Asiana Club - SEATTLE ground Staff are rude and look for ways to deny boarding, enforce every rule!

I just want to document my experience checking in with Asiana Airlines in Seattle as a way to give people a heads up. This is our first flight and encounter with ASIANA.

On Wednesday June 10th, My family and I arrive for check-in for our flight to Cebu via ICN. We have 4 One Way tickets (one is an infant). The wait was short and we were directed to the first economy class check in counter. Our agents name was Ho........ We were not welcomed or greeted other than "tickets please". Not a problem I thought, just another efficient check in agent wanting to process us through quickly. I can live with that especially with a 3 month old tagging along. However, it soon became apparent that Miss Ho..... would be a force to be reckoned with if we are to get our boarding passes. This young lady did whatever she could to deny us boarding. I am not sure why as she must have just finished dealing with some rude customers and we were next to be lined up for "live fire and daggers" retaliation.

I handed Ms. Ho our E-Ticket and 4 passports (Filipino, USA, Canadian and Australian). Because we were on OW tickets she wanted our onward tickets. I presented two OW electronic tickets to Singapore for the Canadian and Australian Passport holders. The 3 month old has a USA passport but dual Filipino Citizenship and as such does not need a onward ticket. Ms. Ho.... informed me that the confirmation letter for our flights to Singapore was not acceptable and that we would not be able to board unless we purchased onward tickets. I was quite shocked as the email confirmation from Cebu Pacific was the only record we got confirming our tickets. Ms. Ho insisted on paper tickets out of the Philippines. I insisted politely she accept the email confirmation as proof of onward passage. I then presented my Asiana Airlines Email confirmation letter side by side with the Cebu Pacific email confirmation letter and asked you why she would accept her airline but not Cebu Pacific's. She insisted on paper tickets. At that point I suggested she get confirmation from her manager as I was not going to be railroaded. She went over, had a discussion and came back and said OK!

Next battle was the luggage. We had 3 bags for check-in (we are allowed 6). However one bag was 6 pounds over 50 and she insisted on charging us excess luggage. I understand the rules and i know she is correct on this but she went into "revenge mode" at this stage. I suggested we weigh the other luggage, one was 40 pounds and the other was close to 50 pounds. So I asked my older son to just move 6 pounds over from one bag to another so we would not have to pay the excess luggage fees. He did so! and she went ahead and printed the luggage tags. Just when I thought it was over . . . . .

Ms. Ho then informs me that the infant cannot travel because he does not have a onward ticket. By this time, I figured she was on a roll and so I did what every professional traveller would do - I smiled and told her to get her supervisor to over-rule her decision as the baby has a right to return to his country of citizenship. A 3 month old baby travels with the mother no matter what and the Mother has a Filipino passport, the baby has dual citizenship with registration Filipino papers. The baby is Filipino and is not bound by the onward ticket rule! But ah yes- she then points out that the last name on the Mother's Filipino Passport is not the same as the baby. I pointed out that this is very common - the mother since married and we produced her US passport with her married name on it. The supervisor overuled her again. She was pissed! If she smiled - SEATAC would crumble.

Finally, she instructs my family to move away from the other counter as they were taking up two counters. I suggested that perhaps they should have thought about that before they ended the economy class line up railings 6ft directly behind our check in counter. I told her this to face in a straight forward manner in the same way as she was treating us.

Lastly came seat allocation. I called ahead and asked for bassinet service. Ms. Ho issued the boarding pass saying only one seat was available and we would have to seat in different parts of the aircraft. Ok I said, BP's were issued and that was the end. Our fist experience with ASIANA airlines ground check in at Seattle airport. My oldest son looked at me and said "What was that all about?" I really did not know what to say to him. I said, she was in a bad mood or something. My wife was not impressed to say the least. Why was she trying to deny us boarding? We had everything in order. It was uncalled for and I hope ASIANA Airlines supervisors recognise that poor employees like this reflect poorly on their airline.

Finally, we board the aircraft and we took our allocated seats. Strange thing, my wife had two empty seats next to her. The seats were not allocated at all. We checked with the flight crew and yes - the seats were not allocated. My son and I moved over and we were one family again. It seems Ms. Ho went ahead and split our family up without any good reason. I will leave it to the reader to decide if this was just a coincidence or .............

Now - the flight itself - incredible economy class service with very attentive flight crew. World class indeed. No complaints atall - it rates a 9 or 10. Imagine, hot towels, fresh shrimp salad, grilled Salmon, Chilled Beer, real cutlery and friendly service in economy in 2009. Simply superb!

