warakorn

The problem is that Japan and Malaysia have weak consumer protection laws in these countries.

d00t

Dispute the transaction with your bank. Airlines can go to hell for not providing refunds IMO. They do not deserve our support.

Then rebook on another airline closer to the departure date. As more time goes by you'll have greater certainty if an airline will fly or not (also keeping in mind transit restrictions that may be in place by Governments).

carrotjuice

This stance has indeed made me a lot more cautious with whom I choose to fly after the pandemic. For now, I am solely booking with airlines that allow flexibility of full refund. As their true colours are shown now, I am not giving MH any of my bookings. There are many other airlines to choose from which provide full refunds, even if it incurs the inconvenience of a transit stop en route to my destinations.

eyang16

Dear All,

My family and I are having similar issue too! Appreciate if all of you can help to sign and share this petition with the hope that MAS will actually take our view into consideration. I think it's really unfair for MAS to only offer us a travel voucher with various limitation which clearly showing that they do not have customers in mind when they make the decision.

Since this is my first post, I can't share a link yet, so kindly search for this topic in change.org: "Demand MAS to revises Open Ticket Flexibility Policy due to COVID-19 Flight Cancellation".

Thank you!

d00t

A petition is a waste of time IMO.
Call your bank. Dispute the transactions on the grounds that the airline is unable to provide the service you paid for. There are consumer rights you are afforded under the card scheme terms and conditions.

There is a massive risk that the airline will not be able to ever transport you as they face massive looming bankruptcy.
If MAS somehow come out the other end of the crisis and survive - they will have lost the trust of the public, and it will damage the airline more than MH370/MH17.

Somewhere along the line, MAS management must have forgotten that they are in business to serve the customers. Not the other way around.

Best of luck getting your cash back.

s0ssos

?
I don't know if you realize there is a pandemic going on, and Lufthansa (which is based in Germany, which supposedly would have strong consumer protection laws) is not refunding anything. And Air Canada wasn't refunding either. And their government agency sided with them (maybe now they have backtracked?).

eyang16

Thanks for the advice! Will definitely try that. I totally agree with your view that MAS has a high chance of not making through this crisis, seeing that there are so many disappointed customers.

SilverChris

Unlike the twin disasters this refund predicament is industry-wide, both locally and abroad. You'll find similar rants in just about every other forum here.

warakorn

In Germany? Law is made on the EU-level. Whatever an "government agency" thinks in Germany is completely irrelevant.

nick5000

Will they still refund a refundable ticket, or they stopped doing that too?

Yie Kun Ang

I am facing the problem too! i made a call to MAS last week and they did not want to refund to me!!

d00t

They tried that nonsense with me too.

So I stayed on the phone for 3 hours, bouncing around different operators. This is fairly easy to do because the phone operators are like infant monkeys trying to drive a car.
As their call center is outsourced (outsourced call centers mostly charge by the minute), and I figure they've now lost more money on me than the ticket value.

Keep calling, and at the same time initiate a dispute through your bank.

There won't be a "Malaysia Airlines" to take you anywhere in the future!

ellielovesem

It's such a shame they are charging the fare difference, my sister, as mentioned up thread with having her flights cancelled would be happy with a voucher/rebooking but having got a very good sale fare she now faces having to pay god knows how much extra on top. This seems a bit short-sighted to me and it would be nice if they at least changed their mind on this front, perhaps they will reconsider as just waiving the change fee is the least you'd expect in the circumstances.

With regard to chargeback to the credit card, she's in Australia so is it worth her trying that?

d00t

1. Call the bank, tell them u want to dispute a transaction
2. Bank will ask which txn and what the reason is for dispute
3. Advise airline cancelled flights, and airline has not reaccomodated flights. Merchant is unable to provide service paid for.
4. You may be asked by the bank to provide evidence (or your documented events) of correspondence with the airline, and your attempts to contact airline and outcomes of the conversations.
5. Bank may request you mail in a signed legal declaration
6. Sit back while your bank fights for you
7. Airline must prove they are able to provide the service paid for, which they cant - and you get your money back.
8. Airline is penalised by their merchant and charged an additional fee

Disputing the transaction is the first action.
A chargeback is what happens to the merchant once they lose the transaction dispute.

Generally, banks will have a 3 or 6-month window max for disputes. If the transaction was made more than 6 months ago - you might be out of luck.

Happy disputing!

Often1

Do not rely on the success of a dispute. If neither your contract nor controlling local law requires a refund, then your card issuer (bank) may well not approve the chargeback, especially when the merchant (air carrier) documents this fact.

Results vary both controlling local law and the location of the card issuer.

Tickets including segments to or from the US must be refunded within 7 days if a flight is cancelled or substantially changed. The same for departures from the EU (for non-EU carriers). US and many UK banks will issue at least a provisional credit when you provide all required documentation, within 1-2 days and a permanent credit within just a few more days. But, that generally means that one has provided: 1. Copy of e-ticket receipt, 2. Notice of cancellation or substantial schedule change, 3. Request for refund, 4. Denial or a note that no response has been received.

All of this suggests that keeping copies and screenshots of everything is critical and that relying less on the phone will get you quicker results in the end.