Shite Centre - Biggest Screw Ups Guaranteed.
Flight Centre Customer Relations reference 02119302
I contacted flight centre via the online service around the 4th of March in relation to an Emirates fare I had seen advertised at $2199. I was contacted by a staff member of the ****store, **********, who initially was helpful and also offered me a price on a Cathay Pacific fare at $1820. I was more interested in the Emirates flight for the extra luggage as I am travelling to Europe for 3 months for various family affairs, including a second wedding for my husband and I as our Dutch family could not make our wedding day in February.
I was then advised that the Cathay flight offered a luggage allowance of 25kgs, with additional luggage from $20 a kilogram. Thinking to myself, that's not too bad, and working on a theory of even $40 a kg, I thought I was saving myself some money.
On the 7th of March, I was assured via email that it was definately a 25kg limit for checked luggage (I have the emails)
So I asked **** to book the Cathay flight for me on the 12th of March, and with a slight adjustment of dates (which was not that huge an issue) I was given the details to pay the fare. On the 13th, I confirmed with *****e that I would call Cathay myself to organise extra luggage.
I didn't hear whether she had recieved my payment (I realise you recieve quite a lot of payments over a week, but it is a courtesy that when someone transfers you almost $2000 of their money to acknowledge receipt.), so on the 17/03 I contacted*******again via email to ask if she had recieved my payment. I was told yes she had, and she would forward my tickets in the next few days. I returned the signed documents via email on the 20/03.
I was ill over the next week, and was unable to check my work emails, however, I returned to work on the 26/03 and had still not recieved my tickets. So I emailed YET AGAIN, and recieved them without an apology. Something small, yet irritating was that the name on the PDF file was spelled "Earnst", not "Ernst" as my name is correctly spelled.
However, the ticket was spelled correctly and as this is the most essential part I was not overly concerned.
I did however check the luggage allowance on the ticket, and this stated 20kgs. I emailed **** the same day and recieved yet another confirmation that this was just a system error, it was indeed 25kgs.
So, as I finally had a booking reference I called Cathay in my lunch break. I was then told over the phone that my allowance was only 20kgs, but if I was lucky the airport would got to 23kgs without extra charge. I was also informed that 'from $20/kg' was actually '$60/kg' to Europe. You can imagine my horror and amazement that I had been blatantly misled in relation to both a cheaper flight, luggage allowances and costings on additional luggage.
I called your customer service line that afternoon and spoke to ****, who was lovely, and promised me someone would be in contact within 24hours. Thank you ***** for being the ONLY flight centre representative who has actually delivered on a promise and given correct information to date.
The following morning, I was then contacted by ********, the manager of the ********* Store. I told him my issue, the fact that there is only a week until I fly and that I am now under a lot of stress and anguish over this matter. He told me that today he would speak with ******about the matter, and asked me to forward the emails to him, which I did. He then contacted me via email saying he would get back to me today.At lunchtime I contacted ******and recieved an email stating that he had spoken with her, and that they were trying to contact Cathay. They also stated they had checked, the luggage allowance was 23kgs and that they were attempting to get me another 2kgs, but if they couldn't, I could just give them the bill and they would reimburse me the $40. th cost of 2 kg's is $120. I don't feel that just 'trying' to get me extra luggage in this situation is acceptable. this is a blatant error on behalf of the consultant and expecting me to pay at the airport to be reimbursed at a later date is not acceptable. I don't feel this is being treated seriously. This issue needs to be resolved - or I will be looking at escalating this further to both the AFTA and Fair Trading, as misleading conduct is not acceptable.
I contacted flight centre via the online service around the 4th of March in relation to an Emirates fare I had seen advertised at $2199. I was contacted by a staff member of the ****store, **********, who initially was helpful and also offered me a price on a Cathay Pacific fare at $1820. I was more interested in the Emirates flight for the extra luggage as I am travelling to Europe for 3 months for various family affairs, including a second wedding for my husband and I as our Dutch family could not make our wedding day in February.
I was then advised that the Cathay flight offered a luggage allowance of 25kgs, with additional luggage from $20 a kilogram. Thinking to myself, that's not too bad, and working on a theory of even $40 a kg, I thought I was saving myself some money.
On the 7th of March, I was assured via email that it was definately a 25kg limit for checked luggage (I have the emails)
So I asked **** to book the Cathay flight for me on the 12th of March, and with a slight adjustment of dates (which was not that huge an issue) I was given the details to pay the fare. On the 13th, I confirmed with *****e that I would call Cathay myself to organise extra luggage.
I didn't hear whether she had recieved my payment (I realise you recieve quite a lot of payments over a week, but it is a courtesy that when someone transfers you almost $2000 of their money to acknowledge receipt.), so on the 17/03 I contacted*******again via email to ask if she had recieved my payment. I was told yes she had, and she would forward my tickets in the next few days. I returned the signed documents via email on the 20/03.
I was ill over the next week, and was unable to check my work emails, however, I returned to work on the 26/03 and had still not recieved my tickets. So I emailed YET AGAIN, and recieved them without an apology. Something small, yet irritating was that the name on the PDF file was spelled "Earnst", not "Ernst" as my name is correctly spelled.
However, the ticket was spelled correctly and as this is the most essential part I was not overly concerned.
I did however check the luggage allowance on the ticket, and this stated 20kgs. I emailed **** the same day and recieved yet another confirmation that this was just a system error, it was indeed 25kgs.
So, as I finally had a booking reference I called Cathay in my lunch break. I was then told over the phone that my allowance was only 20kgs, but if I was lucky the airport would got to 23kgs without extra charge. I was also informed that 'from $20/kg' was actually '$60/kg' to Europe. You can imagine my horror and amazement that I had been blatantly misled in relation to both a cheaper flight, luggage allowances and costings on additional luggage.
I called your customer service line that afternoon and spoke to ****, who was lovely, and promised me someone would be in contact within 24hours. Thank you ***** for being the ONLY flight centre representative who has actually delivered on a promise and given correct information to date.
The following morning, I was then contacted by ********, the manager of the ********* Store. I told him my issue, the fact that there is only a week until I fly and that I am now under a lot of stress and anguish over this matter. He told me that today he would speak with ******about the matter, and asked me to forward the emails to him, which I did. He then contacted me via email saying he would get back to me today.At lunchtime I contacted ******and recieved an email stating that he had spoken with her, and that they were trying to contact Cathay. They also stated they had checked, the luggage allowance was 23kgs and that they were attempting to get me another 2kgs, but if they couldn't, I could just give them the bill and they would reimburse me the $40. th cost of 2 kg's is $120. I don't feel that just 'trying' to get me extra luggage in this situation is acceptable. this is a blatant error on behalf of the consultant and expecting me to pay at the airport to be reimbursed at a later date is not acceptable. I don't feel this is being treated seriously. This issue needs to be resolved - or I will be looking at escalating this further to both the AFTA and Fair Trading, as misleading conduct is not acceptable.