Upset travellers get more expensive flight
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WHEN you don't get what you want, sometimes, you might get something even better.
This was what 30 passengers found out on Monday.
They did not know that their Tiger Airways flight had been rescheduled. They said they had not seen the e-mail the budget airline had sent them about this.
But they later found themselves on a more expensive flight, albeit a later one, and for some, a more direct one to their destination.
About 50 passengers arrived at the Budget Terminal after 12.30pm, to find that their 2.30pm flight to Macau - TR902 - had been rescheduled for 12.35pm, and had left without them.
The aircraft can seat 180 passengers.
Tempers flared as passengers - tourists and businessmen - gathered in the Airport Operations Division office, wanting to get to their destination as soon as possible.
When The New Paper arrived around 2pm, the office was packed with luggage and luggout 40 upset passengers were milling about angrily.
Worried & irritated
Some demanded to see a Tiger Airways representative, while others sat on their bags with sullen faces.
Airport staff were placating the upset passengers, some of whom were using the service counter phone to call overseas.
At 2.30pm, Miss Jessica Blackwell, 21, an American, was frantically calling her university friends in Hong Kong on the service counter phone.
She goes to Lingnan University there, and is due to make a group presentation this morning for a liberal arts subject.
She didn't know if she could get there on time, and felt she had let the others in her group down.
Another upset passenger was Madam Sun Lai, who was going to see her elderly mother, who has diabetes.
Madam Sun was with her 9-year-old daughter.
Some of the irritated passengers had booked hotels, and others had transfer flights which they feared they could not catch.
They were ushered into a room, and were addressed by airport staff.
Some passengers said Tiger Airways was offering them a full refund, or a change of date to another Tiger Airways flight.
But the passengers were not satisfied - they wanted to get to their destination.
For two hours, they sat in the room, waiting for answers.
At 4pm, the door opened, and what emerged were mostly smiling faces. Miss Blackwell called her friends in Hong Kong, reassuring them: 'We'll be there.'
Tiger Airways had decided to put the passengers on another flight at no additional cost.
These passengers could choose to leave at 6.30pm for Hong Kong, which is about an hour-long ferry ride from Macau.
The tickets they were given were for a Cathay Pacific flight, and were significantly more expensive.
Thirty passengers took up the offer, and it was not a bad deal for those who had intended to go to Hong Kong in the first place.
Technician Yeo Eng Chuah, whose original plan was to take the flight to Macau, and then a ferry to Hong Kong, felt he was lucky.
But despite the unexpected 'upgrade', Mr Yeo said he was 'frustrated and disappointed'.
He claimed he received the e-mail notifying him of the rescheduling only at 3.10pm, when he checked his mail at a free Internet terminal at the airport.
Mr Yeo added: 'I don't want to have to argue for three-fourths of the day for such an upgrade.'
The rest of the passengers chose to fly to Macau on another day, or requested a full refund.
Some were still upset, like businessman Goh Soo Teck, 36, who had to attend a conference in Macau this morning.
He spent an extra $700 on a Singapore Airlines flight to Macau yesterday evening, and wanted a full refund on the Tiger Airways ticket.
'It's common for flights to be delayed, but this is a case of no notification,' he said.
'This is the first time I have booked a seat on a budget airline. I regret it.'
http://travel.asiaone.com/Travel/News/Story/A1Story20081120-101952.html
The guy must be fustrated as he didn't wait for the upgrade...
