I know some of you have followed my Kulula saga on Twitter but I need to vent so here goes:
Dear Kulula,
I travel frequently, very frequently, and always with you. I have never had a problem with your service in the past. In fact, it has been exemplary. But then, I’ve always travelled from Lanseria. This time I could not fly from my favourite airport as we were coming to Knysna from George for a friend’s wedding so I had to fly out of OR Tambo. But this is not the reason you suck…
Our flight was scheduled to depart at 14h30 on Thursday 24 Feb. We got to the airport in a timely manner and checked in 1 hour before the flight. When checking us in, the lady behind the counter kept frowning, so much so I asked her what was wrong. She refused to tell us, just asked us to follow her – which we did. Despite repeated requests for her to explain to us what was going on, she ignored us. She lead us to a counter where 4 other Comair staff were standing. We asked them what was going on. Nothing. They just demanded our boarding passes and refused to explain why. By this time, 45 other poor sods had been led to the same counter and this is when we began to suspect the worst.
One member of your staff explained that George Airport was only accepting aircraft up to a certain weight, while another tore our boarding passes in half. The explanation went something like “We can’t land the bigger planes at George Airport and we’ve filled the small plane we have so you will all have to fly tomorrow”. Now, I had heard about all the problems with George Airport but had also heard that the CAA had changed the ruling on Tuesday and the airport was now able to accept planes as long as they have reverse thrust and anti-skid braking, which the Boeing 737’s that Kulula flies have. But nevertheless, that is not the reason you suck…
After trying to calm almost 50 very angry commuters down, your staff told us they had known about this problem since 12pm, but had neglected to call any of us to inform us we didn’t have to trek to ORT, only to be sent home again. Your staff offered us accommodation in a hotel to compensate, which about 20 of us accepted. We then waited over 30 minutes in a queue in the airport terminal just to be told what hotel we were going to. But that is not the reason you suck…
We were dragged across the whole (really big) airport to a public transport terminal to wait for busses to the hotel, there were pasengers over 70 who were made to walk with their luggage to the bus area without any offer of help from your staff. We got to the bus area and a shuttle arrived shortly after, which could only take half of us. So the other half waited for the next shuttle. And we waited. And waited. And waited. After 20 minutes, one of the other members of our very pissed off pity party went to ask your staff member to call the hotel and ask where the shuttle was. He didn’t reply, but put his cellphone to his ear and walked away. When he was done we asked “Well, where is the bus?….” He just shrugged and walked away from us. We stood around waiting for another 20 minutes until I thought to call the hotel myself. It turns out the bus had been standing next to us the whole time and your staff member failed to notice it!! (we, of course, had no idea what it looked like as it is not marked with the hotel’s name). I still do not know who your incompetant moronic staff member was calling but it certainly wasn’t the hotel as I found out about the bus from them in less than 5 minutes. We finally got on the bus and arrived at the hotel, but our rooms were not ready, we had to wait in the bar for a further 30 minutes (not the hotel’s fault, Kulula had from 12pm to alert them to our presence and didn’t – it was now 4pm). But this is not why you suck…
We finally left this morning at 08h30 (even though the plane was supposed to take off at 08h10), the flight to George was uneventful (thank goodness). We arrived in George and went to wait for our bags at the conveyer belt…. Yup, you guessed it Kulula, the bags never came. After all that, you lost our bags too. We reported the missing bags to one of your staff members, who was totaly unapologetic and indifferent. She told us she would investigate where the bags were and call us.
Now, dear reader, I’m sure you can imagine how incredibly angry, tired, frustrated and just plain pissed off we were at this point. How emotionally drained we felt. Well, I can tell you, Kulula doesn’t care.
All the way through this seemingly unending nightmare, Kulula did nothing but palm us off with an R800 flight voucher. It sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, between the accommodation, the car hire and the day’s work missed we were all needlessly paying for, it doesn’t even cover half. And Kulula, after what you did to us, after the apathy, the rudeness, the incompetence, the moronic, stupid, uncaring behaviour, from the woman at the check in counter who refused to give us info before palming us off to other incompetants, to the stupid jokes I had to listen to while I was on hold for 24 minutes while trying to reach your customer care (what a joke) line – you think that I really want to redeem that stupid R800 voucher?!? You think that I want to get my bags lost again and have to worry about attending my friend’s wedding in jeans and a t-shirt again?!? You are seriously mistaken. Kulula…. that is why you suck.
P.S. Through this hellish ordeal, a few shining lights kept us from physically assualting someone: Protea Hotel OR Tambo you are amazing. Your decor is delightfully quirky, your facilities tip-top and your service impeccable. And Avis Car rental in George airport (especially Nadine) for upgrading our car hire to make us feel better after hearing our story, you provoked a rare smile in an otherwise bleak day. Thank you.
As for Kulula – sorry, I have to say it again in case you haven’t gotten it yet…. YOU. SUCK.
P.P.S It is now 18h45 and we still do not have our bags. We landed at 10h10…..
