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!!!
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
PP/S: Fatty’s account of this incident here.
UPDATE 7.35 pm, 27 Jan 2017:
MAS reached out to me at 9.30 am today. I just didn’t have time to update until now.
I really appreciate that they have extended contact and tried to make amends! But I can’t help feeling that it’s only because my blog post went viral (thank you so much for sharing it btw!!!). I told them I don’t expect anything besides what I’m entitled to (a full refund) so I’m appreciative.
But I don’t want to be singled out for special treatment because of my blog post. I’m not the only person affected by their overbooking this CNY and I asked if they would make amends for everyone else affected this time. I would ask for everyone else ever wronged hahaha but I think that would be too difficult and too much for them to stomach. One step at a time. Cross fingers for their reply!
UPDATE:
Malaysia Airlines have issued a response to my request. See the update HERE.
Comments (242)
They screwed my whole family over last year on a domestic flight back from Sabah to Johor. Simply told me “oh,we tried to call”, when I noticed my flight wasn’t the same one I’ve booked. My original flight was cancelled and they just simply replaced me onto another flight. My toddler was with me, and we had to wait around for 3 hours before the next flight. They didn’t have the brains to email me or make sure to call until i picked up?! It was definitely on a last minute notice. Worse when I said I wanted to lodge a complain, the staff just nonchalantly asked me to go ahead!! They’re “supposedly” the premium airline compared to AA but sadly their service and attitude is really lower than 3rd class.
Omg so arrogant of them!!!! There needs to be a boycott of them only they’ll learn their lesson.
They also treat their own staffs like this : ) they once made my mom and sis waited around the airport for nearly 24 hours without giving them seat tho there’s clearly few empty seats left and I used my privilege ticket ( once a year thing) to fly my parents and sister to Sydney and they canceled three of them and moved them to the night flt ( around another 13-14 hours wait) because they claimed 3 seats were ‘broken’ -,- luckily I moved on from the airline and never again put my family thru this inconvenience when traveling !! Happy cny !!!!
Something similar happened too mid last year. Booked and paid for our tix to HCM (economy). Then we decided we wanted to use our miles to upgrade to Business cos we jus wanted to use up the miles and stop flying with them. Called them to upgrade and They told us business class was full but can put us on standby. Asked to leave our numbers so can call us back.That was like 2 weeks before departure. No calls nothing so we thought didn’t get the business la. Went to check in and told us blatantly cannot proceed for check in cos names not in the list. How is that possible. They said cos we were on standby for business. Ya. STANDBY. What happens to our economy tix then. We still bought it what. And we actually printed our tickets.. Apparently, since we’re on standby, your economy tix like Bo liau. Seriously don’t know what logic. They didn’t even call us back so we assume we didn’t get to upgrade la. But we should still have our purchased economy seats right..Put us on the next flight out. Then similar happened when we returned from HCM. Also next flight. That was worse cos it seems we did not fly out so automatically return no need to fly also. And all this are paid tix. Only wanted to use the points for the upgrade.
Came home and shot them an email, no response reminders no response…rooster year almost here..still no response.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38bbf232050a2fd9618b81b03e1780124c9a75f262f4066875e8bd82f71aea12.jpg
Hi Audrey,
I’m in the plane, sitting and waiting for my 7pm flight to take off, and I’m posting this at 7.51pm. there’s no sign of us taking off anytime soon. The captain didn’t bother to make any announcement and made us wait for well, you can see from the time I’m writing this. And yes, it is MAS.
Hmmm. I acknowledge that your experiences have been horrendous, but my London – KL – London flight experiences, including my parents 2-yearly flights to visit me in the UK have always been good. And I’ve flown with them for 14 years now. I wonder if it’s just domestic flights that have this issue. Or maybe I’ve just been incredibly lucky. I’ve even had good experiences when trying to upgrade to Business class with my Enrich miles (as well as miles transferred from my parents), and the customer service was ever so helpful on both times.
