JESSICA BEARD: Airlines must stop treating passengers as cargo

If you thought flying abroad hit a new low with last summer’s cancellation chaos, just wait until you hear this.

For Christmas, I flew to visit family in Switzerland and booked a return flight with the airline, Swiss, on December 27.

But on Boxing Day at about 9pm I received an email. My flight had been brought forward a day to December 26. And it was due to depart at 10pm.

Cattle class: Airlines are increasingly throwing passengers plans in the air by cancelling flights at short notice 

Yes, you read that correctly – I had been given just an hour to get to the airport or I’d miss this new, much earlier flight taking off.

Even if I’d been lazing about eating turkey trimmings and watching festive films at my relatives’ home (in fact, we were out and about), there’s no way I would have had time to pack, get to the airport and dive through security. And what if I’d been holed up in a chalet miles away in the Alps?

I called customer services. They had no idea what had happened, but told me to go to the airport early the next day. 

So we cancelled family plans (a day in the mountains) and turned up bright and early… only to be told my original flight no longer existed on the airline’s computer system.

After some to-ing and fro-ing, I was put on another flight. Yet my request for compensation was met with a hard ‘No’.

It’s one thing suffering a flight delay or lost luggage. It’s incredibly frustrating but it happens.

Yet something has gone seriously wrong if airlines think it’s acceptable to casually move the date of flights at such short notice. 

The whole point of booking a ticket is that you carefully select a date and time that fits your schedule. 

If it’s moved earlier, out of the blue, it could ruin the whole trip. If it’s moved later, you face a race (and huge expense) to find an extra night’s accommodation.

It increasingly feels as if airlines are treating passengers as cargo that can be shipped off when it suits. 

It’s high time they got back to treating us like real people, with real lives and real plans that they mess with at their peril.

Duped romantics

Most people’s suspicions would be raised by the idea of sending large sums of cash across the world to an online lover with a barely believable sob story.

But visiting Santander’s Break The Spell fraud team in Merseyside opened my eyes to how dastardly these scammers can be.

Victims are so taken in by the tricksters that it can take weeks, or even months, for the highly skilled professionals at the bank to convince customers they are being duped.

I did find myself wondering why friends or family hadn’t intervened. But the truth is that many victims are lured deep into relationships before they even mention it to others. 

Some would never dream of discussing their finances openly, while others are lonely and have no one to talk to about such things.

The main lesson I took from my visit is that if you are concerned a friend or family member has been lured in by a scammer who’s after their cash, do consider reporting it to their bank.

Rather than worrying that you’re breaking their confidence, you should see it as a noble act that could save them from financial disaster. 

The Break The Spell team at Santander are sensitive, sympathetic and have had rigorous training to deal with complex cases. They are on your side.

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This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk