Jazzblues1

I had an interview scheduled Friday morning in in a city that was a 21 hour drive away from where I live. Taking the day off work Thursday was out of the question, so I scheduled an early evening flight for Thursday. The flight was delayed due to an "irregularity" (whatever that means) for five hours. When I tried to politely inquire about what might be done, the people at the airline counter were quite unhelpful, and tersely replied, "well, that's the earliest flight, so there's nothing we can do". The flight did not get in until 3:30 in the morning. My interview was scheduled for 7:30 am. Because the hotel was 45 minute cab ride from the airport, I did not get to the hotel (which I had paid a good deal of money for) in time to get any sleep at all before my interview. I am quite sure that in my incoherent sleep deprived state, there is no way I could have made a good impression. I realize that I am probably going to be called a troll, or incredibly uptight for thinking that I might have some recourse. At least reimbursement for the unused hotel stay, or some frequent flier miles. Yes, I realize it's nothing compared to the 24+ hour delays others have faced, but at the same time this may have had catastrophic results for my career so it's a pretty huge deal to me. Don't you think airlines should be held accountable in some way if they cannot get people from point A to point B reasonably close to the time that was promised to the customer? (Excluding weather or natural disasters, which of course no one has any control over.) Or is the moral of the story that we all should plan to take several days off work if we have an important meeting or interview, because there is no way the airlines can be expected to get us there in time? In the future, what do you think could be done to avoid this sort of awful situation (aside from driving)?

Pugsly

"In the future, what do you think could be done to avoid this sort of awful situation (aside from driving)?"

The only way for better predictability, charter a flight or go in a day ahead of time if the event in question is of such a high level of importance.

Depending on airlines for precise timing is just a prelude to frustration.

Ackislander

I don't think this is a troll, but I do think you may not be very experienced at business travel or at interviewing.

If you absolutely, positively have to be some place, you have to plan on leaving a day early. "Taking a day off work Thursday was out of the question" is, sadly, not realistic. If you want to do the interview badly enough, you will find a way. Parenthetically, one of the things employers are looking for is resourcefulness on the part of applicants -- the ability to solve problems, including this kind of problem.

However, if getting out of work on Thursday was impossible, could you have asked the employer for a Monday interview? If they are really interested, that would not be a problem for them, and your telling them that you have an important project, meeting, etc shows that you take your current employer's interests seriously. It also shows confidence on your part -- "Hey, I'm worth waiting for."

As to showing up exhausted, sometimes it happens. One family member regularly flies to London, takes a shower and puts in a full day at the office. Another regularly puts in a full day on the west coast, flies to the east coast on the Red Eye, and puts in a full day at the office. If you cannot handle this kind of stress or tiredness during the interview process, will you be able to handle it on the job?

Semi-finally, consider calling the person you are interviewing with, tell them your plane has been delayed indefinitely, and ask if the interview can start later in the morning. If they travel frequently on business, they will have experienced what you are going through. If they refuse, do you want to work at the kind of place where they could not accomodate that kind of request?

Last, the airline owes you nothing. You paid them to get you there. They got you there.

Dan

We really don't know why the flights were late in the first place here. The "irregularity" in your city may very well have been caused be a mechanical issue or weather problems in the flight's originating city. Either way, it stinks but it's life. I would write a nice letter to the airline's customer service department explaining your frustrations and see what happens, but I wouldn't expect much.

As for the job interview, you should have tried to reschedule. I did this TWICE once for a meeting with my law firm's managing partner as I was stuck in horrible freeway traffic. He wasn't happy but did like the fact that I communicated with him.

nytraveler

No - you have no recourse. If delay is due to weather - that's an act of God - and everyon eis stuck with it. If it's due to mechanial problem or equipment or rews in the wrong place they are obliged to get you where you're going as soon as possible.

But they can;t knit a plane for you to fly on.

Agree - you must have little experience in flying. This happens ALL THE TIME. For anything with a vital fixed time (even like a cruise depature) you always go ahead of time.

If the interview matters, go a day early just to allow for this - so you're not late, frazzled, sleepy or unfocused. If it's not worth a day - why bother going at all?

yk

Depending the reason for your delayed flight, you may or may not be able to request some FF miles as compensation.

Afterall, they airline did get you to your destination, albeit 5 hours later.