Their phone line waiting queues though….. ridiculous wait times. I’m sorry your CNY is starting off unpleasantly. But I hope the rest of your CNY is much more pleasant here on onwards. Happy Chinese New Year to you and your family.
MAS caused me much anger too. I booked my CNY flight from Sg-Sbz via MAS to fly w Firefly. I booked it on 15 March 2016! I got an email stating flight incomplete then. I called back then, they told me it’s confirmed. I checked my CC, it was charged too.
So ok fine. Confirmed right? I had this naggy feeling to call them last Friday. My flight is today (less than a week from Friday). I called them and guess what? I was told. My seats are cancelled. I have no ticket. No one called me to informed. Imagined if I were to arrive at the airport, only to be told I have no seat??!!
So over the 4 days, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I called MAS like a million times. They wanted to refund me my money. I said NO. I want my flight to be confirmed. That’s the whole point of me booking one year ahead right? So it’s cheaper and there’s available flights. How the hell I’m supposed to purchase a ticket back to KL at this time? It would cost me SGD400++ for a return ticket. That fugging RM1200.
Finally on Wednesday, they confirmed back my original booking. My flight today (NOW), supposed to be at 18.55. Delayed one round. To 20.00. Now delayed again to 20.45. I’m still sitting my furious ass at the boarding gate waiting for the damn airplane.
I’m not trying to dismiss everyone’s experience with long wait times, but the plane could probably be delayed because of flight checks finding something minor in the aircraft / baggage loading because there’s so many baggages going through the airport but not enough baggage handlers / waiting for air traffic control tower to give them the go ahead to set off. Sometimes it isn’t the airlines’ problem, but the situation at the airport itself. And personally, if something is wrong with the aircraft, I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I do agree that being kept up to date with what’s causing the delay would be helpful. Having said that, if I’m sitting on a plane and told that there’s a minor problem with the aircraft, I’d be getting anxious…. and their policy may be to not cause panic.
My mum booked a return flight from Kuching – KL and KL – Kuching.
They cancelled my mum’s Kuching – KL flight at 10pm and put her onto an earlier flight of 8pm without any notice (they even checked their system and admitted that no notice was given). So when my mum arrived at the airport, 2 hours earlier to drop her baggage (she had even online checked in for her 10pm flight the day before!), she was told that she had missed her flight.
She had travelled all the way to the airport for nothing and now had to wait for the next flight out which is 7am the next morning!
Fine, she was left with no choice so she immediately booked the next flight as she needed to get to KL for a function.
Called MAS to complain and to make sure that her return flight was still available. To her dismay, her return flight timed out and she was no longer on the return flight anymore because she did not fly out on the first flight. What’s worse is that when she tried to rebook it, they told her that the flight was already full!
MAS customer service is the worst. She had to explain her situation to over 6 people on the phone and nothing could be done to make sure that she got onto that return flight with the initial timing she booked.
In the end, we had to drive all the way to MAS office to physically see someone and make a fuss there before they “miraculously” found a seat for her on the same flight she wanted. Absurd.
MAS is just an airline causing so much hassle for people. Smh.
I have tried MAS and it’s one of the worst airlines, even some LCC is better
I used it before and the last flight was delayed, I had to wait around 1-1,5 INSIDE the plane because the plane didnt freaking move -___- I was late for my early appointment thanks to MAS
My dad and my aunt also lost their baggage during their flight, and the compensation = will be shipped to us the next day. That’s not even a compensation but their RESPONSIBILITY -_-”
I wrote mail to the customer service which never had reply up to now. I have stopped using MAS.
