Cityjet shambles

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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I booked an 8.40 flight from Dublin to London City Airport this morning, due to come back tonight at 8 pm.

Before leaving the house, I checked the departures and there was no note of any delay.

I arrived at the gate and it looked all good to go.

Maybe around 8.15, they apologised and said it would be delayed to 9 am "due to a problem with the incoming flight" 20 minutes is not too bad, I can live with that.

Then a bit later, they said 9.30.

Then they announced that they were changing the plane and it would depart at 11. But if anyone wanted to change to the 11.25 flight, they could.

The only person dealing with the crowd was the handling operator. There was no one from Cityjet present.

It turned out that 11 am was the time of the next update, not the departure time. Apparently only 12 people got on the 11.25 flight and they reported that they had to pay €70 for the privilege of being delayed over two hours.

Towards 11, they announced that the next update would be at 12 noon.

That made my day in London absolutely pointless. Even if I did get the flight, the knock-on effect of the delays might mean that my flight back this evening would be delayed until tomorrow.

As of now, almost 5 hours after the scheduled departure, it still has not left.

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I went out to the ticket desk to get a refund to be told that there was no ticket desk in the airport.

I called them and they told me that refunds were normally only paid after a flight had been delayed over 5 hours, but they would make an exception for me and give me back my money.

I don't mind so much a flight being delayed - it happens. (Around this time last year, there was a 3 hour delay on a Cityjet flight, but they told us up front about it.) But the fact that there was no one from Cityjet to explain the options. Refund, compensation, voucher for refreshments, etc.

I just missed a day's leisure in London, but others had connecting flights and meetings to attend.

I checked their, and it seems to be about average. This has not been my experience, but it's based on maybe around 6 or 7 flights with them.

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One of the reasons I chose Cityjet is that if you arrive at the airport early, and there is an earlier flight, they will usually let you go on it, without charging you extra. The last time I was in London, the flight for Dublin before mine was delayed 2 hours so it departed over an hour before my flight was due to depart, so I benefited from their delay in that case.

But that is not enough of a reason if they can't treat customers properly and if they are less reliable than Aer Lingus which flies to the same airport.


Is it time just to give up on Cityjet?

Brendan
 
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Flew from London City with them for the first time earlier this month and it was great, no problems at all, really liked London City airport, easy to get to and through. Your experience might make me reconsider!
 
London City Airport is great. But I think I would go with British Airways/Aer Lingus instead in future.

Brendan
 
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Also check out compensation for delayed flights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Compensation_Regulation_261/2004#Delays

Our flight from lanzarote was delayed by 4 hours with Ryanair. They were very good at emailing details to get compensation from our travel insurance, but by googling and finding the link on their website, we got €400 back each from Ryanair. Admittedly, they made it hard to find the form on their website, but were superb in handling and giving the compensation.

I would guess were the only ones on the flight who pursued it (mostly elderly travellers who may not be internet savvy), but a bit of googling gives all the info.

Cityjet has to abide by the same rules. Cursory reading says you are entitled to €250 back.
 
Thanks Buddy

It's a bit complicated. After 3 hours and with no information being provided, I rang them and cancelled my flight and got a full refund. So I don't know if I am entitled to compensation as well.

Dublin Airport has stopped providing estimated departure times for that flight, but City Airport has estimated arrival at at 15.00 - almost 5 hours late. Update - at 14.56 , it's reported as having landed.

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Brendan
 

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This was a flight within the EU subject to EU law. Once you were delayed 2 hours for reasons within the operators control (i.e. not bad weather etc.) , CityJet were required to give you written notification of your rights under EU law. In fact:

"As a matter of course, a printed or electronic notice informing you of your EU air passenger rights must be clearly displayed at the airport check-in desk. This information must also be shown at check-in kiosks in the airport and on-line. If you were denied boarding, your flight was cancelled, you experienced a delay of more than 2 hours at departure or you arrive with a long delay at your final destination, the operating air carrier must give you a written notice setting out the rules for compensation and assistance." (EU air passenger rights).

After 2 hours delay you were entitled to appropriate refreshments, and after 5 hours to a full refund within a maximum of 7 days. (Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament).
 
Hi dub-nerd

That is very interesting. Thanks for that.

The most annoying thing was not knowing what was happening and what our rights were.

As I left the airport at 11 am, when they had announced that the next update would be at 12 noon, they could have denied me the refund.

I would guess that most of the Cityjet passengers flying on an early flight to London are coming back on the same day - so the 5 hour delay/refund is not worth much to them.

