Hidden Tiger

I just called Tiger Airways; I've already lost count the number of times that I called.

Their customer service is really sucky. Budget airlines really budget on their service.

The problem went all the way back to August when Wai San attempted to change our flight from Udon Thani to Singapore the night before the scheduled flight.

He's in Beijing while I am in Singapore so there was no way we would be utilizing the flight.

Don't ask me why we did it the very last minute; I like to know why as well.

Anyway he encountered the error message which reminded us NOT to attempt any modifications to our booking. So we obediently followed the instruction. and I waited until the next day to contact Tiger Airways.

By then the booking was already forfeited. The call centre wasn't really helpful; they could only advise me to direct my complaint to the Commercial Affiars Department.

So I tried to utilize my persuasive writing and came up with this:

8^th August 2007

Customer Relations Officer-in-charge

Commercial Services Department

Tiger Airways Pte Ltd
Changi Airport Post Office
PO Box 82
Singapore 918143

Dear Sir/Madam,

I’m Chong Shyh Jie and this is my second time using Tiger Airways. The previous time was in April 2006 on my trip to Hanoi. It had been a pleasant experience flying with Tiger Airways and it was really unfortunate that I ran into problems in changing my booking this time round.

I had originally purchased two tickets for the flight TR163 on 7^th August 2007 between Udon Thani and Singapore on 17 June 2007. The booking reference is E82SCN. However due to last minute changes in our travel plans, my friend Mr Lam Wai San attempted to change our tickets at approximately 2230 hrs (Singapore Time) on 6^th August 2007 on the Tiger Airways website.

After selecting a new date (1^st January 2008) for the same sector and clicking the CONTINUE option, he was shown the page which stated an error had occurred. A case number of TR01116593892 was given and the error was supposedly reported at 20070807004739. The page also carried the warning of “Please DO NOT attempt to re-book your tickets.”

By that time, we could no longer call the Tiger Airways. I only could get through to the hotline on the next day at around 1000 hrs. By then the ticket had already been forfeited and I was no longer able to change my booking.

One of your fare rules states that “Changes to the flight, date or route are accepted up to four hours prior to scheduled departure time and will be subject to an amendment fee per person per flight sector plus any applicable fare difference.” As the flight was scheduled on 1000 hrs (Singapore Time), the time at our attempt to change the booking was almost 12 hours before the actual flight. Hence we would not have forfeited our tickets and had changed our booking if the system error had not occurred.

Both Wai San and I believe that Tiger Airways will look into this matter thoroughly and carry out the necessary investigations. Our request is simple: we will like to transfer the TH 2,903 (~SGD 140) that we had already paid to cover for our next flights with Tiger Airways. You are able to contact me at 9114 3487 if you required more information regarding the incident. We hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your kind assistance and have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Chong Shyh Jie

I decided to give them a chance and waited until more than 21 working days later (as indicated on the website) before calling them up again on 20th September.

The lady on the other line Nora told me that someone would call me back the next day with a reply.

So I waited.

The whole of 21st September went by.

Pissed, I made another call on 22nd September.

Nora wasn't on duty and someone called Esther had to endure my complaint.

My displeasure grew as I talked to her about the problem; it seemed that she was very defensive and wanted me to get off her back.

Her reply was pretty standard: her department (in charge of call centre) had sent an email to CAD and all CAD did was to acknowledge that it had received my fax. She told me to wait a few more days for an official reply.

I hounded her down for an exact date; I could feel her irritation when she told me to just wait till the following Tuesday. Realizing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, I decided to extend my patience to Tiger Airways again.

So today is exactly one week after the supposed Tuesday and what's new. Hence my latest phone call to the call centre again.

I was put on hold for about 20 minutes before speaking to another operator. She suggested that I call again tomorrow morning to speak directly to the managers.

I got the feeling that Tiger Airways was trying to wear down my persistence regarding this matter.

You can be assured; I will get definitely fight for a reasonable settlement.