At least LCC don’t lie to us, we pay for the fair price and if there’s something we’ll be like “that’s LCC for you”. MAS should label themselves as one to avoid more complaints, people will be less angry 😀
This is not something new . MAS has been doing this for the longest time ever (just that probably in recent years they learn to “manage ” it better / less people take MAS ). Way back in 2006, this is a common occurrence during every holiday season. Studying in London then , I tend to fly back home during Xmas , summer and Easter holidays. And this happened so often. Flight overbooked sorry you can’t board. There was once we had to check in at 1pm for our 10 pm flight as news spread that the flight has been overbooked so you have to go early to check in . Yes , 9 hours before departure we arrived with all our luggages to check in to secure the last few seats as the flight has been over booked . At the check in counter we were told there were no more seats left if we came later . Ridiculous isn’t it ? Having to purposely make a trip to klia to drop of our bags and then going back home before returning Again at night. On nicer occasions they would offer us compensation to take a later flight , but really when we only have like a week or two back home you want us to take a later flight ?
That was not the worst . Once , when there was a snow storm in London in 2012 everything went to a standstill in London . Flights were cancelled leading to a huge backlog of flights waiting to fly out. MAS gave us no updates nothing we just had to wait with no clue what is going to happen. When the green light was given to fly , guess what MAS did? They ignored passengers whose flights were cancelled due to the storm and told us oh we do not know when you’re flight has been rescheduled could be today could be tomorrow or the day after. We are prioritising customers on today’s flight. So basically We literally being ignored and left in the dark and have no idea when our next flight out is , don’t know when we should pack or go to the airport. We had to make a trip to their office in hopes of getting a seat on the next flight out and after some pestering they told us to try your luck by going to the airport earlier to see if you can get a seat on the next flight out . And so at 3am we packed our bags went to the airport and waited until 7am when the check in counter opens for the flight at 11am. There was a huge crowd everyone has been waiting since midnight. And finally at 7 their ground staff came but yet again no answers for her. They told us to wait till all the passengers on this flight to check in first and then see if there are any spaces left. Wow. Are you telling me you didn’t know everyone here are waiting to take the next flight out ? You don’t know how many tickets have been sold ? Can’t you be more organised ? We waited the whole night . And we still had to wait . Absolutely ridiculous. After some time ( and the few of us constantly demanding for a solution ) they took our names down and told us that there will be a ballot. LOL . So we had to give our names and pray hard that we will be chosen for a space on that next flight out at 11am. Finally at 10am they did the ballot and us lucky few got chosen. But what I realised was it was us few who kept on demanding and making noises who managed to board that flight. Whereas many others were left waiting till God knows when.
Many other bad experiences with mas but these are the most memorable ones. In general they are not organised , have extremely bad attitude , and do not care bout their customers (unless you’re somebody they may offer better treatment ) otherwise they won’t even bother. Not forgetting the number of times the luggage gets left behind in klia while you’ve flown off to another continent( and this is on business class, I guess the priority tag on the luggage serves no purpose).
Overbooking is something that every airline practices, even the best of the best like Singapore & Emirates. Why it is done? To maximize flight revenue so that when the plane takes off each seat is filled because an empty seat is a loss for the airline. People may miss their connecting flights or just didn’t turn up, so by overbooking they have a pool of customers ready to fill up those empty seats (which is why in your case back in London, they stated they’ll have to check everyone in first before knowing how many seats are available. You may have 400 bookings, but only 350 people showed up).
Airlines can solve the overbooking issue by having all tickets be non-refundable, but that’s not something that passengers want, so this is a compromise that the airlines have to take.
I’m sorry to hear that your CNY holiday didn’t start out well. But if I may, I’d like to share what I’ve learnt from my airline working experience with regards to your predicament.
Technically you didn’t arrive 1h 30 minutes before your flight. You arrived 30 minutes before check-in closes, which means you’re on the borderline for being among the first to be involuntarily bumped from the flight. Check-in closes 1 hour before departure time because they need all the details of
how many people check-in, the weight of their bags etc in order to
balance the plane so that it doesn’t overload. So the rule of thumb is, when looking at your departure time, subtract one hour from that time & what you’ll get is the latest time you should arrive at the airport for check-in. Otherwise you’ll be the last one to check-in and the first one to be bumped off the plane.
