EXCERPT:
APRIL 19, 2010
"SYDNEY (AP) - Andrew and Debbie Jackman of Britain spent more than two years saving up for their family vacation to Australia. They probably wish they'd saved a little longer.
On Friday, they found out their Qantas flight from Sydney to Britain had been canceled thanks to a volcano erupting in Iceland. So the Cambridge couple and their two teenage sons squeezed into a 150 Australian dollar ($138) hotel room to wait out the night. On Saturday, the hotel raised the price of the same room to AU$350 - simply because it could....
"I stayed in my hotel last night, but that was all my money," he said at the Narita International Airport, near Tokyo. "I think I'm going to stay here and sleep at the airport. Help me God."
"I stayed in my hotel last night, but that was all my money," he said at the Narita International Airport, near Tokyo. "I think I'm going to stay here and sleep at the airport. Help me God."
Nicolas Ribard, 29, from Avignon, France, was among about a dozen stranded tourists squatting on sleeping bags that Narita airport officials had lent them. He and three other friends had about 3,000 yen between them, and were surviving on airport-issued crackers, bottled water and coupons for one free shower a day.
Their earliest possible flight would be Taiwan's EVA Airways on May 12 - but only if they are willing to pay an extra 150 euros ($200). Otherwise, they have to wait until June, Ribard said.
"I am a little afraid that my pay will be docked," said Napier, 35. "I also have tutoring jobs during the week that usually supplement my salary. That will be gone. And even if I don't get my pay docked, all my days off will have to be charged as sick days."
Steeper-than-usual hotel prices is another passenger complaint. In Hong Kong, Busi Daniel, a 39-year-old French tourist, said he spent Sunday night in a hotel after his flight was canceled. But a huge jump in price meant he would be forced to sleep at the airport on Monday.
"Yesterday, we had a hotel room at 250 euros. At midday, it was 460 euros, and in the evening, the price was 800 euros for a room - we can't pay that," he said Monday as he waited at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' counter in Hong Kong's airport.
The Jackmans spent hours pleading for mercy from the Novotel Sydney Brighton Beach after it raised the price of their room the second night.
Asked if the hotel was guilty of price-gouging, the hotel's general manager, Alan Burrows, said simply, "We dynamically price much like the airlines do, according to how many rooms we have to sell in the hotel."
Unlike many airlines, Qantas - Australia's largest carrier - has said it's been paying for stranded passengers' accommodations and providing meal vouchers. That was news to the Jackmans, who said airline representatives told them they were on their own.
On Monday, after spending three hours on hold with Qantas, the family trekked back to the airport (another AU$30 cab ride), and spoke to a customer service representative in person. It was only then, they said, that the airline offered to pay for a hotel room - for one night.
