29 April 2017. A good friend of mine has his wedding to his now-wife, after a decade of courtship. A wedding invitation was sent, and duly received by me.
It was in this scenario that I found myself at BNE on the night of 27 April 2017, after spending A$21.17 to BNE using a
GoCatch (aka Australia's Grab/MyTeksi to compete with Uber, but
not as successful (
mirror here)), checking into my flight with SQ246, and tagging my luggage to KCH via MH642.
It was actually my first time flying Singapore Airlines in 17 years. Yes, being a poor soul I couldn't afford to fly SQ too often. The BNE - SIN flight was uneventful, though the cabin crew were very attentive and the SQ hospitality was amazing. SQ and its crew do deserve their awards.
Landed in SIN at 0550, a good half hour from the original scheduled time of 0620. My connecting flight (MH642) only took off at 1250, so I had nearly 7 hours to kill in Changi.
While Changi is as good as ever, I had just landed there a few months back for CNY 2017. As it was a Friday (28 April 2017), there wasn't anyone that I knew in Singapore that I could meet, plus I didn't feel like moving too far from the airport after an overnight flight. (I don't sleep well on planes)
Eventually 12pm came along, and my ride to KCH was on an old leased aircraft with no IFE. Got on, and took off to Kuching.
My ride behind the Scoot plane.
Landed in Kuching around 2.20pm on 28 April 2017, cleared immigration and went down to the luggage collection area. And waited.
And waited.
KCH now has free wifi, albeit extremely slow and poor signal in the luggage collection area. I suppose that counts as progress in Sarawak.
Come 2.45pm I was still waiting for my luggage, and starting to get worried.
By 3.15pm it was clear that all bags had been released. My bags didn't make it to KCH.
Made a lost luggage report at KCH.
Of my years flying, this is the first time that my luggage did not arrive at my destination with me. And with MH and SQ to boot!
I had a wedding to attend to the next night (29 April 2017). All my clothes (and goodies from Australia) were all on that flight. I literary only had the clothes I was wearing on the flight(s) with me. Which weren't exactly appropriate for attending a wedding. So on the night of 28 April 2017, after dinner, I had to do some clothes shopping. A task that my mum seemed to be too excited about. (Also a task that can only be done not in Australia, where everything closes after 5pm)
I was also concerned about
airline liability, as my BNE - SIN and SIN - KCH sectors were booked on 2 separate tickets, and felt that both airlines would
just point fingers at each other and disclaim liability. Even if I had done the BNE - SIN - KCH legs many times, and with different airlines, having my luggage check through to KCH, all eventually connecting to the same MH642 flight.
Woke up the next day, 29 April 2017, with no information on my luggage. I was hoping and grasping on the odd chance that it would come that day on the same MH642 flight. The wedding was in 2 events: a morning ceremony at the
Old Court House, and an evening wedding dinner at
Imperial Hotel.
With barely enough time to buy the clothes, much less wash them, I turned up at the Kuching Old Court House with new shirts and pants for the wedding.
Old Court House cat
6.30pm came along and the wedding dinner started. With no sign of my luggage, I went to attend a night of food and drink.
Around 7.51pm, in the midst of the revelry of the wedding, I got a call from Malaysia Airlines, saying that my luggage was ready to collect. It must had come on the afternoon SIN - KCH flight, but they waited until 9.30pm to contact me!
After the dinner I made a midnight run to KCH to pick up my luggage. Everything came through, nothing was missing, and I had all my formal wear, albeit after all the wedding formalities were over.
On 4 May 2017 I sent an email to customer@malaysiaairlines.com, with the following text:
To whom it may concern,
I was on flight MH642 on 28 April 2017, from SIN to KCH, and my luggage did not arrive at KCH when I landed. I was attending a wedding the next day, and all my formal clothes were in my check-in luggage.
As I was attending a wedding on 29 April 2017 in Kuching, and with no indication that when I would be able to get my luggage, I had to buy some new clothes on the night of 28 April 2017, totalling MYR417.55.
Also, my medication was in the check-in luggage, and with the Labour Day long weekend ahead, and no indication on when my bag would be able to be reunited with me, I had to get 1 weeks' worth of my prescription medication, totalling MYR 72.10
I attach to this email photographic evidence of the receipts.
I got a call from the MH KCH luggage office at 7.51pm informing me that my luggage was ready to be collected. I thanked the caller, and went to KCH around 11.30pm after the wedding dinner I was attending.
While I am grateful to Malaysia Airlines that my luggage arrived eventually, the delay in being reunited with my clothes and medication at my destination set me back MYR489.65.
I would like to request compensation of MYR489.65 from Malaysia Airlines.
I enclose below my details:
File Reference: KCHMH78066
Surname:
GIven names:
Booking Reference Number: L37SR
Ticket number: 2322441253731
Luggage tag: SQ423057
Bag description: red soft frame
I hope you will give favourable consideration to my request.
I got an automatically generated case number, 00544-05/2017, the same there. And no further correspondence. I followed up with an email on 10 May 2017, a week later. On 24 May 2017 I sought an update with Malaysia Airlines, saying that If I did not receive any feedback from Malaysia Airlines by the end of May 2017 I will raise a case with MAVCOM.
