Day 1 - Flight to Cuba

12 Nov 2010, Friday - finally the time has come to leave the murky winter of UK behind and off to warm, humid conditions in Cuba. Just about to finish last minute packing before i airport.

IB 3175 - 12:15(LHR) - 15:35(MAD)

IB 6621 - 17:00(MAD) - 21:10(HAV) 

Hope to update this page tonight with pics of the group, flight etc.

CLICK BELOW TO READ ON....

Day 1 – 12th November 2010-11-12

What should have been a 13 hour flight to Havana, via Madrid, turned out to be over 48 hours, due to Iberia and their sheer negligence in managing transit passengers.

Flight IB 3175 due to take of from London at 12:15, finally ended up taxing by 2:00pm, and as expected missed the connecting flight from Madrid to Havana at 5:00 PM.

The flight from London landed Madrid by 5:05, and by the time it came to a halt at the designated gate, it was 5:15PM. By this time I was almost certain that I had already missed my flight and in turn the chance of being in Cuba on time. The steward aboard Flight 3175, kept my hope high that perhaps I could get a flight to Miami and then onward to Havana. Only a miracle could get me to Havana on time.

On board, an announcement was made that all passengers with a ‘RSU’ on their boarding pass, needs to wait on board and would have to exit form the rear exit. By the time this happened and exited from the rear exit, onto a waiting aero bus, it was way over 5:30 PM. The trip to the RSU terminal (later I came to know this was Terminal 4S, as in a Satellite terminal) was around 10 minutes. Upon entering the terminal, it was completely deserted and no proper explanation of where to go, or rather where to run.

Finally saw an ‘I’ board, and sought for some information. Was told to go to gate U55, In Spanish, and the person muttered something else, which I figured was that ‘all the best mate, your flight is long gone.!’

Made my way to U55, and to my surprise, saw nobody there – absolutely nobody.! I heard a ‘Por Favour’ from behind, and saw a sweeper saw point towards an Iberia information desk.

This was the beginning of a 2 hour discussion of what needed to be done next. The first person I spoke to (didn’t get her name and didn’t want to either) seemed clueless and rude -  a lethal combination and one which did not help my situation at all. The options given to me by her were:
•    The flight has gone; the next best thing to be done was to wait until the next flight, the following day.
o    This meant that I would have to sleep on a seat inside the terminal and spend the next 24 hours, as I was not able to go out of the airport to any hotel accommodation as I did not have a Spanish visa to enter into Spain. I was not even offered a business class lunge to sleep as my ticket was on economy.

I found this ridiculous and could not believe what I was hearing. As always, I kept my calm and put forward another plan which I thought to be sensible at that time – fly me back to London and we restart the same flight schedule the next day.

She seemed to agree to this idea. I tried to get her to put me up at a hotel In London Heathrow, instead of me getting back all the way home, to which she said “No possible” quite frustrated at this point I agreed to get back to London. Whilst doing this, she noticed that it was time for her break, and explained the entire scenario to another colleague (Javier)  of hers, who had to restart the entire re-booking procedure.

In the mean time, I had notified the tour operator (David) in Cuba, and he was quite helpless, and said that he would rearrange everything possible for me the next day.

Switching Back to Madrid, Javier seemed to be much more helpful and felt for me. He tried his level best to put me on any connection available to get me to Cuba in the shortest possible time. The only issue here was I COULD only fly Iberia as I was stuck in this 4S terminal, and could not move terminals – something I have never heard o f in any other airports, I could be wrong though..

But there was no luck in finding any connection to take me to Havana, and finally decided to get back to London. Javier, in the mean time even sent a telex to London to ask them o provide me with hotel accommodation.

So here I am on the flight back to London writing about my experience with Iberia, instead of writing about how amazing Havana is. Until now I have not been offered any thing to eat or drink..!

 Hopefully would get back in to the game tomorrow. Hoping for the best.

Do tune in for the next update on this blog.

Until then...adios!

Letter to Iberia:

·        Reached airport at 09:15 as required by the tour organising company (Charity Challenge). Met the group I was travelling with, a quick introduction with few of the members as well. Jo Warren arrived 5 minutes later and handed us our travel packs. We were then told to proceed to check in individually.

·        At the check in counter, I was offered an earlier flight at 10:55 (IB3163), but I thought I should stay with the stipulated flight, in order to avoid any confusion and told the attended that I would stick to my original booking (IB3175). At this point there was no indication of flight being delayed.

·        Went through departure gates immediately, walked around the duty free area and finally decided to do some work on my laptop finding a place near a plug point.

·        At 10:25 I noticed that IB3175 that was supposed to take of at12:15, was delayed until 13:00.

·        On seeing this, I went over to the boarding gate where IB3163 was boarding and bought to their notice that I had a connecting flight at 17:00 from Madrid, and my flight to Madrid is delayed by 45 minutes, and whether it would be possible for me to board IB3163 earlier. Unfortunately as I had a checked in baggage, I was not allowed to do that and was asked not to worry, a s Iberia would have to consider that and take care of it.

·        At 12:15, a further delay and the new proposed time to take off was 13:25. At this point, I was very concerned and went over to the Iberia travel information desk inside the terminal. The Iberia representative indicated that my flight was expected to take off at 13:25, hence arriving at Madrid at 16:15, still sufficient time to catch my connecting flight.

