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An open letter to Norwegian Airlines on behalf of the passengers you left stranded in Florida

This is the email I sent to Chief Customer Officer Edward Thorstad on returning to the UK following two extra nights stuck in Fort Lauderdale:

I appreciate you’re a busy man and cannot possibly hear about every customer complaint you get. But I thought you might find it valuable to hear about and the unacceptable treatment of some of the passengers you left stranded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for two nights as a result of a 34 hour delay.

Our original flight (no.DY7046) was originally due to leave Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 10pm local time on Friday 16th February. Here is the series of events that unfolded and some additional points which may or may not have occurred to you:

Friday

10:30pm ET: The pilot tells us that the plane has burst two tyres during push back due to metal debris the ground staff had failed to clear from the runway. The plane will not fly tonight and will be delayed a minimum of 12 hours. We are to leave the plane and go back to check in to receive further instructions.

Assuming that this really was the fault of the ground staff, this is completely acceptable. Safety first at all times, and what a relief to find out before taking off. We also appreciate that as a low cost airline without a partner network you can’t just find another plane at short notice. But this letter is not about the cause or length of the delay but the way this was handled by your customer services department (if you have one, it’s actually quite hard to tell).

Saturday

12:30am: As the majority of passengers could not return home, the queue for hotel vouchers is very long. There are no representatives of Norwegian to help us as you have left the airport’s check in agents to handle the fallout from having to house a plane full of tired, thirsty passengers. It takes them over an hour to work out that they should probably prioritise families with young children and those that need special assistance. No one goes to get bottles of water for those queuing which they cannot now buy themselves because the rest of the airport is closed, despite numerous people making that suggestion. Communication from those in charge is very poor and is doing nothing to help the general mood in the terminal.

Was it not even possible for one of the flight crew to spend a few minutes speaking to passengers? While the airport staff didn’t cover themselves in glory, they were clearly not best pleased to have to stay late to clear up your mess.

1:30am: Most of us now have our vouchers and our checked bags have finally emerged (how did that take 3 hours?). Transport is arranged to take us to local hotels to get some sleep so we can come back for the flight, which has now been rescheduled for 5pm (this is now Saturday of course). This was confirmed by text message because I booked my flight with you directly. It wasn’t received by those who booked through third parties. I finally get in to my room at The Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood Beach around 2am, but I understand others were even later because there a big queue to check in to the hotel was forming.

Bed for the night, flight rescheduled for tomorrow — all seems as well as it can be though we will all be a day late getting back to our families, friends, and scheduled appointments. Not so good for Rick who was supposed to catch a connecting flight to Belfast, or the American gentleman who was only due to be in the UK for a few days.

10am: My breakfast consists of a belvita bar, a black coffee, and a banana, which in The Diplomat comes to $9, just under the claimable amount of $10 in a hotel where a garden salad cost $14.

11am: I ask for a later check out. I have my room until 1.30, ideal for leaving for the airport to catch the 5pm flight.

11:48am: I receive a text from Norwegian saying that the flight has a new number (now DY7948) but you cannot confirm the new estimated departure time. I check my e-ticket and it now says 05:00 Sunday.

1:30pm: My second visit to the reception desk as I now need an extra night in the room. I’m told I can stay until further notice.

It’s well over 12 hours since the first cancellation, but the only contact from Norwegian is by text message and through the website. Do you not have a single representative in Florida? Even a phone call with a real human being would have been welcome at this point given we are stranded for a second night running. It’s 25degrees and sunny outside but everyone is utterly miserable and feeling very let down.

5pm: I return to my room to find my keycard doesn’t work. The concierge (showing no empathy whatsoever) informs me that I have been checked out. A member of hotel security escorts me to my room. He’s more understanding so he gives me 5mins to grab a quick shower and pack up my things. In general though, we are treated with apathy at best and contempt at worst by the staff at the hotel front desk. A further message from Norwegian tells me that you are struggling to find hotel rooms in the area and suggests we make alternate reasonable arrangements and submit a claim later.

6pm: I have spent the last hour queuing to get back to reception to find out there are no rooms in the hotel. A thorough search of all the main bookings sites brings back nothing within a 20mile radius under £800.

Saturday evening: I soon discover I’m not the only one who’s been unceremoniously kicked out of their room. With nowhere else to go, we’ve accepted the fact we’re just going to have to wait it out. A group of around 20 displaced Brits, including a family with young children, have now set up a ‘base camp’ in an area of the hotel lobby and people are grabbing some sleep on the sofas if they can. A kind gentleman who did have a room for the night gave it to a couple as the lady was in a wheelchair. He said he couldn’t have slept knowing that people with greater need were effectively homeless.

How do you feel about the fact that children and people with disabilities were kicked out of their hotel rooms and left with nowhere to go? I hope you feel utterly ashamed.

11:30pm: The hotel staff haven’t asked us to leave and the security guards have been friendly so I assume we’re OK to stay until we need to get back to the airport. I collapse into a chair and doze off.

Sunday

1:30am: One of the passengers at ‘base camp’ wakes me up saying they have heard that the flight is now leaving at 5am not 7am. Not wanting to risk missing it, we grab our things and head back to the airport.

2:30am: The flight isn’t leaving until 7am but we’re not even the first people in the queue for check-in.

6am: The flight crew are here so it looks like the plane is (hopefully) going to leave soon.

7am: We were supposed to be taking off but in reality we’re still boarding.

7:30am: Your very embarrassed pilot informs us there will be a further delay as the ground crew have made a mistake tagging the bags. Groans all round. The icing on the cake.

Sometime just after 8am: We finally take off and there is a huge sense of relief around the cabin. I’m amazed that in economy class we’re still expected to pay for our own drinks, blankets and food for the flight. I was planning to write this letter on the flight but I’m so tired, homesick and delirious that I don’t want to write anything or speak to anybody.

Surely one round on Norwegian by way of apology wouldn’t have broken the bank? I assume you’ll sue the airport for the damage and displacement costs anyway. All we get is a ‘sorry’ from the crew on board, who also thank us for our patience.

9:05pm GMT: I overhear a lady explaining to her daughter that she will have to go to school tomorrow despite being very tired because mummy has to work. They and we should have been back 11am the previous day.

That’s a 34 hour delay in total for an eight hour flight.

11:15pm GMT: I’m finally home and relieved that I can get enough sleep to be able to function for work in the morning.

In conclusion, we understand that delays happen and that certain compromises are made in return for a lower air fare. While the initial reason the plane was grounded was not your fault, you completely neglected your duty of care to the customers you stranded.

I felt compelled to write this letter because I believe you need to be held accountable for your actions.

There has been absolutely no follow-up from your customer service team since. Perhaps that’s because you hope passengers will simply be grateful that they eventually got to their destination and drop the whole thing. But you weren’t doing us a favour by flying us home, that was the service we paid you for.

The overall impression you created is that you don’t care about your customers at all. I sincerely hope that this isn’t the case and that you will review your customer service policies for long haul flights so that this doesn’t happen again.

Sorry for writing such a long letter, but as you can see a lot happened in 34 hours. I hope you find this information useful and I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Aimen Chouchane

Seat 18J

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