Don't Fly 'Fly Air'
I've had a lot of experiences on various airlines over the years, but none as bad as on Fly Air. Instead of leaving at the scheduled 7:30 pm on a Sunday, it left at 6 am the next day! Given this was for a two hour flight, a ten hour delay was ridiculous. It also meant that we were unable to make use of the first night of our hotel stay. That they didn't provide us with anyplace to stay at the airport only made things worse.
The return flight ended up being delayed a similar six hours, meaning that instead of arriving back at our origin around midnight, we got back after sunrise, ruining another day of travel. While waiting to board we were switched from an empty air conditioned gate to a packed gate (with other passengers waiting for other delayed flights) that lacked air conditioning. When we did finally get to board we found ourselves on the tarmac, along with the luggage that we had checked, and had already passed through at least 2 x-ray machines. For "security purposes" we were to find our bags, which were in no order, and pass them to the airline employees to be loaded onto the plane.
After arriving home we contacted the travel agent who had arranged this mess, and requested a refund. Full was preferred, but partial would be acceptable. The response was:
hello
i was very upset to hear that your trip turned out to be dissapointing.
i can understand your annoyment.
however, unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it.
it is known that with charters and packages, there is always a risk of schedule changes and delays and that's why these packages are so cheap.
i will forward your complaint to the airline, but i do not expect too much of an answer or refund.
best regards
belli
benzvitravel
Well, there might have been nothing Belli could do about it, but I could. I filed a credit card dispute. I had planned ahead for this situation, having taken photographs of the departure/arrival signs to show just how late we really took off and landed, as well as securing a copy of our "Hotel Voucher," the only document that showed we were to receive 4 nights in the hotel. The submitted claim was processed fairly promptly by MBNA, though they requested documentation of the price of the hotel per night. I had no way of showing the rate the travel agent was paying, but I had taken a picture of the rack rates at the hotel, though the credit card company wanted something more formal. After some effort, I was able to find the hotels website which also listed the rack rates. Shortly thereafter $102 were credited to my account.
While I wasn't able to go after Fly Air directly, I did succeed in getting some vindication. My recommendation, avoid Fly Air.