Also, you’re flying on a redemption ticket. When things like overbooking or irregular operations this occur, redemption tickets are usually prioritized lower than paying ticket because in airline accounting terms, you’re a non-revenue passenger. You may have paid for taxes and some fuel surcharge (if any), but those who paid the fare technically paid more to the airline than you do. Which is why they prioritized on passengers from the cancelled flight over you, because technically they paid more. It sucks I know, but that’s how it goes.
Involuntary bumping is not a peculiar thing. Every airline, not just budget airlines but even Emirates & Singapore & all the other major airline does it. Just that how they handle the passenger that differentiate the good airline from the average. That’s something MAS need to improve on especially given that we don’t have a customer-centrist approach at business.
Hi audrey .. I was in exactly the same situation as you, same flight number, same time and same response I received from the MAS staff. I even had a seat number allocated to me before arriving at the airport and they had the audacity to tell me the same thing they told you. I had no choice but to wait patiently for 6 hours till 4.25pm to come back to Penang. I have read a lot of this happened today and as it is a domino effect, the people on the later flights have been pushed to tmr or worst might not be able to come back in time for their respective reunion dinners. It happens to all other KL to other states. A friend of mine going to KK had his luggage go missing today. It has been one terrible awful day for MAS. I am still waiting for then to respond and suprisingly it has not even reach the local news. The chaotic scenes at KLIA today was shocking.
They are definitely crap that they lost a pregnant woman’s (me) bag and then say I was late to get to my connecting flight (btw the flight was delayed for an hour and I was late by 2 mins coz I was making report for lost luggage) and no compensation and the staff at counter was too busy flirting with each other to be bothered with me. I was only offered a lousy mcd and cheap coffee as compensation before I sat on the floor and cried out loud (literally like a toddler crying for a toy at the shop) that mas staff is busy flirting and bullying me the pregnant lady then they offered me the lounge.
Chipping in (first time reader!) because MAS pretty much left me high and dry back in 2015 too. I basically booked an open-jaw KL-London, Frankfurt-KL student fare ticket when I went for my exchange in Berlin, and had MAS cancel the entire Frankfurt route and then shrug their shoulders and say, “okay never mind we switch you to London-KL”.
Without giving me a connecting flight. And dropping my 40kg allowance to 30kg. Without so much as an apology for the amount of FUD this gave me.
What made it worse was customer service was horrible. I basically never got a reply to my email, and when I called in, I was told they could not add the connecting flight (??), and if I requested extra luggage I’d have to pay like RM1200 more (?????), and that after much begging, if I wanted a connecting flight from Frankfurt to London I’d have to pay another RM800 (?!?!@#@$!@$). They said they’d find a solution when they emailed me some time in May/June, only to pull a fast one on me in July (my flight out was end-July), and then expect me to magically pay for the connecting flight.
It wasn’t until I got a family friend to pull some weight as a travel agent that they finally relented to connect me through a BA flight for free, with my original luggage allowance back.
Basically similar scenario as you – could’ve went for other airlines with fewer troubles, but stuck to MAS because of the cabin crew which always has been awesome, and a little bit of patriotism somewhere in between. In fact, I’m flying to London soon and I’m crossing my fingers that there won’t be any issues. Otherwise… no low enough price will ever push me back to MAS again.
And what a pity, because despite all the crap that management has given me, having a Malaysian cabin crew on-board always made me feel like I’m halfway home even before landing in KL. 🙁
I have a round trip ticket (HKG-KUL-HKG). I called to changed my ticket once, for my flight HKG-KUL only, but they gladly cancel my HKG-KUL return trip. When I was on the phone with them making the changes, the CS asked if my return trip need to be changed as well. I SAID NO! But ended up, they have still cancelled it. After me making hundreds of calls to MAS to get the next earliest flight out, they finally got me one, which is on the next day. When I asked for compensations, they asked me to write in, but the email is freaking useless! They never replied! Cheater MAS!
Lol you sound like you work for MAS
I’m taking a flight on Monday and I guess I have to write in to request for a written confirmation on my flight status.
