 Poster: A snowHead
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I do feel for the airlines and Crystal Ski.
Jet 2 don't sell ski holidays, so their task was easier and they were able to form a plan at an earlier stage. chocksaway has an excellent post earlier in the tread detailing the challenges faced by the airlines and TO's. The fog coming back early was unexpected and it bolloxed plans.
Jet 2 made an early call to divert to Lyon and bus people there. I presume the delay was in procuring buses and drivers on one of the busiest transfer days of the year. but in the end they got everyone home, albeit with big delays and by the skin of their teeth. We were very grateful for the hard work of all the Jet 2 staff. They even had an engineer on the small help desk explaining the issues the planes were facing.
TUIs problem was far more difficult, but they didn't play it well.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
TUIs problem was far more difficult, but they didn't play it well. |
Yup - IMV Just providing clear information and regular updates (even if it's only to say they are working on the problem) is a good start.
This very complicated logistical nightmare would tax even the most experienced of Reps....but would completely overwhelm someone with little experience. It needed someone senior enough to make big decisions, including about spending money on their unfortunate customers. Junior members of staff simply don't have the training or seniority to handle this.
How you handle the PR plays a big role - along with knowing what the customers are entitled to. People hate being kept in the dark and being bluffed with over-optimistic BS just to keep them quiet.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Well- we survived the week - what a fab first week back in the alps in 15 years!
And, looking at the Chambéry forecast, certainly up until 3pm tomorrow it’s looking very favourable for committing aviation - so we may even get back home!!
Hope everyone else impacted last week had a fab time in the end.
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| SnowBear22 wrote: |
Well- we survived the week - what a fab first week back in the alps in 15 years!
And, looking at the Chambéry forecast, certainly up until 3pm tomorrow it’s looking very favourable for committing aviation - so we may even get back home!!
Hope everyone else impacted last week had a fab time in the end. |
We’ve had a fab time. I’m shattered! Fingers crossed for transport tomorrow.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@The Flying Snowplough, Well done lad.
People are still gobsmacked when I finish the story with...
.and then the plane took off again, and at 9pm they landed at..........East Midlands airport again
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Na, the best bit was the buy one get one free pizza!!
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@SnowBear22, did you find a transfer solution?
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Yea, I’m sorted HandyHand, thanks.
The tourist office in La Clusaz were amazing and got us a taxi for €150.
I’ll keep the phone number for next trip!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Now at Chambery airport. All running smoothly. Fingers crossed.
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@The Flying Snowplough, I was on the same flight from East Mids! Around 14 hours on a plane to land back where we started. Not the best start to the holiday when travelling with 4 kids.
You may disagree, but I will give TUI credit for quickly organising a charter flight for Sunday morning. With 6 TUI flights not landing at Chambery, I heard of some people having to wait an extra day for their new flights and arriving on the Monday.
Hope you enjoyed the 5 days of skiing, when you eventually got to resort.
Having suffered Chambery issues before, this was the first time I have risked it again in many years. Just my luck it all went wrong again! Geneva all the way for me, in the future.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Mike_H wrote: |
@The Flying Snowplough, I was on the same flight from East Mids! Around 14 hours on a plane to land back where we started. Not the best start to the holiday when travelling with 4 kids.
You may disagree, but I will give TUI credit for quickly organising a charter flight for Sunday morning. With 6 TUI flights not landing at Chambery, I heard of some people having to wait an extra day for their new flights and arriving on the Monday.
Hope you enjoyed the 5 days of skiing, when you eventually got to resort.
Having suffered Chambery issues before, this was the first time I have risked it again in many years. Just my luck it all went wrong again! Geneva all the way for me, in the future. |
We had a great time once we got there. I hope you did too.
TUI did indeed to a good job once they started taking things seriously. We got messaged in the small hours of Sunday morning with details of the new flight, which was with a different airline (not sure if this was an availability/size issue or a maintenance issue, given there was a TUI plane with its engine cowling up alongside the Prestige plane we took on the Sunday) which took some pulling off! But, and it's a big but, it took a very long time until they started taking things seriously. I get that fog enduring all day is very unusual, but the absence of any coherent contingency plan if the second attempt to land in Chambery didn't work was a big clanger to drop. The contingency plan was clearly to rely on the good will of plane loads of middle class skiers as they "winged it", which isn't really coherent. I hope they have "staffed up" to deal with the inevitable incoming emails this week!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Ah yes, the joy of watching for the email to arrive with the flight info. Not much sleep that night 
Must be a nightmare to manage, but agree it could have been better. With all staff, coach transfers, return passengers (no doubt getting frustrated and praying our plane landed), paperwork etc. all at Chambery, I can understand why they had everything pinned on Chambery landings and no plan B, C, D etc. Planes landing in different locations. Some at Chambery, some not. Planes out of location, and many more flights cancelled as our plane was in limbo land.
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We were at the end of our Crystal Xmas trip waiting for planes to land at chambery so we could return to the UK. Ours got diverted to Lyon for a bit but then 2 planes took off from Lyon & landed, one of which was as ours so we got home after a 9.5hr delay. Probably one of the better outcomes, I noticed the espirit flight titan airways just bused those waiting to Grenoble as that is where that one landed, obviously couldn’t be bothered to attempt to return again. Given both Lyon and Grenoble are not very far away, I don’t really understand why it’s not easier to quickly change plans. I have actually put in a flight compensation claim with no win no fee in the off chance they determine that the fog they suffer with isn’t exceptional for that airport & they should have better equipment given known fog.
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You know it makes sense.
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BUT.....They got lift passes to us, I still got to ski on Monday morning and I have already received a refund from TUI back to my debit card/bank account for 1/7th of the holiday. Beyond the fog delays, everything else was spot on from Crystal/TUI.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Rh2205, When CMF is having a bad day, it is often better to bite the bullet and go to the diverted aircraft rather than wait for the diverted aircraft to fly to an extreremly busy CMF, where the terminal is overflowing and the cafe is running out of stock. Having seen it from the T.O. employee side, it's often a matter of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't".......
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Rh2205, It’s not equipment that is the problem, it’s the topography around the airport which requires an earlier overshoot so the aircraft can safely climb away in cloud, a more capable ILS would be a waste of money. It’s the same reason you land heading one way and take off the other on most occasions.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Mike_H wrote: |
| BUT.....They got lift passes to us, I still got to ski on Monday morning and I have already received a refund from TUI back to my debit card/bank account for 1/7th of the holiday. Beyond the fog delays, everything else was spot on from Crystal/TUI. |
We’ve got our refund too, which was a pleasant surprise as we got an auto email promising no better than a 28 day turn round time to our query earlier today asking about refund logistics.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Good to hear. Another plus for TUI, from a bad experience. IIRC they mentioned a travel voucher for money of future holidays. Might be useful for next year or a summer get away.
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Not just Chambery... my last jet2 flight to Geneva (December) the problem wasn't the fog outside, but the smoke in the cabin. Emergency landing in Glasgow. The flight was mostly the glasgow uni students who seemed to find the whole thing entertaining. I love the mirror's dramatic take on it. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jet2-flight-forced-u-turn-31687465
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It was probably just a burnt toastie.
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Just having a look through this thread to see how people have got on since getting back.
Impressive TUI refunded 1/7th of the holiday cost automatically but, for us who were flight only, we've heard nothing (other than the email shortly after being diverted to say we'd receive a voucher).
Oh well!
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@SnowBear22, still no response to our queries relating to out of pocket expenses and t&c of vouchers. But prompt refund of hard cash has bought some decent "slack" and they have committed to responding within 28 days which will be early Feb.
Main issue is post-ski depression!
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FAQ
