Months after receiving the invitation and planning to take advantage of it, the week before Lesli’s birthday party in London I was having a rough time at work, and didn’t think a weekend away was a good idea, but was also frustrated by the fact that I keep saying I want to get away now and then, and yet I was giving up on a perfect opportunity to get away, catch up with an old friend, and celebrate her 30th birthday no less.
The Wednesday before, Luc called to tell me he was booking the tickets. The flight times weren’t perfect (flight out at the crack of dawn Saturday morning, landing back at Mulhouse-Basel airport late Sunday night), but the price was surprisingly reasonable (tickets on Swiss were cheaper than those on Easyjet, undoubtedly because Easyjet raises their prices over time, while Luc had apparently started looking on the day that Swiss lowers it’s prices to the “last minute” deals to sell off the remaining seats before the weekend.
We found a decently priced hotel for Saturday night, walking distance (if a long walk) from Lesli’s.
It was great to hang out with Lesli, and meet some of her friends, and the birthday party was quite something: apparently Londoners really like their costume parties! The vast majority were indeed dressed up as television/movie characters from the 80s. Luc and I were clearly the exception, but that didn’t prevent a great night 
Sunday we got up late, and met with Lesli even later for a “proper” Sunday roast lunch in a nearby pub, before making our way comfortably to the airport with lots of time before our flight, our small shared suitcase full of Irn Bru, Dr Pepper and Dairymilk.
Check-in was uneventful, and we were early. From the lounge, as we waited for our flight to be assigned a gate, we watched night fall, but the dark suddenly replaced by a flurry of white, as one of those odd sideways snow storms appeared in the window. The snow soon calmed, but the list of flights started showing delays and even some cancellations, and several plane loads of people were directed back to the main hall to be taken care of. Our flight was still on the board, and still a while away, so we weren’t yet worried. Besides, we rationalized, if ever our flight was cancelled, it was because ne deserved an extra day away. I actually almost started hoping for exactly that, and felt a bit guilty for it. Especially when the old adage “be careful what you wish for” materialized, and our flight was among the last cancelled, and we too were lining up downstairs to find out what was to happen next. After a very long wait, we were rebooked on the first flight in the morning, with (what was left of) the night in a hotel basically just across the street from the airport. Despite the proximity, it took over an hour for us to get into the shuttle, and we finally saw just how much snow had fallen: it was actually a beautiful winter night – the type I haven’t really seen since I left Canada.
More waiting to check into the hotel, and we found ourselves with a key to a suite, since there were no double rooms left. Meanwhile, one of my clients, who had been on the same flight as us, and with whom I had a meeting planned in Basel the following day, was carted off with his wife to another nearby hotel. After a few hours of sleep, we skipped breakfast and checked out, only to be told that the airport had cancelled the shuttle back, as no flights would be taking off any time soon. This turned out to be only partly true: a shuttle was running. In any case, we needed to get back to the airport to find out what would happen next, so we waited (while a few brave souls dragged their stuff through several inches of snow in a 10 or 15 minute walk that probably took them at least 2 or 3 times that).
Back at the airport (and back in line) we chatted with a few of the people around us, including a guy that was (ironically) stuck in the snow in London while trying desperately to get to Switzerland to go snowboarding. When we finally got to the front, we were rebooked on the first flight out…the next morning (more than 24 hours later). We were booked into another hotel, care of Swiss, and heard rumours that meals might even be covered. Rather than waiting for another shuttle, we found out that the new hotel was near the DLR (train line: just about the only part of the London train/subway system still running), so we asked which station, and got on our way, Luc and I conveniently armed with “Oyster cards”, which are touch cards that can be easily pre-loaded with cash, and make trips on the London system cheaper.
