India-based Airlines - Stopped from boarding - Appendicitis. But difficult to get a new flight (Jet Airways)

Hi all.

On 6th March I checked in for a flight with Jet Airways at LHR. After check in I had to see a paramedic due to sudden onset of pain. I was told I could not fly and I was sent to hospital. I had appendicitis :(
My flight was cancelled for me by airport security.

I was told I would be given a new flight.
I have contacted the airline and been given conflicting views on this. First they offered me a new flight on the 15th March but I'd told them I cannot fly until after the 19th when the doctor has removed my stitches.
I was then told I have to go to the Duty Officer at LHR to see about a flight (a 1 way trip of 280 miles). They refused to tell me if this would be standby or an actual flight on the day.

A second call to the airline to clarify and I am now told I have to pay £100 to change the flight date and over £300 for a new ticket. They say this was not a medical emergency so I have to pay :mad:

They will not let me talk to customer services or give me a number for the duty officer.

What are my rights? Can someone advise me please?

Have you read their contract of carriage?

What part of "not a medical emergency" is appendicitis??

What part of "not a medical emergency" is appendicitis??
The appendix hadn't yet burst.

The appendix hadn't yet burst.

You almost beat me to it. My reply is "he didn't die inflight."

That's absolutely wrong that they won't even let you talk to people.

What are their rules? I don't have any idea...but it definitely sounds like it needs to get escalated to someone in customer service who has the whole story.

I had to cancel a flight due to medical reasons a couple years ago...the airline was kind enough to waive change penalties, but I definitely had to pay the going fare when I used the flight credit. (e.g., the 300 pounds in your case.)

Not sure if you 'tweet' but I've seen customer service problems become resolved VERY quickly once the info gets put on twitter. I've had issues with two companies where multiple emails/phone calls/etc. result in absolutely nothing, but within a day of putting it on twitter everything is magically fixed and I get an apology.

Have you read their contract of carriage?

I cannot see an actual terms of carriage.
I have also looked through many pages of their site and nothing I can see relates to a medical emergency that occurs after check in.
All I can reiterate is that the medical staff and security staff both informed me not to be concerned because I would be allocated another flight at no expense. This was stated again after I had been given my boarding passes back and my checked in baggage chit with the words "offloaded due to medical" written on them.

Not sure if you 'tweet' but I've seen customer service problems become resolved VERY quickly once the info gets put on twitter. I've had issues with two companies where multiple emails/phone calls/etc. result in absolutely nothing, but within a day of putting it on twitter everything is magically fixed and I get an apology.

No, I do not tweet, I'm afraid. But I am looking at various angles on this, that is part of the reason I am here :)

Let your travel / flight insurance handle this. Sit back and relax while the carrier takes care of it. What they get paid for.

Please continue this discussion in the Airlines of India Forum.
Thanks...
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Why was this moved to the Airlines of India forum?

edit: Never mind, I see that it was about a flight on 9W.

Although the OP's experience was with 9W, are the questions raised really India-specific?

The OP's questions are specific to the terms of contract between a passenger and 9W. Given that, it seems like this AoI the right forum.

Did you have travel insurance? If so you can get higher costs paid for. Also
If you have all documents contact local jet office with copies of your boarding pass and medical reports they have to waive off all penalties and offer you a replacement. I don't know about change in fare though but penalties wouldn't apply and in case you had insurance your higher fare might be covered.
Hope you are wellnow!

Air India has to cover you. All of that boilerplate language on the ticket is probably the same on all other airlines and I'm pretty sure you have a good cause to assert either (a) full refund of your ticket (minus possible taxes...etc.) or (b) rebook on same service for same destination.

Air India has to cover you.

Not sure why AI would cover a passenger that had absolutely nothing to do with them.

First they offered me a new flight on the 15th March but I'd told them I cannot fly until after the 19th when the doctor has removed my stitches.

when they offered you a ticket on the 15th, do you have that in writing or was this over the phone????

All I can reiterate is that the medical staff and security staff both informed me not to be concerned because I would be allocated another flight at no expense.

That's great, but those guys have absolutely zero connection to 9W. They were probably explaining what they genuinely thought should occur and, frankly, as a human response to a real medical emergency, it seems totally reasonable.

But...what those guys said isn't really a strong leg to stand on with the airline. I still think you have a situation where the original customer service rep (who sounds awful from your OP) didn't believe a medical issue took place.

I still think you need to get in contact with someone at the airline who is empowered to make real problem-solving decisions. Once you have reached that person, and are certain that they fully understand your situation (maybe you will have to email scans of medical paperwork - I don't know), I suspect they'll be more helpful.

Whether or not they contractually owe you anything I don't know. That answer might be no.

Not that is helps you but your story reminds me of when a friend and I were flying ATL-FLL and I suddenly felt very ill during the flight. At the time, I thought it was food poisoning.

We picked up my car rental and drove to the hotel. I still felt like crap and self-diagnosed myself with appendicitis after reading a couple of articles on the net.

My friend drove me to the emergency room and 8 hours later I had my appendix removed and was back in my hotel room. I ended up flying back to Atlanta the next day and then to ZRH 4 days later.

TK,

In which jurisdiction was the ticket booked?
I reckon you would have some protection if the tkt was booked in the EU / UK. Do check on that angle too.