This type of service is not exclusive to MAS. It is Malaysian culture. The tidak apa attitude. Lack of the sense of responsibility. I take close to 50 flights a year, about 30 with MAS. While the cabin service is ok (ok only ah), the ground and customer service is total CRAP. Take note of the use of capital letters. Even MAS check in counters in other countries has more courtesy then those in Malaysia. Write in? They will reply to your email few months later, with no answer or solutions, but asking for more info. Ha ha… Take that! To be fair, this is not exclusive to MAS. Across multiple industry in Malaysia. People don’t take pride of their job, hence, the tidak apa attitude. AirAsia is worse! They didn’t Even have a number for you to call!
OMG UNTIL YOU HAD TO CRY!? D:
Did this happen to you today as well? We must have been booted off the same flight then!
Yes that is correct and rescheduled to the same one at 4 plus. Exact same response I got. I trave quite a fair bit and have tried many airlines and I have to say that the way MAS handled the mess this morning was totally unprofessional and also all their staff seemed like headless chickens not knowing how to provide a “workaround” or alternatives to the many who were stranded. I admit British Airways system is equally as bad when I encountered somethibg similar a few months ago but their ground staff were well mannered and knowledgeable to handle the stress of their customers and provide many alternatives. today MAS failed their customers big time. I still can’t seem to find this on any of the local news. People need to know.
Thank you for your insights Bob! But there are some things I find strange.
“You arrived 30 minutes before check-in closes, which means you’re on the borderline for being among the first to be involuntarily bumped from the flight. Check-in closes 1 hour before departure time …etc”
— As far as I know, most people arrive at the airport 2 hours before the flight, and for domestic flights in Malaysia, the limit is 45 minutes before takeoff. Which means that we were actually 45 minutes early, compared to people who arrived 2 hours before, which gives them a 15 minute head start. I find it hard to swallow that airlines start cutting people off 15 minutes after most people arrive for a domestic flight. Even if I arrived 2 hours before, what if there was a line? I could well stand in line for 15 minutes and then I would be booted off? I understand what you’re saying but the margin of time doesn’t make sense to me. :/
And technically, we did pay for my daughter’s ticket. Would it be then logical to say that my daughter, being an infant also paid less than other passengers that’s why it’s easier to decide to boot us all of? That sounds horrible.
All this I can still stomach if we got better customer service though, like you noted. I’ve been booted from overbooked flights before and the airlines have upgraded me or compensated in some way. I’ve never been kicked off and not offered even a basic refund.
AirAsia is actually pretty good. I travel very often within the region and always take AirAsia, Flights are almost always on time, never been cancelled and service is decent for a budget airline. My friend’s AirAsia X flight was delayed over an hour from Australia due to bad weather and she managed to make the 20min connection to our onward flight to Myanmar at KLIA2, her bag didn’t but it came through first thing the next day, no hassles. I’ve heard enough tales of people not seeing their luggage for weeks when it comes to MAS!
Sorry to hear that. 🙁 Yes I totally agree with you. I can still accept delays or cancellations but the way they dealt with us was atrocious. They kept repeating, “Sorry, nothing we can do this is company policy” and referring to the company as though they’re separate from it. -_- I wish this would make mainstream news too.
Similar case when I was going to Bali and Myanmar 3 to 4 years back. I was 2 hrs early for both flights with printed ticket with me. Yet I was told the flight overbooked. WTH! Whatever reason I paid for the ticket. What kind of ticketing systems they are using to overbooked . I ditch MAS after 2 incidents. I consider myself being generous to them though. Other may ditch them after one incident. I will never ever choose them again even if their fares much lower. Enough troubles and damaged with 2 incident I experience. So sorry to hear this incident happened during your celebration mood. Anyway, Happy New Year to you Audrey!