Wow, certainly sounds like the Check-in agent from hell. Kudos to you for standing up to her. Since she was on a roll, the only thing I might have done differently was I assume that she was deliberately splitting you up and checked with the GA before boarding... but I can understand why you were just happy to have survived check-in and get your BPs.

I would definitely complain to OZ and include the same type of detail as you posted above. I doubt that OZ HQ would be too pleased to hear about your encounter, and might even offer some compensation.

Glad to hear the inflight portion of the trip was positive.

Thats really unfortunate you has such bad experience with the ground staff. Theres nothing like bad service to begin the trip. I once bought (yes, purchased with $$) a first class international ticket from another airline and had awful service from the ground up! The check in lady litereally belittled me and treated me like a kid! Not to mention the actual flight. The old hags didnt even bother asking me what I wanted. They simply by pass me for other male passengers and when I call a button, they would take their sweet old time and actually frown once they got to my seat.. Is this for real????? I will suck it up as just ONE time incident but I avoid it as much as I can since then.
Well, anyways the story took a little detour. The OZ ground staff is outsourced and NOT part of Asiana corp, if I remember correctly - at least they were 10 years ago. Does anyone know if this is the case still? If so, I wonder if that has something to do with it.

Regardless, I am just glad your OZ flight itself was great. I agree OZ product is one of the best. The food, service and ambience is truly a world class. I have a flight coming on July. Its an award ticket and I had choice between ANA OZ or SQ old style. I've tried all three and I choose OZ with no hesitation. Each one has their pros and cons, like ANA has GREAT food, SQ good service but OZ has OVERALL good product.

Wow, what a story, davistev. This is really bad customer service.

I would definitely complain to Asiana about this. While your booking was complex, the way the agent has handled the situation was very unprofessional. It would be good if you could post how OZ reacts to your complaint.

One last question: Was this actually a OZ employee or who is handling the checkin at SEA for OZ?

Finally, we board the aircraft and we took our allocated seats. Strange thing, my wife had two empty seats next to her. The seats were not allocated at all.!

Not strange at all....These could easily have been prereserved or allocated when you were checking in. I imagine there is lot's of connecting traffic to these Asia bound flights and all it takes is 1 flight to arrive late and several passengers would not make their flight. This is often the reason you all of the sudden will see free seats even though the flight was fully booked.

Not strange at all....These could easily have been prereserved or allocated when you were checking in. I imagine there is lot's of connecting traffic to these Asia bound flights and all it takes is 1 flight to arrive late and several passengers would not make their flight. This is often the reason you all of the sudden will see free seats even though the flight was fully booked.

Did you even bother to read OP's story? Yeah sure, there were no seats together when OP checked in for a flight for which Y seat selection was apparently not available.

Wow, what a story, davistev. This is really bad customer service.

I would definitely complain to Asiana about this. While your booking was complex, the way the agent has handled the situation was very unprofessional. It would be good if you could post how OZ reacts to your complaint.

One last question: Was this actually a OZ employee or who is handling the checkin at SEA for OZ?

G'day DownUnderFlyer,

Yes, she was in full ASIANA uniform so I assume she is an employee and not subcontracted out. I do not really know who to complain to or if it would even make any difference. I guess I could try and find out. I do plan on flying ASIANA monthly to the USA from the Philippines for business so I am sure I will run into Ms. Ho........ again at SEATAC. She is very young and with this in mind I am thinking that she may have been reprimanded recently for a violation of some sort - or she just hates people :(

But certainly, other Filipino's in line were watching and telling my wife in Visayan that Ms. Ho....... was being a bit,,,! to our family. As of now, it is all speculation as to her reasonings but I have documented this on Flyertalk in a fair manner to warn any future traveler on ASIANA that the SEATAC ground staff could be problematic.

My wife was not impressed and has indicated that we should go back to flying NWA / KLM. Although their product is pretty basic, the flight attendants are sincere and professional and the ground staff are efficient and non-judgmental. I am still undecided.

The behaviour of one person shouldn't really influence your future travel plans too much. I hope the flight itself was still a pleasant one?

If I were you I would write to the US Asiana office.

3530 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1700 Los Angeles, CA 90010
T.1-213-365-4500
F.1-213-365-9630

If you don't say anything then nothing can change. And you might even get something out of it.

I do not really know who to complain to or if it would even make any difference. I guess I could try and find out. I do plan on flying ASIANA monthly to the USA from the Philippines for business so I am sure I will run into Ms. Ho........ again at SEATAC.

