MALAYSIAN AIRLINES - AVOID! (Other airlines...)

Member Name: Aang

Product:	Other airlines...
Date:	18/10/04 (1904 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: -

Disadvantages: Very poor customer relations.

I got Flightsavers to book me a return flight with Malaysian Airlines to Jakarta via Kuala Lumpur. I intended to spend a week on holiday in Jakarta.

Before I set off, a bomb went off outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Various governments issued travel warnings, urging tourists to avoid Jakarta, as tourist hotels were likely to be the next targets.

I contacted my travel agent, Thomas Cook, and was told that if I cancelled my booking I would lose £220.

I planned to go ahead with my journey. I planned therefore to get off the flight, MH11, in Kuala Lumpur and not join flight MH711 to Jakarta. I planned to spend my tourist money in wonderful Malaysia.

Thomas Cook said that if I got out at Kula Lumpur I would have to pay an extra £220.

I sent various e-mails to Malaysian Airlines but got no replies.

I eventually got through by phone to Malaysian Airlines. They confirmed that my £718 ticket could not be refunded in full and that if I wanted to get off in Kula Lumpur I would have to pay an extra £220.

I love Malaysia. But I had to cancel my holiday. I am a retired person and my budget would not stretch to the extra payment.

I have recently looked up various websites on travel. They confirm that Malaysian Airlines staff are sometimes grumpy and unhelpful.

Next time I will choose Singapore Airlines. The top management at Singapore Airlines are more efficient than those at Malaysian Airlines.

Just think - if Malaysian Airlines had been a little bit more flexible I would have travelled to Kuala Lumpur and spent my money there.

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Some Malaysians may not be wildly keen on the British and their allies (Israel and America).

Between 1948 and 1960, Britain was fighting a war in Malaya. According to Mark Curtis, in the Guardian, "the growing brutality and deception of the Iraq war mirrors what happened in Malaysia. Under the banner of fighting communism, British forces were given free rein in Malaya. Collective punishments were inflicted on villages for aiding insurgents. A shoot-to-kill policy was promoted, tens of thousands of people were removed into "new villages" and used as cheap labour, and British soldiers had themselves photographed holding guerrillas'
decapitated heads. The idea that the revolt was ended through "winning hearts and
minds" is a myth; it was crushed by overwhelming force, such as
massive aerial bombing."

More recently, the Asian economic crisis was blamed by some Malaysians on foreign speculators.

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Most Malaysians welcome visitors. The country is beautiful and the people are beautiful. Ideally one gets out of the cities and into the kampungs where the real Malaysians live.

The recent elections proved that 90% of the population are opposed to any kind of fundamentalism.

But be wary of Malaysian Airlines. They don't seem to care about their customers and their economic situation does not seem to be as strong as that of Singapore Airlines.

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I will not be using Thomas Cook again.

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Did the bomb in Jakarta achieve its objective? General Bangbang got elected president with a big majority.

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