Bumped out of touch and off an Aer Lingus flight

Cliodhna Geraghty sent us an e-mail after having her booking on an Aer Lingus flight to France for Ireland's rugby World Cup game against Argentina unceremoniously cancelled.

"They have removed us from the flight with the minimum of notice," she says. Geraghty and her friend booked the flights at the beginning of January and received confirmation by e-mail. "Last week my friend was checking her credit-card statement and noticed that she had received over €250 from Aer Lingus."

Having booked a few flights over the summer with the airline she didn't know what the refund was for and contacted them.

She was told an e-mail about a schedule change had been sent but as the airline had got no reply from Geraghty and her friend the money was refunded. The pair were "slightly annoyed", as you can imagine, "and more than a little confused".

Geraghty says they had not received anything from Aer Lingus, apart from the usual "we're having a one-day sale" e-mails.

When they contacted Aer Lingus to find out what was going on, a customer-service representative asked whether she had a Hotmail address - which she does - and suggested that the e-mail may have been automatically diverted to her Hotmail junk-mail folder. "That was it, apart from a suggestion that we re-book the flights," she says, not an easy thing to do for a rugby weekend. Unsurprisingly, flights are either totally booked up, "or have through-the-roof prices. At the moment, we have no idea what we're going to do."

She would like to know why the flight-confirmation e-mail, as well as all of the marketing e-mails, went straight to her friend's inbox, while an important schedule change e-mail, requiring a response, did not. "Aer Lingus ask for a work and home phone number when booking flights - why did they not phone to ask when they had heard nothing from us, and before taking the drastic action of bumping us off the flight?" She says that she accepts that there is nothing that can be done but would like this to act as a warning to other potential passengers.

We contacted the airline who told us that, unfortunately for Geraghty, Aer Lingus is scrapping its Dublin to Rennes route from September 15th. A spokeswoman said a mail to this effect had been sent to our reader.

"When a customer contacts Aer Lingus reservations following receipt of an e-mail as outlined above, the agent will attempt to accommodate the customer in finding a flight on a suitable alternate route.

"Aer Lingus did not hear back from the customers in question and therefore the credit card was refunded two weeks later. In this situation, even if a passenger contacts Aer Lingus after noticing the refund on their statement, again the agent will attempt to accommodate the customer and find a flight on a suitable alternate route. Other passengers who were affected by the cancellation of the Rennes service and who contacted Aer Lingus reservations were re-booked on the Paris route," she said.