COUNCIL COMMENDS FIJI AIRWAYS

The Consumer Council of Fiji commends Fiji Airways for heeding consumer concerns and making improvements to its online booking pofial.

The Council had proposed that Fiji Airways make amendments to its online booking portal after receiving consumer complaints & concerns regarding their online booking portal.

The complaint was made regarding the section of the booking poftal that requests names of the commuters in order to book a ticket.

The online booking portal did not advise consumers that names must be entered according to the commuters passports.

This had the potential of resulting in consumers being unable to travel because details on airline tickets did not match their passports.

One consumer who booked three tickets from the United States to Fiji on Fiji Airways made the unfortunate mistake of only entering first and last names for commuters.

The commuters passports however also included middle names.

Unfortunately, when using the Fiji Airways online booking porlal, she was not advised that names used for booking tickets must match the names as represented in their passports. The consumer later attempted to change the names on the tickets to avoid any hiccups when travelling. However to her surprise she was advised that a fee of USD$130 (FJ$274.06) per ticket is applicable for any changes. She was understandably frustrated and filed a complaint with the Council.

The Council liaised with Fiji Airways and the national carrier was receptive to the consumer’s complaint.

Fiji Airways waived the ticket change fee and amended their online booking portal to include a phrase advising customers to enter names exactly as they appear in commuters passports if travelling internationally or their identification cards