The nightmare of an elderly person flying with IBERIA
Why companies like this don't care about their customers?
I want to tell this story because I hope by sharing it we can help to avoid other families to face such nightmare in the future. We are originally from Costa Rica, a family of 5 (mom, dad and 3 kids jajaja) Due to worked I was relocated to Europe 2 years ago. After the sudden passing of my mom in 2020 we decided that will be good for my Dad to come and spend sometime with me and my daughter here.
After 5 months, covid, cold weather and snow he was ready to go back to Costa Rica ever green and nice temperatures land.... He insisted to travel by himself with an assistance service. He does not speak English so we choose IBERIA Airline to ensure he will have native Spanish speakers at all times to assist him through the flight.
Finally the day come, I took him to Heathrow Airport, London, wait for the assistance team to pick him up and say our goodbyes, after 20 mins I started getting nervous cause I told him to ping me as soon as he was at the boarding gate, the ping never came, after 2 hours I checked and his flight landed in Spain and I started receiving emails (I was the emergency contact, so they have my email and cell phone number) requesting my dad to go to the Gate to board his flight to Costa Rica.
I called constantly to his phone, and it kept going to voicemail, WhatsApp was not working, so I started contacting Iberia to check on my dad but they told me there was no way to get in touch with the airport counter to check on him...... the time of the flight came and I was nervous but hoping he will arrived safely 13 hours later in Costa Rica.
Little I knew at that time the nightmare we were about to live.... after 2 hours a lady from an Iberia counter call my cell phone to informed me my dad was detained at Madrid airport, because someone stole his cell phone and he had his QR code (for CR health department) on the cell phone, it didn't matter the phone was lost or steal, they never offered him to assist him to generate a new QR, or call the emergency contact number; which I thought was the entire purpose to have an emergency contact, for someone with an assistance service, to send the code via email to them....
No, no that was too much to ask, common sense apparently is a virtue very little people have these days, instead of that, they send him from one counter to another, an scared old person, who has never been in Madrid Airport, to ask for assistance, they send him to immigration police counter where the officer there, insulted him, mistreated him and told him that on top of everything he will not be allowed to leave the terminal to be in a hotel until the next flight.
Finally after 2 hours an Iberia lady used her brain and called my number (yes the one for emergencies they had in their system) and we worked out to reschedule his flight for Friday February 5th, it was February 3rd........ I send her the copy of the QR code for that day (the 3rd) his Negative PCR results, plus a new QR code for Friday the 5th. She printed everything for him and let him talked to me, so I could advice him to buy a new phone in the terminal to be able to contact him, I know this might look like logical, but for an elder person that is not so comfortable with technology, is quite a challenge. When finally the lady finish to reschedule everything she informed me still he will need to remain in the terminal for 2 days because he was not allowed to go to a hotel, but she was totally uncapable to tell me the reason for that.
So, here it is an elder person, by himself, scared, sick, facing a hostile environment from everyone that was suppose to assist him, accompanied by Iberia Personal to a section of Terminal T4, where there was no lights on, to a bench were they told him he need it to stay at.... They never offered him to take him to business launch, out of consideration of his age and health, to at least have a more comfortable night, no that idea to care for their customers, never occur to them.... I think it is too much to ask...
Next day I called the Costa Rica embassy, and I was informed about the multiple violations that Iberia committed against him, not only because of his age but because he is a Costar Rican citizen, traveling with a Costa Rican passport that cannot be refused to travel to his country... thanks to their intervention we could get him out of the airport and into a hotel to wait for the next flight.
In the mean time I spend hours in phone calls trying to file a formal complaint, to get assistance and hoping to received some sort of compensation for HIM, after put him through such a nightmare risking his emotional health and his physical integrity, forcing an elder person to be in an airport, in a country where covid cases are crazy high! The customer service is inexistent in this company, the resolution time for a formal complaint is 21 days, the people is rude, unprofessional and total disrespectful to their customers.
Finally my dad was able to take the next flight, not a nice experience of course but at least now he is safe at home.... now we will continue with the complaint and involve a lawyer to present a formal process against them... but that doesn't seems to be enough, I think people deserves to know what they are risking when they trust their family members to this company, this could have ended so much worst, can you imagine this happening to a child? or someone with a hearth condition?
I will share, in 21 days, apparently what the outcome will be..... until then stay safe and be careful on who you trust your love ones.
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