Do not book Malaysia Airlines the worst airline in Malaysia for cancelling flights due to overbooking and worst customer service

Malaysia Airlines lies and cheats: How MAS ruined our Chinese New Year

I’m not new to taking flights, obviously. I’ve had my fair share of good service and bad service. Years ago, I had terrible service from Fireflyz and I wrote a scathing post about the experience here. I still think it serves them right, and if you google ‘Fireflyz’ my blog post is the second link, right after the Fireflyz website.

Today Malaysia Airlines screwed us over and that’s why I’m writing this post.

We booked flights back to Penang for Chinese New Year for today, 26 Jan 2017. With one toddler and one baby, we didn’t want to take the risk of getting caught in the highway jam. We used our Enrich points to redeem us adults and Fighter’s tickets. Penny is still an infant and we purchased her infant seat with cash. Our flight was MH 1140, scheduled for 11.15 am, from KLIA.

We arrived at the airport at 9.45 am, a whole hour and a half before the flight. Ample time right? Considering that this is a domestic flight and we didn’t even have luggage with us to check in – we had sent our luggage off with my brother in law who was driving down to Penang.

Since Fatty is an Enrich Gold member we went to check in as usual at the Business Class counter.

This is the conversation that took place between Fatty and the counter staff.

Staff: I’m sorry, you checked in too late.
Fatty: Huh what do you mean too late? We’re here 1.5 hours before the flight to check in.
Staff: Yea, because check in is open 48 hours before a flight…. Other people already checked in before you so there are no more seats.
Fatty: So? I’m not late to check in what. And I have my tickets!

Then only the staff sheepishly admitted that the flight had been overbooked, and that she would put us on the next flight, at 4 pm.

I was managing the kids behind Fatty and overheard bits and pieces of their conversation. By the time I came up to the counter, the staff had disappeared, presumably to talk to her supervisor. Waited a bit for her and my blood boiled in the meantime wtf. She didn’t come back so I took Fighter with me and tried to find someone else to talk to.

Counter we were at.

Which had this sign standing next to it. 60 minutes before? I have 30 minutes more! What are you going to say?

I went to another counter and demanded an explanation and got one – the second counter staff explained that an earlier flight had been canceled, and they had put the passengers on our flight, effectively kicking us off our flight even though we had done nothing wrong.

By then, she informed me that the first staff serving us had returned and asked me to go back and talk to her, probably very relieved to get me out of her hair.

We ended up not taking a flight back; instead we went back to get our car and drove all the way to Penang with no supplies – no potty for emergencies in the car, no milk powder, extra diapers or change of clothes. Nothing that we would need for the kids.

Stuck in the car suffering with no space between two car seats because our BIL drove our van back. Thanks to MAS, my shoulders and back hurts from not being able to sit properly for 4 hours.

TL;DR: Here’s what MAS did to us.

1.Gave away our seats to other passengers even though we’ve paid for them and booked us on the next flight, without considering the implication and inconvenience to us. How are we supposed to wait for 6 hours in the airport with two toddlers?! They offered us lounge access – which is useless cos we already have it as Enrich members; this is not a compensation at all!!!

  1. Did NOT inform us beforehand so we can change our plans. If we had known earlier we wouldn’t have rushed to the airport so early. As it is, we made our way to the airport so we can be stranded there for the next 6 hours.

  2. Did NOT process a refund for us. The counter staff told us it was their policy that passengers who want a refund have to write in and apply. Later when we spoke to the duty manager, he told us that Enrich does not normally refund points, maybe only 1 person out of 100 gets refunded. So we basically have a 99% chance of losing the points that we used for our tickets.

  3. Although Fatty told the staff to cancel our tickets and give us a refund, she printed out boarding passes for the 4pm flight anyway before hustling us to the duty manager. In the haste, I just took the passes together with our ICs and passports and it didn’t occur to me until now that she effectively checked us in. EVEN THOUGH WE SAID TO CANCEL. So it becomes our fault now that we did not take the flight.

WHAT THE FLYING FUCK.

HOW CAN THEY KICK US OFF A FLIGHT WHEN WE ARE NOT LATE? HOW CAN THEY SIMPLY GIVE AWAY OUR SEATS LIKE THAT? WHY IS IT THAT THEIR INCOMPETENCY BECOMES OUR BURDEN TO BEAR?

If we were late to check in, I can understand assuming we’re a no show and giving our seats away. But they CANNOT preemptively give away seats like that la FFS. Those earlier passengers sorry dudes but they should be on standby, until we give up our flights. Not the other way round!

HOW CAN THEY ASSIGN A FLIGHT TO US FOR NO GOOD REASON WHEN THE LATER FLIGHT IS SUPER TROUBLESOME AND IMPOSSIBLE FOR US?