I won’t fly MAS ever. I had a bad experience in 2013 flying Melbourne to KL where I had specifically booked a vegetarian meal only to be yelled at by the flight attendant that I hadn’t, he would not let me get in a word and basically kept yelling over me to the point I told him (with support from the passengers around me) to please just walk away from our section. Extremely rude. Another time I had to take a MAS flight from KL to Sandakan (business related and going with a client, I usually take AirAsia but the client chose MAS) and I specifically chose a vegan non-dairy meal as I’m lactose intolerant, and they give me a vegetarian meal with cheese, which would have made me quite ill on a 3 hr flight. I never fly MAS if I can help it, much better airlines out there and for domestic and regional AirAsia is actually a much better choice.
Sorry mate. I avoid AirAsia at all cost. It’s no better than MAS, but at least MAS has full service, and no safety issues. Yes, no safety issues! MH370 was hijacked. Not plane safety issue. MH17 was shot down. Not plante safety issue. AirAsia Indonesia flight from Surabaya to Singapore, crashed into the sea. Post mortem – bad maintenance of the plane. And just to reiterate what I said earlier, they don’t even have a customer service number for you to call in!
I did checkin while all passenger already on the way to boarding… Yes, I had to bring my luggage to the cabin, but I never get bumped like story above…
I use Garuda Indonesia Airlines (It’s National Airlines, Expensive but pleased)
I had a horrible experience with MAS as well, although luckily mine was not during a festive period.
So during the Dec holidays at the end of 2016, we were getting ready for a flight to Korea. First time going there and everything, understandably excited. We intentionally booked a flight departing KLIA at 11PM so we would arrive there early and have a day to go around Seoul. About a month before our flight, we got an email stating that the flight would be delayed to 2AM.
Fine, we can live with that. A 7 hour flight would mean we would still arrive at 9AM, a decent hour.
On the NIGHT we prepared to go there, we were in the cab on the way to KLIA already at 11PM so we could check in and everything, when we got an SMS stating the flight was now delayed to 5AM. By the time we got to the counter stormed in and asked, they could offer no explanation better then ‘technical issues, so we had to put you on the next flight’. I was baffled. What technical issues? And why wasn’t there an alternative plane? This meant I had the next 5 hours to do nothing, and that would mean we would arrive in Seoul with half the day gone. We tried calling their customer service, but you just get put on hold for eons and years.
We went all the way to the management office, but was again given no option, and the only compensation they gave us was a free voucher for a meal at any restaurant in the airport, not even any form of place we could rest or get some sleep.
In the end we started our holidays sleeping on airport benches until our flight time. =.=
Hi Angeline,
Thank you for pointing out the multiple reasons why a flight might be delayed, and yes, not wanting to cause a panic is probably a good reason to not make an announcement in flight. While I do appreciate your efforts in sharing/shedding light on this matter, my intention is just to share a bad experience with Mas, as this is not the first time and I know it won’t be the last. Writing a comment here won’t do justice to the years of travelling with Mas, or any other Airlines.
Thanks anyway for being informative, yes, I have landed safely in my destination, without a single apology from the flight deck, or the rest of the crew. I’ve had good experience with Mas, but this one is one of the bad/ unfortunate one that I have experience.
Have a good holiday and happy Chinese New Year.
Yes. I faked it but yes I sat on the floor hitting the floor and scream and yell with tears..hehe..putting my years of tvb watching skills into action
I hear what you’re saying but I avoid MAS at all costs, I’ve heard pretty negative reports on their maintenance track records (check some of the investigations into 370) and no one knows for sure what happened on MH370. I stopped flying on MAS well before then mainly because they are expensive (I can get cheaper flights on Emirates), terrible service and extremely rude cabin staff.
Wow I can’t believe MAS still does this to its passengers. I was on a Jakarta-KL flight way back in 2008, booked on business class (for work). When I got on the plane I noticed that someone was in my seat. I politely pointed this out to the occupant of my seat, and he said that he had the same seat number.
Asked the flight attendants for help, and apparently the flight prior to this was cancelled, so the passengers from the previous flight were on my flight, with some duplication in seat numbers.
