A truly horrible experience. I was visiting from Australia in August 2015 and spent one night on Guernsey visiting an old friend. My outward journey had been with Flybe and was pleasant and uneventful; sadly, my return journey was with Blue Islands. Both flights had been booked online through Opodo on 20 April 2015 - 4 months before the trip. On the afternoon of my departure, my friend took me to the airport in plenty of time for my 16.15 flight back to Southampton. I checked in and was given my Boarding Pass. A little later than scheduled, we were called to board our flight and all left the Departure Lounge. We stood for half an hour with no information about why we weren't boarding the plane. Eventually somebody came and told us that "the technical fault is much worse than we thought". As this was the first we had heard about a technical fault, we were somewhat surprised. Another 40 minutes later, three of the passengers were called to the desk, myself being one of them. We were informed that the plane couldn’t fly, that the replacement plane was smaller and therefore three of us were being thrown off the flight with no promise of when we would be put on another flight. We all had boarding passes in our hands. I asked how they had chosen which passengers to evict and was told that we had been the last three to check in. I asked whether we had all checked in within the required time period and the staff confirmed that yes, we had indeed checked in within that time. When I asked to speak to a Duty Manager I was told that all Blue Islands staff in Guernsey had been made redundant and so there was no staff member available to speak to. I finally boarded a flight at 9.15 that night, got back to Southampton at 10. The person who had been going to meet me at 5.00 could not come at that time so I then paid 30 pounds for a taxi to Portsmouth as it was late and I was a 60 year old woman alone and did not want to start looking for trains. And in the 5 hours than I spent hanging around after my scheduled departure, they did not supply me with so much as a bottle of water. That night I had been going to have dinner with my niece who was leaving the UK early the next morning. Obviously I didn’t see her. I hadn’t seen her for two years and have no idea when I next will. Avoid at all costs.
Solo Leisure |
Economy Class |
Guernsey to Southampton |
August 2015 |
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no |