Missed flight due to National Express incompetence

wiogs

Isometra wrote: »

My boyfriend was due to fly home to Slovakia with Wizz Air as usual for christmas but because of the incompetence of the National Express coach driver, he arrived after check in had closed and missed his flight.

Check in closed at 7am and the the coach was due to arrive at Luton airport at 6.10am.

The coach driver kept turning the motor off and stopped to count the number of passengers at every single bus stop and slowed down the journey so much that by the time he eventually managed to get out of London, other drivers would have arrived at the airport. As a result, my boyfriend and other National Express passengers on board missed their flight.

My boyfriend regularly makes this trip so he knows how much time it normally takes to get from London to Luton airport. Unfortunately on this occasion, he has been unable to make his scheduled flight or transfer to another one and has to spend christmas alone and away from his family due to the extortionate christmas period ticket prices.

Is there anyway he can claim back at least some of the cost of his plane/coach ticket?

In the spirit of Christmas why not invite him to be with you?

PeacefulWaters

wiogs wrote: »

In the spirit of Christmas why not invite him to be with you?

Maybe the OP is already in Slovakia?

wiogs

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Maybe the OP is already in Slovakia?

very good point

Pollycat

I agree that this is a case of passenger planning error rather than National Express 'incompetence'.

What time did the bus actually arrive at Luton airport?

Isometra wrote: »

Check in closed at 7am and the the coach was due to arrive at Luton airport at 6.10am.

PeacefulWaters

Pollycat wrote: »

I agree that this is a case of passenger planning error rather than National Express 'incompetence'.

What time did the bus actually arrive at Luton airport?

Assuming the flight was 7.40am I'm guessing the service taken was never going to arrive three hours before this (as it didn't even depart London before this).

So why does it matter?

Pollycat

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Assuming the flight was 7.40am I'm guessing the service taken was never going to arrive three hours before this (as it didn't even depart London before this).

So why does it matter?

Because I'm curious.

PeacefulWaters

Pollycat wrote: »

Because I'm curious.

Fair enough.

:D

It would be nice if the OP would return and explain.

Pollycat

Actually, I was just wondering by how much the OP's boyfriend missed check-in.

I personally can't understand why some people leave getting to the airport so late.

I'd never dream of arriving 50 minutes before check-in closes regardless of what method of transport I was using.

Going back to the original post:
I can't see anything wrong in the driver counting the number of passengers at each stop.

Why would she expect the driver to keep the bus motor running at each stop?

A bit of a coincidence (imho) that this bus (that was cutting it very fine) had other passengers on who were on the same flight & therefore also missed it.
Were they all very poor travel planners?

SW17

kinger101 wrote: »

National Express say they have no liability unless you allow 180 minutes between scheduled arrival time and check-in.

http://www.nationalexpress.com/assets/uploads/pdf/Conditions-of-Carriage.pdf

It sounds like you were planning 90 minutes before flight (check-in closes 40 mins before flight).

I think your boyfriend took too much of a risk to be honest.

Well, it's actually 180 mins between scheduled arrival time a flight departure time, not checkin. Either way, it's simply a legal disclaimer to avoid any liability, as they have another get-out involving any traffic delays.

There isn't really a need to be at an airport 3 hours before a flight (especially Luton IMO, it's not the most attractive of airports), don't know about Wizzair but easyJet bag drop doesn't even open until 2 hours prior to departure. One also would not generally expect traffic delays on a service going out of London to reach Luton at 0610.

It's been donkeys years since I took National Express, but I was wondering about the OP's comment about the driver stopping to count the passengers at each stop. Do they actually do this on a service from London to Luton? I would have thought you are either on it or not at the scheduled departure time.

Pollycat

SW17 wrote: »

There isn't really a need to be at an airport 3 hours before a flight (especially Luton IMO, it's not the most attractive of airports), don't know about Wizzair but easyJet bag drop doesn't even open until 2 hours prior to departure.

But unless you live next door to the airport and can walk from your front door to Departures , surely you need to factor in the possibility that you may have some sort of travel disruption.

We live almost 200 miles from LGW and when we fly from there we allow plenty of time to drive down the M1 and round the M25.
This means that if we get a trouble-free run, we may be at the airport 4 or more hours before our flight departs.
Much less stressful (imho) kicking your heels in Departures or Duty Free shops than sat in a traffic jam panicking about missing your flight.

SW17 wrote: »

One also would not generally expect traffic delays on a service going out of London to reach Luton at 0610.

Maybe one wouldn't generally expect delays at that time in the morning but there's nothing to say a lorry won't shed its load and block the whole of the M1 5 minutes before your National Express coach gets to that point - regardless of what time of day it is.