Merpati airline services

Merpati airline services

I, and a few others, planned a holiday trip to Surabaya and
Bali during the recent holiday (from March 2 to March 7). We
bought our Merpati Nusantara Airline tickets in advance at an
authorized agent (PT Kijang Tours) and we were issued valid
tickets for our flight from Surabaya to Denpasar.

Days before the intended flight, our office secretary had
reconfirmed our flight with the above travel agent.

On March 3, an hour before the scheduled flight, we arrived at
the Merpati Nusantara Airline ticket counter at Surabaya Airport.
Surprisingly the member of staff at the counter, Mr. Indra R.,
rudely informed us that our names were not on the confirmed list
of passengers.

We asked for the assistance of the Merpati Nusantara airport
supervisor Mr. Bernardus. Upon checking, Mr. Bernardus informed
us that the travel agent PT Kijang Tour had not reconfirmed our
seats.

As a traveler, may I bring to your attention the following
issues:

1. Your tickets which were issued to us were a contract of
conveyance. Therefore what is written on the tickets are part and
parcel of the contract to be honored and fulfilled by both sides.
These valid tickets were issued on the basis that seats are
available on a particular flight. We honored our part of the
contract by reconfirming the flight bookings with your authorized
agents. What else should we have done to secure our seats?

2. We could not believe the rude treatment we received from
your Surabaya airport staff. We expected to be treated as
customers at the very least. We expected that your staff, being
Indonesian, would have shown a greater degree of respect, tact
and tolerance which would have been an important virtue in
handling the situation.

3. Regarding your Surabaya airport waiting list system of
allocating unclaimed or available seats, there were three young
foreigners who were also on the waiting list but they were
accorded seats. We came ahead of them on the list and complained.
Is removing passengers for a fee still very much part of your
system?

4. Upon our return on March 6, on Flight MZ 707 from Denpasar
to Surabaya there was a case of overbooking. A Danish national
spent some time wandering along the aisles looking for her seat.
It turned out that the gentleman beside me was occupying her
allocated seat. The gentleman was asked to take a seat in the
cockpit. No civilian or passenger is allowed to occupy a seat in
the pilot's cockpit except for pilots on training, aircraft
technicians and the like.

Having a civilian occupy a seat in the pilot's cockpit is
tantamount to a gross violation of aviation safety regulations
and therefore places all passengers' lives in possible danger.
Surely, your company policy would not tolerate such an act?

Yet somebody among your ground crew must have allowed this
overbooking in return for something.

I have reported this incident to the director general of air
transportation at the relevant ministry and have, in addition,
forwarded it to the Indonesian Consumers Group.

JAMES A. KEKENUSA

Jakarta