ollylolly
May 7, 12, 11:55 am
I wanted to fly from the UK to Italy to pick up my daschund dog olly.after searching different airlines coming up with nothing mainly because of expense I stumbled upon swiss-air and decided to give them a call,to my great surprise I was told that small dogs that weighed less than 8kgs (including soft carrier)were indeed allowed to fly.I wanted to fly back from milan malpensa to manchester and was told that indeed this was possible to book but I would have to call back within 48hrs to confirm the booking for olly.24hrs later I called and I will add that I was actually shaking because olly meant everything to me and I was scared that I would be told it woud'nt be possible.I was elated when they said that the booking was confirmed and I asked several times if it was absoloutley sure.Yes yes yes!!! as long as I had a soft bag for him that did not exceed the weight limit and he had his full pet-passport,was not noisy or smelly I could go ahead choose my flights,book it which I did immediatley over the phone with the representative and that I would receive email confirmation.On checking the email there was no mention of the dog which I had paid for so I called them back once again.I was again reassured and told that animals do not have seperate tickets and that olly was flying as hand luggage.There was more than a month before I flew and I must have called at least 5times with silly questions about the bag or size restrictions just to make sure that he was indeed booked to fly with me.I did not receive my E-tickets until the evening before departure and had made several phone calls regarding this.When the time to fly back was imminent my son said he would accompany me as I am disabled and he would be there to help me with baggage etc.I booked him on the same flight as us and he had taken 5days leave from work just to make sure I would be ok.on arriving at check-in the day of departure we were informed after they had made 100s of calls regarding this that olly could not fly,we were told that animals could not fly aboard and that we would have to send him as cargo and fly into heathrow.I was devastated and in tears we had just left the car in a secure parking lot 15mins away from the airport because we had driven from turin.We had to go to customer services and arrange a pet handler for olly to fly and that they would transfer me on to a flight 5days later,olly's documents were faxed to the handler and there was nothing we could do except go home and hope that olly would later be confirmed to fly on this date on the same flight as myself but in the hold.I was totally in bits my son would not be able to accompany me as he could not get any more days off(we were promised a refund for his flight)On arriving back to my sons home my daughter called to say she had been on to swiss-air from the uk and that a supervisor would be in touch as they had admitted that it was their fault that the booking for olly had been made in error and that they were so sorry for my plight and that they would take care of everything,look after me on arrival at heathrow,take me to the animal reception centre after clearing customs as this was about 15mins by car from terminal4 and I was in terminal1,and because it would be after 11pm approx before I could collect olly they would then accompany me to a hotel that my daughter had booked an overnight stay for me and olly as it was late and I was very tired because the next day I had to travel by train from london euston to Blackpool which is the north=west of england and my home town.We were promised a complete refund of all expenses and this was expressed to my daughter and myself many times over by different reps of swiss-air before leaving and on the actual day of travel.None of what was said happened apart from wheel-chair assistance from the aircraft to collect my baggage.I came out of arrivals looking for whoever it was from swiss-air that should have been waiting for me as promised but after 10mins of looking around no-one was there.I went to the information desk to find out where the swiss air desk was and went up to speak to them.At first the 2reps pretended not too know anything about this and informed me they had no staff to help me,my daughter called at that moment and she was furious when I told her that no-one was there to meet me and wanted to speak with someone behind the desk,I put her on and they told her the same thing but then another lady rep came out and after hearing bits of the conversation I heard her say to the other chap that they had informed their collegues the day before that they would not have provided me any assistance as there was no staff to help.I had to get a taxi to the hto go and collect olly.Thanks to the kindness of the driver I managed to get to customs and the animal centre where he waited for me on both occasions then took me back to the hotel.I was totally exhausted that evening and because I am disabled it took about a fortnight to get over the upset and ordeal.I emailed swiss-air twice but no reply,I wanted to write a letter of complaint and to send all the receipts to be reimbursed.Eventually after calling the call centre again they gave me an address in switzerland and I posted everything by recorded delivery and as of yet I have not received any acknowlegment whatsoever.Im fuming does anyone out there no of anything more I can do?BEWARE BOOKING FLIGHTS WITH PETS WITH SWISS-AIR.I flew back on 05.03.2012