Brendan
 
Just curious - if Cityjet normally (?) allow passengers to travel on an earlier flight at no extra cost why in his case did they charge passengers extra to travel on a LATER flight (at least later than their originally scheduled flight)?
Seems odd/arbitrary?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
....I rang them and cancelled my flight and got a full refund. So I don't know if I am entitled to compensation as well.
Click to expand...

Hi Brendan,

www.flight-delayed.co.uk

Haven't used the site myself but there seems to be a few others offering the same service too. Perhaps worth a go?

You could always send them a Tweet linking this thread too for further information

Firefly.
 
I am mellowing a bit this morning and got the bright idea that I could go tomorrow. The flight is much more expensive, but I suggested to Cityjet to give me the same flights at the same price as my flight yesterday and they readily agreed.

Brendan
 
Hi ClubMan

I didn't check with British Airways but when I was choosing which day to go , their flights on Friday were prohibitive.

I will send a long letter to Cityjet about how they can improve. When the flight was going to be an hour late, they should have offered people the opportunity to change to swap their tickets for a different day this week.

Brendan
 
Love City Airport, great location and quick to get in and out (usually), albeit it can be very busy flying out in the evenings.

CityJet is a different story though - suffered often delays and cancellations on their DUB > LCY route, and usually booking BA now if it isn't a totally non-runner due to price.
Even delay of half an hour in the morning is painful enough when you are trying to get into the city for a 9am appointment. Unless I don't really care if I get to London or not at the planned time, I wouldn't book CityJet on that route anymore.
 
1. A flight was delayed.
2. Total refund given.
3. More expensive flight the next day given at the same price as the previous day's delayed flight.
4. Passenger got out of airport 11.00am.
5. Compensation being considered.

Stuff like this happens every day in every company/shop/office/home.

Is there total over-reaction here? Or have we become just another whinging nation?
 
Leper said:
Is there total over-reaction here? Or have we become just another whinging nation?
Click to expand...

It is an internet forum after all. That's one of the main purposes, isn't it? What do you expect?

But (bad)joking aside, one of the key marketing messages with City Airport and specifically City Jet is the ability to quickly hop into London and out again with the minimum of time and fuss. Couple of hours delay isn't exactly supporting the message, and 4-5 hours delay for a flight that takes like less than 90 minutes is difficult to understand.
I know that in Ireland we are very much used to transport not being on time due to the omnishambles that is public transport, but that shouldn't be the baseline and is certainly not what one should expect.

EDIT: and to be perfectly honest, I think that there isn't enough loud complaining about this kind of stuff, again specifically in Ireland. People are way to concerned about causing a scene or whatever. If nobody complains about bad service, it won't get better. (Again, dare I point towards public transport as an example).
 
Hi Leper

Apologies, for the delay in replying - I was in London yesterday. :)

The most important question for me is whether I should fly Cityjet to London City Airport in future. Although, the punctuality stats say that they are ok, I have had two huge delays, and a few hour long delays. Others have told me that they are frequently late, but then one guy I spoke to yesterday told me that he has never been delayed.

So I don't know the answer to that yet.

The second bit is how Cityjet handled the delay at first. It was really shocking. There was no one from Cityjet there to answer people's questions. They charged people €70 extra to go on the 11.30 flight which was really outrageous.

I don't have a problem with delays generally. If you are flying to Mallorca with Ryanair for €29.99 and you are delayed for a few hours, you grin and bear it. However, I had paid €450 for a flight to London with Cityjet. I do expect better.

I was somewhat mollified by their quick agreement to my proposal to fly out later in the week for the same price.

And then the huge advantage of flying Cityjet kicked in yesterday. I had a return flight booked for 8.10 pm but finished my business in London early and took a chance. I arrived at the airport at 4.30 pm and they gave me the last free seat on the 5.30 pm flight without any additional charge. This is the third time Cityjet has done this for me.

So no, I won't be looking for compensation. But I will send Pat Byrne, the Chief Executive some suggestions.
1) If a flight is delayed over one hour, get an employee or two down to the gate to talk to customers
2) As many, maybe even most, of the customers are flying over and back on the same day, a delayed flight is much more seriously disrupting for them than a delay for someone who is not coming back on the same day. Offer people an option to switch to a different flight for the same price. If this had been offered to me at 10 am on Wednesday, I would have grabbed it immediately and gone home earlier.
3) To be fair to them, they did answer the phone fairly quickly on the two occasions this time I called. But the last time I had a problem, I got a call centre, probably in India, where I couldn't make head nor tail of what the guy was saying. It was deeply frustrating. I had meant to contact the CEO about that at the time, but I didn't. I will add that to my letter.

Brendan
 
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