A Shetland woman has hit out at Loganair after a flight delay made her miss a connecting flight to New York City.
It meant that 39-year-old Sophie Whitehead, a jeweller and wedding photographer, arrived in the Big Apple a day and half later than expected.
Mrs Whitehead, who lives in Lerwick, is currently there on holiday with two of her friends until Sunday evening.
The trio started off their transatlantic travels by flying with Loganair from Sumburgh to London Heathrow on Monday, however, it was delayed by an hour.
Mrs Whitehead claims this was due to “technical issues” before it flew to the Northern Isles, as she saw in the morning that it would be delayed.
Despite being told by staff at Sumburgh Airport that they “would make the connection”, this was not the case.
Speaking from New York, Mrs Whitehead told The P&J: “When we landed at London Heathrow we had missed it, but there was no one available to help us, and everyone kept saying it wasn’t their problem.”
Her flight to New York was booked through British Airways (BA), but was operated by American Airlines, both of which are members of the Oneworld alliance.
She says she decided to fly with BA “to prevent any of this happening” as the airline has a codeshare agreement with Loganair, meaning that customers can book onward connections from destinations across the airline’s routes.
‘Everyone kept saying it was Loganair’s fault’
However, this did not go to plan, as “everyone kept saying it was Loganair’s fault because they’d delivered us late,” Mrs Whitehead said.
After being passed from pillar to post and being told it “wasn’t their problem”, as well as trying to call Loganair to no avail, the three ladies made their way to Heathrow’s Terminal 5.
“We spoke to a man and he was the first t0 enter our booking reference into the system and told us ‘you’re already rebooked for 8.20am tomorrow’,” she said.
This was the first time that the holidaymakers were told of this and had no emails or phone calls to inform them of this.
They then had to book into a hotel at their own expense, however, she is hoping to be reimbursed by the Scottish airline for this.
The Shetland contingent fly back to the UK on Sunday night and Mrs Whitehead is a bit worried about the connecting flight from Heathrow to Sumburgh.
‘Who is actually responsible?’
She said: “There’s no reason it shouldn’t work, but it’s just that whole if there’s any delay, who is actually responsible for you?
“The whole run up to us leaving, none of us have been able to be excited about it.”
A spokesman for Loganair said: “We can confirm we are aware of the complaint and the matter is being investigated internally.”
American Airlines has been contacted for comment.
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