Lion Air's service

On Dec. 13, 2001, I bought a return Lion Air ticket to Manado from Jakarta, scheduled for Jan. 6, 2002. When I asked if I needed to reconfirm my return flight, they said that I did not because it had an okay status.

On Jan. 3, 2002 I visited the airline's office at Sam Ratulangi Airport and it still held the okay status. And when a friend of mind in Jakarta tried to reconfirm the ticket by phone, he got the same answer too.

However, to our great dismay, after standing in a queue for one hour, I got a truly disappointing answer. Despite the fact that my name was on the list, they said that all the tickets had been sold out.

After realizing the fact, I came to the conclusion that there must have been something wrong with their ticketing service: Selling tickets to would-be passengers who were willing to pay more than the normal price of a ticket. Finally, I had to cancel my flight with Lion Air. That was my first experience dealing with the airline and also, I am sorry to say, my last.

TELLY RUMATE

Bekasi, West Java