Originally Posted by wmajewski

I have booked a flight from Singapore to Islamabad through BKK few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the week of my travel so called “Azadi March” was started by Pakistani opposition party leading to political demonstrations and partial blocking of Islamabad. There was a possibility of these demonstrations turning into violent riots.

I started the first part of my journey on November 3 and flew to Bangkok intending to continue the trip to Islamabad a day later. However, all my meetings have been cancelled due to political unrest in Islamabad, my business partner recommended me to postpone the trip and in addition US Embassy Issued a travel advisory to avoid all non-essential travel to Islamabad. Based on my concern for personal safety, I decided to abort my travel and return to Singapore.

I had 3 long calls with Thai Airways in Bangkok and Singapore and at the end I was force to buy a new ticket back to Singapore in order to get refund on the unused portions of the trip (as advised by the agent at BBK airport).

I also booked a promotional (non-refundable) stay with JW Marriott in Islamabad and they refunded me 100% saying that “considering the situation in Islamabad, it was the reasonable thing to do”. This is what I called great customer service.

After numerous emails with Thai Airways in Singapore I was finally advised that I will not get any refund (other that the taxes on unused segments), because of the ticket being bought on promotional fare. They basically dismissed the entire Azadi March as non-event. They claimed wrongly that “the city was open for the public and there are no road/traffic block.” Thai Airways office also said that “ they understood my concern (for personal safety) and that you didn't want to continue your onward journey to Islamabad when I was in Bangkok. However, my fare has it's terms and conditions which I have agreed at the time of purchase online and one of the fare rules is no partial refund allow on fare once you have flown Singapore to Bangkok.”

So needless to say, opposite to the actions of JW Marriott, they care more about making money and sticking to the small script, than being concerned about their customers safety and doing the right thing.

Its very disappointing that an airline “smooth as silk” that once upon a time was very good is going down in treating the customers right and doing the right thing. The only option is to avoid them like a plague in the future and select better airlines for my travels.