Originally Posted by
kingbat
Looks like Cathay dropped the ball in London .... and abandoned it's passengers....
Report from The Times:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/weathe...cle2849440.ece
Passenger Sue Kerslake and her three young grandchildren spent the night on a terminal floor at Heathrow after their flight to Hong Kong was cancelled.
She told the BBC she arrived at the airport at 8am yesterday and sat on a Cathay Pacific plane for seven hours before being told it was not taking off.
“We were told to get off the plane at 7.30pm and no one from the airline has dealt with us since,” she said.
“There were thousands of people in departures overnight and it got quite intense at times. The bars were open and some people were drinking and got quite nasty.”
Passengers were handed foil blankets and mats to sleep on. Passengers complained that it was a “free-for-all’ to get bedding, and that they had not received food vouchers from their airlines. Crates of bottled water were placed around the terminal.
Stranded pax currently sleep at the airports all over Europe (LHR, LGW, CDG, FRA,..). I can understand the frustration, but I fail to see what CX has to do with this. Should they store beddings just in case?.
Dozen of thousands are accomodated in airport halls all over Europe and the "lodging" is handled by the airport, not individual airlines. Supplies, including food, is often short as roads are also snowed in. Some European airports seem better prepared than others (e.g. FRA), but the order of magnitude of the emergency might be different at different airports.
I am wondering whether a F class CX passenger has yet asked for F-quality airport bedding as he deserves. This is a joke but, frankly, accusing the airline because some people in the hall are drunk is typical journalist stuff.