When travel goes really wrong

Jeanne Moore is the kind of person who almost makes me regret the columns I’ve written about bland airline food, silly car rental surcharges or inadequate hotel amenities.

The Bakersfield, California, teacher was the lone American on the Indian Airlines jet hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan, last Christmas Eve. The ordeal included being left in a freezing cabin overnight and the stabbing of a hostage who reportedly refused to wear a blindfold. “I’ve spent eight days in a plane, on a tarmac, with terrorists,” she says.

And what did she get for the inconvenience? Nothing. Absolutely zip.

“There have been no apologizes from any source,” she says. “There have been no offers from any source.” Worse still, her travel insurance would not cover the incident.

Reaching Indian Airlines for a comment proved impossible for me, just as it has for Moore. The carrier doesn’t have an office in the United States, according to India’s national airline, Air India (not to be confused with the regional carrier, Indian Airlines). An airline spokeswoman added, “Good luck finding someone to talk to.” That’s not very encouraging.

Although Indian Airlines may not have followed up with Moore, that shouldn’t detract from its reported efforts – as well as the Indian government’s work – to secure the release of her and the 177 other passengers. I should also note that Indian officials reserved 150 cars and more than 15 ambulances to cater to the needs of the former hostages when they arrived to a hero’s welcome in New Delhi.

But I’m not about to buy the argument that a couple of crisis counselors and a bouquet of flowers will make everything better. And the extra assistance also doesn’t necessarily mean the travel supplier cares any more than it does if something small goes wrong – which usually is not that much.

Consider the case of Debra Hutton. On the last day of her round-trip cruise aboard Sun Cruises’ Sun Vista from Singapore to Phuket last year, a fire erupted in the ship’s engine room. For two hours, the crew assured the travel agent that everything was under control. “But at 6 p.m., an order for evacuation was given, and all hell broke loose,” she says. “Everyone was grasping for an available life-vest, while crewmembers pushed ahead of passengers to board the lifeboats.”

The Calgary, Alberta, Canada, resident remembers that her overcrowded lifeboat was the last to drop from the fiery wreck. “We went from blazing sun to inky darkness. We floated aimlessly while futile efforts were made to douse the fire. We floated for six-and-a-half hours and finally boarded a freighter which provided a safe haven.”

With all of her luggage on the bottom of the Straits of Malacca, the cruise line offered Hutton a modest cash award, which was deducted from an insurance settlement that she says “hardly begins to cover the losses experienced by passengers.”

Hutton was compensated $1,610 Canadian currency (US $1,087) for the loss of her luggage, which included $700 Canadian (US $472) for the disruption of the cruise. She also got $600 in Singapore currency (US $343) as a “gesture of goodwill.” She found the last sum especially galling: Was that all a night in a lifeboat was worth?

The cruise line pledged full refunds “for the inconvenience,” immediately after the May 1999 sinking.

Inga Smith of Columbus, Ohio, suffered a different, but equally painful, loss. Several winters ago, her already delayed flight from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, taxied out to the runway and then came to an abrupt halt. “Suddenly the light went off and we were given the message to proceed immediately to the nearest exit and cautioned to leave all out belongings behind,” recalls Smith, who doesn’t know why the plane never took off.

At the bottom of the evacuation chute, the passengers fumbled around on the tarmac in minus-3-degree temperatures for 20 minutes before a bus rescued them. Among her most vivid memories: seeing a male passenger’s tie freeze to his shirt. Although the airline paid for a hotel room and booked her on the next flight the following morning, that’s all the publishing consultant got.

“Compensation?” she asks. “Forget it. I wrote a letter of complaint to the airline, to which I did not get an answer.”

I could keep going, because there’s no shortage of stories about truly terrible things happening to people on the road, and their efforts to get fair compensation from an insensitive travel industry. I hear dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of them a week. The really awful experiences told by the Jeanne Moores of the world tend to put a column like this one into perspective.

They also make me wonder if the travel industry is in such denial that it can’t see its faults – big or small.

Dealing With a Bad Trip

Lost luggage and delayed flights are one thing; hijacking and ship sinkings are quite another. What can you do if you survive a terrible travel experience?

- Don’t despair. Even though no federal rules in the United States specifically address customer compensation for tragic mishaps such as aircraft hijackings, accidents, or catastrophes like hotel fires, all isn’t lost. Write to the travel supplier in question and politely ask for whatever make-good you think you deserve. Be specific.

- Don’t head straight to court, says mediation expert Jennifer Alter, who is president of the ADR Design Group in Huntington Beach, California. “The mediation process is extremely successful when dealing with horrendous events and their disputes,” she says. “The mediation process allows the parties to reach resolution and move on with their lives.”

- Don’t keep quiet. If you’ve lived through a travel tragedy, talking about it can help you deal with the trauma. It can also put an airline, hotel or cruise line on notice that if they don’t compensate you, you won’t hesitate to use the power of “word of mouth” to affect their business.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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