If we took the 430 flight, we would arrive in Penang at 530. By the time we arrive home, it would be 7 pm at least. Kids don’t need to eat dinner? Don’t need to sleep is it?

HOW CAN THEY REFUSE TO REFUND US IF WE USED POINTS? POINTS IS NOT MONEY AH?

So basically MAS just cheated us right!? Took our money and never delivered the service. The duty manager told us to write in, but why should we even have to do that!? They caused us this extreme inconvenience and we are further inconvenienced by having to write in to get a refund. Your fault you just freaking give us back our money la! And we won’t even get the refund for sure, according to the duty manager, because they already gave us another option, so it’s our choice to not take the flight.

WHAT NONSENSE IS THIS? IT IS NOT MY CHOICE TO FLY AT 4 PM. HOW IS THAT MY CHOICE? YOU GAVE ME NO CHOICE AT ALL, MAS.

HOW CAN THEY CHECK US IN ANYWAY WHEN WE SPECIFICALLY SAID ‘PLEASE CANCEL AND GIVE US A REFUND???

It is further putting the burden of blame on us right!? Cos then they can say, oh you already checked in ma, means you are taking the flight already. Let me be very clear: WE DID NOT CHECK IN. WE ASKED FOR A CANCELATION AND A REFUND. YOU, MAS, CHECKED US IN WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION.

I cannot believe the utter ridiculousness of this whole scenario. It’s disgraceful, the utter disrespect MAS is showing to us. They blatantly swindled us, then treated us with contempt by assigning a random flight that is at a terrible time for us, and issued no compensation or refund.

And if you think we’re the only unlucky ones, you are wrong. I saw people talking on social media that MAS has been doing this over the last two days to unfortunate passengers. Even the duty manager himself admitted to us that “today is not as bad as yesterday”, we can get the next flight considered good already.

EH SUCK MY NON EXISTENT DICK LA MAS. YOU ARE NOT A BUDGET AIRLINE. You can say, this happens with budget airlines all the time, and yes it does. But the difference is at the price we’re paying, we’re getting service equal to or worse than budget airlines. You are so disrespectful and incompetent and inconsiderate, I cannot.

When MAS went through all that missing plane sagas, we still continued to fly them. Some people switched to other airlines on purpose but we still flew MAS when we could to support them. We believed that those incidents are out of their control and it doesn’t mean that they’re a bad airline.

Now? Don’t make me laugh. To screw us and all the other passengers like this, you don’t deserve my faith, liking, respect. You definitely don’t deserve our patronage. If they were really apologetic and showed effort in trying to refund or compensate us, I could still accept it and move on. Just give me a reason to believe in your sincerity! Sadly, you did not. Thanks for ruining the start to our Chinese New Year. That was really fun.

You got your chance. Now this is my turn. I am going to blow this up as big as I can. I’m going to share this blog post on all my social media platforms and I hope you guys can help me do the same. Send to everyone you can. They cannot be allowed to get away with such cheating and deplorable customer service. If they do, they will continue to do this in future. I’m so angry I’m considering buying Facebook and Instagram ads to spread the word HAHAHAHAH.

Please comment here if you have been screwed over by Malaysia Airlines in this manner this festive season so they can take notice. I am going to lobby for a refund and compensation over the extremely shitty way they’ve treated us paying customers.

Thank you for reading! Sorry my post is so long and ranty.

Aud.

P/S: Looking at the comments coming in, OMG MAS is horrendous! WTF kind of service are they running!? Duh but I will strongly say PLEASE DON’T EVER FLY MALAYSIA AIRLINES IF YOU CAN HELP IT. People say fly at your own risk, but besides the risk of flying itself, you also have the risk of getting effed over by unscrupulous scumbags so yea.

Source: fourfeetnine

How Malaysia Airlines fucked me in just in time for the year of the cock

I used to be a huge supporter of Malaysia Airlines. Like it’s always my first choice of airline even though their planes are getting old and even though there’s a safety stigma to it. I stuck with it through thick and thin.

Not anymore. Here’s why.

Today was the day I was supposed to fly back to Penang with the kids. I packed my wife and two kids into the car as we headed all the way to KLIA. I proudly marched to the check-in counter and served up our ID and our air tickets.

The lady behind the counter punched away at her computer only to look at me a few seconds later and say
“Sorry Sir your flight is full.”

Naturally my response was

“What do you mean it’s full? I booked it long before. Here’s my itinerary”.

She then replied
“You checked in too late.”

I first looked at my watch to confirm I was 1 and a half hours early, then at the bunting next to me that reminded passengers to check in “60 minutes before departure”. So okay I was 50% early in terms of minutes. Once certain that I was indeed early for check-in, I relayed that to her in which she replied

“Oh check-in opened 48 hours before departure time. So everyone else checked in before you”.

The logic of that dumbfounded me. I grabbed my head and banged it repeatedly on the hard counter top in front of her… okay I didn’t really do that but instead I gave her this look.

