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A Tower Doesn't cAIR page from another pissed passenger

An Open Forum on Tower Air (an excellent page full of notes from tower passengers and employees)

Tale of a Flight From Hell

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The Tower Air Parody Site

November 2, 1997

If Mickey. Pluto, and Goofy were to run an airline, I'm sure they would do a better job then you did on Saturday, October 25.

We arrived JFK at 8:20 for an 11:00 am flight to San Juan for a cruise. Plenty of time to check in before the flight, or so we thought. It didn't really matter the monitors were showing our flight was delayed for five hours, set to take off at 4:00. Nobody was able to give a reason for the delay. Actually we were told lots of reasons, no two the same.

We waited in the security line to get to the ticket counter until after 11:00. You only had four flights scheduled to depart, all delayed, and yet it took over two and one half hours to reach the counter. You were not that busy, just unorganized and slow.

While we were waiting the departure time was changed to 5:15, over six hours delayed.

When we got to the counter at 11:10 the agent said it was a 4:00 flight. The monitor, one of the two you have in the terminal, said 5:15. Your recording said 5:17. Obviously nobody had any idea, we were just being told something so we would go away.

Of course, you knew the flight would be delayed and called some passengers on Friday, but not us. Knowing a day in advance would have given us a chance to make arrangements with a real airline. Knowing the flight was at 4:00 instead of 11:00 would have meant we didn't have to spend all day in your terminal.

At 10:30 we spoke to our travel agent, figuring since nobody at the airport had any clue as to what was going on they could get some answers. It took a while, but she was told to have us to speak with Cheryl, she was handling rebooking for cruise passengers. We were told this at noon, and went looking for the mystery Cheryl. Off to the counter we go looking for her. We ask one of your people to speak to her, he goes in the back and comes out asking why. We explain about the cruise, how we would not like to miss the boat, and how our agent was told Cheryl was handling redirections. Whoever our agent spoke with said we would be put on another airline to make sure we got there in time.

We did not get the name of who we spoke with, at this time most of your agents were not wearing nametags. He was at the Business Express window, which is where another agent sent us. He went back to the employee's only area and came out and told us Cheryl was at lunch, due back in thirty minutes (12:45) but they wouldn't help us as there was a chance we would still get there in time. We could come back later and speak with Cheryl. He guaranteed us the plane would leave at five. He said the plane was here and ready to go. Of course if that were the case we would not have been delayed. He asked us why we were bothering him when there was plenty of time for us to get there. He turned his back and left, not wanting to deal with us.

We wait the allotted time and go back to speak with Cheryl again. This time, another unidentified employee, again at the Business Express Window told us Cheryl left at 11:00, two hours previous to the current 1:00. She told us it was too bad we didn't come over earlier, they put some people on a 12:50 Pan Am flight, but that left. She seemed upset somebody on your phone lines was telling us to see Cheryl. We ask to speak with another supervisor since Cheryl left, we were told that on Saturday all the supervisors leave at 11:00. Sure, we will believe that on a day when every flight is delayed you would leave this group of idiots alone.

We were pissed. You didn't call us about the delay, and since you knew about it early Friday it had nothing to do with the weather as some of your people told us.

We were pissed, because when we checked in with cruise ship tags and told your agent we had to make a ship we were not refereed for redirection. We specifically asked then for another flight. Even at that time (before 11:10) it was early enough to get on a real airline.

At 4:00 we again checked the status of the flight. Your employees told us the plane was at the international terminal, it was being cleaned and serviced for the flight, it would be at the gate in plenty of time for the 5:15 time. I, and others, were told that there was a 4:55 Pan Am, if the 5:15 was delayed you would put us on that. I knew there were at least eight people on my cruise on this flight, two on Norwegian, two on another, and about 30 on Carnival. We were starting to get to know each other because of all the time we spent at the counter being lied to by your uniformed morons. At 4:25 I again checked about the Pan Am flight, again told there was no problem for 5:15 so you would not redirect any of us.

At 5:00 you updated your information. The flight was now to set to leave at 6:00, it had to be cleaned and serviced. The luggage and cargo still had to be done. The Pan Am flight had left.

