Persistence

I booked a flight to Krabi, Thailand with my friend in September this year. We booked it on the day there were unrest in Thailand (we were not aware of it as we didn't bother to read newspaper that day - serves us right!! :p).

Later on, I decided not to go and tried to cancel the booking with the airlines, AA to get back some refund.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get through to the airline either through the call centre, e-mail or even going to their sales agent. They can't possibly expect me to drive all the way to LCCT (where their headoffice was) to enquire on this?? (The toll, petrol and time spent to go all the way there with no guarantee of any service? Nahhh)

Therefore, today I wrote this letter based on the e-mail addresses given from the website (this is the second e-mail I have written to them on this issue).

Dear Mr. *** and ***,

Non-responsive Call Centre
I have tried numerously to contact AA from any time of the day, before my flight to cancel and make changes a few weeks before my flight. However no one from the call centre answered any of my calls.

Non-responsive E-mail and non-committed Staff
In fact, I even tried emailing AA. My email as shown below was replied with an auto reply to try calling the call centre instead. (Details of my flight can be found at the end of this email)

My friend was not properly informed the procedure when she went to AA KL Sentral to cancel the flight. (I have explained it in my email as shown below)

Please clarify on the procedure my friend and I should take in canceling a flight which has passed since we could not contact any AA representative during the few weeks prior to the flight based on the non-responsive call centre, e-mail and non-commited staff.

Procedures for Cancelling Flight
Please clarify on these two procedures I am told about.

1. I read in the newspaper last year, if we did not take the flight, we will be refunded the airport tax since we did not use the airport.

2. I am told that if I cannot utilise the flight, the money will be converted to credit with AA which I could be used to book other flights in future.

Please clear our confusions and disappointment with AA's service as we do not want to be forced to put your carrier in our black list.

Rgds,
Me

(I love my last sentence on putting the airline carrier in my black list... hahaha)

I sent that e-mail at 11.30 a.m.

At 4p.m., I received a call from the carrier AA. They called to inform they have received my e-mail and will process the refund of the airport tax which was RM25 for departure flight and RM43 for the return flight. Then they will minus RM10 for administrative fees and refund me a total of RM58 each passenger.

Sigh, better than nothing I guess. The lady who called me was not very polite. She did not actually introduce herself but just mentioned she was from AA. I had to query her a lot to get all my explanation. Apparently item 2 in my letter of converting the money paid to this airline to credit only applies to flights canceled by them.

Hence, I guess persistence shows results. After all those effort in October, I finally got a result in a little refund. Hope the money will reach me within 30 working days through a rebate to my credit card as promised by the lady on the phone.

Another period of waiting and pondering if that will happen. Well, let's leave it to Him to take care of it as He always has. :)