Ansett, MAS flight nightmare

Over the Lebaran period, my wife and I went to Penang to visit my father's grave; he was the Judge there, and died in 1933. The journey there was reasonable. We flew with Ansett Australian Airlines to Kuala Lumpur and then to Penang with MAS (Malaysian Airlines). But the return journey was a nightmare.

Our flight from Penang was 2 hours and 15 minutes late because of problems with the aircraft and the need to round up a new crew to fly the replacement aircraft which was a different type.

Therefore we missed our connection with Ansett by a matter of minutes. A telex had supposedly been sent to Ansett to hold the flight, but it was no use. The Ansett staff at Kuala Lumpur were arrogant and totally unhelpful. "We don't delay our departures for late arrivals by other carriers," they sneered.

Then phase two of the saga unfolded. A senior MAS official came and apologized (marks for this) and gave us hotel and meal vouchers to stay overnight and to depart next day with MH711 at 10:40 a.m. He kindly checked us in and gave us our boarding passes, and promised that our baggage (one suitcase) would be on flight MH711 the next day. After faxing my office, calling home and a not very nice dinner, I went to bed.

The next morning we telephoned to tell our driver when to meet us (he had spent hours at the airport the previous night because the message we asked MAS to broadcast/announce for him to go home was never made) we checked out and went to Terminal I to catch MH711 (boarding 10:15 a.m., departure 10:40). After a few minutes came announcement No. 1: "Sorry, MH711 is delayed by one hour." Too bad; sit back and read a newspaper. Later, announcement No. 2: "Sorry, MH711 to be postponed until 12:50 p.m." At that point, we were issued with refreshment vouchers. I went to inspect the refreshment counter, but it was, like Mother Hubbard's cupboard, bare. As I went back to tell my wife the sad news, and to complain to MAS, came announcement No. 3: "MH711 is now boarding at gate 13 for departure at 11:50." So I leapt onto my wheelchair, and after three or four minutes, my "pusher" realized she was pushing in the wrong direction but a swift about turn got us to gate 13 on time.

On arrival at Sukarno-Hatta we went to claim our baggage. But it was not there. So we had long dialogue with the "Lost Property" office, while our poor driver continued to wait.

At home at 8 p.m. we finally got a call from Ansett to say they had our bag. So how come the MAS supervisor promised to put it on MH711? And how come Ansett takes a passenger's luggage but doesn't wait for the passenger? I was naturally nervous about the fate of our suitcase because a few years ago we went to the UK with MAS. Once again, we were obliged to stop over in Kuala Lumpur, and on arrival at London Heathrow, there was no baggage. Eventually, one bag was discovered, having been misrouted to Frankfurt; the other was never found, and it was only after endless argument that I got adequate compensation from MAS.

R.B. SAWREY-COOKSON

Jakarta