With no further correspondence received from Malaysia Airlines, and by the end of May, I lodged a case with the
Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM), who assigned me Reference No MAVCOM-003948-05-17 the same day, with the following autogenerated text:
30 days from 31 May 2017 was 4 July apparently according to MAVCOM, because #maths. (I have a feeling they discounted the weekends)
No further correspondence was received from Malaysia Airlines and MAVCOM until 5 July 2017, a full 62 days, or 2 months plus since I first lodged the claim with Malaysia Airlines, from one Nurul Najwa Ahmad Zakifli, who wrote:
05 July 2017
Our ref : GTS 00544-05/2017/MW/WW
MAVCOM-003948-05-17
Dear Me,
Thank you for your reply. Apologize for the inconvenience caused. Herewith, we attach the Receipt and Discharge (R&D) form. Kindly refer to this email instead.
Have a pleasant day ahead.
Yours Sincerely
For Malaysia Airlines Berhad,
Nurul Najwa Ahmad Zakifli
Customer Experience & Assurance
Email: customer@malaysiaairlines.com
Which is fine, except the sender did not attach the Receipt and Discharge (R& D) form to the email!
I requested and provided receipts totalling MYR489.65. MH only offered MYR110.50. To be fair, my receipts I think include several items of clothing. The bag was delayed 24hrs, so I presume they prorata one day's worth of clothing. Also, it was not an intentional mistake, and also not entirely their mistake as it came through SQ, and handled by their Changi agent.
So I replied back for the Receipt and Discharge form. On 6 July 2017, Nurul Najwa Ahmad Zakifli replied:
05 July 2017
Our ref : GTS 00544-05/2017/MW/WW
MAVCOM-003948-05-17
Dear Me,
Thank you for your reply. Apologize for the inconvenience caused. Herewith, we attach the Receipt and Discharge (R&D) form. Kindly refer to this email instead.
Have a pleasant day ahead.
Yours Sincerely
For Malaysia Airlines Berhad,
Nurul Najwa Ahmad Zakifli
Customer Experience & Assurance
Email: customer@malaysiaairlines.com
At least this time the Receipt and Discharge (R & D) form was attached. I signed it, provided my details and bank account information, had to provide copies of my ID(s). Sent it to Malaysia Airlines on 6 July 2017.
Then, further silence. On 15 July 2017, more than a week since I provided the signed Receipt & Discharge form, having not received anything, either in the form of correspondence or money in my bank account, I asked Malaysia Airlines the question: "What is the time frame to receive the funds?"
With even more silence, 2 weeks later, on 27 July 2017, I emailed consumer@mavcom.my:
Hi MAVCOM,
Re MAVCOM reference number: MAVCOM-003948-05-17
It has been 2 weeks since I sent the Receipt & Discharge form to Malaysia Airlines, however I still have not received the compensation monies that I have agreed upon. They are also not responding to my emails.
What is the time frame for an airlines to pay out compensation once it has been agreed?
With no response from MAVCOM or Malaysia Airlines, and MAVCOM closed my original case number of MAVCOM-003948-05-17 and purged it from the
Check status page, I lodged a new case with MAVCOM on 30 July 2017, a full 24 days (!) after I had sent the signed Receipt and Discharge (R&D) form.
On 2 August 2017, I finally received MYR110.50 into my bank account. A full 3 months since I lodged a claim with Malaysia Airlines.
Some musings:
1) MAVCOM
was established on 1 March 2016 under the
Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015. It
describes itself "as an independent entity to regulate economic and commercial matters related to civil aviation in Malaysia". As part of the
Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016, aviation consumers now have rights.
It hasn't been an easy time for MAVCOM, with much turmoil in the
Malaysian aviation industry.
Previously management of the aviation industry was in a no man's land of the Ministry of Transportation, Department of Civil Aviation, and consumers were left to seek recourse from the
Competition Appeals Tribunal under the
Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism.
2) Malaysia Airlines has a
delayed luggage policy. However, it does not spell out how compensation is to be made, how timely it is to be made.
3) As part of this
new rights that consumers flying in and out and within Malaysia now have, there is now the consumer protection right for
compensation for Lost, damaged and delayed baggage.
4) However, Part III, Paragraph 13 of the
Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code 2016 does not mention a timeframe for when compensation is to be paid.
5) The
Montreal Convention makes airlines responsible for (delayed) check-in bags. However, there is no mention on the timeframe in which compensation is to be paid. This is not exclusive to Malaysia: there are
plenty of
jurisdictions which
do not say anything about the
timeframe to
pay out agreed compensation.
6) This is a gap in which no legislation, code, international law/convention seems to cover.
7) The lack of communication from both Malaysia Airlines and MAVCOM is (sadly) to be expected when dealing with Malaysian entities. How many people would doggedly pursue this like me? Yes, aviation consumers in Malaysia may have rights, but
how much worth are those rights when it takes 3 months to get paid MYR110.50?
8) The Malaysian Aviation Commission is "
exploring charging airline passengers to fund its operations". The Star cites 83.5 million passengers going through Malaysian airports in 2015, and quotes a unnamed airline executive as saying “If they charge RM1 per passenger, they can easily make RM83.5mil a year, and this does not include the other licencing fees they will be collecting from airlines.".
Why should consumer pay more for another layer of bureaucracy when it takes 3 months to enforce compensation entitled to?
9) Don't get me wrong: the formation of MAVCOM is
a positive step forward, and now aviation consumers now have rights they did not have previously. It is a improvement from cases like
this and
this. Not to mention
this,
this,
this, and
this, what consumers had to ensure before aviation consumer rights were codified.