By all means, write to OZ and document the shabby treatment...
http://us.flyasiana.com/Global/US/en/homepage?fid=INFO15500

I would also fax it to the local SEA sales and airport offices...
http://us.flyasiana.com/Global/US/en/homepage?cmd=&fid=ABOUT13000&region=US&city=&searchWrd=#01

And the LA office, as DownUnderFlyer noted, if that is the main US office.

I've had nothing but great experiences with the check-in staff at SEA. I always assumed they were contract workers other than the supervisor, just because that's normally the case when an airline doesn't even have a daily flight from a major airport where contract workers are readily available. Just because they're wearing an OZ uniform doesn't mean they're not contract workers...I've seen plenty of cases of contract workers wearing the company's uniform they're contracted to.

One possible reason for the check-in agent's reluctance to issue you a boarding pass is due to the fact that if a passenger is allowed on the plane and does not have a valid onward ticket, and the Philippine immigration checks (which I've never seen them actually do), the airline will be heavily fined, and the worker will likely be fined by the airline or lose her job if she issued the boarding pass. So if there's any question in the mind of the check-in staff about if you have a valid onward ticket, they don't want to accept responsibility for the decision, and thus the need to have a supervisor approve it. I was refused boarding many years ago on one of my first trips to the Philippines and ended up having to purchase a refundable onward ticket. Most airlines flying into the Philippines are quite strict about this.

But regardless of whether the agent was justified in being cautious about issuing you a boarding pass, obviously the way she handled the situation was totally inappropriate and you definitely should write a letter complaining of the treatment you received.

I definitely would not judge an airline based on the actions of one contract or even permanent staff member at a remote check-in position. I've seen lots of bad workers in these cases, but if the rest of my experience with the airline is good, then I don't let it taint my opinion. I would though handle the situation differently at the time of the problem. I would ask to speak to the supervisor and discuss my problem with the worker, ask for the supervisor's name and inform him/her that I will be writing a letter to the airline's headquarters and hopefully the supervisor will take appropriate action to see to it that the employee is reprimanded and retrained, or else let go. Without some discussion along these lines at the time of the incident, both the employee and supervisor will likely have long forgotten about the details by the time your complaint is processed, and the likelyhood of proper corrective action being taken will not be as good.

And the LA office, as DownUnderFlyer noted, if that is the main US office.

Yes, the LA office is US HQ.

I've had nothing but great experiences with the check-in staff at SEA. I always assumed they were contract workers other than the supervisor, just because that's normally the case when an airline doesn't even have a daily flight from a major airport where contract workers are readily available. Just because they're wearing an OZ uniform doesn't mean they're not contract workers...I've seen plenty of cases of contract workers wearing the company's uniform they're contracted to.


Although I am not 100% sure, I think most contract workers that work at the checkin area in US airports are AIRSERV people, and they have their own uniform, blue shirt, with the AIRSERV logo on the top left. Contract workers need to be identify who they are, so that they are not mixed up with other airline's employee. If they wear OZ uniform, most likely OZ staff, especially in the US.

Even if an airline only have a flight once a day or several times a week in an airport, they still have their own staff. In those cases, you will see the checkin personel would also handle at the gate for that flight. However many contract workers can either work at the checkin or the gate, instead of both, unless those contract workers also for an airline like the KA staff in HKG. (OZ used to use KA people in HKG, they were in KA uniforms when handling the OZ flights)

The behaviour of one person shouldn't really influence your future travel plans too much. I hope the flight itself was still a pleasant one?

If I were you I would write to the US Asiana office.

3530 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1700 Los Angeles, CA 90010
T.1-213-365-4500
F.1-213-365-9630

If you don't say anything then nothing can change. And you might even get something out of it.

DO write and complain. Send a letter AND also fax it.
if that doesn't get you any helpful response- ie compensation- write to Asiana in Seoul.
In my experience US customer services will likely get you "oh dear we're sorry to hear of your bad experience, please let us know if we can be of further assistance". Seoul -as long as you tried US first -will be more helpful.

Please, please do file a complaint letter against Ms. Ho. Most of Asiana's employees are fantastic and constantly go out of their way to help customers. It simply isn't fair to them that such a rotten apple like Ms. Ho is putting a negative spell on their hard work and Asiana's image as a whole.

..........Yes, she was in full ASIANA uniform so I assume she is an employee and not subcontracted out.....

