Airlines' service

Airlines' service

It has taken me several days to finally calm down from the
frustration I felt with Garuda, Merpati and Selaparang Airport
Authority in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. I wanted to write a
complaint to them, instead I am now more inclined to give advice
to the above parties on how to improve if they want to stay in
business in the future.

1. Service: There is nothing that can ruin your whole day more
than when you have to check-in at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 7
a.m. and face unfriendly, unhelpful, smile-lacking and sometimes
obnoxious ground crew at the Garuda check in counter. We are
paying customers.

2. Profitable business does not mean unethical business
practices. This is my experience. On Nov. 26, 1999, I was
supposed to take a Merpati flight from Sumbawa to Mataram and
connect to Jakarta by Garuda, via Surabaya, hoping to get to
Jakarta as fast as possible, for I was carrying with me important
perishable material. What happened instead was that the Merpati
flight, scheduled to leave Sumbawa at 11:15, came an hour late,
and finally landed in Mataram at 13:25. That meant I missed the
Garuda flight to Jakarta via Surabaya that left at 13:20.

I went to the Garuda counter to try to get the next flight to
Jakarta via Yogyakarta at 4:30 p.m. They did not honor my ticket
but insisted on me first paying a 25 percent cancellation fee
before I was even considered to be put on the waiting list for
the next flight. After all the hustle of paying for and getting a
replacement ticket, I finally got a boarding pass at 4:20 p.m.

Fact 1: Merpati had known of the change in the schedule days
before but failed to inform potential passengers, it in order not
to lose them. This is unethical.

Fact 2: Garuda's ticket from Mataram to Jakarta via Surabaya
is about 25 percent more expensive than via Yogyakarta, but if
one wants to fly earlier one must pay. This is unethical.

Fact 3: Why should we pay a cancellation fee if it is not us
who cancel our departure, and the next flight is only within a
few hours. This is unethical.

Fact 4: The airlines refused to acknowledge me as a transit
passenger at Selaparang airport. For the first time ever, the
airport tax officer forced me to pay the airport tax again or
face the security guards. I fly this route regularly, twice a
month. I was most surprised when the tax officer told me that to
be considered as a transit passenger one must fly using the same
ticket or boarding pass or airline -- is this a new regulation
resulting from the reform drive? or do the officers need more
training?

3. Oct. 1, 1999, we (14 persons) were in transit at Ngurah Rai
Airport from Mataram by Merpati and would continue by Garuda to
Jakarta. Garuda refused to handle our luggage from Merpati and
told us to move our luggage from the arrival terminal and carry
it to the departure terminal, which is not near. There was no
sight of a sympathetic gesture or a courteous one from the many
Garuda officers who were standing around and giggling at each
other. For the 11 of us who flew business class, this action was
completely unacceptable. So we have all decided, should there be
an alternative to Garuda and Merpati, we will all definitely take
the alternative.

NING M. WIDJAJA

Jakarta