Flying with Dana Air sucked! Tragically!!
I’m going to try to make this as brief as possible, while still keeping crucial details. I have to get this out.
A friend of a friend was having a celebration in Abuja, and she was flying us in for it. (I don’t know if you know how I feel about such things in general. But, just in case – I was thoroughly excited. #WeGotFlewedOut #PartyHoliday)
It had been years before sometime last year that I had flown domestically. And last year, flights were on time and everything. I even missed my flight, but could get on another in the following hour without issues. I actually went, “Hmm. Nice.”
Alas, I hmm-ed too soon.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
About a month or more before the event, we received the flight details in our emails.
Closer to the date, people who were aware of the trip start to ask questions around it, like what airline we’re flying with. When I told one of the members of The Gang it was Dana Air, he literally went, “Ah! That airline wey their door dey fly comot for air.” Everyone laughed. Jokes.
Now, I hadn’t particularly heard great tales about Dana Air. But, as I mentioned earlier, I just somehow assumed maybe they’d all gotten ‘better’ based on that one recent experience. Because, to be honest, I don’t expect much from us when it comes to such matters. So, it didn’t matter to me one way or the other what airline we were going with.
It should have.
Another friend asks, and I tell him. He seemed kind of hesitant, but was like, “Okay”. I then told him what my guy said, and he was like, “Ah, I didn’t want to say anything before, because I didn’t want to scare you… But, they’re not reliable”, and other stuff like that. In short, no one I happened to mention it to had anything good to say about this nonsense airline.
I’m like, well… We’re here.
On the day of the flight, on the way to the airport, my friend’s fiancee confirmed some of the so-called jokes about Dana Air. We were like, okay, we should’ve probably gone with another option. Like the one I travelled with last year that wasn’t so bad. (Fine, it was Air Peace.)
We were right. We should have gone with another option.
See, when they sent the email, the flight was scheduled for noon. We get to the counter, and the nice lady casually issues us tickets with 13:35 hours on it. We didn’t even notice it until after we were in the waiting area and I was trying to find our flight on a screen.
I’m like——————
As if that wasn’t enough, they delayed the flight for another couple of hours. They sent a text for one of the delays as we were in the airport there. Bear in mind we already made plans for the day in Abuja.
Long story short, we get there almost six pm. Our friends had been waiting for us at the airport for over four hours.
Are we all jokes?
Coming back was the worst. Worst!
Again, flight time had been changed from the original 19:20 hours to 20:30 hours. Again, they sent a text. No wahala. Only for us to get to the airport and the lady at the counter (I actually forget what they’re called) tells us our flight has been moved to 01:00 hours. 1AM! Fucking 1AM. Can you believe??
Of course we’re like, “Whaatt?” Then, in what I’m pretty sure is her professional, solution-providing voice, she tells us we can join a flight to Port-Harcourt still leaving at 20:30 hours, not disembark, and then continue on to Lagos. Please, read that again.
We’re like okay. But, somehow, I’m unconvinced.
The time was approaching, and no announcement. I go to their ‘desk’ and ask a lady there if the flight was still happening. She said yes.
Sometime later, I go back and ask [another?] lady if she had any information about the flight. She said she didn’t have. That I’d need to go back to where I got my boarding pass to get information. I’m like, “You mean, go all the way through security, back downstairs?” This woman said yes. I said okay, and went back to join my party quietly.
Well, the flight to PH was ‘delayed’, until around like 21:40 hours when it starts to board. Of course they have no place for us on it. Instead, they say there’s a direct flight from Lagos arriving in minutes that’d take us back.
I would appreciate if we could bear a couple of things in mind;
- Lagos – Abuja is like 10 minutes, or something, for all this stress!
- Our airports are sad.
- People make plans with their time and their lives, however rare this may sound.
Anyway, at this point, I just want to go home. Anyhow that happens.
Last last, we get to Lagos around midnight. Yeah.
The whole ordeal with this airline was just terrible. It’s not because they delayed my flight twice, back to back. No, not only. It’s the blatant nonchalance with which they did it. It’s because it’s certainly not the first time this would be happening, and yet it continues to happen.
It’s because it’s just disrespectful.
I don’t know how we can make these airlines be more responsible (in other news, Turkish Airlines is still owing me baggage claim money), but this bullshit should not be left to sit.
If you can only afford to logistically have two flights in a day, that’s fine. But greed and wickedness will not let you, and so you waste customers’ time with your tragic inefficiency, and treat their patronage – patronage you don’t deserve – like it’s nothing.
They have the nerve to put that stupid banner in the header image up for display!
Well, personally, I won’t be flying their airline again. I’m not a mad person. Even Aero that I dissed, legit telling one of their staff I didn’t know they still operated, were taking off left and right. I mean, if they had any issues, it definitely was not as bad as what Dana put us through.
So, as I was saying, Dana Air is quite trash. They’ve certainly further traumatised me when it comes to interstate travel, and they almost put a sour taste in the mouth of my party-holiday. But, thankfully, you’ll still be ‘hearing’ about it on the Gram.
You know what’s a good sign off? A prompt takeoff.
P.S. As at the time of editing this post, they sent an email with some excuses about how a fault with one of their planes caused the delays for a couple of days, including my return date. But seeing as the same thing happened on my takeoff date two days before they started counting ——–
