Horrible experience with Flybe - most effective way to complain?

[Booboostwo]

DH, DD, DS and I were flying with Flybe today. I know it’s low cost airline but we paid €2,700 for our return tickets (short haul in Europe) so not really low cost and the way they treated us was appalling for any kind of airline. The short version is that’s I am looking for the most effective way to complain if anyone has any advice. Fuck off Daily Fail.

The long version:
The woman at the check in seemed to be in a bad mood, not too sure why. She had to come out from behind the desk to put a tag on DD’s wheelchair and she huffed and puffed about that, then tutted over DD’s walking aid (had been pre-booked with the assistance form so there was no reason for her attitude).

Then she weighed the hold luggage. One at 17.9, one at 11.7 and one at 25kg. She told us we had to pay £30 in excess luggage for the third one. I explained that the weight should be shared between the bags but she refused to accept that. I offered to show her the Flybe terms and conditions stating this but she refused.

Here they are if you are interested:
www.flybe.com/baggage/baggage-terms

I told her that Ryanair had been fined for exactly this violation and it was illegal but she said Flybe was not Ryanair.

She directed us to her supervisor in another desk but the supervisor refused to comment unless we waited in the queue to see her. There was a massive queue for the supervisor, we had already waited a very long time for check in so we decided to pay the fine.

As the third bag was being weighed I took a photo of the weight reading, just that and nothing else. At this point the woman lost it, shouted “That is it!” And went to get the supervisor. They refused us entry on the plane on the grounds that I had upset the woman when I told her she was doing something illegal.

I never shouted, nor was I rude, nor did I use swear words, nor was I threatening, and they didn’t claim that, they just said that the woman was upset from being told she was doing something illegal and therefore we couldn’t fly.

I apologized for upsetting her and she still wouldn’t let us travel until I deleted the photo, which was not of her. She said it was illegal to take photos in a secure area. Even then she had to think about whether she was willing to let us travel and she took her time to make her mind up. She was really awful.

For what it’s worth there were no signs saying photography is not allowed at check in, nor is there anything to say this at the Manchester airport website. Google suggests that even police officers do not have the right to make you delete a photo.

I want to complain not just about the baggage charge which was against their terms and conditions but also about the woman’s attitude and how she abused her position by threatening to refuse to let us travel.

Just to repeat, never during all this was I rude, or loud, or threatening in anyway and neither the woman nor the supervisor claimed that I was.

oh god, how stressful. I will make sure to never use that airline

Nessie you seem to understand the rules about as well as the check in lady! It’s a matter of consumer rights. Baggage can either go by weight in which case the total weight on the ticket counts or by item in which case the weight of each bag is irrelevant - both versions are restricted by the Health and Safety limit of 32kg.
The whole point of the Ryanair case was that you cannot charge someone for 92kg and not give them what they have already paid for.

We did not swap items in bags because by then they were only grudgingly allowed us to fly and I am not sure they would have let us. As it was it took us 2.5 hours to get from the car park to our seats in the plane and we were in different queues all the time - people sometimes underestimate how much more queuing you have to do for special assistance.

I doubt anyone is still interested in this but just in case anyone searched for how to complain against airlines at some point in the future...

I complained to Flybe using their complaints form. They replied rejecting my complaint and quoting their T&Cs which have changed since the time of my booking/flight! I pointed that out but they never replied.

So I had to wait 8 weeks before I could escalate the complaint to the AviationADR. Luckily I have a screen shot of the original T&Cs plus loads of other evidence which they require or else they don't consider the complaint (they make it quite difficult, so keep all receipts, correspondence, original tickets, etc.). They will now forward the complaint to the airline, wait for the airline to respond and then they have 90 days to respond to me.

Once I am finished with the Flybe refund, I will contact Manchester Airport to complain about their employees' behaviour.

Yes, I do not have anything better to do and yes, they rely on most people giving up.

Good on you Booboostwo.👏👏👏

Op, I would be so angry at someone tutting at me and I would definitely be complaining about that for sure. Anyone who has had any level of customer service training would know that most customers are arseholes (not you, I don't think), but you must remain calm and professional regardless. I hate being that customer that's nicer and politer than the person serving me and then having to go to my receptionist job just to have to deal with arseholes on the other side of the desk.

Sorry for typos

Good for you. I'm stunned someone upthread said 'all this for £30. Life's too short' as if you should have just shut up and put up.

I totally agree @poolblack, That was a really bad comment and I thought I must have hallucinated it. £30 can be a lot of money to some people, very inappropriate comment.

Individual weight for bags is usually 20 or 23 kg. I believe that the 23 kg maximum for bags is determined by the baggage handlers to avoid back problems from moving them. You should have been advised to move 3 kg from the heavier bag to the two lighter ones.

I would definitely take your story to the media. The bag check area is NOT a secure area. Quite the opposite in fact. And airline employees should not be able to hide behind ˋsecurity´ to conceal their own personal incompetence.

No, 32kgs is the health and safety weight limit.

I don’t fancy doing sad face for the Daily Fail!

It is typical Manchester airport,
The culture there is broken and not at all customer focused. Staff and I assume managers have forgotten that without passengers they wouldn’t have a job

The BA flyertalk is full of horror stories from Manchester and some of the most frequent BA flyers all agree that the culture is toxic.

Leeds Bradford is the complete opposite. I refuse to fly from Manchester.

Good for you for not letting it go. I wouldn't care how long it took either. That employee needs taking down a peg or two. She sounds horrid.

Have you looked into using Resolver for this? www.resolver.co.uk/companies/flybe-complaints

Might speed things up a bit for you?

You can also use this for Manchester airport complaints, or many other companies for that matter.

They generate correctly worded emails for you and refer to the right legislation etc. We have used them successfully before.

Manchester is where they took DD’s wheelchair away with the luggage but didn’t have an airport wheelchair for her because she was supposed to use her own...we waited 40 minutes extra on the plane for a wheelchair to turn up!

Thanks Cool, I’ll look into that.

It is typical Manchester airport,The culture there is broken and not at all customer focused.

I totally agree TiredOldTable it is a hateful place and I will happily add time to a journey to avoid it.

I'm not happy with Flybe at the moment. My DD's suitcase has been missing since Sunday. Because it was our return journey they won't let us apply for compensation until its been missing for 21 days but in the meantime we've had to buy new underwear, swimming stuff, and headphones without being sure how much we'll get back if anything - and that's before the substantial stuff - shorts, tops, dresses, night clothes that will need replacing in the longer term... not to add that we're not a suitcase short for visiting family next week

Sorry OP off topic - you were being a little bit unreasonable taking photos but not enough that shey should ahve denied you the flight. You are right to be furious.

Excess luggage charges apply to all hold bags which exceed the 23kg pre-booked allowance.

I am so confused. This is what it says in the link you've given - how did what the check-in woman said contradict that?

As TheOnlyLiving says the terms an conditions the Op links to clearly say that all bags over 23kg will incur a charge. The maximum permitted weight for a bag is 32kg. So there is an excess charge on all bags between 23 and 32kg. There is no mention on combining bags that I can see.

Not all airlines let you combine bags, I’m flying Aer Lingus today with three bags one can be up to 23kg the other two are up to 20kg, so if I had three that all weighed 21kg I’d pay an excess charge on two, even though I would be below my total weight allowance.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross the op has already said they’ve changed their policy in the 10 weeks since the incident. Fortunately she has screen shots of the original policy.

I see why I was confused, the OPs link is to the current rules, but when she posted in June it linked to the rules that applied then. The current ones say that it is the rules at the time of booking that apply, so the OP should have a good case (assuming that those rules allowed combined weights). Given that there is usually a significant gap between booking a flight and flying it seems unfair of the airline to to have a link to the older rules.

Yes, as above. They changed the rules between my booking/flight and now. I have a screen shot of the original rules, and when I complained to flybe they linked to different rules on another page (ones that did not apply to my booking). They then changed the rules.

Incidentally Ryanair used to have the same rules a few years back, were taken to court and lost because you can either charge by weight in which case the total weight matters, or you can charge by item in which case the weight doesn’t matter. This was a while back, not the recent Italian ruling that was reversed, but I can’t find it to link to. I suspect in good time, after Flybe has raked in the excess charges, they will be forced to change back.

Here are the T&Cs as they were when I booked, flew and complained.

Poor you and your family especially your dd. Manchester Airport is the pits, the staff are dreadful and seem to revel in their foulness. Keep going with your crusade!

Good for you OP for keeping going with your complaint. Your family were treated badly and many airlines/ airports make the complaint and refund process so difficult and time consuming- in an effort to stop people complaining I expect.

Manchester airport is the absolute pits (and I have flown in and out of hundreds of airports in my time) I always try to fly from Liverpool if I'm in the NW, always had a positive experience there.

This is getting really frustrating now.

Flybe have replied to the aviation complaints authority. They are claiming to have changed their T&Cs well before the date of my booking. They are also saying I have offered no proof for the date I took the photo of their T&Cs on their website, implying I am lying!

I have to admit I was not expecting that! They are incredible. How can they get away with this kind of behaviour?!