EVA Air responds

EVA Air responds

We write in response to Mr. Firman Widjaja's letter Long
journey to U.S. (Jan. 14, 1997).

EVA Air very much regrets the inconvenience experienced by Mr.
Widjaja's son, Nicko Widjaja on his recent visit to the United
States, and we understand fully the dissatisfaction and distress
that this must have caused.

At this time, we have been unable to clarify precisely the
sequence of events affecting Mr. Nicko Widjaja, and we would very
much appreciate assistance in contacting him in the United States
in our desire to speak with him personally, and to try to bring
this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

EVA Air has, however, undertaken an investigation which
appears to show that a discrepancy arose concerning the system
employed by the airline for the reconfirmation of bookings. Like
most international carriers, EVA Air requires passengers to
reconfirm their bookings at minimum or 72 hours prior to travel.
Since no reconfirmation was received from Mr. Nicko Widjaja, his
booking was automatically canceled by our central reservation
system.

A time difference which exists between our reservations system
and Soekarno-Hatta Airport check-in at Jakarta airport caused Mr.
Nicko Widjaja's booking to still show confirmed status at the
time he checked in for his flight, and this is why his booking
was accepted by our check-in agent at Jakarta airport.

This is the first time that EVA Air has experienced a
situation of this kind, and in this respect, we have already
taken steps in our efforts to ensure that it does not happen
again. In addition, we wish to apologize for being unable to
accept Mr. Nicko Widjaja on board BR18, on Jan. 4, 1997 after Mr.
Widjaja had completed check-in procedure at Jakarta airport.

We have also made inquires from our employees at CKS Airport,
Taipei, and found that our airport staff offered to book Mr.
Nicko Widjaja on the flight routing Taipei-Honolulu-Portland in
their best efforts to meet his request to travel to the United
States as quickly as possible. Mr. Nicko Widjaja was very much
aware that at the time he purchased the ticket his reservation
for the Honolulu-Portland sector with Hawaiian Airlines was still
on request.

We would be most grateful if Mr. Widjaja could provide us with
his son's telephone number and address so that we can contact him
directly.

We seek to provide compensation to Mr. Nicko Widjaja for his
accommodation expenses in Taipei and Honolulu, and also to refund
his Taipei-Honolulu ticket, in addition to any fare differential
between Taipei and San Francisco.

PETER CHEN

EVA Air Representative

in Jakarta