Don't know about SEA specifically, but many contractors do wear airlines uniforms. @:-) For example, OZ uses HAS (Hong Kong Airport Services) as ground handling agent in HKG. They wear OZ uniform when handling OZ flights, but their IDs say HAS. They change uniforms before moving on to other flights. Did you look at her ID?

Please, please do file a complaint letter against Ms. Ho. Most of Asiana's employees are fantastic and constantly go out of their way to help customers. It simply isn't fair to them that such a rotten apple like Ms. Ho is putting a negative spell on their hard work and Asiana's image as a whole.

To be fair, I agree that OZ staff have always been excellent and more; if there's one who's not, yes, do complain. They deserve their image- to spoil that, esp by a contractor (if she is), would be a travesty.

I flew from SFO to PEK on Asiana and had big problems at check-in. The mean old lady was literally making up rules so that we would have to check all of our carry on baggage!! We were carrying expensive camera equipment, and were not prepared to send it under the plane. The lady made threats of fines and denied boarding at the gate, and brought us cardboard and tape to find a way to secure and check our carry on. Ridiculous! We had one bag each, plus a small laptop bag. I fly with this equipment all the time, and it complies with even Asiana's strict carry on policies. 20 minutes later when we had all our bags open, gear and clothes strewn everywhere trying desperately to figure out how to save our gear, a manager told us we were fine! If the in-flight service hadn't been so good, I might not fly OZ again.

I just got back from Cebu and have sent off my "Incident Report" to ASIANA Airlines.

I will see if I get any feedback. I have tickets to SEA in two weeks time but this time it is on EVA Air. I do plan on purchashing a couple more tickets for July and September on Asiana Airlines. I like their On-board product but not if I have to deal with "problems" at SEA check-in.

I'll keep this thread updated if a response is given.

One possible reason for the check-in agent's reluctance to issue you a boarding pass is due to the fact that if a passenger is allowed on the plane and does not have a valid onward ticket, and the Philippine immigration checks (which I've never seen them actually do), the airline will be heavily fined, and the worker will likely be fined by the airline or lose her job if she issued the boarding pass. So if there's any question in the mind of the check-in staff about if you have a valid onward ticket, they don't want to accept responsibility for the decision, and thus the need to have a supervisor approve it. I was refused boarding many years ago on one of my first trips to the Philippines and ended up having to purchase a refundable onward ticket. Most airlines flying into the Philippines are quite strict about this.


If you read the OP's post, he was well aware of the requirements for a valid onward ticket if the PAX was not a resident/citizen of the Philippines. The agent should not let her hormones ruled over her. A possible reason for her unacceptable behavior. :D

Just an update: I have not heard any response from Asiana Airlines so I went ahead and booked all of my July, August and September flights for party of 3 on EVA Air. I have signed up for the FF plan and I was able to book open ended return tickets online without problems from the Philippines - this is a feature not made available online on OZ.

Adios Asiana Airlines - never will you treat my family that way again. I will vote with my wallet.

Sorry that you had unpleasant experience but to fly EVA? And 3x in a row at that? Their FF program and u signed up for it? Their program is next to non-existent! (yes yes, Continental I know).

To philipines, I would assume thats 12 hrs per pop, total of 36 hrs and u r willing to do 36hr time all for one unpleasant event at the airport. Granted, i havent yet flown them but have a trip coming up next week! I had no choice as my sister bought the tickets. I am sucking it up as togetherness with sister/family experience, but I am really dreading it. I have gotten so spoiled by OZ/KE/SQ. Hope all goes well for both of us.



Just an update: I have not heard any response from Asiana Airlines so I went ahead and booked all of my July, August and September flights for party of 3 on EVA Air. I have signed up for the FF plan and I was able to book open ended return tickets online without problems from the Philippines - this is a feature not made available online on OZ.

Adios Asiana Airlines - never will you treat my family that way again. I will vote with my wallet.

Sorry that you had unpleasant experience but to fly EVA? And 3x in a row at that? Their FF program and u signed up for it? Their program is next to non-existent! (yes yes, Continental I know).

To philipines, I would assume thats 12 hrs per pop, total of 36 hrs and u r willing to do 36hr time all for one unpleasant event at the airport. Granted, i havent yet flown them but have a trip coming up next week! I had no choice as my sister bought the tickets. I am sucking it up as togetherness with sister/family experience, but I am really dreading it. I have gotten so spoiled by OZ/KE/SQ. Hope all goes well for both of us.

