Business Traveller (Asia-Pacific)
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DRAGONAIR DISASTER
I thought I'd share my recent nightmare with Dragonair. My fiancé and I got engaged in Myanmar (Burma) at the beginning of June. What was meant to be a three-hour flight home to Hong Kong turned into a 36-hour journey with two extra nights in two different cities.
Our scheduled flight KA251 was due to depart Yangon, Myanmar, on June 9 at 0110, to arrive in Hong Kong at 0545, but it was delayed. Dragonair made no announcements, nor was any food or drink provided – despite all the shops being shut. The flight was finally cancelled at 3.30am due to a technical fault. After a bit of debate, the staff reluctantly agreed to return our luggage to us and put us up in a hotel – and we were told we would be reimbursed for our taxi fare. Despite both being non-smokers, we were given a smoking room because there were no other rooms left in the hotel chosen by Dragonair. It smelt revolting and our clothes reeked of smoke all the next day.
The next morning, a NotiFLY email said the flight would be leaving that evening. Despite countless attempts to contact the local office for confirmation, we received no further communication. It transpired that, in the interim, other passengers were given apology letters – we were given nothing. At 2pm, we were suddenly rushed to the airport without warning, even though we had noticed that about 70 percent of the passengers were missing. We were later told they had been put on earlier flights to Hong Kong via Bangkok. We are both Gold card members, why were we not offered this option?
There were no Dragonair representatives at the airport and no one knew what was going on. Neither the Dragonair office in Yangon nor the one in Hong Kong was answering the phone.
At 5pm (16 hours after the scheduled departure time), we were eventually given boarding passes with Bangkok Airways for flight number PG704 departing at 1820 to Bangkok and told we would be transferred to Hong Kong that night. Our research told us this would be impossible due to Cathay’s flight scheduling. A Dragonair representative assured us there would be a connecting Cathay flight for us to Hong Kong that night. No food or drink had been provided since 9am (i.e. for eight hours) nor had our taxi fare been reimbursed.
Upon arrival in Bangkok, we discovered our research was correct and there were no more Cathay flights. We were told they would not put us on the Hong Kong Airways flight at 1am either, and that we had to spend a second night in a hotel. Tempers flared, punches were thrown between passengers and Cathay staff, and an older gentleman had a panic attack and had to go to the medical centre. It was a circus! To get away from the increasingly aggressive environment, we went to the hotel (although after all the debate, this wasn't until 10.15pm, when we were finally provided with some food). We were then given a twin room (despite being told it was a double) and had to pay for everything (wifi, soft drinks, etc) other than water, tea or coffee. To top it off, we woke up the next morning covered in bed bites.
After returning to the airport once again, we finally got on CX2700 at 0835 on 10 June and arrived in Hong Kong at 1230 – after a delay of almost 36 hours, with two nights of little sleep in two different cities. That's not to mention the additional costs incurred plus a loss of earnings for two days per person (four working days in total), which equates to more than three times the cost of the fares.
After a lot of chasing, we finally received an apology from Dragonair one month later, with a one-way upgrade voucher each, valid with Dragonair for one year only (our travel plans mean Cathay vouchers would have been more practical for us). Dragonair said they were not able to reimburse any costs or offer compensation despite other passengers being compensated. These double standards are appalling! We wrote to both the CEO and customer services again three weeks ago and have still not had a reply. Disgraceful!
Evidently being a loyal member of the Cathay Pacific group for decades is meaningless to Dragonair, which appears to be content to shy away from their responsibilities and leave their loyal passengers to fend for themselves when it makes them stranded overseas.
DRAGONAIR RESPONDS:
We are very sorry to hear about Ms Fraser and Mr Lambe’s unhappy experience and their disappointment with us during their trip. We have contacted them separately to once again express our apology.
Due to unforeseen technical problems, Ms Fraser and Mr Lambe’s flight encountered a long delay, therefore we offered hotel accommodation. I sincerely apologise for the number of service failures they experienced in the hotel due to the arrangements. We never want to dishearten our customers, and I am sorry for the inconvenience this must have caused.
We are taking the comments raised very seriously and deeply regret that they had found our service less than satisfactory. Please rest assured the matter has been addressed with the relevant departments for their immediate attention.
Once again, we are sorry about Ms Fraser and Mr Lambe’s experience with us, and their resulting disappointment. There is always room for improvement and we will continue to ensure the delivery of our best customer service.