Police called in after Tiger passengers left stranded

Federal police were called in to ensure the safety of Tiger Airways staff after a planeload of Melbourne-bound passengers were told they would be stranded in Hobart for three days.

via theage.com.au

I was due to fly on that flight.

Luckily, flying out Friday night was a spur-of-the-moment decision, as I still had a ticket for a Virgin flight the next morning, and I hadn’t officially checked out of my hotel room. On the night, I saw what was happening and ended up towards the front of the line, got my compensation form, and left.

There were a number of things Tiger people could have done better though: Everyone had two choices: Refund form, or get booked on the next available Tiger flight. This was not communicated to the people in the queue, so when one got to the front of the queue, one had to have this explained, and spend time thinking (or talking with one’s travel partners). They should have explained the situation and had two queues: one for refunds and one for bookings. Things would have gone much more smoothly.