I actually have not heard anything bad about EVA Air but granted, their FF programme is terrible as far as partners are concerned. I purchased the tickets largely due to my wife and her opinion of Asiana Airlines. She is convinced that if we were an American family of 4, we would not have had this issue. I am not sure about the "race card" thing but I do know we have a choice and Asiana had their chance to treat us well and they did not. The other Filipinos in line watched this go down and they were as appalled as my wife was so maybe she is not seeing things after all.

Hopefully, EVA Air will ba as good in the air as OZ. They certainly cannot be worse on the ground.

Make sure you make a copy of the invoices and itineraries and send them to HQ for OZ in LA. They need to know you are voting with your wallet.

Maybe it is just me but this was just one agent at an outstation acting rudely and enforcing rules. Not a great experience but it is not the end of the world.

Maybe it is just me but this was just one agent at an outstation acting rudely and enforcing rules. Not a great experience but it is not the end of the world.

That is more than one agent, more than one outstation experienced something like that.

It is the same thing in HKG. Isn't flying F should overrule anything ?
One of my checked bag was 5 lbs over the limit. (75lbs)(70lbs per bag for *G) The other checked bag is 55lbs. I have never had a problem when the other bag is weighted a lot less than the limit when travel on SQ, NH, and UA. Usually they calculated the weight with all checked bags together to see if there is any penalty.

I told her if she was not ok with the overweight bag, I am more than willing to pay the extra fees. Well she said no, I have to take out the 5lbs worth of stuff out from the bag. I was begging her there is no way to do that at all, as my other bags were at capacity. My parents who were at the airport but not travelling with me had to joined in to talk to her almost turn into a heated conversation.

Until I finally saw and flagged down a supervisor, then he overrule his staff and let me go without any words.

That is more than one agent, more than one outstation experienced something like that.

It is the same thing in HKG. Isn't flying F should overrule anything ?

...

Until I finally saw and flagged down a supervisor, then he overrule his staff and let me go without any words.

Not to try to defend the action of either the agent in your case or in the OP, but this sort of thing I've found is quite common in outstations of most airlines. They typically are not airline staff and are poorly trained in the rules and when rules should be bent. They basically just want to play it safe and not do anything outside the box. Their thinking is that nobody will get fired if they stick strictly to the rules. It almost always takes calling the supervisor to get them to bend the rules. Even if they are actual airline employees they still may act much the same. Experienced employees at an airline's homebase typically have a much better feel for what rules can be bent and which rules cannot.

It would obviously be much better for the customer if all employees at outstations were trained equally and could properly handle these situations without supervisor intervention, but it seems to me it's a common problem, not just with OZ that this training seems to be problematic. I don't know why it's so problematic, but for me I just accept that it is and whenever I have a problem that cannot be quickly solved I just ask for a supervisor.

That is outrageous. You should be allowed to pay for extra baggage. Not to mention, if you are flying F, it should not even have gone to that point. I have had to remove some stuff from my luggage in the past but it done in tasteful manner only after I didnt want to spend the money.

Most likely, as A-Lee its those Wanna Be Employee Temps exercising their "power" and trying to save their behind at the same time, maybe hoping to get permanent position soon. Good luck with that attitude. I have had to deal with those wanna-bes before and boy, its so frustrating and since then, I avoid them like a plague.

You should write a comment card and let them know. They need to get fired ASAP. They do not deserve to be there.



It is the same thing in HKG. Isn't flying F should overrule anything ?
One of my checked bag was 5 lbs over the limit.
I told her if she was not ok with the overweight bag, I am more than willing to pay the extra fees. Well she said no.

I got a reply from ASIANA LAX office. The office apologised and forwarded my email onto the SEA station and will use it for training purposes.

Meanwhile, I just returned from another trip to the USA except this time I flew EVA Airlines out of Seattle to MNL via TPE. The ground check-in went quickly without any problems whatsoever. Our passports were checked, onward electronic tickets accepted, bags weighed and sure enough one was 3kg over and one was a little under and the agent used his common sense and said "that's fine" no need to open up the bags on the floor at check-in for all the other passengers to see and do the kg switch trick between bags. Boarding passes issued with us sitting together and we were on our way. No drama, just an efficient check in experience. Well done EVA Air.

EVA Air's economy product is comparable to ASIANA in most equipment comparisons. The seat pitch was around 34", the seat-back entertainment system is identical with the ability to create your own play-lists using the Jukebox system. EVA Air's inflight service was also identical with the flight attendants constantly on the move serving passenger requests. However, food on EVA Air is more alligned to Chinese tastes rather than American. In this respect, ASIANA serves better food with real cutlery. EVA Air is still using plastic utensils.