I'd suggest you write to the airline about your situation (be brief but to the point, put your flight # and date of travel in your email). Don't threaten in your email by saying "I'll never fly your airline again." etc.

You should get some FF miles as compensation depending on the airline. I don't think you can ask them to pay for your hotel though.

[BTW, I flew AA in Jan and my flight was delayed for 3 hrs due to mechanical problems. I emailed AA Customer Service and received a reply the very next day and offer of 5000 miles. But, I'm PLT on AA - not sure if it made a difference or not.]

travelbuff

I may be wrong, but I thougt the airline had to try and get you on the next flight whatever airline was flying to your destination, if they were not able to get your flight out.

That has happened to me many times, the airline would rebook me on another airline. Was that not offered?

suze

<Or is the moral of the story that we all should plan to take several days off work...> You didn't need to take "several" just one, the Thursday.

Sure it's "reasonable" to hope the airlines will be on schedule but foolish to depend on it. I don't think you are "uptight" for wanting compensation, just overly optimistic!!

On your plane ticket or email confirmation there is a bunch of fine print about rules of carriage or somesuch thing. Read that. It tells you exactly what your contract with the airline is.

TheWeasel

I don't think there's any reason to get compensation for the hotel. You didn't cancel it afterall, and I presume you did check in and take a shower before the interview, so I don't know what the compensation would possibly be.

I agree with the others - if this interview was as important as you make it out to be (you mentioned that a poor interview would have "catastrophic" consequences) then taking Thursday off would be the best bet. I guess it depends on your priorities - seems like your current job is more important than this possible new one.

I doubt you were as incoherent as you might fear in your interview. Assuming you get up around 6-7 am normally, having an interview at 7:30am means you were up for just over 24 hours with little or no sleep. That isn't ideal, but it doesn't turn people into incoherent, raving lunatics, and I'm sure the nervous energy kicked in and sharpened your focus enough that your lack of sleep didn't affect anything.

maryanntex

Twice in the past few months a Continental flight that I was on was delayed (not weather related) for more than three hours. Continental passed out gift certificates to use on a future flight($25-$100 depending on the cost of the ticket for the future flight).

NeoPatrick

This has never happened to me (thank goodness) and maybe I'm way off base here, but I disagree that taking an extra day would have been the logical thing to do. Since you were leaving in the late afternoon for a flight for an appointment the next day, there's no reason to expect to be missing it -- but of course it can always happen, and this case it almost did.

But I'd have turned it into a good thing at the interview, by starting with an "I hope I don't look too disheveled. My flight was delayed 5 hours and I just arrived at my hotel a couple hours ago. I thought about cancelling last night when it looked like the flight might not go at all, but I really didn't want to miss this interview. I'm so glad to actually be here".

janisj

(hope this isn't a duplicate post - the site is acting weird tonight)

Sorry you were delayed -- BUT to fly in the night before for a 0730 interview 45 mins from the airport wasn't good planning on your part.

Maybe you were so cowed by the interview process you were afraid to be at all assertive. But I would have contacted the new company and either:

1) explained that I had to work all day Thurday so I would like the interview Friday afternoon or Monday morning. And if that wasn't possible . . .

2) asked for a telephone interview for the first step.

But really - If this was such a vital interview I would have taken Thursday off.

Annam

Just as an example of what CAN happen, my son recently had plans to fly to CA for 5 days, leaving on a Wed night. He got the the airport three hours before flight time and the board said On Time. An hour later they told him his flight was cancelled and they could not get him on another one until SATURDAY. They blamed weather, but every other airline was still flying, with just 1 or 2-hour delays. They did refund his ticket price, but gave no other compensation.

djkbooks

You never know when a flight will be significantly delayed, or, often, even why.

I once had a flight delayed for many hours at O'Hare. Found out eventually that the plane was delayed at the previous stop because someone on the plane had a heart attack.

And, there's nothing anyone can do about the weather.

The people at the airline counter can only do what they can do.

I've never gone on a cruise, but do know, from having spent a lot of time on travel forums, that you always book a flight a day ahead of cruise departure.

You cut it close - but you did make it to the interview.

Most employers happily accomodate prospective employees by scheduling interviews at 5PM or later, even on Saturdays.

rkkwan

What flight? What day?

What was the official reason given for the delay?