A stormy honeymoon

TravelMole Twitter follower Andrew Daines was on his honeymoon in the US when Hurricane Irene struck. Here, he describes why his experience was surprisingly positive thanks to the good customer service he recevied from the travel industry.

An eerily quiet 42nd Street, Manhattan

"We woke on Saturday morning to an overcast Manhattan. Everything seemed pretty normal (although wall-to-wall hurricane watch had begun on virtually all TV channels). We set out for breakfast at Pershing Square on 42nd Street. We were informed that service would be slower as all staff that lived off Manhattan Island were being sent home before the public transit system was due to close at 12pm.

Quite a number of stores in Manhattan were closed, but the severity of Irene’s impact was appreciated when we discovered Macy’s department store was closed as a result of the hurricane. Some businesses remained open, notably the many pharmacies, but we did fortunately manage to find one of the great midtown hostelries – the Ginger Man on 36th Street, which proudly displayed a sign declaring them open for beer!

Mid-afternoon, I got both a text message and an e-mail from Virgin Atlantic informing me that our flight back to Heathrow on the Sunday had been cancelled, and to call them to reschedule it. We returned to the hotel to do this (so that I could use Virgin’s toll-free US number). I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I got through to Virgin. I was also impressed by the two agents I spoke to, both who seemed fully briefed on the situation. The news was that, due to two days’ of cancellations, the next guaranteed available flight for us would be the following Sunday, September 4th. Okay…

I went to the Hilton’s front desk to enquire about extending our stay – this was done, at a reasonable rate and with good service, and they threw in free breakfasts for us; a nice touch. Another call back to Virgin confirmed they would cover the costs of this extended stay at the Hilton.

We decided we’d head out to the Ginger Man – we stayed there until around 7pm, by which time the wind had picked up and the rain was heavy. The streets were very quiet – there were almost as many abandoned umbrellas as there were people and taxis. Back in the Hilton, the bar was full, its TVs showed coverage from various news channels. Hotel staff were had been ordered to stay overnight, so that a reasonably full service could continue (only housekeeping was suspended).

On Sunday morning, we were awoken earlier than expected, and this was due to Irene, but in an unexpected way – rain was leaking in through the ceiling of our room! We quickly got up, and the Hilton moved us to a new, dry room.

At 10am, due to be the storm’s peak, I checked outside the hotel – 42nd Street was almost deserted, and it felt like a strong storm, nothing worse. Throughout the morning, the storm died down, and early in the afternoon, people (and taxis) were returning to the streets. There was evidence of damage to trees, but Irene’s impact had not been as bad as feared. Bars and restaurants began to open; by Monday, normal service seemed to have resumed.

Our experience of Hurricane / Tropical Storm Irene was a positive one. The responses from Virgin Atlantic and the Hilton Manhattan East demonstrated their commitment to good customer service. And our honeymoon has been extended by a week in one of the world’s most exciting cities! However, talking to other ‘stranded’ visitors from the UK who are with other airlines and operators, our experience is far from being universal – we feel ourselves rather fortunate."

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