She then said the flight was overbooked and they had to put me on the next flight which is 4.20PM. 6 hours later. I asked for business class instead then but even that was full. So I went

“What am I supposed to do here for 6 hours with my two kids?”.

I don’t know what I expected her to say. Maybe something like “How about I give you shopping vouchers to Mitsui Outlet or a free 3 hours spa session that will leave you with jelly limbs”. Instead, the response Malaysian Hospitality gave me was “I can give you lounge access”.

I looked at the Enrich Gold card in my hand and thought “Lounge access…… like the one I already have with the card in my hand?”.

My imaginative mind flashed to a scene where invading Mongolians were pounding at the Great Wall when the Emperor of China at the time came out and said
“MONGOLIANS! STOP! DO NOT INVADE CHINA! Go back where you came from and I shall make it worth your while. I shall give you…. wait for it…. SUNLIGHT! (But only for 12 hours a day).

Back on Earth I looked at the MAS lady behind the counter and said “I can’t spend 6 hours in the lounge even with my kids. Can you just cancel my flight and fully refund me?”.

She said okay she’ll check and she darted away for while. Meanwhile my Supreme Leader (aka wife) approached me and asked me what was going on. When I told her she took a bottle of 12 year Chivas, smashed it on the counter and pointed the jagged edge of the bottle in the air in anger. Okay fine that didn’t happen, but it might as well have… every sip of a 12 year Chivas is like a kick in the throat. Seriously Chivas what do you put in there?

The Supreme Leader was angry and possibly even more angry considering that I was so calm and casual about the whole thing. Well I’m normally not, these kind of things normally piss me off and I go all apeshit and all but these past few months I’ve been trying to control my temper and be zen and all. Supreme Leader made no such commitment though, so without being able to find anyone to scold she hunted around for the nearest male wearing a green suit jacket or a lady wearing the MAS batik.

Fighter trotted next to her on to her next battle while Penny stayed with me at the counter.

A few minutes later MAS lady came back and she told that I have to write a letter to get a refund. Okay… annoying but I was still zen so I appealed to her to not inconvenience me for having to do that when I’ve already been inconvenienced for coming to the airport with my family only to find out we’ve been kicked off our flight.

She sheepishly said “I’m sorry this is company policy” and then looked away, She looked scared. Something told me she had been through this before and she knew that the words “Company Policy” brings out the “FUCK YOU UNDERSTAND” in any customer. So she was waiting for me to blow up… but instead I curled my palms upward and touched my index fingers with my thumbs.

Next thing I know I saw her printing out a boarding pass and I realized she was checking me into the 4PM flight. I told her woah woah I can’t wait for 4PM. Please cancel my flight in which she again said she can’t… company policy and shit.

Still zen about the whole thing I asked

“I know I know this is not your fault. It’s your company and you’re just doing your job. Can I speak to your manager?”.

She then brought my family and I (Supreme Leader had just returned from her hunt of anything in green) went to see her Duty Manager. There we sat down and after explained our situation the Duty Manager that went by the name Jeffrey basically said:

  1. It’s not our fault. It’s the airline’s fault. We did nothing wrong… But there’s nothing they can do (Actually there is but it’s just too much effort Tim… too much).

  2. Yes they could have informed us ahead of time that they moved our flight but they didn’t. (Neh neh ni boo boo)

  3. Because my flight was redeemed with points I won’t get a refund. (That’s right Tim. FUCK YOU! Because we can).

  4. This happened yesterday too but today is worse (So don’t be sad you’re not the only one that got fucked today).

  5. Oh by the way the 4PM flight is now overbooked so our earliest flight is 7PM (and because you came here to complain to me here’s another FUCK YOU).

Sitting across from me I could see Supreme Leader heating up. Her face was flushed red like she had just emerged from a volcano and she shouted in her cute voice at the guy. I say cute because Supreme Leader doesn’t seem to have a loud voice box. Shouting to her is like talking loudly to an average person and while she normally speaks in a low voice, Shouting Shorty is high-pitched.

After Supreme Leader completed her artillery small arms barrage I stepped in and asked Jeffrey
“Okay are you sincerely telling me that there is really nothing you can do?”.

He nodded. I said ok, thanked him and then rounded up the family and left.

We ended up taking a car back to Penang with the kids. When we called their customer service to ask for a refund they told us the people on the ground said we requested to change our flight time which is not true.

I later found out that I wasn’t the only one affected by this. I remember overhearing one guy on the phone apologising to his mom in Hokkien (probably same flight to Penang as me) saying he won’t be able to make it home in time for the dinner. He sounded like he was getting a full blown fucking over the phone from his mom because he was just taking it like a man. After he was done he called up the customer service officer and I heard him doing the fucking then.

So much fucking here and there… what a way to start the Year of the Cock Rooster.

Source: timothytiah