The Worst Thing Airlines Can Do During COVID-19, As Illustrated By An Austrian Airline
By: Fred Scratcher
Tags: Travel, Airlines, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Personal Growth

People fly less today. It’s not the only thing people are doing less often — but contrary to working in the office or wearing pants during meetings, it is a thing many people are aching to do again. If someone was an avid traveler before COVID-19, they still are an avid traveler now, with an ever-growing urge to see the world again.

In other words: People willing to spend good money on airlines before are just as willing to spend good money on airlines now. They just can’t do it right now due to external circumstances. But as soon as the situation gets better, they will happily fly again with the airlines they hold in the highest esteem.

On the other hand, airlines find themselves in a less cheerful situation. While consumers just have to play the waiting game, most airlines are struggling to stay afloat.

In this situation, the logical choice would be a strict regimen of customer retention: Do everything you can to maintain good relations with existing customers, so they will fly again with you in the future.

This article tells the story of an airline that does the exact opposite: Austrian Airlines.

These dudes here. (Source: Wikipedia / Creative Commons)

At this point, it’s appropriate to stress the fact that this is my personal customer experience with Austrian Airlines. However, truly abysmal customer ratings on several websites make it clear that this is no exceptional case, but rather the rule. By sharing my experience in dealing with Austrian, I’d like to provide some in-depth examples on how not to do customer retention.

Trying to make this more than your standard disappointed customer rant, I’ve done by best to put my experience into different chapters, just like in some type of journal.

Here we go.

Early March 2020 — “A mistake of serious consequence”

Speaking honestly, no story is ever truly one-sided. I too have made a mistake in this whole ordeal. I’ve made the mistake of booking a flight with Austrian Airlines. It happened in early March, when the ultimate force of COVID-19 was still not completely visible to everyone (at least, to me).

Back then, I had some hope left that all this would blow over soon, so I booked flights for a one-week vacation in early May. Due to the availability of a non-stopover flight, I chose Austrian as my carrier-to-be.

Things were so simple back then.

Mid of April 2020 — “A false glimpse of hope”

During April, virtually all of Europe found itself knee-deep in a lockdown. By then, even I had come to realize that my vacation plans for May might not turn out as expected. While this was slightly disappointing, I took relief in knowing that thanks to EU air passenger rights (seriously, they’re great), I would definitely get my money back.

I was even happier when I received an e-mail from Austrian Airlines, informing me that they canceled my flight proactively. “I don’t even have to do it myself”, I thought. “This is convenient!”.

So, I went and informed Austrian Airlines straight away that I’d like my money back, instead of a voucher for later use. In that very moment, I expected that actually getting my money back would turn out to be just as easy and straightforward.

Silly me.

May 2020 — “Confirmations”

There’s not much to say about May. After asking Austrian Airlines for my money back in April, I had received a confirmation e-mail that they were processing my request. Knowing that I wasn’t the only one with a canceled flight, I assumed that getting the money back might take some time, maybe even up to several weeks.

By now, you’d probably expect that the first half of the previous sentence is true, while the latter is false. You’d be right.

Also, Austrian Airlines sent me another e-mail in May, informing me that my flight was indeed still cancelled. They sent the mail five days after my flight would have taken place. I appreciated the gesture.

June 2020 — “Breaking the silence”

By June, the world was slowly getting used to life in a pandemic. The initial uncertainties eased, toilet paper was back on the shelves. A certain degree of social life became possible again, just as sommer came around the corner.

Meanwhile, I was laying in wait. By the end of June, I hadn’t heard anything from Austrian Airlines ever since they sent the second cancellation e-mail back in May.

So, I decided to contact Austrian again. This time, by phone. After patiently listening to the Music on Hold for twenty minutes (in case you wondered, it’s the Danube Waltz), I actually got someone on the phone.

They told me they’d look into my case. The result followed soon after:

A bit later that day, I received the third cancellation e-mail for my flight.

August 2020, Pt. I — “A fateful choice”

July passed without much notice. I wasn’t thinking too much about the money I was still owed and let Austrian Airlines do its thing, whatever that might be.

However, without realizing it back then, I had made a fateful choice — a choice with a significant impact on the story you are reading here: I decided to switch bank accounts.

“No big deal”, you might say. “People switch back accounts all the time.”

“You’re right”, I might answer. “But Austrian isn’t prepared to deal with that.”

Anyway, I don’t want to spoil the later parts of the story. For now, let’s focus on what I did after opening the new bank account: I sent Austrian Airlines a message, informing them that my bank details have changed and asking them to wire the refund to my new bank account. “All set”, I thought.

But I thought wrong.

August 2020, Pt. II — “A message, lost in time”

I was elated when I found another e-mail from Austrian Airlines in my inbox. “You have received a refund for your booking”, it said. Great! Finally, the waiting was over — and it just took four months!

My euphoria quickly vanished when I checked my bank account. The new one. I checked it again the next day. And the day after. No refund. Still no refund. “But I sent Austrian Airlines a message with my new bank details!”

I was puzzled. How could it be that they wired the money to the wrong bank account? They had received my message two weeks ago! Could it be that they are not checking the messages from their contact form on the website?