You were now telling those of us going to a cruise that you contacted all of the ships, they were to be held for us. Not believing you at this point I called my cruise line, you did not contact then. I mentioned this to several other people cruising, they called their lines and you did not contact them either. Surprise, another lie. The couple on Norwegian were told on the phone, two minutes after one of your people told them the boat would wait, that they would miss the departure and would have to catch up later in the cruise, but of course you knew better then the cruise line. They actually missed the first two days of their cruise because of your employees.

At sometime around six we head to the gate. There an announcement is made, only in Spanish that it would be another 15 minutes, you had to clean the plane.

We board and watch five or six maintenance workers come and go with a variety of large tools. Seems the plane needed some fairly major repairs before it could fly, the pilot's chair was busted. Remember this is the same plane that was ready to go at 4:00, cleaned, serviced, just had to be moved over to the gate.

We wait, and wait, and by now we have given up any hope of making the cruise. The honeymoon couple on anther cruise cried for the two hours. They knew you destroyed their honeymoon, again without reason. By the time your plane taxies from the gate to the airline another 20 minutes goes by. We end being 30th in line to take off, it was after 8:00 before we left the ground.

Needless to say I will never consider flying Tower again. I will devote every opportunity I have for the rest of my life telling my story to others so they will not fly Tower. We were treated like dirt. Your refusal to assist us despite repeated requests, when you knew we would never leave in time to make the ship was totally irresponsible.

We were lied to. Cheryl was here, then at lunch, then left well over an hour before we were told she was at lunch, then all afternoon we hear her being paged to go here or there.

Time and time again you refused to put us on planes that were actually flying. But you were sure to let us know about the other flights, you just wouldn't switch us.

We were told over and over again that we would make it, which you used as a reason not to put us on a dependable flight. Did your people think by ruining my vacation, when the solution would have been so easy would build my loyalty to your pathetic employees and your fleet of ancient planes that appear to be falling apart?

The end result was we landed 30 minutes after the departure time for my ship. My ship was able to wait for the eight of us on it because I called and explained what idiots you were. You never called. They held a boat of close to two thousand people for an hour and a half because of you (and I understand they gave you full credit for the delay both to individuals calling and in the general announcements about the delay). Carnival was able to wait, but the others could not. They missed the boat.

While talking about this with other passengers on the cruise (Anybody from a city you served got to listen to my story, there were a lot of them too) I learned there were two other couples scheduled for Flight 51, and you did redirect them. They both checked in after we did and for some reason they yelled louder than we did and were moved. You probably moved people on other ships, but I do not know that is a fact. But no, not us, we were told anybody with our departure time would not be moved. Surprise, another lie.

United always tells us they know we have a choice and thanks for choosing them. This time I let somebody else make the choice, a mistake I will never make again. One of our fellow passengers was in San Clemente delayed on a United flight because of the snow in Denver. The United agent went in back, found their bags, and ran with them to make an American flight in the next terminal so they could make the cruise. They didn't yell at them, they didn't lie to them, they helped them.

On the return flight (Flight 50 the following Saturday) guess what? My ticket says 5:00, we don't leave until after 7:00. First an hour delay for no reason, then we are ready for flight attendants to prepare for takeoff even though you are still loading luggage on the plane. Then a minor maintenance issue that the flight engineer has to go set a signature on, then 45 minutes later he comes back. Best of all, even though you have employees at the counter on Saturday mornings in San Juan, you will not allow anybody to check in until after 1:00, just carry your luggage all around with you all day until we feel like opening. When we arrived and asked the boat representatives what we could do about this luggage problem they had two suggestions, first lug it all up to the storage area in the next terminal, and second fly a real airline next time. It's too bad we didn't hear all of this advice before we ticketed with you.

On flight 51 your flight crew were the only people who showed any compassion. Their announcement that "No amount of apologizing could undo what we have put you through this morning and evening. We hope you at least consider flying Tower again". They were the only people who tried to make us feel better, but it was way too little way too late. If there is ever an example of getting what you paid for then it is Tower Air. There is a reason your fares are low (and after the fact I found out they are not really that much lower on the New York to San Juan flight).

I've been flying on jets for over 20 years, having flown on thousands of segments on at least a dozen airlines. The two nightmare flights with you last week are the only times I have ever been concerned for my safety. On both of those flights significant last minute repairs were necessary with a plane full of people (which means we were the test flight for them) before we could take off.

Sincerely,

Michael Cordelli

 As you can easily see if you go to the forum linked above, nothing at Tower has changed, they are still treating people the same way.