Silver Airways
Complaint 339643 Details

On Monday, May 11th 2015 I was harassed and robbed by Silver Airlines. Two customer “service” representatives directly caused at least $366.76 to be taken from me under circumstances that would never have occurred if not for the incompetence, ignorance, rudeness and downright nastiness of said employees.

Monday May 11th 2015 at 6:20 am: I arrived at the Key West airport with my flight confirmation email and identification in hand.
Silver Employee 1 looked at the info, did some typing on his computer and looked up at me like I had just provided him with a series of Egyptian hieroglyphics or a page from my 2 year old son's coloring book. SE 1 couldn't have appeared more perplexed and incredulous. He said, ''There is no 7:15 flight to Orlando.'' Ok, maybe it had been cancelled or delayed. This struck me as odd, since I had been receiving an excessive amount of emails from Orbitz assuring me that my flight was on schedule. “Oh, ok, when is my flight?” I asked politely. That's when Silver Employee 2 – the true ogre in this story – makes her appearance.

Sliver Employee 2 was called over by SE 1, whose mind had just been blown by my flight confirmation email, and she was clearly in a confrontational mood. Mind you, I hadn't opened my mouth to refute, argue, complain, contradict or otherwise inconvenience her in the least up to this point. Boy, was she already bent out of shape. She glanced over the shoulder of SE 1 at his computer, looked at me like I was trying to sell her a dead goldfish, and said “Oh honey, you're not leaving 'till noon. There is no 7:15 flight.”

When she said “honey” it was clear she really meant “sucker” but I maintained my cordial demeanor. I was tired, I missed my family, I was coming down with a cold and I had just had the worst week of my life in the dirtiest island city I'd ever been to. All I wanted to do was go home via the flight I paid for with my hard earned money. If it was a few hours later, I didn't care. “Ok,” I heard myself whisper. SE 2 did a little more typing on the computer and said, “Oh sweetie, you don't have a connecting flight. Your connecting flight to Cleveland leaves at 11 am so you won't get there in time. Honey, you ain't leaving until tomorrow morning.” She seemed to be getting more and more enthusiastic as she spewed out my fate. She was genuinely gleeful to provide me such unfortunate news. ''Oh and you got to call Orbitz to get that changed.'' She had fire in her eyes. I was honestly shocked and a little frightened by her bizarre attitude and the apparent lack of existence of a 7:15 flight to Orlando. However, I was also starting to feel a little insulted by the insensitivity and incredible inconvenience. ''Will my hotel room be comped?'' I asked, assuming that it would, of course. No airline could possibly treat its paying customers so unjustly. “Not by us. You gonna have to call Orbitz for that.” she snarled. This had never happened to me before, so I assumed that she knew what she was talking about, and that Orbitz would get this all straightened out. Someone must be able to help me. I asked if she had Orbitz' phone number and she barked, “Nope. We don't work with them.” Ummm....

So I left the front desk, called Orbitz, told them the story, got the flight changed to the following morning, free of charge as a “one time favor” but was told that in no way would Orbitz cover the cost of hotel accommodations due to the fact that the error in flight info was 100%, totally, completely the fault of Silver Airlines. I am not a confrontational man, but there was no way I could afford another night in the over-priced hotels in that tourist trap of a town. I was only out there as an obligation to a life-long friend, and the trip had already stretched my budget to the max. I had to go back up to the Silver Airline counter and tell that bridge troll I needed compensation. By this time there was a line of other Silver customers, and I could hear the vicious voice of SE 2 spewing orders and bad news like a sprinkler head. A family with several children stood before me in tears. What was going on? Was anyone receiving decent customer service? When it was my turn, I humbly explained that I was able to change my flight to the following day, Tuesday the 12th, but that Orbitz was not responsible for the hotel fees. That's when the most insane, unbelievable thing happened. SE 2 – whose name I overheard to be Nicole, although she did not have a name-tag on – looked me in my eyes and told me that I should not have changed my flight to tomorrow because there was a 7:40 to Orlando today. What? Before I could open my mouth, she was literally yelling “I told you that. I told you that!!!” and her eyebrows were arched higher than Ronald McDonald's when he saw Supersize Me for the first time. No, this woman did not tell me that. I know she didn't. I might have been tired, lonesome, broke and ill, but I was not stupid or crazy. This woman did not tell me that. Why on earth would I have called Orbitz to change my flight to the following morning if she had told me that there was a same-day flight available only 25 minutes later than my original flight? Never in my entire life have I been treated like such a worthless piece of garbage. She acted like I was out of my mind and a waste of space. Like I was a mosquito or a cockroach or some other type of a disgusting pest. In a situation where she should have been apologetic, sympathetic and understanding, she was happy to be a ruthless, shameless liar. Still I didn't lose my cool. I swallowed hard. The first employee, SE1, suddenly stepped back into the picture. “If you call Orbitz back and tell them to change your flight to 7:40 today, we'll let you on the plane.” He looked at his watch, “you have 2 minutes.”

This is when the panic set in. I didn't want to stay in a hotel, I wanted to go home. I called Orbitz once again and began to explain my situation as clearly as I could, despite the adrenaline and the ticking clock. I was told that, due to security purposes, the flight could not be changed again. I had already been accommodated once today, when they switched my flight the first time, and they could not do anything more for me. I pleaded with the Orbitz guy to help me out, and he said, “Let me speak with the airline representative.” Nicole was busy belittling other customers, but SE1 - who had just told me that I had two minutes to secure my future - was just standing there. I asked him if he could please speak with the Orbitz rep. Sliver Employee 1's response? “No.” He simply said no. He shook his head, said “no” once more and added “They just need to change your flight to 7:40 today,” and walked away.

I had no fight in me. Nicole was still busy ruining other people's lives, and I knew there was no way to reason with someone who was willing to lie right to my face anyway. I wasn't gonna make a scene. I got in a cab, head hanging like Charlie Brown, and went to the nearest hotel – one that Nicole had suggested earlier – and it was $450 a night. So I got back in the cab, rode about 20 minutes away from the airport and found a room for $200.

I'm writing this complaint because I feel that the way I was treated was simply un-American and I can not stand for the injustice I was subjected to. I had plenty of time to think in that hotel room on the night of Monday the 11th - the night I should've been reunited with my family - and I'm no detective, and I have no experience working for an airline, but I think it's pretty clear what happened. There is no way that this mishap should have taken place at my expense:

The 7:15 flight for the 11th had been changed from 7:15 to 7:40. The flight number must have been changed so SE1 didn't realize that it was delayed and he just couldn't find it in the system. SE 2 was simply a malicious, malignant, malevolent entity that didn't even take the time to review the flight information that was available because she was so excited to get to tell me that I was screwed and that I wasn't going to go home today. When she discovered her mistake, she was probably on such thin ice with her supervisor for so many unrelated incidences of poor customer services, that she did the only thing her sick mind could think of: be mean and intimidating and lie to try to “cover it up”. And SE1 turned out to be a jerk and a bad employee as well. A good employee would have spoken with the Orbitz guy when I politely requested it. In fact, if Nicole had any ounce of decency, she would have admitted her mistake when she discovered that there was a 7:40 same-day flight, and offered to call Orbitz herself.

I am completely entitled to 100% of the money that I demanded be reimbursed to me at the beginning of this email. Here is an itemized list of the costs incurred:

$60 for additional cab rides to and from hotel and airport.

$206.76 for hotel room

$100 for missed day of work

Total: $366.76