A lot of people complain on social media about the service rendered by airlines in Nigeria, and these complaints are often very severe and rampant. Some cases get wide media publicity, such as the one involving Banky W on a New York flight in April. But most cases are ordinary individuals pouring out against airlines on Twitter with strong words. The impression is that going anywhere by plane in the country is invariably a bad experience. For example, last month a passenger named Zainab tweeted, “Instead of Arik to improve their appalling services on existing routes, they are busy expanding. Ridiculous!” Another person named Chukwudi tweeted, “Arik air is now a nightmare. Worst of it is that the Nigerian government is dumb and toothless to take action against them for their evil.” Another user named Ebi said also on Twitter, “7 hrs delay and they still wanted to board us on a faulty craft. Something else has to describe Arik because it’s worse than bad.” Going to the airport In trying to find out if these claims had any substance, YNaija went to the airport to speak with some passengers, and hopefully the main target of all the complaints, Arik Air. We also searched on Twitter and tracked over 20 people who had said something critical about Arik and others lately. We also tweeted to @Gidi_Traffic about our work and invited people to share their Arik experience with us. We made cold calls to people who have flown lately, and we read the Arik terms and conditions in full to see what’s in the fine print. On the phone, everyone we spoke with was okay with their flying experience. Some mentioned flight delay or the AC not working pre-flight, but that was it. At the airport, all the passengers we spoke with were satisfied with the service. There wasn’t a single protest. However, on Twitter, things were very different. Most of those people who responded, complained in the recent past, but were now slow to respond to our invitation to share their experience with us, even though we checked back and they’d been online after our tweet to them. Most of those who responded via @Gidi_Traffic, were bitter. But when we asked them questions and probed further, their claims mostly fell flat. What we found was that the Arik service, for instance, is sometimes truly dis-satisfactory (delays, foods etc). However, most of the complaints we got on Twitter appeared unfairly exaggerated and often based on seemingly ignorant assumptions. For example, one person said Arik put them on a faulty plane. But when probed further as to how he knew the plane was faulty, he conceded that he assumed the plane was faulty because they were delayed after boarding. Others who were asked how frequently they had bad experiences admitted that such happened once. Yet, following that, they thought that Arik is a “terrible”, “worse than bad” airline. Worse, others thought this airline or another is bad not because they had personally experienced such, but because people were complaining about the airline. One woman we spoke with on the phone admitted that she never had one single bad time, but because her friends had complained to her, she insisted that the airline is bad. Exaggeration rampant on social media During the recent election in Osogbo, there were media reports that soldiers brutalised a YNaija photojournalist and police attacked journalists in hotels. Both reports were of minor incidents which were then exaggerated and spread thanks to Twitter. First of all, our photojournalist was not brutalised by soldiers or anyone. Secondly, we followed up on the hotel attack claims, and when the claimants were challenged to produce proof, they failed to uphold their claims. From those fake Osun reports and our findings for this particular story, there’s evidence that a lot of people are, literally, followers on Twitter. So when an influential person supports or complains about something, people follow, often without reasoning for themselves or checking the facts. For instance, we found a tweet by one prominent Twitter figure, @Omojuwa, that was critical of Arik, and it got loads of replies that agreed with him. One complainant, Ade, said, “Only God can save Nigerians from our domestic flights” as if he had suffered similar circumstances. When we tweeted to Ade and asked him to tell us about any recent Arik/other experiences he’s had, he admitted that he had “no idea” about airlines’ service. He had “no single” personal experience whatsoever. Yet, he was among those complaining behind Omojuwa. We asked some others to tell us their experience. They simply referred us to Omojuwa. A certain Otimkpu said, “Arik is so bad…Ask Omojuwa … for experiences.” Finally, we asked complainants if they read the fine print. Most finally admitted to not having read them. However, by buying an Arik ticket, they entered into a contract with the airline and were bound by those terms and conditions anyway. Many Arik complainants obviously don’t know that the airlines’ terms and conditions contract squashes virtually all complaints that the they make. For example, regarding flight delays, Article 9.1 of the contract says, “The flight times shown in timetables may change between the date of publication and the date you actually travel. We do not guarantee them to you and they do not form part of your contract of carriage with us.” Addressing loss of property on board, Article 8.3 says, “You must not include in Checked Baggage fragile or perishable items, valuable items…money, jewellery…computers, personal electronic devices…valuable documents..” “If, despite being prohibited, any items referred to [above] are included in your baggage, we shall not be responsible for any loss or damage to such items.” Some people grumble about in-flight food and entertainment. But Article 7.6 says, “For operational reasons, we cannot make any guarantees about the provision/ availability of in-flight entertainment…special meals or any particular type of meals or the availability of special in-flight services. “Additionally, where special meals are provided, the fact that they have been prepared by third parties to our order means that, despite use of our endeavours, it is not possible for us to guarantee that they will always conform to their exact description.” Article 6 says about check-in complaints, “We reserve the right to cancel your reservation if you do not comply with the Check-in-Deadlines indicated or check-in 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time for [your flight]. “We may decide to cancel the space reserved for you or change your seat assignment within your ticketed class of carriage if you fail to arrive at the boarding gate in time.” However, many airline passengers say they’ve been offended by the attitude of some airline staff, especially Arik’s. They expect that if a flight is delayed or the airline cannot provide a service, the airline should explain things and show that they care. But many people say this doesn’t happen. One Telema tweeted, “[Arik] disregard… passengers. They feel and act [like they are] ‘untouchable’.” On the other hand, some folks on Twitter have had no problems with Arik and get amused by the regularly negative feedback. “I’ve never had an issue – not one – with Arik, but quite a number of folks (I know) complain about them. It’s funny,” tweets Sugar, a female user. Arik responds An Arik flights manager who did not want to be identified because he was not cleared to speak to the press, spoke about these allegations. We also challenged him regarding the closure of Arik Air’s Twitter account. He didn’t respond concerning the closure, but said, “A lot of people just complain on social media. Most times, we don’t respond because it’s no case. For instance, if you keep your item in your bag and it is lost on board, and you go on Twitter to rave about it, we won’t respond, because that act is prohibited in our terms and conditions. We are not liable for such losses. You as a customer should comply with our terms of carriage. “Also, sometimes flight delays happen in circumstances that we’re not responsible for, such as bad weather. Moreover, if the minister or the president wants to fly, they could shut down the airspace and some people would be complaining that Arik has delayed them. People need to find out the true situation before saying things on Twitter.” Culled from http://ynaija.com/site/297640/

I thot arik was d darling of nigerian travellers, what happened again?

Nice PR. Ynaija,how much were you paid for this?

ESULAALU: Nice PR. Ynaija,how much were you paid for this?

the truth remains that social media sometimes blows things out of proportion