We were accompanied by a couple of older ladies who were also tired of waiting around, and felt better about getting moving. Unfortunately, the instructions we were given were wrong, and the relatively uncomfortable walk, in which one of the ladies slipped on the street and was promptly honked at by a cab for holding up traffic, we were on our way back to the DLR to find our actual hotel. It turned out to be relatively easy to find (once we had found someone who knew), and we were soon checked in, and changing out of wet socks…only to realize that we had forgotten to “touch out” at the train station, meaning that London could probably debit whatever they wanted of our Oyster cards. We headed back out, and hurried back so that I could get online and be reached by work. When we got back, we ran into one of the ladies, who told us that she had checked, and that Swiss was indeed paying for lunch and dinner (as it turns out it was actualy 20£ each per meal (and only if eaten in the hotel restaurant), but we had decided that even if there was a limit, we didn’t mind topping it up to take advantage of the excellent food (best carpaccio I have ever had, by a long shot). The work day was not easy, but the meals were amazing. When we found out that the people flying on British Airways got no allowance for food as we had, the meals tasted even better.
We got to bed early, because it was going to be another very early morning. At check out time, we again ran into one of the ladies, who told us that Swiss had called her to tell her to not to come to the airport, and that she was booked on the same flight the folllowing day (Wednesday). I was reaching my breaking point, though, and decided that I would rather go back to the airport then staying at the hotel waiting for someone to take care of us. On our way back to the DLR station, I hit my breaking point fairly literally, when I slipped on a patch of ice, and felt a large bruise form, just exactly where my purse happens to swing when I walk, on the side where I also usually carry my laptop back, and my climbing bag for that matter. Ugh.
Back at the airport, not all flights were cancelled, and the lady behind us in line told us that she had managed to get Swiss on the phone, and was booked on an afternoon flight, waiting in line only to get her new boarding pass printed. Out of pity, and since our 3 phones had been 2 for more than a day (we didn’t bring chargers, since we were only supposed to be in London for about 36 hours), she called again, and let us deal with them directly. I was told, much to my surprise, that we had already been rebooked on a flight out of Heathrow (we were at London City, at the other end of London) that night. I was happy to take it since, even with delays, we had plenty of time to get across the city, and it would save us sitting and waiting for hours on end (yet again). At the front of the line, though, we managed to get booked onto a British Airways flight to Zurich, with a promise that the train to Basel would be covered by Swiss, that was actually supposed to take off just a few minutes later.
With renewed hope, we went into the next line: the check in line, only to realize that we would never make it to the front in time. Fortunately, a staff member called those flying to Zurich into a much shorter line, but even with only 4 people in front of us, it took as nearly an hour to check in (every so often we were reassured that there were still de-icing the plane). Back in the lounge, we watched flights get cancelled once again, but ours stayed on the board. After a couple more hours, we were even assigned a gate! At the gate, there was more waiting, and the 8:05 flight finally took off around 2:00 (still 6 hours or so before the flight from Heathrow that we could have taken). We were one of the first planes off the ground, and you can not imagine my relief when we were finally in the air.
At Zurich, nobody seemed to know where we could get our train vouchers, and in fact the BA desk all but told us we were on our own. Knowing the train schedule from Zurich airport to Basel by heart (it’s a train that I take regularly for client meetings as well as for the airport now and then) I took the chance with the few minutes we had, to run to the Swiss desk in the departures area, while other passengers decided not to bother, and rather to get reimbursed later. The lady at the desk was a bit confused, since I’d actually arrived on a BA flight, but it was quickly sorted out, and we were running once again, this time to the train station conveniently located in the airport. We hopped in the train just a minute or two before it pulled out, and passed one of the surprised passengers who had given up on being taken care of as we found seats.
The arrival in Basel was uneventful: we bought bus tickets to the airport (so that we could get the car), and my 1/2 Swiss train card even gave us a small discount on that. It was after 5:00 by the time we got home, so I settled into the catch to attempt to catch up on some work before the 3-day work week I had left in front of me.
It was an extremely frustrating trip, I can’t possible say otherwise, but Swiss really really did their best. They (like most airlines) probably lost buckets of money due to something totally beyond their control, but they made sure that their passengers were treated as best they could, a step above BA, and miles above EasyJet and other low cost airlines. All in all, a pretty good deal for a pair of tickets that cost less than Easyjet at the time we bought them. This sort of thing doesn’t happen often, but when it does, with Swiss I know that we will be taken care.
That’s why I will fly Swiss (and already have since: for another trip to London, no less, this past Wednesday – for which I managed to get home 3 hours earlier than planned, for additional cost, but less than if I had bought tickets on the earlier flight to begin with!) again, and again, and again.
THAT’s customer service.
