SABAH NEEDS MORE FLIGHTS? OR MAYBE ITS OWN AIRLINE?

Heart patient forced to delay 4 days, fly back business class

Kota Kinabalu Jan 05, 2012: There is no guarantee you will obtain a seat on a particular Malaysia Airlines flight even if you have a return ticket but left it open-dated, a Likas resident who accompanied a relative to the National Heart Instituite (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur, found out recently.

Both the resident and the heart patient were forced to put up for four more days in KL before eventually being able to return. Even then, they were forced to pay more as only business-class seats were available.

Their ordeal parallels what a Labuan Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student experienced on Dec. 15 when she was unable to be at the bedside of her dying mother. The student found out that unlike before, MAS no longer puts on standby until an hour before take-off at least one seat for emergencies.

In the latest case, the pair had bought open tickets and flown to the national capital in mid-December, where the latter had undergone treatment at the country's Heart Institute. Upon her relative's release from the Institute, the resident tried to get economy-class seats to return to Kota Kinabalu but found all the flights fully booked.

The resident provided Daily Express with the duo's travel itinerary which was forwarded to the airline. The resident was forced to buy open tickets for herself and her relative as she had been unable to tell before hand when the latter would complete the heart treatment.

"When we were ready to return, I tried unsuccessfully to get seats on the next available MAS direct flight from Kuala Lumpur.

"When this failed, I even tried to get seats on flights transiting Bintulu and Kuching. I also failed to secure seats from KL to KK aboard the airline's competitor, AirAsia," she said.

A MAS spokesman said MAS passengers with open tickets need to have their booking profile entered into the airline's computer system, especially if they intend to travel on a particular date. He said this had to be done even if the flight was full at "the material time of booking".

"Being on a waiting list will help our staff to monitor the requirements of the seats and facilitate the necessary confirmation in due course," he said.

The spokesman said a check of the passengers' booking history revealed they did not have confirmed reservations for the return flight.

"Their names also did not appear on the waiting list for the period during which they tried to get a return flight."

He said the company understood that the resident tried to travel one day after her relative's medical needs had been met, but the pair did not have firm bookings for this purpose.

"The only record we have is that they changed from economy to business class for their return sector. There is no information in our system of firm, or waiting list, bookings for the pair," the spokesman said, and apologised, on behalf of the airline, for the inconvenience caused.

He admitted that MAS flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu for December were fully booked due to the school holidays and festive season.

"We have been monitoring the situation closely and, when necessary, have mounted extra flights to accommodate the demand, based on the profiles in our waiting lists."

He said, in some instances, the firm upgraded flights to bigger aircraft to cater for passengers on waiting lists.

In the Labuan case highlighted by Daily Express on Wednesday, the student was forced to take a ferry to Menumbok and proceed by road to KK where she managed to get on an AirAsia flight costing RM700 which departed for KL at 10.45pm.

However, on arrival at KL terminal Two at 1am, she learnt that her mum who was rushed to hospital in critical condition at 3pm the day earlier and was hoping to see her daughter, had died at 10.30pm.

She was so distressed that she and other students were placed in Labuan where circumstances had lately made it impossible to attend to urgent matters at once via air connection.

She wanted to discontinue her studies but was advised against it by friends.