alicefo

In April 2014, I was involuntarily denied boarding by PAL, despite holding a valid e ticket. When arriving at check-in was told there was no record of my outward flight booking from Hong Kong to Manila and my internal connection (the return flight however was in the system).

After several hours of discussions with customer service, I was told that there was nothing they could do in HK and that I would have to buy a new ticket to Manila. They said this would be refunded should the subsequent investigation point to a mistake their end.

I went ahead and bought a new ticket and finally departed 7 hours after my booked flight had gone. Obviously I had missed the connecting flight, so instead took a 12 hr bus journey and finally a car to my final destination.

The investigation has been agonizing - it's been a battle to get any sort of response out of them and every excuse has been used (moving office, typhoon disrupted work, busy period etc etc) and its now almost 2 years on from when this happened.

They have however admitted (in writing) that they made a mistake their end and the booking was full valid. However, they are not willing to pay any compensation (either for the unused ticket, or the ticket that was bought).

Can anyone give me any advice how best to proceed with this and/or what I should be entitled to? It's now become more of a matter of principle than $$.

Thanks