You don't actually have to file a claim / complaint with the Civil Aviation authorities - merely informing the airline that you would approach them in case of a non-satisfactory resolution is enough to get them to agree.

(I'd used this approach with a credit card co., and got a long-running dispute resolved when I politely informed them that their senior executives are personally liable under SOX in the US. The speed of response and resolution was amazing !).

Best of luck.

Nomdeplume

After reading this thread, it does appear to be extremely poor form on behalf of Jet Airways.

Yes, they technically, legally, by the book, do not have to owe you anything but surely from a customer service point of view, they would honour the original ticket and waive the extra cost. You only got offloaded due to medical advice from the paramedics not because you chose to come off because you had a sniffle.

Another problem is that Jet Airways (like other indian based companies) do not empower local staff to make decisions like waiving charges (even though it is the most logical and positive PR thing to do). I bet Jet Airways (London) probably have to get some big wig in Mumbai to authorise it.

Several phone calls now and they will not let you speak to a supervisor at all.
The altenative e-mail I found out have replied and now they are not responding.
Calling the offices in India is defunct as the number rings several times then gives an engaged tone. Not cheap to phone India from the UK.

Barclays Visa are refusing to help as they say I have not been denied service.

I am currently awaitng responses from several other places but I am not holding out a lot of hope.

I think the upshot of all this is to try and get a refund, book with another airline and never ever use Jet Airways again. Not simply because of their refusal to change the flight without excess cost, but as much because of their attitude and the total lack of response and help available to customers.

Other forums I am a member of all have travel sections in them and none have had this type of problm - maybe because a denial of boarding due to a medical emergency is a rare thing.

What I will endeavour to do is make sure my voice is heard is to post about this experience so others may decide not to use Jet airways and favour a better carrier who have better customer service.

In this day and age you should not expect such bad customer service where you cannot even talk to a supervisor of some sort to be allowed to understand your options.

BTW thanks for all your replies on this so far. They have been taken on board.

I'll update when / if I hear something further.

Hi,

I am sorry to hear regarding the experience.

Have you checked the fare rules?

It would have stated whether there is a waiver in case of medical illness ( even at the airport ) applicable or not?

If not, you are most likely not entitled to get the same and you are on the mercy of the airline to make an exception.

I am not against your thought, however be advised Jet Airways is a running a Business.Trust me most of the airlines, would be on the same lines ( unless they clearly states waivers in fare rules, true for most of the flights i took on KLM or AF ). What you need to contact the Jet Airways office along with the documents and expect the best. You might have to pay the difference in price.

You cannot blame Jet Airways as they are not making an exception. If an exception could be done for you, why not for everyone ( though this medical emergency is unexpected at the airport ). Most of the people who make a change, it's mostly due to medical or unfortunate incidence and insurance would cover that.

The people that assured you are not a part of Jet Airways customer service and no way to access your booking.

If you have insurance, you could claim the amount from them. If not, then you have to bite the bullet and pay whatever they are asking and swear that you would not mind spending few additional bucks to secure your travel.

Again, i am not blaming you, however you are asking for an exception from an airline. As i said, think twice - if an exception could be done for you, why can't for someone else.Most of them do make a change due to the similar reason. Why insurance companies are there in the market?

Though my experience with Jet, i am almost certain they would not allow any refund for non refundable tickets ( i am assuming that you don't have any status with them ) .

What you need to do is to post the fare basis from your ticket or check the fare rules and then make a decision.

Thanks and Regards
taran_2005

I am not against your thought, however be advised Jet Airways is a running a Business.

Based on the OP's account of his interaction with Jet Airways, they appear to be poorly running a business.

Usually on FT, when we see "the airlines have a business to run", it's said to justify when an airline chooses to strictly enforce some element of their contract. Sometimes I agree with that...other times I think of my own clients and how situations arise that cause me to purposely allow a provision in our contract to slide in their favor because it's either the right thing to do or better for the relationship in the long run.

But in any case, even if Jet's contract doesn't provide any waivers for exceptions for medical issues, and even if Jet purposely chooses to enforce its published rules as-is, their client service still sucks and frankly it makes me, as a reader of this story, unlikely to use them unless I have to.

I'm currently holding one ticketed Jet itin. Short-haul and cheap R/T out of DEL...hopefully so bread-and-butter that I don't need to talk to any human about a problem with it. (So cheap that if I have to change plans, I'll probably just abandon it rather than start making phone calls to get something out of it.) But it's still a little unsettling to know that this airline truly does not have any kind of modern or competent customer service apparatus in place to respectfully handle problems in a prompt and fair manner.

But it's still a little unsettling to know that this airline truly does not have any kind of modern or competent customer service apparatus in place to respectfully handle problems in a prompt and fair manner.

That is increasingly the case, and the incompetence of their staff grows every day (generalisation here, of course).

However, the difference between you or I deciding to accommodate a client and Jet being able to do so isn't only to do with their cluelessness. I suspect the minions one must deal with are neither in possession of the knowledge nor the authority to make such a decision.

Take any combination of knowledge, ability and authority and something will be missing. And who knows, they might be threatened with dire consequences for even the slightest slip!

Either way though, same end result : abysmal customer service.