“No way”, I thought. After all, it is the official way of getting in touch with them! I had tried to get my issue solved over the phone a few times by then — but whenever I got through to somebody, I was told to use the conatct form. This must mean that it is checked regularly, right?

Right?

September 2020— “Fake news”

The summer slowly faded. The last heat of August subsided and made way for the mild warmth of September. At the same time, my last hope for Austrian Airlines subsided and made way for a slightly-less-than-mild annoyance.

For a while after the refund-gone-wrong, I was hoping that Austrian would notice the mistake by themselves. It would be so easy to notice: When wiring money to a non-existent bank account — such as my old one — the bank wires it back to the sender, along with a notice that the target account doesn’t exist.

But like the message with my new bank details, the mistake went unnoticed. Thus, I decided to send Austrian Airlines another message, pointing out the incorrect bank details and asking them to send the refund to my new bank account. With slight uneasiness, I used the increasingly dubious contact form once more.

Then, I came across an article online. The headline read: “Austrian Airlines announces: refunds from lockdown period completely paid out”.

“Wait a minute”, I thought to myself. “But my cancelled flight was during the lockdown period. And it isn’t paid out!”

Being forgotten by a standardized process is no pleasant feeling. It’s being presented with a fait accompli and knowing that getting the mistake corrected will be much more difficult now. After all, standardized processes offer no room for mistake.

I’d to the “Right? Right?” spiel again here, but I already did it at the end of August Pt. II. Sorry.

October 2020 — “A futile attempt”

After the turbulent events of September, my mission had changed. It wasn’t just about asking Austrian Airlines for my refund anymore. Now, it was about asking for my refund, telling them to send it to the right bank account — and passionately hoping they would not mess it up again.

A very difficult task for both sides, based on my impressions from the previous months. But I wanted to make it as easy as possible. So, I set up a comprehensive summary of my dealings with Austrian Airlines in their contact form once more, explaining everything and attaching previous e-mails and bank account cancellation notices as proof again, like some overly dedicated lawyer.

When I hit “Send”, all content vanished.

I didn’t make a backup.

I was angry.

November 2020 — “A new hope”

The darker side of fall was coming around, and with it another lockdown. In times like these, it’s good to have something entertaining to do at home as a distraction from the pandemic going on outside.

My entertainment of choice was contacting Austrian Airlines once more, asking about my refund. This time, my choice of words was more scarce than in the last message. After having lost to much to the contact form already, I wanted to make sure not to get hurt again. At least, not more than necessary.

And something actually happened! After a few days, I received a standardized-looking e-mail reply — but this time, it was signed with “Manuel”.

A real name! It had to be a good sign, right? Not just a made-up name to make automated messages seem more personal?

Whatever the case, I decided to answer Manuel, this time explaining my issue with more detail.

And then, I waited.

December 2020, Pt. I — “Logical solutions to everyday problems”

A week ago, Manuel answered. Taking his time, I was hoping his message would help escalate my issue to a new level, one extra step towards a solution.

He told me to call customer service on the phone.

Since I hadn’t done that in a few months and was starting to miss the Danube Waltz, I gave it another shot. And indeed, I received a new piece of information on the phone.

Just not the one I was expecting.

“We can’t change your bank data just based on a contact form request”, I was informed. “We also can’t change it based on a phone call. Could be anyone calling us, people could try to wrongfully obtain others’ refunds.”

Fair enough, I thought to myself. But if I can’t give Austrian Airlines my bank data over the phone nor via the conatct form, how can I give it to them?

The answer was so easy, I was surprised that I didn’t get to it myself. “You need to go to the airport and give your bank data to Austrian Airlines staff there”, I was told.

The airport.

They didn’t even tell me which one. Probably one in Austria.

December 2020, Pt. II — “Right now”

Let’s recapitulate:

I can’t get my bank details changed on the phone. Data privacy, fair enough.

I can’t get my bank details changed via the contact form. Even though there is a field for entering bank details in the contact form.

Instead, I have to go to an unspecified airport and hope to find Austrian Airlines staff, give them my bank details and hope that they know what to do with them.

Suddenly, a mile-long rant on medium.com doesn’t seem like such a bad choice anymore.

Final remarks

Jolly narrative aside, this is a serious matter. Airlines virtually do not get any customers right now. The best — and only — thing they can do is try and keep everyone happy that they’ve done business with before.

Sounds easy on paper, but it’s spectacular how Austrian Airlines fails this very straightforward task. By letting customers run around in loops for their refunds and not offering personal support for complicated cases, they do not only cause annoyance and anger, but also damage their brand in a lasting manner.

Some day — not too far in the future, hopefully — the world will return to rather normal and many people will start to travel again. Air travel will be more of a buyer’s market than before.

Airlines will desperately scramble to be the first ones to reconnect with the tourism cashflow. There will be special offers all around. Customers will have many equally good choices in price — and they will be aware of it.

What’s the deciding factor when price isn’t?

It’s customer experience.

People will remember their previous dealings with airlines.

The ones that provided great customer service before and during the pandemic will be the main profiteers in the comback of global tourism.

The ones that didn’t will feel like they’re still stuck in lockdown, wondering if they ever really leave ground again.

Austrian Airlines is definitely one of the latter.