[Kristin P]

My 15 year old daughter and her 15 year old friend traveled to the U.K from Toronto last month to visit friends. When they were returning from the U.K. back to Canada, they checked Air Transat's website and it stated their flight was 3 hours delayed, they confirmed this on the phone. When they arrived at Gatwick, 3 hours before the revised departure time, they were told their flight had left and tough luck, no offer to assist with a new flight or phone home. When our British friend came to their rescue an hour later, they were told that yes, the flight was delayed and still hadn't left but the girls were not allowed to board because they had to arrive 3 hours before the time on the ticket, not the acutal departure time...a policy that doesn't appear on their website but is obviously a way of weeding out passsengers when they overbook a flight without compesnation. We had to buy a ticket ($1000 each) the following day form Air India, leaving from Heathrow. Air Transat and Thomas Cook are sleazy...they lied and left two minors to fend for themselves and they don't return complaints. I hope the go bankrupt.

[Silent Bob]

Ahhhh that is the sad part; being told your flight is delayed only to arrive and poof it is gone. But for future reference, not for yourself but for anyone who reads this, if the flight is delayed you should still show up at 2 hours before the scheduled time, just in case of such instances. A buddy of mine flew on continental to norfolk out of newark, he received a trip alert stating his 9:30pm flight (don't quote me on the time, but I am sure it was the last flight out) was delayed till 1 am. He arrived at 10pm only to be told the plane had pushed out at 9:45. Luckily they simply rebooked him the following morning. But why would they not help to young girls in assisting them with a new flight? That's the big question. and please don't make the assumption that the flight was overbooked since you were not present, I doubt they would "purposely" delay a flight only to leave people behind because they overbooked their flight. If that is the case, i doubt it, but someone here may be able to tell you whom to contact.

[EXCO]

That is indeed sad; leaving two 15 year-olds to fend for themselves. Thomas Cook, as your agent should definitely be contacted. Monday morning quarterbacking, but I would have gotten the name of the agent who confirmed the flight was late and noted the time of the call.

[Kristin P]

it is a lesson learned....you think you're doing the right thing by arriving at the right time but instead the airline encourages you to sit in the airport 6 hours prior to the flight departure...i'm sure the airports aren't too thrilled by this....could only assume the flight was overbooked because why else wouldn't they have let the girls board the flight? oh, and to add to the rudeness, when the girls started to panic and cry, they were told to leave immediately or they would call security!

[jimworcs]

There is no legitimate reason for this, but a very similar scenario happened to a colleague of mind travelling on Lufthansa from Munich. He had checked the airport website and the airline website and confirmed the flight was late, but was refused check-in because he had missed the check in time. He was initially told that this was because the airline might re-organise their schedule and at short notice bring the flight back forward. He pointed out that in this case the flight was still delayed and the only difference between him and the rest of the passengers was he was on the landside of the airport and they were on the airside of the airport. He was then told that the reason was he was in breach of the term and conditions of the ticket and that Lufthansa employees who have checked in the flight are now working on other flights and that they cannot keep the flight "open" for stragglers. These are pathetic excuses to not provide decent customer service. This is particularly the case because I think (although I may be wrong about this) that the ThomasCook/AirTransat flights to Canada are charter flights and cannot therefore be overbooked. This may be why they were unwilling to put them on another flight. The situation is further compounded by the fact that these were 15 year old vulnerable girls and this shows just how far the airlines utter lack of human compassion has gone. The girls made a mistake, but had a supervisor wanted to, they most certainly could have overridden the rules and helped them. They chose instead to use their power and even threaten them with security when they became distressed. They are children and the employees who acted this way are pathetic excuses for human beings.

[The_Judge]

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