Unable to travel despite a ticket
I am writing this letter to raise my voice against flydubai and their careless attitude towards customers. I have a housemaid who is from Nepal. She and her husband have been working in Dubai for many years and wanted to get their 13-year-old son, who is living away from them in Nepal, over to Dubai for the holidays.
She had all the necessary paperwork in order. All she needed was a ticket. We decided to help her purchase the ticket and called the flydubai call centre on October 9 before booking a round trip flight from Kathmandu, Nepal, to Dubai. We wanted to know if this passenger could travel unaccompanied from Nepal to Dubai, and we were categorically informed that there were no issues for a 13-year-old to travel alone. The flydubai service representative also went on to say that the 13-year-old can travel alone as long as he does not have an under-12 child travelling with him.
Accordingly, on behalf of our helper, we purchased the ticket online and there was nothing to stop us from making this reservation for a person 13 years of age on the reservation page, when we put in the birth details. We were issued a booking reference number for October 11 for the price of Dh1,254.50 and we made the payment in cash at one of the approved centres.
When the passenger arrived at the airport at Kathmandu, he was checked in and issued a boarding pass for the same flight and was sent to clear immigration. He was stopped at immigration, as according to Nepal regulations, anyone below the age of 16 cannot travel unaccompanied, unless the airline provides unaccompanied service for minors. Hence, he was not allowed to board the flight.
When he informed us of this problem, we called the call centre, as they had told us it was fine for a 13-year-old to travel alone. The call centre staff were completely clueless that this was the regulation in Nepal, a country from where they operate their services. It is obligatory for any foreigner to abide by the rules and regulations of the country.
To cut a long story short, the child was unable to travel alone by flydubai and our helper’s hard earned money was wrongfully usurped. Despite all our efforts, flydubai is unwilling to refund the money. It must be noted here that the passenger was eventually able to travel to Dubai the next day, on a newly purchased ticket from another airline, which offers a service for unaccompanied minors.
I wish to summarise the misconduct by staff. The service centre assured us that there is no issue with the minor travelling alone. If there were any local regulations, the service centre should have at least asked us to inquire on our own, instead of categorically stating that there are no issues. There was complete disregard of Nepalese law, when flydubai issued a ticket and boarding pass. Additionally, unaccompanied services for minors is not offered by flydubai, hence they should not be selling tickets for the same.
They had an unresponsive attitude to our numerous emails, despite stating that they would revert to us in 10 working days. flydubai has declined all responsibility regarding having misguided us and despite my numerous requests to speak to supervising staff, I have not received any response.
From Ms Maria Khan
Dubai
The management of flydubai responds:
flydubai has investigated the claim and we have since reviewed the guidelines and offered a full refund in the form of payment.
Our conditions of carriage allow a child over the age of 12 to fly on flydubai without being accompanied by an adult older than 16 years; while children under the age of 12, must be accompanied by an adult travelling on the same booking confirmation. Passengers are reminded that it’s always best to check with the embassy in their country of origin to verify the travel requirements as the rules and regulations can change without notice.
Do not hesitate to contact us for any further enquires.
Ms Khan responds:
I received an email from flydubai regarding the case. They offered us two options of refund and we chose to get a refund voucher issued to the mother of the child. We received this voucher through email on December 10.
(Process initiation: November 22. Response from organisation: November 28. Reader confirmation: December 14.)
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