BOTCHED OPERATION
Shouwei Lee, Taiwan
On August 30, I travelled from Bangkok to Taiwan with the intention of staying for two weeks. I deliberately chose a longer route to take Thai Airways’ A380. I booked Bangkok-Tokyo on TG676, and then Tokyo-Taiwan on China Airlines CI017.
In Taiwan, I had a minor operation on September 3. My doctor suggested I do a follow-up exam and scheduled an appointment for September 17. To postpone my return flight, I asked my doctor for a formal letter in English and faxed it to Thai’s Narita and Kansai offices, plus the four Bangkok ticketing offices.
Within a day, I received an email from Thai’s West Japan reservation centre. I was informed that they had forwarded my request to the Bangkok office and asked me to follow up with them directly – which I did, but none of the four Bangkok ticketing offices responded.
After communicating with Thai’s Japanese centre for a week, they informed me that Bangkok wouldn’t allow me to extend my ticket by four days, even for proven medical reasons. I had no choice but to call Thai’s Taiwan office and ask for a refund on the tax and surcharge. During the conversation, I learned that flight TG677 on September 18 was not even close to being full and my booking class was still available.
I ended up buying a one-way ticket with Singapore Airlines, which I didn’t regret at all. I also decided to cancel my plans to fly Thai’s Los Angeles-Seoul-Bangkok route for Thanksgiving.
Good job, Thai Airways, you just drove away a loyal Star Alliance gold flyer. The attitude in Bangkok and of all four ticketing offices made me think the airline should change its slogan from “Smooth as silk” to “Cold as ice”.
THAI AIRWAYS REPLIES: Our Bangkok ticket office did receive a telex from the Tokyo office enquiring about the possibility of extending an e-ticket owing to medical reasons.
Thai Airways’ policy is that it is allowed but only for critical cases and if the medical treatment is in the country from which the flight is travelling. In this case, the passenger’s ticket was from Narita to Bangkok, so the policy to extend the Thai ticket would need to have been based on treatment that occurred in Japan. As his medical treatment was in Taiwan (not Japan) and the medical condition was not deemed critical, regretfully, the decision was made to deny the ticket extension.
As the e-ticket was issued via our website under the “Thai Birthday” promotion for the Bangkok-Tokyo-Bangkok route, a reservation change would have been allowed once but it would have to have been within two to 14 days of the validity date of the ticket. The fee for this one-time reservation change on this ticket type is 3,000 baht [£58] (no re-routes, non-refundable, no upgrades).