·        Flight IB3175 started boarding at 13:40 and the flight started taxiing at 14:05, and finally took off at 14:15.

·        At this point, I was almost certain that I would miss my connecting flight.

·        I immediately, on board, bought this point to the flight stewards’ attention, who advised me that Iberia, at Madrid would take care of it. He said that he would try and do everything possible to inform them, so as to come to a possible solution.

·        As my flight (IB3175) approached Madrid, it was certain that I would miss my flight, and an alternate arrangement would be made over at Madrid airport. I was told of a possibility of flying me over to Miami, that night, and from there a connecting flight over to Havana.

·        Upon landing in Madrid, I was asked to wait for all passengers to disembark, and exit from the rear of the flight, from where I would be taken on a bus to the RSU (Terminal 4 S) terminal. By the time the bus ride was over and reached RSU terminal, it was 5:25 PM.

·        There was no clear indication upon arrival at the terminal where we (there were 6 other passengers who had all missed or almost missed their connecting flights due to the delay, but nobody else to Havana) were supposed to proceed.

·        Finally saw a person sitting near an information point, who sympathetically told me that I had missed my connecting flight, but nevertheless asked me to got gate U55.

·        Upon reaching U55, there was nobody near the vicinity except for a sweeper, who, in Spanish, advised me to go to an Iberia information kiosk adjacent to the gate.

·        This is where the truth unfolded. There was no arrangement made for me to proceed from here. This is where my survival instincts kicked in and tried and remain calm. It was then I realised that the rest of the group were on the other flight, and on the way to Havana, except Me.!

·        The options offered to me were to catch the next flight the same time the next day. But the catch here was since I did not have a valid Spanish visa, I would be UNABLE to leave terminal 4s, and hence would have to sleep, eat and drink on a seat anywhere on the deserted terminal, for the next 24 hours.

·        This was completely unacceptable and tried to persuade them to put me on any other connecting flight to the Americas, and perhaps take a connecting flight from there to Cuba. After checking out various possibilities, the answer was negative.

·        I then put forward an option to the Iberia representative (Javier) if whether I could be flown back to London for the night and be given hotel accommodation near Heathrow for the night.

·        He agreed to this and I also got it confirmed that my return flight the next day was all confirmed and boarding passes issued.

·        This entire process was complete by 19:15, and in time for me to board the next flight out of Madrid, back to London – IB3178, taking off at 19:55.

·        At this point, we must note that I have not had anything to drink or eat, since my breakfast in the morning.

·        Javier felt for me, and provided me with snack voucher that was ONLY valid inside the airport, not on the flight.

·        This was too late, as my flight was about to leave, and was whisked away onto the bus and onto the flight.

·        I told of my situation to the flight attendant who pitied my situation, and handed my some peanuts and water for the journey.

·        Reached back London at 21:20. And finally I was greeted by an Iberia representative at the gate who agreed to be with me until my issue was resolved. FINALLY some customer service.

·        She herself was shocked at the way I was treated and saw to it that everything was arranged.

·        Got my hotel at the IBIS for the night. Reached and checked into the hotel at 23:00.

·        Had to pay for the internet connectivity, as I wanted to get this letter out to Iberia as soon as possible.

·        Now waiting to catch my flight to Cuba the next day.

·        IB3163 – LHR(10:55) – MAD(13:30)

·        IB6621 – MAD(17:00) – HAV (21:10)

Inconveniences and extra expenditure this has caused me:

·        1 day lost and missed out on a crucial team briefing and city tour of Havana.

·        Extra internet charges at the Hotel (IBIS)

·        No food the whole day – got dinner at 23:00 (GMT) from Hotel IBIS.

Iberia Response:

Dear Mr RAMASWAMY,

I acknowledge receipt of your letter and wish to thank you for contacting us and for sending us your comments concerning flight IB 3175 of november 12, 2010.

Punctuality is one of our principal objectives and is one that we strive to achieve at all times. This is because we are aware that for our customers it is highly important to be able to travel with the reassurance that they are guaranteed to reach their destination at the foreseen time. On occasions, however, exceptional situations arise which mean we are not able to offer our normal service. This was the case with your flight, delayed owing to air traffic, which affected to the schedule of the aircraft that was to cover your route.

When situations such as these arise we offer our customers all necessary assistance, including meals and refreshments, accommodation and the right to make telephone calls, in accordance with the Regulation EC 261/2004 of the European Union and the Council of Europe, which establishes common rules governing assistance to be given to passengers in cases of delays of two hours or more.

Given that the rules in force make no provision for compensation to be paid, under the terms of our Quality Commitment we offer members of our Iberia Plus loyalty programme compensation in the form of points. The number of points awarded depends on the length of the delay, the route and the fare paid, and they are credited to our customer s account automatically.

I apologize once again for any inconvenience we may have caused you and hope that your next flights with us prove to be fully satisfactory.



Yours sincerely,


Inmaculada Iglesias
Customer Care Assistant Manager

If you wish, you may respond to this e-mail via our web-page www.iberia.com, by clicking on the "Information" tab and then on "Customer service" or write to us at P.O. Box 36.315, 28080 Madrid, Spain.  This message is private. If you are not the named addressee, please notify us immediately.