July 19, 2024 was a Y2K D-Day for many industries when a Crowdstrike error ground airports and airlines to a halt. Just my luck, I was at Barcelona Airport and I’d checked in for a Vueling Airlines flight.
I’ve never been a fan of budget airlines because I’m claustrophobic and I’m big on customer service, but until now Vueling has somehow managed to make my short flights within Spain bearable with their premium seat options, attractive inflight menus, cheerful staff and user-friendly website.
WHEN TECHNOLOGY REPLACES HUMANS
Using technology, they’ve cut costs by easing out human contact — and, with the exception of those long check-in lines, I hardly felt the disadvantage until today.
AI is fine until it’s not. Just as budget airlines are fine until they’re not. And on July 19, in my opinion, the Vueling model broke down precisely because they lacked actual human beings to deal with the multiple crises brought on by the CrowdStrike error on Microsoft systems.
THE EXPERIENCE AT BARCELONA AIRPORT
At Barcelona airport on July 19, Vueling was the airline that canceled the most flights. And there were no updates and certainly zero assistance until travelers had waited needlessly for hours.
Then, whenever flights were canceled, hundreds of passengers were forced to wait for their turn at a booth with only one or two Vueling staff manning it.
TOO FEW VUELING PERSONNEL AT BARCELONA AIRPORT
There was one counter with one lady in the departure area and one counter in the baggage section. In the arrival section, two counters were open. These were the options to deal with thousands of stranded Vueling passengers today.
Worse, many lined up for hours only to be told to wait for an email from the airline. No one knew anything about retrieving luggage, and I feel sorry for passengers with no resources to find a place to stay in Barcelona tonight because there were no vouchers for food or hotels.
NO CUSTOMER SERVICE ON BUDGET AIRLINES
You get what you pay for, of course. But Vueling and other budget airlines intent on catering to a maximum number of travelers with the most minimal of resources should really have a crisis management procedure in place.
Luckily, I found my bags by badgering the kind personnel of another airline (Emirates) and then booked a hotel by phone and got into a taxi — after seven hours of radio silence from Vueling. But what about that hungry college student with a one-way ticket home or that budget traveler with only fifty euros left in his pocket?
Crises like the Crowdstrike error are a fact of life for the #travelindustry. But crises mismanagement should not be. At least not in a Travelife. As of this writing, I’ve decided to just rent a car and drive to Granada.
Read more about the IT crisis that shut airports and airlines down here
