AFTER i pay the change fees, today I saw this posted on Tiger Airways website:

Our flights between Singapore and Phuket are operating as scheduled. Passengers who have made reservations to travel to Phuket from 26th Dec ‘04 to 28th Feb ‘05 will be accorded the options to amend their travel dates, transfer to another destination which Tiger Airways services, or change the names of passengers. The airline will waive the change fees applicable (usually S$30/pax/sector) but any fare difference incurred will have to be borne by the passenger.

This is good, but too late for me.

# posted by Shopaholic : 9:53 AM

Death toll has reached 63,000 as of today and it is estimated to hit 100,000. My heart goes out to the victims. To think that only a few months ago, I was lying on Patong Beach and Phi Phi island sunbathing. I can't imagine what I would have done then or what would have happened to me had a huge tsunami wave came crashing onto the beach and sweeping away all in its way.

The videos of the scenes of destruction, the testimonies of those who escaped, the reports of those missing and the rising statistics. This tragedy far surpasses that of Sars or even the 911 terrorist attack. What especially got to me was the report of a 3-year-old boy in a Thailand hospital. He was rescued by a tour guide who sent him there. His parents have most likely perished. The hospital staffs are unable to even identify which country he is from and he can't talk coherently at this age. I wonder how many such children are out there?

There are many in need of our help now. Please be generous in your donations. Donations can be made via Mercy Relief and its institutional partners – Singapore Soka Association (SSA) & Young Sikh Association (YSA) – together with the Singapore Red Cross Society (SRCS). Modes of payments include phone donation, cheques, credit card and internet banking transfers.

# posted by Shopaholic : 11:04 PM

Background information
SL and I wanted to make use of the Chinese New Year holidays to take a short trip. After much deliberation and research, we decided on Phuket as several budget airlines were offering extremely cheap tickets for it. We chosed Tiger Airways because the timing of the flight back would allow SL sufficient time to check in for his flight back to Hong Kong on the same day and also because it has the cheapest price of S$159 as compared with even that of Air Asia at S$205.

7 Dec 2004 11:00pm
The roundtrip fare of S$147 I saw previously is sold out and it's now priced at S$169 per ticket. I went ahead and tried to book 2 tickets online at http://www.tigerairways.com.sg. At the final stage where I had entered and checked all the passenger details and is submitting credit card number for payments, they have this line at the bottom of the page that says we should not go back or click 'submit' again if submission is not succesful. After I click to make payment, the webpage HANGED.

The phone booking hotline 1800 388 8888 is only available till 10pm. Thus, I wrote to the email address provided - reservations@tigerairways.com requesting them to confirm whether my booking is processed and whether my credit card has been charged.

8 Dec 2004
10:00am
As I have yet to receive a reply via email, I called their phone booking hotline to enquire and to make the booking in case my booking has not gone through. Woman A confirmed that the prices are now at S$169/179. However, she said that their system is not linked to the online system and she is unable to check whether I'm booked on the flight. She advised me to wait for the email reply.

6:00pm
I received the following email. They did not process my booking for me even though I provided full details of the passengers.

'Thank you for choosing TigerAirways.

There is no records found under the following passengers' names. Pls try to make the online booking again or you may try to call up the phone booking hotline to make your reservation.'

Therefore, I called the hotline once again to make bookings. Woman B informs that the ticket is now priced at S$204 each. No way I will pay S$50 more because their system malfunctioned! I was all set to pay for the S$169 tickets afterall. Woman B explained that I should have made a reservation this morning when I called but hold the payments. That made me angrier still! Woman A never told me I could do that. Complain, complain, complain......nothing she can do. I requested to talk to a manager.

This time, I was passed to Man A. Complained about price and untrained officer (Woman A) who should have given me better advice this morning. Still, he can only tell me, "I'm sorry madam. We are unable to offer you the promotional rate." I requested to speak to someone with authorithy to make the decision. He passed me on the Elaine, a manager. I had to explain the situation all over again. Once more, she told me "Sorry, but we are only agents and unable to give you the earlier rate." After more ranting from me, she said she will try and talk to someone in management and get back to me. I demanded to have the answer by today. It was 7:00pm by then. She said ok, calling me back 5 min later to say that the person-in-charge is in a meeting and asked whether they can get back to me the next morning. I was in an extremely pissed off and bitchy mood at that moment and said, "NO, more delays and you might tell me that the price is S$300 tomorrow. You can talk to her after she finish her meeting and call me back tonight. It doesn't matter how late." She agreed. However, another 5 min later, she called again and said that she made a mistake, the person-in-charge is actually on leave today. Tired of arguing by that time, I agreed for her to reply me the next day.

S$50 might not be a lot but I was angry more because of the principle. Why should I be paying more when their system f**ked up?!

9 Dec 2004
9:00am - 8:00pm
No calls from Elaine. I tried calling her office number as shown on my handphone IDD. Could not get through. I called the phone booking hotline and requested to speak to their manager, Elaine. I was told that there is no such person!!!

8:30pm
Gave up. I decided to forget it and just book at S$204. The online booking hanged at the same page again!!! Therefore, I called to make a reservation without payments first.

