I have just missed a flight from London to Singapore I booked with Opodo, having misread the information on my booking confirmation. After the flight date in bold the next piece of information is 'Duration' followed by {TIME IN BOLD}. Being in a tearing hurry these last few days, I didn't have time to make a leisurely review of my travel arrangements, so when I glanced at the booking last night to check it, I took this to be the departure time - which is actually the third piece of information, on the following line. I should have been on a plane leaving at 15.05; I read it as 15.45. So when I got to the check-in desk the plane was still on the ground but the gate was closed, and they wouldn't let me board.

Surely it would be more sensible to have 'Depature' and {TIME IN BOLD} immediately *after* the date of the flight, which is where one would logically expect them to be? The duration of the flight is more or less irrelevant, at least compared to when the plane LEAVES, for God's sake. I know this was strictly my own fault, but this is the first time in my life I have ever missed a plane, and Opodo's layout *definitely* didn't help. I've written to them to tell them about the experience; we'll see if they do anything about it.

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Much to my surprise, I got an email from Opodo the next morning, saying that they'd never heard of this happening before but that they'd forward it to the relevant department and have it looked into. I asked them to keep me posted regarding any action that was taken as a result. This sort of thing makes you feel *so* much better after a disaster like the above, and really raises your opinion of a company. If you feel like a legitimate grievance has been given some attention rather than just dismissed you are much more likely to use their services again in future. Customer relations managers everywhere, take note and watch this space.