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How one minute can cost you $530 at Calgary International Airport
Last Friday at Calgary International Airport (right), 22-year-old Florida student Samantha Hydes learned a new lesson: Hydes arrived at 7:01 AM for her 8:00 AM flight home to Tallahassee and was unceremoniously denied. She had driven in from Banff. Guess she should have driven just a hair faster, not paused so long at stop signs, and walked faster from the car to the check-in.
Northwest Airlines does "recommend" that travelers arrive two hours in advance of international flights, but Hydes said there was no mention of the one-hour rule which left her stranded. The Northwest Airlines attendant told her the computer had "closed for booking."
According to the Calgary Sun: "She eventually booked a flight departing five hours later with Delta Airlines, Northwest's corporate cousin, shelling out $530 above the $750 round-trip fare she'd already paid. Of that sum, $150 was for a flight change fee, said Hydes."
Okay. She was late. But not very. And nobody told her there was a one-hour rule. Airports do need time to process their passengers, especially international ones, so definitely take your airlines "recommendations" seriously.
As for Northwest Airlines in this particular case? We think that's lame. We are suspicious that the gate attendant stood there typing "asdfjkl;" into the computer while the 7:00 turned to 7:01.
Check out these other stories from the airport checkpoint!
Reader Comments (Page 8 of 8)
idaho Mar 20th 2009 3:18PM
i have a little house that i don't need every month. i shut the water off. it doesn't matter i am still paying thirtyfive dollars a month. same with my electric company. what makes the h20 company so bad is that half the time the h2o isn't drinkable and they only post that information at the front of the subdivision. you don't know your h2o is contaminated until you leave. why am i writing about this? because it is not only the airlines who screw you. we should all vote for a customer bill of rights that affects all companies.
Travelogged.com Mar 22nd 2009 12:58AM
That's just awful. I hope there is enough outrage that this woman gets a refund!
Liz
www.travelogged.com
Nancy Morgenstern Mar 31st 2009 9:35PM
We experienced a similar situation with Virgin Atlantic. We were flying from Barcelona to London to connect with Virgin back to the States and had given ourselves a connection time of 4 hours. Unfortunately, our British Air flight needed last minute refueling and then had to circle Heathrow. When we at last landed, our luggage was loaded on to the wrong carousel. As a result, we checked in 58 minutes before flight time and was denied boarding. When we asked for help, the gate attendant snickered and told us to go ask British Air. Needless to say, we will never fly Virgin or any of its subsidiaries.
Steve Apr 3rd 2009 9:45AM
No way to know if the passenger really arrived at the check-in counter at exactly 7:01 (didn't just say that for dramatic effect?). Anyone who gets to the counter an hour before an international departure is either dumb, naive or hasn't flown in years. Poor traveler. Bad airline. That was the point of the story. The passenger screwed up, too. And they seem to take no responsibility for their actions (i.e., not just sharing the blame, but putting it all on the airline).
stopstime Jun 2nd 2009 11:10AM
One bizzardy January morning I arrived at YYC 2.5 hours early to check into a AA flight to Dallas. Only one AA employee showed up for work that day. The line up was massive. After 90 mins of waiting I was finally at the front of the line. That's where the agent decided to close check in. He flat out told me that I should have gotten there earlier dispite the fact his co workers just didn't feel like coming to work that day. He was a real prick about it. Simon is his name, I still remember it for should I ever see him in public.
AA has since screwed me over 2 more times. Got trapped in Chicago because flight attendants didn't feel like flying to Canada. Trapped in Miami cuz because the flight left 30 mins early and 200 feet around the corner the intercom in the airport doesn't work.
I will never fly AA again. Oh yeah Northworst is just as bad but none of them are as bad as AC!!