Disappointed by Bouraq

From Media Indonesia

I bought a ticket on Bouraq Airlines for a June 1 flight form Yogyakarta to Bandung. On May 31, 1994 I reconfirmed the flight at their office in Denpasar, Bali, and it was okayed.

When I checked-in in Yogyakarta together with my Japanese friends we were told to wait, because the aircraft was undergoing slight repairs. It was not known when exactly the plane could depart.

After half an hour of waiting we were told that the repair work was not done yet as the spare-parts had to be obtained from Jakarta. Another half an hour later, a Bouraq official announced that the flight was canceled, and asked us to make new reservations.

We asked that our tickets be reimbursed, but they could not do that, and suggested that we ask for the money in Bandung where the tickets were issued. As we had urgent matters to attend to, we decided to take a taxi from Yogyakarta to Bandung.

Upon arrival in Bandung I contacted the Bouraq office directly to inform them of the flight cancellation and asked for a refund. I was told to request the money from the travel agent that sold us the tickets. Unfortunately, the travel agent could not pay us back directly because they had to draw the money from Bouraq Airlines. At this point I was very much disappointed at the way Bouraq handled the matter. At least they could simplify the procedures of reimbursement. This is surely a bad advertisement for Bouraq. I hope that Bouraq carefully looks into the system to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

DJOKO SUJOTO

Bandung, West Java