Refund refused 26/11/2011
Dear Alex,
Earlier this year I bought a return business class ticket with American Airlines to fly Bahrain-London-Miami-San Juan. The total online cost was £3,000. [Note: Some of these flights are operated by British Airways under a codeshare arrangement.]
I had to cancel the trip owing to the political situation in Bahrain at the time. But when I applied online for a refund, it was blocked by a proviso that the ticket was non-refundable.
I cannot believe an airline can walk away with your money when you have a valid reason to cancel. It is not as if I had booked with a budget or low-cost carrier. What recourse do I have?
Colin Clarke, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Thai Airways seating upgrade 26/11/2011
Dear Alex,
Any news on when Thai Airways will upgrade the business class seating on the A340-500 that plies the Bangkok-Los Angeles route? The seat pads are quite worn down and not easy to sleep on anymore.
Ken Bechtel, Pasadena, California
East Coast loyalty scheme 21/11/2011
Dear Alex,
I am a frequent rail traveller in first class on East Coast, travelling weekly, if not more, from Yorkshire to London. East Coast has introduced a new loyalty scheme called Rewards. For every £1 spent you earn one point – or one and a half if you travel first class.
The points are redeemed on free tickets. However, I now learn that only tickets purchased through the website earn points. And since my tickets are bought through a travel manager at our company in Yorkshire, I am unable to qualify. Have you heard of a loyalty programme like this one that refuses to reward its highest spending and most loyal members?
Name and address supplied
Excess damage 21/11/2011
Dear Alex,
Last December, I rented a car from Thrifty (Australia) at Adelaide airport. Before leaving the UK, I had taken out a 60-day worldwide excess policy through insurance4carhire.com. Included in this firm’s helpful tips was to “decline the car rental company’s excess at the counter”.
Unfortunately, a week into the trip I reversed my Thrifty hire car into another parked vehicle. It caused AU$150 [£98] of damage to the Thrifty vehicle but more severe damage of AU$1,500 [£975] to the other car.
Thrifty promptly charged my credit card with AU$1,900 [£1,235] including taxes. Believing I was fully insured, I had no quibble with that at the time. But I now find the UK insurance firm will pay only for the damage to the Thrifty vehicle, which means I am more than £1,100 out of pocket.
Insurance4carhire says that all car hire firms have Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance so I should not have had to pay Thrifty for the other vehicle’s damage. But Thrifty maintains that its CTP insurance applies only to personal injury, not vehicle damage. What should I have done to avoid this situation?
Leslie More, Peebles, Scotland
Royal Brunei kangaroo route 21/11/2011
Dear Alex,
Why is Royal Brunei cutting back on the kangaroo route? It serves Brisbane, Perth and Auckland and was a favourite carrier of mine on account of its good prices. Now I understand it will cease all of these destinations from the end of October, leaving only Melbourne.
Brad Simons, London
Missed connection 21/11/2011
Dear Alex,
My partner and I recently came back from a trip to India. On our return we booked a Kingfisher flight (using a separate ticket) out of Goa to Mumbai – from there we were to connect with Emirates’ late-night flight to Dubai and Johannesburg. We allowed 4.5 hours to make the domestic-international transfer at Mumbai.
Two days before our Kingfisher flight from Goa, the airline emailed me to say that the flight had been rescheduled to depart 80 minutes later. We weren’t unduly worried because we still believed there was adequate time to make the connection.
On the day of travel, Kingfisher check-in staff told us that the flight was delayed [beyond the revised departure time] by 65 minutes. We were assured we still had sufficient time for our transfer. An alternative but earlier Jet Airways flight, which would have provided an earlier arrival into Mumbai, was fully booked. To cap it all, as we proceeded through the security checks we discovered that our Kingfisher service had been delayed by a further 30 minutes.
We reached the Emirates check-in desks at Mumbai 50 minutes before departure [Emirates has a 90-minute check-in deadline] but were turned away and told to telephone a call centre. The Emirates duty manager would not help us. The call centre staff charged us more than US$1,000 to change our tickets to a flight the next day and we spent the night in the airport terminal.
Although I have been a gold member of Skywards for many years, it seemingly meant nothing. Do I have any recourse with either Kingfisher or Emirates?
Greg White, Johannesburg
Aircraft on SAA flights 21/11/2011
Dear Alex,
I have a problem with South African Airways (SAA) – it treats its passengers from airports other than Johannesburg as if they don’t deserve its business. When I departed Cape Town for London in May, I was shocked to see an ancient B747 being used. The plane was so old it had no AVOD [audio-video on-demand] and there were no seat-back monitors. For entertainment, each cabin had two Stone Age monitors hanging from the ceiling.
Because of this, most people were bored to tears. Nobody could watch the single film playing on repeat so people chatted and walked listlessly up and down the aisles. Those who wanted to sleep simply couldn’t do so.
By contrast, all SAA flights leaving Johannesburg for London use new Airbuses. I realise SAA is not a big player on the world stage, but for us people living in Cape Town, it is a snub by our government-owned airline. Do you agree?
Sang Fung, Cape Town
Redeeming features 21/11/2011
Dear Alex,
I am a 1K member (the highest tier) of United’s Mileage Plus frequent flyer scheme. Last December I took my wife and daughter in business class using Mileage Plus miles for a trip around Asia with stops in Shanghai, Bangkok, Denpasar in Bali, and Tokyo. We took United across the Pacific and used Thai Airways for the regional sectors. [Both carriers are Star Alliance members.]
Before we left home, United was unable to obtain confirmation from Thai that our flights would be in business class. Instead, we were instructed to explain the situation and request business class each time we checked in for a Thai flight. This became an arduous process.
We only managed to secure business class on a single Thai flight [between Bangkok and Denpasar] and then only thanks to a proactive Thai gate manager at Bangkok.
I could understand the problem if business class was going to be full but on the Thai flights where we sat in economy class, we saw that the business cabin was either fairly or completely empty.
I reported the problems we had to both carriers after returning home. United attended to my complaint favourably but Thai will not respond. Why was there a problem with Thai?
Migara de Silva, Virginia
Product Placement 27/06/2011
Dear Alex,
Airlines need to take a good look at themselves to ensure they are of equal or better standard in an alliance. This is particularly noticeable in the economy zones.
I fly Singapore Airlines (SIA) a lot and its economy class is one of the best. On a recent trip between Singapore and Frankfurt, we flew SIA as far as Dubai, where we broke our journey before continuing to Frankfurt with Lufthansa three days later. So we went from the latest B777-300 [SIA] to an old B747-400 [Lufthansa] that did not even have in-flight entertainment. Yes, it meant all 300 of us watched the same movie. The whole service was tired. It was like stepping back to the 1970s.
The point I am trying to make here is: why choose Lufthansa? First, we did not have a choice because both airlines are in Star Alliance. Second, you don’t know until you board. You pay your money and you take your chance. The airline business is one of the few industries left where they can get away with it. Do you agree?
Alan Weeks, Auckland
Baggage bother 01/05/2011
Dear Alex,
Chile’s national airline, LAN, lost three of our bags (for two people) for seven days when we flew between Santiago and Mount Pleasant [Falkland Islands]. The bags in question had been correctly tagged to our destination.
Because there is only one flight a week on this route, we only retrieved our bags when we returned to Santiago seven days later. We were given US$140 in total, which does not cover our receipted costs, let alone compensation. Please advise what we are entitled to receive in such a situation.
Malcolm Flanagan,
London
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