PETALING JAYA: Businessman Danish Abdullah, 29, had been preparing to fly with his family from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur this Sunday – but he was in for a shock. His airport transfer driver called to say that MYAirline had suspended its operations, leaving Danish and his four family members scrambling for other transport.
“I was totally shocked to find out about the news, so I immediately tried to go to their counters to clarify my bookings, but they were already closed,” he said yesterday.
He said he was also upset that he was not notified of the status of his bookings.
“When I bought the tickets, the website said the flights were still available. Airlines should have taken the initiative to inform their customers regardless of the situation as a sign of courtesy,” he said, adding that he tried to contact the customer service number, but to no avail.
“I hope I will get my refund as I have also emailed them over the situation. I am not sure how long it will take to get my money back,” he said. If Danish was angry over his problems, others had it worse.
All over social media and at airports, irate passengers were demanding that MYAirline take responsibility for their losses following the cancellation and suspension of services.
Social media user Puteri Balqiis said: “I am already at KLIA and was waiting to check in my baggage at 7.30am. I waited from 4am until 5.40am but I cannot even see one staff member at the counters.
“All empty, all the passengers are waiting like fools.”
She added that the airline should refund customers immediately as they had urgent matters to travel.She also hit out at the airline for not notifying passengers earlier.
Another social media user known as saestraa said the same thing happened to her sister.
“She slept at the airport last night with her husband. The airline should at least give a one-day notice to everyone,” she said.
Suziana Ottoh, 36, only realised the flight cancellation at about 10am after arriving at Kota Kinabalu International Airport from Lahad Datu, which is more than 400km away, at 6am yesterday.
She and her five children were scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur at 4.20pm tomorrow but it was postponed to 9.50pm.
“But I’m not sure if the 9.50pm flight has been cancelled or not. If it’s cancelled again like today (yesterday), it would be a waste of my time,” she told Bernama at KKIA here yesterday.
Suziana said she had to come two days earlier so as not to miss the flight as had happened before where the airline did not allow her to board the plane because she was a few minutes late.
Fresella June Gunihas, 22, who came to the MYAirline sales centre, wanted an explanation about her flight schedule which was supposed to be on Oct 18 but was changed. She said following the problem, she had to pay RM1,600 due to an error in the company’s system which changed her flight date to November.
“I was required to pay an additional price and penalty which was not even my fault. I really do not understand this MYAirline system,” said Fresella, who wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur to visit a sick family member.
Fadzhil Rosleh, 32, also expressed disappointment when the flight ticket to Kuala Lumpur for his sister, mother and nephew that was scheduled for yesterday afternoon was cancelled. He said his sister Diana Rosleh, 31, arrived from Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and was due to return to Kuala Lumpur yesterday afternoon.“Right now, we don’t know who we have to deal with as the MYAirline sales centre is also closed. The tickets have already been bought and they are not cheap,” said Fadzhil, who is from Kota Kinabalu.
Two flights, namely Kota Kinabalu-Tawau and Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur, were cancelled by the company. In Sabah, the use of airplanes, especially from Kota Kinabalu to the east coast and inland areas, is a necessity due to extremely long travel times by road.
