues but says that when the airline was “informed again of this specific difficulty, [it] refused yet again. This went back and forth for 20 minutes while my daughter, in pain, sat in a wheelchair.”[ Paula was ‘disappointed with Ireland’s premier airline’ but Aer Lingus followed the rulesOpens in new window ]She says Qantas staff “were visibly shocked at Aer Lingus’s position. One of them made the call herself: “just go in, she can’t be left in that pain”. Her colleague was more hesitant, worried about the rules and possible repercussions for herself. In the end, the first staff member insisted, and let us in. She later told me she’d spoken to her own manager, explained everything, and had been told there would be no repercussions because her manager shared her concern for my daughter.”She also points out that Aer Lingus “operates a clear policy requiring evidence of fitness to fly for passengers in circumstances like hers, and it knew, from advance notice we had given that she was barely a week post-spinal-surgery. At no point, not at booking, not at check-in, not across the 53 hours of calls, not during the lounge dispute, did anyone from Aer Lingus ask me for evidence of medical clearance to fly. The only policy enforced with any rigour that day was a ticket restriction on lounge access. A safety policy that actually mattered to her recovery went unchecked; a €50 cost did not.”Treasa argues that the whole story does not suggest one unfortunate week: “It reads as design. Every channel that might let a customer reach a human being quickly is layered with automated triage before a person is reached, and once a person is reached, they appear constrained from proactively telling a customer about a cheaper or faster way to solve their own problem, even when that customer is visibly in crisis.” Addressing the airline directly, she says: “My sister found the €2,000 saving in minutes, from outside your company, with none of your internal information. Your own staff, across two days of calls, did not. That is not a training gap. That is a policy that keeps customers on the highest-priced path and makes it as hard as possible to reach anyone who could point them elsewhere.”She says that “flight attendants, throughout, were kind and attentive, in stark contrast to the cold, spreadsheet-driven decision making we encountered from corporate Aer Lingus at every turn. That contrast is the whole point of this letter.” In response, Aer Lingus said it “recognises that this family encountered difficulties during their journey and we deeply regret that this occurred at what was already a very challenging time for them. Our Customer Care team has thoroughly reviewed the case and is processing a refund for our customer’s daughter’s original unused return flight.”[ Aer Lingus executives fastening their seat belts for a bumpy ride aheadOpens in new window ]The spokeswoman says that “in relation to lounge access, Aer Lingus is required to comply with the policies of third-party partner lounge operators. In this instance, the lounge operates a policy permitting access only to customers aged 21 and over. Our team advised that any exception to this policy would be entirely at the discretion of the lounge operator, as Aer Lingus could not override its access requirements. The lounge operator’s policy was the only issue considered by Aer Lingus, and the cost of access was not a factor in any decision-making process.”She concluded by saying that “Aer Lingus strives to provide support and assistance to customers travelling with special requirements, and we sincerely apologise for falling short on this occasion. We are continuing to engage directly with the family and we wish our customer well in her recovery.”