FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - My trip during the Earthquake and why I continue to be loyal to ANA.
Old Mar 23, 2011, 8:52 am
  #8  
SQ Flyer Talker
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: Solitarie PPS, Marco Polo Gold, Mileage Plus Premier
Posts: 330
I glad that NH treated you well while my story was the other way around.

My NH912 flight just arrived at around 14:40 at NRT & taxing where the major earthquake was hit, then the aircraft all of a sudden stopped, we waited for almost an hour, then the Captain announced due to the quake, everyone at the airport was evacuated, so no one will look after us. Hours & hours passed, most of the passengers like me, cell phone & laptop batteries ran out. I specifically spoke to one of the cabin crew that I need to make some important phone calls / SMS, can I use the power plug in the cockpit? Since NH 767 had dismantle all the power outlets from the toilets shaver plug & also without installed the power plug on its Business Class seats, their replied was simply "NO". No one can enter into cockpit, I told them you can take my phone & charger with you, I don't want to walk-in there, but their answer was still "NO". With baby crying, some elderly were very sick & ill so they were lying on the floor, but none of the NH crew more or less care for them, instead, it was our other passengers who tried to comfort them. We were on the tarmac for over 9+ hours, + the 5 hours flying time from HKG, that's over 14+ hours on a 767, all drinks & snacks went out of stock almost 2 hours after landed. We finally disembarked close to midnight, then none of the NH staff from the ground were telling us what to do next, it was us to chasing them how to settle our connecting flights, etc. No one nor any NH staff keep communicating with us, nor we were being well informed. When we stepped out the arrival hall, you can imagine all the floor space were occupied with stranded passengers sleeping, we can't even find a space to lying on nor finding any empty power socket to charge up our phones & laptops, then I went to the NH arrival lounge, unfortunately it was full house so they won't take any more guests, I told them can you help to charge my phone or laptop, they rejected as expected. As some of us were hungry to death, we were asking any meal voucher / drinks provided, but unfortunately none. We all thought that Japan is the country with most experiences of earthquake & well prepare for disaster like this, or a Crisis Management Team can handle situation like this, but we couldn't see any. We asked for sleeping bags & blankets since its 3 degree within the arrival hall due to the Narita Airport Authority turn off the heater & trying to save the energy, but it all ran out of stock as well. So no blankets, no sleeping bag, no floor space, what we were doing was just to wait & see.

On the next day morning around 6 ish, while you can imagine the queue to line up for NH / UA ticketing counter will take you almost 1.5 hours just to ask a single question, not to helping you to solving your missed connecting flight.

Then I was running around the terminal by myself in order to locate the SQ uniform ground staff, in order to catch up my SQ flight to LAX, & those SQ ground staff also got the wrong info which was feed by the NH ground staff from the beginning. NH was telling SQ that Mar 11 SQ12 747-400 landed in HND, & it will be refuel & depart to NRT soon, but later on SQ staff found out their SQ12 aircraft actually went to FUK instead, it will fly from FUK to NRT, which means it will take longer than we expect to depart again. It was SQ11 which was supposed to heading to SIN got diverted to HND, such mislead info also quite unacceptable for us with today's technology, how hard to locate an inbound / outbound aircraft.

My story was I wasn't 100% upset about NH, in compare to those victims that some of them died, some of them were homeless, got no place to stay, at least I got to stay in the arrival hall even not in a hotel nor any food was feed. I must say I'm the luckiest one that I survived in the quake.

But the lesson I learn from NH, I'll try to avoid flying with them again as I heard the other inbound passengers from HKG who took CX & JL where arrived at NRT also around 14:45, they all got well informed, allow to disembark around sunset, dinner treated, an hotel stay offered, etc...! I'm not trying to single out this is just one incident as I previous had some other bad experiences with NH in the past, where I also flown CX & JL into NRT before, I just can't imagine where NRT is NH home base & they can't do what they supposed to do in an efficient manner...!
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