Brussels Airlines passenger treatment BRU-Warsaw via Krakow

[D Bru]

Passengers on SN2556 WAW-BRU on 13-05-2011 were treated on a delayed arrival at gate of 141 minutes. Announced to passengers earlier by SMS to be around 95 minutes (nice service as such!), the delay grew as it reportedly took more time for the inbound flight to WAW to make a technical stop in Krakow to deliver some spare parts for another SN aircraft stranded there.

In the end SN2556 left WAW at 20h15 in stead of 17h45 and landed shortly after 22h15. It is beyond my understanding that SN first makes a planeload of passengers miss their Friday dinner appointments in WAW and then does the same for another planeload to miss their Friday dinner appointments in BRU. The crew was apologetic alright, stating that the delay was due to "an order" from the company (to deliver the spare parts en route elsewhere in Poland). Yet, on arrival the crew referred onward passengers dryly to the transfer desk for their connecting flights. As if there is a lot of chance on connecting flights at that time of the night. One asks the question whether there should not have been a more client friendly solution. This to my mind doesn't really show a lot of company respect towards its paying clients.

Dutch Bru

[sn26567]

It seems to me that a more intelligent solution would have been to send the spare parts to Krakow by one of the LH codeshared flights via Munich, or if it had to go by SN, to land in WAW first and to transfer the spare parts to one of the many LOT flights between WAW and KRK.

But now I do not pretend to be a traffic manager, and SN might have had valid reasons to act like it did...

[euroflyer]

Hm, regarding the transfer pax missing their connections in BRU I would expect that they (as I certainly would and did several times already ...) contacted the gate staff in WAW as the delay was announced initially and requested a rebooking on another flight connection. This is usually the time when you see an alliance like Star working good for you. Whereever those pax wanted to go to via BRU from WAW, it should have been possible to find another connection via FRA, MUC, VIE, ZRH from WAW as well which brings them to their destination that same day.

[B.Inventive]

Funny thing
you state sending them to the transfer desk is a bad solution of the crew, however, how can the CREW help further? it's not as if they have access to all possible data to find solutions for each individual?
Why consider this to be a lack of respect from the crew? Why blame the crew at all?
If no 'short' connecting solutions are found by b.air ground support people, why the hell would you NOT send pax to the transfer desk, where they can discuss alternatives themselves!(instead of being forced into 1)
I really don't see the lack of respect in this situation??? If it were me, I'd prefer to voice my preferences to the transfer desk as to how this problem is to be solved, thereby giving myself the opportunity to choose from multiple options. But this can only be done at the transfer desk...
I hope you understand my point?

[BrightCedars]

Had a flight delayed between AMS and SIN once (SQ). 2-3 hours delay, we were given meal vouchers but most importantly we were assured that everything would be sorted out as we'd miss our onward connection to SYD.

Upon landing in SIN, there was an army of ground staff waiting in the arrival lounge of the aircraft and ready to give us our new boarding cards and put us up in hotels for the daytime (we wouldn't even have to spend a night yet they did put us up in luxury hotels for the day) until the next flight.

This is how it has to be. And that's why airlines like SQ are the best.

[Stij]

What I don't get is that something when you miss your connection, you're automatically rebooked. They KNOW your email and cell phone number. Why can;t they just send you an sms

"You're rerooted via XXX. Go to gate XX, your boarding passes will be printed there. If you don't like it, go to ticket sales."

With AA in JFK it happened already twice to me that I was automatically rerooted via LHR, but because of the line at ticket sales I missed that connection as well.

Cheers,

Stij

[regi]

Had a flight delayed between AMS and SIN once (SQ). 2-3 hours delay, we were given meal vouchers but most importantly we were assured that everything would be sorted out as we'd miss our onward connection to SYD.
Upon landing in SIN, there was an army of ground staff waiting in the arrival lounge of the aircraft and ready to give us our new boarding cards and put us up in hotels for the daytime (we wouldn't even have to spend a night yet they did put us up in luxury hotels for the day) until the next flight.
This is how it has to be. And that's why airlines like SQ are the best.

Exactly!
Personally I think it is wrong to call 1 airline the best airline. The way you phrased it sounds better: "why airlines like SQ are the best"
And "best" is a combination of punctuality, food, luggage treatment, price, connections and many other facts. Mostly people don't refer to the best experience. But they talk about it when it goes wrong. At that moment you realize the difference between good and bad, disredarding it is a LCC, full service carrier, or whatever.

[SN1203]

It is beyond my understanding that SN first makes a planeload of passengers miss their Friday dinner appointments in WAW and then does the same for another planeload to miss their Friday dinner appointments in BRU.

The alternative would have been that the Krakow passengers wouldn't have made it to Brussels at all. If an aircraft is stuck at an airport with a minor technical problem and no spare part available, why wouldn't you go for such a solution? Such a measure probably caused some unhappiness among the WAW passengers, but made sense for the KRK passengers.

It seems to me that a more intelligent solution would have been to send the spare parts to Krakow by one of the LH codeshared flights via Munich, or if it had to go by SN, to land in WAW first and to transfer the spare parts to one of the many LOT flights between WAW and KRK.

Making a quick technical stop in Krakow doesn't sound unintelligent to me... using an SN flights is probably easier as you can handle your own sparepart, and you can probably drop off a technician too. It's just the quickest way to get a problem sorted.

Yet, on arrival the crew referred onward passengers dryly to the transfer desk for their connecting flights. As if there is a lot of chance on connecting flights at that time of the night.

You say it yourself: it was an evening flight, so I guess the options for a lot of reroutings were limited to non existing anyway. As long as SN took care of hotel accomodation for transfer pax without an alternative etc., they handled the situation correctly.

[D Bru]

Thx for all your replies. The point is that if they wanted the Krakow passengers to arrive in BRU on that same day with an A/C repaired with spare parts from BRU, I would have expected SN with their connections in the market to charter a small one pilot A/C to fly the spare parts direct into there and take its losses for the costs of that. It would have saved messing up the weekend evening planning of two plane loads of paying passengers. The solution chosen to involve another scheduled SN A/C and made a lot more passengers unhappy than those directly involved in the incident flight stranded in Krakow. And don't tell me that a technical stop en route is cheap either (extra fuel uplift, crew time, etc).

D Bru

[Metisa330]

Dear D Bru,
A very unpleasant situation indeed.
But why blaming the crew?
They were professional, friendly and helpful. And most of all, they were honest about the reason of the delay. (Which means no “operational reasons or unforeseen cicumstances”).
They took care of the situation on board, leaving the rerooting to their colleagues of the ground staff.
I was on that flight, and I also missed my friday evening dinner.
Greetz.