Tiger Airways Flight Delay due to shortage of staff cost me time and money!
Please take this letter seriously as i will circulate it without any remorse. It is bad enough that Tiger Airways does not have an email address on their website. Reason being, too many duplicate emails from customers, easy isn’t it to avoid complaint letters? Best part is, when i called the call center for complaints and feedback, they can only provide me with a fax number. They have no email address to write into. How convenient?
I am Evelyn Kurup, i had booked a flight on Tiger Airways on the 18th of August 2010 from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The delay in Tiger Airways flight TR 2455 had caused me to miss my connecting flight to Dublin.
Booking reference number M2U9DI, flight number TR 2455 departing from Kuala Lumpur (according to itinerary) 16:40 on the 23rd of September 2010 and arriving in Singapore (according to itinerary) at 17:30. I had arrived at LCCT at 3.30pm to check-in, only to discover that the flight had been delayed to 5.35pm. I made a little noise at the counter because this was unacceptable. The flight was delayed for an hour. I had already planned for such delays, should they happen, which is why i had booked the flight to arrive 2 hours before my next connecting flight to Dublin, via Etihad.
I continued to check-in as i calculated arrival in Singapore would be around 6.20pm, i could still catch my flight with Etihad. Boarding time was at 5pm at LCCT, and ETA was 5.35pm. I waited and waited at gate T3 until 5.45pm. The staff did not announce any further delay, we customers had to inquire and only then they let us know that the aircraft had just left Singapore. Many customers made complained at the counter, but the response that we go from them was that they were not employees of Tiger Airways.
There was no representative of Tiger Airways present for us to make a complaint. Even the guy i spoke to at the call center named Arvin said he is not an employee of Tiger Airways.The aircraft finally arrived at 6.10pm. By the time we left it was 6.35pm and the pilot announced that the flight was delayed DUE TO SHORTAGE OF STAFF, AND THEY WERE WAITING FOR REPLACEMENT STAFF TO ARRIVE.
This is a huge management problem but for Tiger Airways and has nothing to do with me and it caused customers of flight TR2455 to miss other connecting flights, meetings and so forth. I cannot imagine, that such a well known budget airline, have problem in staffing. This is a huge inconvenience that innocent, paying customers have to bare. Like myself, i missed my connecting flight to Dublin as i reached Singapore at 7.35pm as appose to the rightful 5.30pm.
In total, the flight was delayed from 5.30pm, then 6.10pm and finally we left at 6.35pm which was MORE THAN 2 HOURS DELAY. I had paid SGD 1,300 for my flight to Dublin. Travelling alone, i am now staying at a hotel in Singapore during the F1 weekend, having to bare total hotel costs of SGD 270, which was the cheapest available rate for a decent and simple hotel in a red district area. To rebook another flight, i have to pay SGD 530! Total of SGD 800 because Tiger Airways had Staffing Problems!!
Tiger Airways not only caused me a total of SGD 2,100 but also time. I have to stay in Singapore for 2 days as the next flight to Dublin is on Saturday. The unnecessary time lost cannot be brought back. I am even unsure if there are available seats for the flight to Dublin on Saturday, when missing the flight was not my fault in the first place!
I had purchased this flight ticket to Dublin 40 days in advance to avoid high traveling cost. Thanks to the "tremendously efficient" service of Tiger Airways, i am not forced to bare most cost for something that was not my fault and for something that was out of my control. All i could do was wait and hope and pray, that the people at the counter we're giving us the right time. Even that was not true as they promised we would leave at 6.10pm after the 5.35pm timing didn't work out. If they would have told us earlier, that we would leave at 6.35pm, i could have looked for a different flight. It would be cheaper than paying for hotel in Singapore!!
I am now alone in a hotel room in Singapore, and i have to spend tomorrow night here as well.
I am extremely furious with Tiger Airways for the delay!! And for what reason? Shortage of staff?? Its amazing how they can even admit to such reasons for delay.
I demand that Tiger Airways compensate me for this extra cost that i have to incur due to their mismanagement. There was no faulty on my part whatsoever. I made sure i arrived at LCCT early to catch my flight.
I will never recommend Tiger Airways to anyone after today. The airlines might as well not exist, if it cannot be on time. A 30 minutes delay, is fine, a one hour delay is also still fine. But more than 2 hours delay due to shortage of staff is plain stupid and irresponsible!!
I am forced to bare the extra cost just because Tiger Airways had shortage of staff!! How is that my problem?? They seriously have no respect for people’s time and schedule!! Something needs to be done!! Tiger Airways needs to be closed down if this is the way they are going to operate!! Cheating people of their money!!
Tiger Airways is just the same as the robbers on the streets! But the robbers are better because you expect that from them! Tiger Airways takes your money, promises you one thing and cheats you out of it!
Cheaters!!!
