Reply from FlyWorldClass.comDec 10, 2020
Hello Emma,
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We sincerely regret the experience you had in London when trying to board your originally booked itinerary. Fly World Class prides itself on not only excellent service but for being a great value. In some ways, we missed the mark on that in regards to our communications with you, and we would like to sincerely apologize for that. As an organization, we value customer feedback as it helps us strive for constant improvement as it allows us to better understand our clientele and their experiences.
Your situation is really complex and while not ideal, we truly hope that in perspective of everything holistically, you will have a more positive reflection on the overall experience as you were able to miraculously circumvent Australia's 14 day government mandated quarantine.
Allow us to say that we confidently do not solicit ourselves as experts in the immigration (visa) field as it is both complex and ever-changing. Our goal is to provide our clientele with first and business class tickets at a fair and reasonable value. If the notion of being a travel agency made any unspoken or unwritten implications that we can provide immigration advice, we regret that misrepresentation. We are sure to include in our contract terms and conditions that our passengers are responsible for any passport and entry requirements of their destination.
As travelers such as yourself going to Australia are aware, the number of passengers allowed to enter the country is limited which effects airline schedules that are volatile, usually with limited advanced notice to schedule changes. We share in the frustration you and every traveler attempting to return to Australia face as these trying times make getting home a delayed and seemingly impossible task. We are glad to have been of service to you and assisted you in booking your tickets and getting you on a viable itinerary back home in line with our ticketing agreement contract that you had signed and completed.
In taking the time to thoroughly review and to the best of our understanding interpret why you were denied boarding, we are left with an unclear answer. Our role, solely as a provider of tickets, contradicting information from airlines and government agencies regarding restrictions, and the mismanaged enforcement of travel regulation practices seems to have resulted in an unfortunate turmoil. However, it also created what seems to be a rare and isolated opportunity that aided you in traveling from Europe to Australia without ever undergoing a quarantine on arrival.
Based on the Australian government website with travel information pertaining to the pandemic: covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au, there is no mention of exclusive flights or routings from New Zealand that are a quarantine free flight upon disembarking in Australia. The website does mention that the "safe travel zone is an agreement with another country to travel to Australia quarantine-free, provided a traveller has not been in a COVID-19 outbreak location in the last 14 days." At this time New Zealand is the only country on that list. Which makes it highly unusual but situationally fortunate that you were able to transit through New Zealand to arrive in Australia.
We and we presume you would be perplexed at the fact that you were denied boarding because of your originally booked flight from New Zealand to Australia, however you were not denied boarding based on the safe travel zone requirements a few days later. It seems to have been a fortunate oversight by the airlines and airport immigration to have allowed you to successfully travel.
It is important that we address the unpredictable volatility of ticket pricing to Australia. Due to the government mandate limiting passengers entering Australia drives prices up as flights get cancelled. It is a remarkably unfortunate predicament that results in inflated fares once the apparent operating flight is made clear. While the fare certainly increased exponentially, we were still thankfully able to get you the best pricing available.
The steps of your journey home and that of many Australians has been far from ideal, we are so honored to have been able to get you there. We are also glad that you were able to miraculously board the quarantine free flight as per your request, that enabled you to avoid entering the mandated quarantine requirement.
As mentioned before, we look to our customer feedback to understand how we can improve, and will certainly reference your experience going forward. We also additionally would like to invite you to continue the conversation by emailing us at: [email protected] so we can continue to assist you and learn more about your experience.
We sincerely thank you for booking with us, and wish you a festive and safe holiday season.
-The Fly World Class Team