Since business class was full, the flight attendants said that I had no choice but to get a seat in economy class. Note I was not offered a choice. As this was at the end of a long day, I was too tired to argue otherwise and resigned myself to the fact that I would be in seated economy, despite my company having paid for a business class ticket.
It was right before then that a few of my colleagues who were traveling with me noticed that the guy in my seat was wearing the MAS uniform – so it was actually an MAS staff (non-paying!) taking my seat, that of a paying passenger! They quickly pointed this out to the flight attendants and made a fuss about it. In the end, I managed to get my original seat, with the guy moving to another seat in Economy.
BUT. My story doesn’t even end there. After we got off the flight, the guy’s colleagues (who were seated in business class) made fun of him for having to move to economy, and to show his “macho-ism” or what not, he actually verbally taunted me while I was walking to collect my check-in luggage! Hollered at me things like “oh, you so sad, almost cried is it, when you didn’t get a seat!”. Yes, MAS employee harassing a passenger!
Needless to say, my colleagues and I were furious, but being smaller sized ladies (vs the big burly MAS staff), instead of retaliating verbally, we furiously filled in (separate) complaint forms instead, detailing the incident.
Would you be surprised – no answer/ response at all from MAS to this day!
Strongly agreed with ur point, is the culture of the country. I fly frequent between kl and sg. Sg side always proactive to solve problem, while kl side, always create problem.
For the airasia, the attendant change my seat without inform me and arrange replacement seat. While i complaint, she said it just a short flight. 9
Hi, Audrey! Since I don’t fly often, I can only suggest to make a formal complaint to MAS and if that doesn’t work, try making a complaint on MAVCOM ( Malaysian Aviation Commision) and this was what I’ve gotten from their site http://www.mavcom.my/en/consumer/flight-delays-cancellations/
and take note that Enrich Silver and above has flexibility to arrives at the airport even later!!!
Sigh… Emirates is another over-rated airlines. Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. Cabin service, above average, but service in the Business class of Emirates and Etihad is gooooddd. My best service experience is Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Singapore Airlines. SIA is always consistent.
Everyone’s frustration is totally understandable. And if I was in the situation, where I got bumped to the next flight and I have two toddlers travelling with me, with no baby supplies, I’d probably be annoyed too. But minor delays happen. As a single person travelling long haul to go home for the holidays mostly on my own, delays don’t phase me much anymore. With the exception being, I have to catch a connecting flight / an urgent meeting to attend.
Anywayz, I hope your Chinese New Year is a happy pleasant one. Enjoy all the yummy food. I haven’t been home to celebrate CNY in 14 years now. So enjoy on my behalf. =)
Same issue here but mine is yesterday flight from KUL to Sibu. I was queue-ing for 1.5 hours at the drop baggage counter. When time is getting near to departure time, I stopped a MAS staff and told her that I have been queueing here for 1.5 hours and my flight is at 750pm and now is already 645pm. Guess what ? The staff reaction is ” Oh 750pm I rasa Tak sempat ” Then I told her it is not my fault as people keep cutting Queue and staff fail to control. Then she replied me back she cannot help me as everyone infront of me also affected by the cut queue issue.
I seriously almost want to explode. I only manage to drop baggage 40 minutes before my flight and I am running all the way to departure hall. I am still in pain as I am having stomach cramp since few days ago but I just have to bear my pain and keep running.
Reach departure hall my friend who supposed to fly with the same flight with me to return back hometown text me telling me she still stuck at outside as the flight is already OVERSOLD. She has a confirmed booking which she purchased earlier.
In the end she only manage to fly back to Sibu this morning which basically she stuck in airport and manage to get a flight after 12 hours.
My worst experience flying with MAS. My first time taking domestic flight and will be my last time too.
Am I the only here who uses online check-in?
i know some airlines don’t even do over the counter check in (check in online or at the kiosks) anymore, and people only go to the counter for luggage drop off.
i fly quite often and usually I install the airline’s app. I even get notifications when my flight is open for check-in (usually 24-48 hours beforehand). A few taps and then I have the boarding pass loaded on my phone, or you have the option of printing them out.