So that is my comparison for riding in the back on EVA Air and ASIANA Airlines. Both airlines are superior to United / NWA / American Airlines on the Asian routes. As far FF programmes are concerned, ASIANA is a member of Star Alliance while EVA Air has a poor programme with only CO as a partner but limited earning opportunities due to class restrictions.

But if you frequently flying between Asia and North America and no where else, both airlines are great and should not be ignored. I for one will continue with EVA Airlines and yes, I will fly ASIANA again. Time will tell if I decide to pledge my allegiance to one airline over another. I have another Seattle trip again next month and I have decided to fly EVA Air.

That is more than one agent, more than one outstation experienced something like that.

It is the same thing in HKG. Isn't flying F should overrule anything ?
One of my checked bag was 5 lbs over the limit. (75lbs)(70lbs per bag for *G) The other checked bag is 55lbs. I have never had a problem when the other bag is weighted a lot less than the limit when travel on SQ, NH, and UA. Usually they calculated the weight with all checked bags together to see if there is any penalty.

I told her if she was not ok with the overweight bag, I am more than willing to pay the extra fees. Well she said no, I have to take out the 5lbs worth of stuff out from the bag. I was begging her there is no way to do that at all, as my other bags were at capacity. My parents who were at the airport but not travelling with me had to joined in to talk to her almost turn into a heated conversation.

Until I finally saw and flagged down a supervisor, then he overrule his staff and let me go without any words.

We mostly agree on things but here we disagree. Flying in F should not overrule everything. The limit of 32kg per bag is not just an OZ thing. Many airports and airlines do not allow any bags over 32kg no matter how much you pay or which class or airline you fly in. The main reason behind this is OH&S rules for staff.
For example any airport in Australia or New Zealand or the UK will not accept any bag over 32kg. NZ or OZ are examples of airlines which never accept more than 32kg either. It is on their website so I can't understand why you needed to force a supervisor to break safety rules.

That is outrageous. You should be allowed to pay for extra baggage. Not to mention, if you are flying F, it should not even have gone to that point [...]You should write a comment card and let them know. They need to get fired ASAP. They do not deserve to be there.

Again, an agent will get a written warning or can get fired for allowing a 32.1kg bag (depending on the airline and airport of course). You can not pay for the extra weight there is no surcharge for this as you just can't do it. It is very clear, bags over 32kg are not allowed.
So saying that the agent should be fired because he/she didn't break the rules is an interesting way of looking at things.

I got a reply from ASIANA LAX office. The office apologised and forwarded my email onto the SEA station and will use it for training purposes.

Nothing more? No we-are-sorry-miles., no voucher, nothing? Okay, they replied but I would have hoped for a bit more than just sorry.

Nothing more? No we-are-sorry-miles., no voucher, nothing? Okay, they replied but I would have hoped for a bit more than just sorry.


Nope - that was it. just a standard issue "sorry and we hope to see you again in the future" style apology. It is as below:


Dear Mr. davistev

Thank you for contacting Asiana Airlines. My name is Stella Kim of Asiana Airlines U.S. regional headquarters customer relations department. I have received your inquiry and would be happy to assist you. I apologize for our late reply.



First I would like to offer up our apologies for your check-in experience at SEA airport on 10 June 2009. I know that the overall experience was not a pleasant one with problems from attitude to baggage and the Philippine entry policy. It has been made apparent that our check-in agent was lacking in knowledge on many levels and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. Our SEA management has been made aware of your complaint and a request has been made to re-train our staff regarding customer service and the Philippine government entry policy.



Your comments will also be posted on our inter-office online bulletin, minus your contact information, for our entire company to see. We take situations like this very seriously and will do everything we can to rectify the problem. Although your first experience on our airlines was not perfect, I hope that you might be able to forgive us of this incident and consider our airlines again for future travel.



Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to write and share with us your experience. I apologize once again for the unsatisfactory service.



If you have further inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us again.



Thank for your patronage of Asiana Airlines.



Sincerely,







Stella Kim

Customer Relations

Regional Headquarters, The Americas

Asiana Airlines

We mostly agree on things but here we disagree. Flying in F should not overrule everything. The limit of 32kg per bag is not just an OZ thing. Many airports and airlines do not allow any bags over 32kg no matter how much you pay or which class or airline you fly in. The main reason behind this is OH&S rules for staff.

