Malaysia Airlines refuses refund for cancelled journey - help please!

honestmistake

Hello,


I’m having issues getting a refund from Malaysia Airlines (MAS) for a cancelled plane journey. It seems that their policy is after plane cancellation to charge me for taking me partway to my intended destination.


I bought a return ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Mulu. MAS do not have direct flights so I had to transfer in Miri. So my ticket showed my outbound journey as Kuala Lumpur to Miri to Mulu. Upon arriving in Miri, MAS cancelled my Miri to Mulu flight. Unable to continue my journey they flew me back to Kuala Lumpur.


While trying to get a ticket refund in Kuala Lumpur, I was told that because I had flown from Kuala Lumpur to Miri and back again, that portion of my ticket was not eligible for a refund! However they were willing to refund the Miri to Mulu portion of my ticket which is only about 10% of the original ticket price.


I find this very unacceptable. The contract I made with MAS was to transport me from Kuala Lumpur to Mulu. They cancelled their plane and therefore were unable to fulfil this contract. I did not wish to go to Miri, I did not purchase a ticket to go to Miri but still they propose to charge me for taking me partway to my intended destination.


I’ve had no luck receiving a proper reply from the MAS customer complaints department. Upon examining the small print of my travel insurance, they do not cover flights that are not from my country of origin. The Civil Aviation Authority seems to only deal with EU airline companies. I was wondering who/what I could do now to follow up? Does anyone have any advice please? Thanks!

Caz3121

honestmistake wrote: »

Upon arriving in Miri, MAS cancelled my Miri to Mulu flight. Unable to continue my journey they flew me back to Kuala Lumpur.

hindsight is great...best bet would probably have been to get them to rebook you from Miri to Muru instead of sending you back to KUL. If this had involved an overnight stay and MAS would not pay for this you may have had to cover yourself if travel insurance does not cover but would have lost less than you ultimately have.
You will need to see what regulations there are in place in Malaysia regarding refund for used portion

Alan_Bowen

Clearly since this flight never saw land in any part of the EU, EU261 will not apply. It will be subject to whatever laws if any apply in Malaysia which I suspect few, if anyone, on this website will be familiar. MAS is of course rather short of cash at the moment and so are probably looking at any way to save money.

Your only prospect I suspect is legal action in their home territory which may be impracticable, writing it off as a loss and not worrying about it, or threatening the new MD, who was previously the MD of Aer Lingus, that you will turn up at the Excel Centre in London at the beginning of November when he is due to give a keynote speech at the World Travel Market, and make a fuss. In practical and logistical terms I do not advise you do this but MAS if they find out you live in or around London might be prepared to buy you off.....

honestmistake

Thank you both for your replies and advice. I suspect that Malaysia has very little in the way of consumer protection laws. I’ll also try contacting my credit card and seeing if they will try pursuing the matter on my behalf. After all, I bought a contract with MAS and they could not deliver on it. Does anyone know if it’s work looking in to court action here in the UK?

The situation really sucks and the policy of MAS is absurd. Charging to take people partway to their destination is worse than not even taking them at all! I wish could make more people aware of this policy.

Caz3121

how did the decision to return to KUL come about?
I would have expected them to say something along the lines of
"the last flight of the day has gone, we cannot get you on another flight until tomorrow, what do you wish to do?"
or did they say "last flight has gone, we need to send you back to KUL"

honestmistake

After chatting with the MAS desk representative she told me that all the flights from Miri to Mulu (bar one) for the past week had been cancelled (leaving people stranded in Mulu).

She said something along the lines of

"the last flight of the day has gone, we cannot get you on another flight until tomorrow, what do you wish to do?"

BUT she also did say that I would get a ticket refund if returning to KUL. Which turns out not to be true.