Sorry to hear about your experience, but this might be something to consider for your next flight with whatever airline.
My MAS flight departed 4h late from London, causing me to miss my connecting flight from KL to my final destination in Singapore. I was not offered compensation at all because the ground staff at MAS refused to deal with my delayed first leg, insisting I could have made it if I ran for my flight upon landing, although I already tried my best to rush. I wasn’t tardy and I did not dilly dally. I landed 20mins before my connecting flight was set to take off, and I really couldn’t rush to the next gate on time. In the end, they put me on a JETSTAR flight, and I had to wait an additional SIX HOURS at KLIA. That’s put me off flying MAS since, even though I had a really pleasant flight on my journey to London that trip.
overbooking is a very common thing on flights . But what upsetted everybody is how they actually handled the entire situation.
1. They did not keep us updated about the situation , we were not told how long we had to wait for few hours ? A day ? 2 days? A lot of people waited at the airport / sleeping on the floors without knowing what will happen next.
2. They did not know how to manage their backlog and influx of passengers waiting on standby (lottery system to get on the plane ? I sure felt like I striked the jackpot when my name was called but what about those who had to wait there cluelessly?) . and at such a critical time like that they should be more organised rather than giving us false hope or leaving us with more stress .
Yea I will, thanks. Normally I check in online for budget airlines but not for MAS. Force of habit I guess. Will check in online from now on.
Exactly same thing happened to me for my flight from KL to Sibu today. My flight was supposed to be at 140pm. I arrived at the airport at 1115am. I remembered clearly that I lined up at 1125ish to check in. So, another 2 hours and more before departure, which I thought I have ample time. That flight attendant told me that the flight was full, not even a business class seat for me. Ridiculously, I paid RM1600 over thousand ringgit and I booked this flight few months back! And this was the response I got from them. I wasted another 8 hours in the airport. Their overbooking system is totally nonsense. It does not solve the problem of no show but pose more problems like this. I requested the flight attendant to show me the rule of saying “first come first check in for the overbooking system”. u know what she replied, “U can always google and find it” I was so pissed off and went to the management office. Eventually, they gave me the “denied boarding” letter and issued me the evening flight. “Denied boarding”, I said “I’m not the one who denied to board, is you who kicked me out from this flight and I am asking for compensation!” They din’t give me any response on that and just asked me to lodge a complain on their website. And I did!. which i am still waiting for their action on this issue. Guess what, I believe I have taken other’s seat on the evening flight. I know all airlines are wanting to do promotion, but this is not the way! Totally cheating on people money. I’m so disappointed with their service and would never trust this airline anymore.
Exactly same thing happened to me for my flight from KL to Sibu today. My flight was supposed to be at 140pm. I arrived at the airport at 1115am. I remembered clearly that I lined up at 1125ish to check in. So, another 2 hours and more before departure, which I thought I have ample time. That flight attendant told me that the flight was full, not even a business class seat for me. Ridiculously, I paid RM1600 over thousand ringgit and I booked this flight few months back! And this was the response I got from them. I wasted another 8 hours in the airport. Their overbooking system is totally nonsense. It does not solve the problem of no show but pose more problems like this. I requested the flight attendant to show me the rule of saying “first come first check in for the overbooking system”. u know what she replied, “U can always google and find it” I was so pissed off and went to the management office. Eventually, they gave me the “denied boarding” letter and issued me the evening flight. “Denied boarding”, I said “I’m not the one who denied to board, is you who kicked me out from this flight and I am asking for compensation!” They din’t give me any response on that and just asked me to lodge a complain on their website. And I did!. which i am still waiting for their action on this issue. Guess what, I believe I have taken other’s seat on the evening flight. I know all airlines are wanting to do promotion, but this is not the way! Totally cheating on people money. I’m so disappointed with their service and would never trust this airline anymore.
Fly already?!
Fly already?!
Fly already?!