Unfortunately I have flown out of HKG way many times and on many different airlines, UA, OZ, NH, JL, SQ, CX.
(HKG is my orignial home, ORD is my new home, whenever I go back to HKG I always overpack stuff to come back to ORD) I never had a issue with any airlines. I know that almost every airline fly to US almost has the same rules. When flying Y, they usually say don't do this next time, when I fly F or C, they don't really care as I am not way overweight. Even when flying F previous time with OZ out of HKG, they were handled by KA staff, not this group of people. (I know that because KA staff was wearing their KA uniform, this new group was wearing OZ uniform) They were more lax about this baggage issue. I saw from the scale it was a little over, but the agent just tag my bag without saying anything, just put on a "HEAVY" tag on it.

This is a bit off topic, but I know for one airlines calculate a pax can have certain amount of weight of luggage to determine overall the weight of the plane, they don't really care the weight of individual luggage, 210lbs all together for *G, mine are 130lbs, even less than only 2 checked bags.


Again, an agent will get a written warning or can get fired for allowing a 32.1kg bag (depending on the airline and airport of course). You can not pay for the extra weight there is no surcharge for this as you just can't do it. It is very clear, bags over 32kg are not allowed. So saying that the agent should be fired because he/she didn't break the rules is an interesting way of looking at things.

If that is really the case, then the supervisor should or would come to me and say that is the rule and can't break it, just like those NH agents strictly follow the rules. Instead he did not even say a word, as he saw that I was flying F.

Out of the all three carriers that I have flown F out of HKG, UA, SQ, and OZ, I had the worst ground experience of all three. Had it been OZ using their own staff, I bet it would have a different outcome. I know for a fact UA and SQ both have their own staff in HKG.

davistev, I am very disappointed in Asiana's response. I would have expected at least SOME form of compensation for the awful experience with that checkin agent. I would encourage you to make contact with Asiana again, and insist on some form of compensation.

I agree with all you are saying but the fact is that BA, NZ, QF, OZ etc. do not accept bags above 32kg. An agent can get into real trouble when they break the rules. I was made to re-shuffle bags a few times because of this (not on OZ however)

UA, SQ, LH etc all take bags up to 45kg but some airlines (and airports) just don't.

So I don't think it is fair to blame this on the check-in staff when they are really not allowed to do so. You got lucky because a supervisor broke the rule but that was just that: luck.

davistev, I am very disappointed in Asiana's response. I would have expected at least SOME form of compensation for the awful experience with that checkin agent. I would encourage you to make contact with Asiana again, and insist on some form of compensation.

I can't see how you could insist. But I think you should escalate it- go back and tell them how it spolit your flight, and that their customer service response so far hardly encourages you to fly with them again.

Sorry to the OP for the experience and lack of response. If nothing else I feel that in bad situations UA OTH has been more then fair. Granted they have nothing on most Asian carriers, but I've seen an uptick in compensation for minor issues. In the past 2 months I've had 2 delays of less then 1 hour (something I would never complain about) and by the time I got home had 8k in mileage redemption per trip. Wow.


Anyhow, i was thinking while reading your story that they must be oversold and were using any trick in the book to deny boarding to you. But when you mentioned that the seats next to your wife were empty that shot my theory. But I would not be surprised to see a carrier who has one flight a day do such a thing because they needed to lighten the passanger load.

davistev, I am very disappointed in Asiana's response. I would have expected at least SOME form of compensation for the awful experience with that checkin agent. I would encourage you to make contact with Asiana again, and insist on some form of compensation.

I don't think the response from OZ's customer service was bad at all. Agent S Kim explicitly wrote the numerous steps that OZ would take to prevent this from happening again. Typically, Asian carriers focus on solving problems rather than providing compensation to passengers. Also, to OZ's credit, the check-in supervisor overrode the corrupt agent every time in favor of the OP.

I am happy with the outcome. I am not looking for miles or compensation but I do believe Asiana is a fine airline of top quality and the check in experience I had should not cloud an otherwise excellent flight. Hence my email to Asiana Airlines and my posting on flyertalk. We have come full circle on this one. I noted my disatisfaction, Asiana acknowledged and promised concrete changes via way of education. Perhaps it is also a lesson to the airline that just because a person is lined up in economy with family in tow, it does not mean that they are infrequent travellers. I have been a Platinum Elite with KLM/NWA for years but like others have grown to hate sitting on older aircraft with 31-32" pitch.

