We were contacted by a passenger whose flight had been cancelled due to snowstorms, and he had an urgent meeting in New York.
We arrived at the airport to assess the situation and found the airport in chaos with hundreds of frustrated passengers and harried members of staff trying to sort everybody out.
We knew that this particular airline had 4 flights a day from London Heathrow to New York: at 10am, 12pm, 4pm, and 6pm. The 10am flight uses the same aircraft that comes in from New York at 6am, and the 12pm flight arrives in from New York at approximately 9am.
Our passenger was booked on the 12pm flight, but that flight was cancelled due to snowstorms and have never left New York. The 4pm and 6pm flights were also cancelled. The only flight that had left New York was the one that was scheduled to leave London Heathrow at 10am. However, that flight had had a delay in New York the previous evening and therefore only landed at Heathrow late.
We immediately understood that as a result of the delayed arrival that the 10am flight would be delayed too. Our instincts were correct, and upon checking we noticed that the 10am flight was delayed and scheduled for departure at 1pm.
We took our passenger to the desk and asked the check-in clerk to put him on Flight Number XXX (which was the 10am flight). The clerk replied “that flight left at 10am.” We then explained that the flight had come in late from New York and was therefore now delayed until 1pm. She checked on her system, realised that we were correct, and managed to book our passenger on the 1pm flight.
Flyaison Case Involvement
- Our extensive knowledge of airline schedules allowed us to investigate the best possible alternatives.
- Airport and airline staff who had to deal with hundreds of passengers were happy that we manage to deal with at least one person.
- The passenger managed to make his urgent meeting in New York, something which would not have been possible without our intervention.
