AirAsia delay forces RM15,000 in extra expenses
PETALING JAYA: SUBANG JAYA ECHO editor Teoh Teik Hoong is furious that a blunder by AirAsia resulted in him having to pay an additional RM15,000 for the environmental excursion he organised to Sabah.
"On June 6, along with seven teenagers and 13 adults from the Subang Jaya community, we were supposed to board an AirAsia flight to Sandakan for World Environment Day," he told The Malay Mail.
"The flight, which was at 6.25am, was for a four-day, three-night excursion to a conservation area in Kinabatangan."
Despite arriving before 5am at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), all the luggage counter lines were congested.
"We were about to check in our luggage but by the time we arrived at the counter at about 5.30am, the officer said it was too late and that they were closed," he said.
"He told us to take the flight without our luggage. We tried negotiating with them but he didn't entertain us."
He said by 6am, they tried to consult another counter officer but she refused to entertain them without even checking.
"She claimed her supervisor wouldn't allow them to check in, even though he was standing nearby. With 25 minutes left, we could not board the flight with our luggage," Teoh said.
"The students were stressed out. We tried looking at another alternative, which was to book another flight at 12pm that had five seats left."
Instead, they decided to book another flight to Kota Kinabalu and from there, took a Malaysia Airlines flight to Sandakan.
"That flight was also delayed for 25 minutes. We had to pay an additional RM8,000 to get to Kota Kinabalu and had to stay over as the Sandakan flight was at 7am the next day," he said.
"We spent RM2,000 in accommodation, plus the next flight cost RM4,000. Overall, we spent almost RM15,000 and missed the first day of events. We also had to alter our schedule for the trip."
He said while waiting for the Kota Kinabalu flight, he e-mailed AirAsia over the matter.
'We feel cheated by ordeal'
"They had promised to investigate. But by the time we returned from Sandakan on June 10, we received no proper response," he said.
"We also never received any phone calls to clarify things in between and only received three emails from them overall. We even complained via email to Tan Sri Tony Fernandes himself."
After a week, he finally received an email response, which insisted they had been too late to check in their luggage, and that their staff were merely following standard operating procedures and therefore could not bend the rules.
"They said as a gesture of goodwill, they would contribute RM2,000 into my Air Asia member account for future flights. They said they considered the case closed and resolved," he said.
"However, we feel cheated by the ordeal. The students were emotionally stressed that day, thinking we would be forced to cancel the whole trip."
Attempts to contact Air Asia were unsuccessful.
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