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