A man had to find out the hard way recently that booking an airline ticket does not guarantee a seat.
Local singer, Jason Chua recently booked a flight with a local airline to Kelantan for 11.10am on Wednesday (May 1) to find that he would have difficulty in boarding his flight while checking in at 9.30am, according to his Facebook post.
“The staff told me that the plane will fly as scheduled but all the seats were taken. I argued that buying a plane ticket includes a seat.
“They told me that they could not do anything about it and could only help me change to another flight,” Chua said in his post.
Chua then waited at the check-in counter for 30 minutes but his flight remained unchanged after he noticed that the staff at the counter was “constantly on their phone” talking and he proceeded to reprimand the staff member for their conduct.
ALSO READ: Student misses flight because she didn’t understand military time
There were other passengers, who were from Singapore, lining up behind up waiting to check-in for their 11.10am flight and it was already 10.20am.
Their luggage was not checked-in either.
“The airline staff told them to go to four or five different counters and the Singaporean passenger yelled at the staff due to them missing their flight as the boarding gate had closed.
“When it was my turn to tell off the staff, they told me, ‘I will check you in right away’,” he added.
Chua explained that the staff told him to leave his luggage at the counter and will check him in for his next flight.
He was also taught how to file a complaint online.
ALSO READ: MYAirline cautions against refund scams
“Remember, buying a plane ticket does not guarantee a seat. It’s just putting your name in their airline’s system. They can tell you at any time that there are no seats available,” he said.
Chua also inquired the staff what would happen if another person encountered a similar situation as him and the staff member replied, allegedly, that the customer will be asked to “immediately purchase a new ticket for a flight with available seats.”