This said, I have not flown Asiana since June and I have flown EVA twice round trip to Seattle from the Philippines since and I may have to do a last minute flight on Wednesday to Seattle and it will probably be on EVA as well. My next confirmed flight next month will also be with EVA. It will not take long before I get to Diamond Status on EVA Air and I am sure i will reach Star Gold on Asiana soon as well.

Maybe I will see a difference in check in when I have status. If I were Asiana Airlines, I would make it my priority to treat every customer who approaches the check-in desk as a potential Elite Status flyer as you just never know what the background is or the customers future flying routes are. Treat everyone with courtesy and respect and you cannot go wrong.

Speaking with your wallet is indeed very powerful and I admire davistev for doing so by flying BR. I do the same too by not flying Southwest; my boss does the same by not flying BA.

Honestly, I am tired for hearing people ask for compensation for this and that, and then fly the same carrier the next trip and complain again yet expecting more compensation. :rolleyes:

I am happy with the outcome. I am not looking for miles or compensation but I do believe Asiana is a fine airline of top quality and the check in experience I had should not cloud an otherwise excellent flight. Hence my email to Asiana Airlines and my posting on flyertalk. We have come full circle on this one. I noted my disatisfaction, Asiana acknowledged and promised concrete changes via way of education. Perhaps it is also a lesson to the airline that just because a person is lined up in economy with family in tow, it does not mean that they are infrequent travellers. I have been a Platinum Elite with KLM/NWA for years but like others have grown to hate sitting on older aircraft with 31-32" pitch.

This said, I have not flown Asiana since June and I have flown EVA twice round trip to Seattle from the Philippines since and I may have to do a last minute flight on Wednesday to Seattle and it will probably be on EVA as well. My next confirmed flight next month will also be with EVA. It will not take long before I get to Diamond Status on EVA Air and I am sure i will reach Star Gold on Asiana soon as well.

Maybe I will see a difference in check in when I have status. If I were Asiana Airlines, I would make it my priority to treat every customer who approaches the check-in desk as a potential Elite Status flyer as you just never know what the background is or the customers future flying routes are. Treat everyone with courtesy and respect and you cannot go wrong.

I think you are being overly subjective since this was just a single bad check-in experience. Most people actually prefer by far Asiana over EVA. The reality is that Asiana is a 5-star airline; EVA is not.

After hundreds of flights, I can honestly say that in general, OZ's employees are indeed more helpful, professional, and caring. And even when I didn't have any type of frequent flyer status, Asiana never treated me unfairly.
However, on my last EVA flight, for instance, the Purser made fun of me because I didn't speak the local language and I guess it didn't help that I was the only Westerner in C. Over time, I think that you too will reach the conclusion that Asiana is the better carrier.

Over time, I think that you too will reach the conclusion that Asiana is the better carrier.

You may well be right but my money still goes to the airline that treats me right according to my experience and not by some 5 star rating on a website. As I said, I am willing to give Asiana another chance. I will report back on this site sometime in the next 6 months after I have more to compare.

Wirelessly posted (AT&T Tilt: HTC_TyTN_II Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))

I know for a fact that the Asian airlines hire high school students to work their flights in the evening at SEA. Most likely Miss Ho was one of these especially since the OP mentioned how young she was. She probably was in a bad mood because she just failed a geometry test.

...

One possible reason for the check-in agent's reluctance to issue you a boarding pass is due to the fact that if a passenger is allowed on the plane and does not have a valid onward ticket, and the Philippine immigration checks (which I've never seen them actually do), the airline will be heavily fined, and the worker will likely be fined by the airline or lose her job if she issued the boarding pass. So if there's any question in the mind of the check-in staff about if you have a valid onward ticket, they don't want to accept responsibility for the decision, and thus the need to have a supervisor approve it. I was refused boarding many years ago on one of my first trips to the Philippines and ended up having to purchase a refundable onward ticket. Most airlines flying into the Philippines are quite strict about this....


Actually on my last trip to MNL I was required to prove I had onward flights both at check in and on arrival at immigration. No biggie it was handled quickly and professionally.

What happened to the OP is not good and I am glad they have responded. Hopefully the check in person has also been advised on proper procedure as well.

As other posters have noted there is a maximum bag weight that cannot be exceeded so reshuffling is sometimes necessary.

As other posters have noted there is a maximum bag weight that cannot be exceeded so reshuffling is sometimes necessary.

Very well then, they had lost out the revenue of charging pax overweight bags, plus lost out some pax to other competitors. There are so many airlines to choose from, OZ is not the only carrier in asia.