jah718

Hi all,

Just an FYI not to count on MH if you have unchangeable plans. I was booked to fly KUL - LGK on Saturday on MH. All was fine, checked in yesterday as normal and received my boarding pass. Last night at about 23:30, received an email saying my flight had been cancelled and rebooked onto the same flight on Sunday.

I was surprised as I knew from booking that MH had 3 flights scheduled for that day, so why not rebook me onto one of the other flights on Saturday. Went on the website and sure enough there was a flight at 16:00. Rang MH, was told to call back in an hour as their IT system was down. Called back, already well after midnight at this point, agent tries to book me onto 16:00 flight. On hold forever, she comes back and says that flight will also be cancelled. It disappeared from the website shortly after.

So essentially, MH went from selling 3 flights to LGK on Saturday to ZERO flights. In the end, as I had booked the flexi fare, I just told her to cancel it and refund my money. She said it would be 4 - 6 MONTHS before I got my money back, minus some non - refundable taxes.

Ended up rebooking on Air Asia. All in all, a terrible experience with MH. People should bear this in mind as many people going to Langkawi have non - refundable hotel bookings and car rental booked, not to mention they could just be going for a short break.

Now the battle to get my refund begins.

carrotjuice

MH must be pulling a fast one on you. Taxes SHOULD be legally refundable if you didn’t fly the flight.

quinzinho

I can confirm that sadly this is MH way of working currently. I was also victimized with my flight tomorrow. One should only book the first flight the day before departure (price wise doesn't matter really) and be rather flexible for the return flight. Otherwise no point indeed booking them.
If you want more certainty you could also book FY for half of the elite sectors. But I don't like the ATRs so I avoid them.

LondonElite

Lots of airlines are cancelling flights at the last minute. Whilst not pleasant, it is a reflection of the current situation and not really unique to MH.

quinzinho

What is probably unique though, is that vouchers are worth *** since you can only exchange those through the call center at inflated prices. Getting a refund is an extremely painful and lengthy process with MH, as opposed to many other carriers who have some respect for their clients.

warakorn

What exactly are non - refundable taxes? And how could it be non-refundable of MH elected to cancel that flight.

Often1

As to cancellations, that is hardly unique to MH.

As to a refund of the ticket, your profile shows that you are DUB-based. Presuming that your credit card is issued by an Irish bank, simply initiate a chargeback and make certain that you supply the specifics, e.g. that it was MH which cancelled and that you have waited at least 7 days for it to initiate a refund.

As to taxes, do bear in mind that taxes are not refundable in all jurisdictions and even when refundable may only be refundable by the taxing authority, not the air carrier. While not relevant here because you are able to obtain a refund, don't presume that because something is so on one jurisdiction, that it is so elsewhere.

asiantraveler60

Yes I can confirm that refund process with MH is terrible, took me 4 months. I will not fly with them for a while.
Alternative would be to fly with Firefly. I recently used them to fly to Penang. Return flight was cancelled and I was automatically rebooked in the next flight which was only 1 hour later so very acceptable.