At the same time, I wrote them an email:

'Same problem when I tried to make online booking again. Please confirm that the credit card has not been charged.

Also, due to your system error and late reply, I am now unable to get the rates which I originally wanted to pay for. I don't think it's fair that I now have to pay S$204 per ticket as opposed to S$179. I have called the Call Centre but no one was unable to attend to my complaints.

A manager by the name of Elaine was supposed to get back to me today but I did not hear from her.

Is there a contact number where I can direct my case to?'

11 Dec 2004 1:05pm
You know what? This is what their f**ked up customer service wrote back 2 days later:

'Sorry for the inconvenice caused. All our ticket sold is base on real-time. Once the price slot is filled, we will move up to the next higher slot.'

They did not address the issue. Neither did they offer any better replies than their standard answer.

Once again, I complained.

'I know that. However, I had intended to pay for the lower priced ticket and even submitted my credit card details. It's not my fault that your system hanged.

The manager was supposed to get back to me and didn't. This is extremely bad customer service by your company and I have been unable to get a satisfactory reply. This isn't very professional especially considering how much your company has been spending on promotions and advertisements.

Also, since only an email is given to customers for contact, I would have expected the lag time to be faster than 2 days!'

No further response after that.

I decided to forget it and went ahead to pay and book for my tickets.

21 Dec 2004 1:00pm
Out of curiousity, I went to their website to check the price again. Guess what? It's now at S$179 again!?

My email this time:

'As I was repeatedly told that the return air tickets price of S$179 has been sold out, I was forced to book 2 tickets at S$204 each. However, I now still see that the S$179 ticket is once again on sale. Please provide a reasonable explanation and change my tickets to the S$179 ones.'

No response. Not that I was expecting anything better from them by now.

28 Dec 2004
9:30am
As our hotels on Patong Beach, Phuket and Phi Phi island have been destroyed by the tsunami waves, we have to change our destination to Bangkok. Once again, no response to the email I sent.

6:30pm
I called to enquire again. Woman C told me that I have to pay a penalty charge of S$30 for the change. I specifically asked whether it’s the total charges I have to pay and whether I will be penalized for any price differences between Phuket and Bangkok. She said yes, that's the total charge.

11:00pm
After discussing with SL, we decided on the time of the flight we want.

29 Dec 2004
9:30am
Hotline once again. Woman D, Eng Hui (this time I remember to get the name) said the price should actually be S$30 PER PERSON PER WAY, which would add up to S$120 for the 2 of us?! On top of that, she says we have to top up any ticket price differences. I argued that this was not what I was told last night and insisted on the earlier charge. Their favourite tactic......will get back to me later.

11:30am
No reply. Called and was told that she is not at her desk. Left message for her to call me back.

2:00pm
Still no reply. Called and asked Woman E to help when she told me Eng Hui is on the line. Same response. I requested to speak to a manager again. This time, it's Charles on the line. After much complaints on my part about his staff, he finally said that the best he could do is waive of the ONE WAY charge of S$30 per person and the difference in air ticket prices. So, I had to pay S$60 for the change. Tired of arguing further, so just pay lah.

This is in the confirmation he sent me:
TOTAL CHARGES: 668.00
TOTAL TAX: 0.00
TOTAL: 668.00
TOTAL PAYMENTS: 468.00
BALANCE DUE: 200.00

Puzzled by the S$200 due, I called to confirm. Woman E told me that Charles has gone off. She said that I am not liable for this S$200 and just have to show the confirmation upon checking in. Although not thoroughly convinced, there is nothing more I can do. I can only hope that they will not tell me my flight is not confirmed on the day itself.

This is a natural disaster. With 63,000 dead and counting, I don't understand why Tiger Airways is trying to profit from it at this point of time. It's not as if my flight is next week. It's 2 months away for god's sake. How much will it cost them to change the destination? If I had paid the total penalty charges they want to impose, I might as well have flown Singapore Airlines in the first place!

Oh, and Charles told me there IS a manager by the name of Elaine. He explained that she might have forgotten to get back to me because she's PREGNANT. What kind of stupid excuse is that?

This has been a long long vent. My apologies for the lack of proper English or inventive phrases.

To summarize, my main gripes about Tiger Airways are:

1) No customer service hotline (Now, a recorded voice on the phone booking hotline states that it's for phone bookings only. General enquiries and complaints will not be entertained). Only an email is provided for customer service. Lag time for response is at least 24 hours.

2) Phone booking officers who are not properly trained and gives out wrong information. Managers who does not want to be responsible for the mistakes their staffs commit.

3) Outrageous charges even in the light of such tragedy.

# posted by Shopaholic : 8:55 PM

Merry X'mas to all!!! Many many things happening lately.....3 weeks in Taiwan, company Dinner & Dance where the theme was Movies Movies and my table chosed 'Shanghai Tan', extremely hectic work weeks since I came back and X'mas shopping for friends. Therefore, please forgive the lack of updates. I will try my utmost to fill all these in once I'm free. Which isn't the next few days . He will be here tomorrow night. hehe.

So, check back in a week!

# posted by Shopaholic : 10:30 PM