Paid for extra legroom seat - MH changed the flight & says non-transferable or refund
 

Paid for an Extra Legroom seat (around USD$70 for LHR-KUL) in Economy class on the A359-900 for a colleague.
Also did the same on the way out KUL-LKHR - the seat was worth the payment.

Malaysia Airlines has now twice changed the return flight to different dates.
Seat has disappeared from the booking (understandably, we would have to select again)

However the credit for the seat has also gone - and we're being told its non-transferable and non-refundable - yet the date change was made by the airline, not us.

Has anyone experienced this? I can understand if the change was on the passenger side - but for the airline to take payment for a seat upgrade, and then deny all responsibility once they changed the flight - this seems a bit harsh.
Or am I missing something about how to get this sorted out

Any advice appreciated

Your experience is stopping me making a seat reservation until nearer the departure date. They'll refer you to the following terms:
https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/...trip/seat.html

Incidentally, how far ahead of departure are the dates changing ?

Damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Too close to departure date and the good seats are all gone. Too far out, and risk losing the seat and the money paid.
Colleague has a knee injury so the extra legroom was a huge help heading out.

Thank you for the fine print. I do have a copy, and clearly read the non-transferable and non-refundable part, but one would hope (I won't say assume) that if it's the airline cancelling the flight and moving you to a new one, then they'd at least honour the seats paid!

To answer your last, 2-3 weeks out. Flights have been changed 4 times now

Why am I not surprised?

You'll have to persevere with their call centre. Their first instinct is to say "no refunds" to everything, but once an issue escalates to the supervisors, the gears start turning.

I believe you get charged separately for these seats - makes it easier to dispute with your bank if push comes to shove.

This is ridiculous, and daylight robbery. Why the heck would people still pay for seat reservation if MH goes about swapping planes and not honouring them?

Agree that OP should get this escalated. To share an unrelated incident, I had an economy ticket booked but the person can no longer travel. So I called to say that I understand the basic fare was not refundable, but I would like to have the taxes refunded - because the person isn’t flying. They said no. I refused to accept it and said there’s no ground for them to keep the taxes (which are due to the government of the respective airport authorities) and payable only if the passenger flies. It got escalated and I received my refund authorised within the call itself, and received it in my card within a week.

Same escalation logic here should be insisted upon.

I hate to think how many millions have been 'banked' globally by airlines trying this "can't refunded taxes lark" !

Update #1

1. New premium seat booked and paid. There was no way around this - needed the legroom.
2. Escalated for the refund on the seat that was lost when MH cancelled and rebooked the flights (several times)

More to follow

This is unbelievable that MH uses the "Fees are non-refundable and non-transferable" term in case the flight change was made by the airline. Basically, pax would even not ask to be refunded, but just that the paid seat is carried forward to the new flight.
Unfortunately I am afraid that MH customer service agents do not even have the intellectual capability to understand the difference.

When you call, press "Malay" as the language and you'd reach through to the slightly more sensible (and empowered) agents in Malaysia, as opposed to the totally useless outsourced agents in the Philippines.

Don't worry, the Malaysia agents will, in all likelihood, speak English too.

It's really hit or miss if the actual fares are refundable if they change or cancel your flights, so expecting MH agents to be rational about refunding optional fees is a bit much.

I don't see the word 'fares' in the post you are replying to
And in this instance, it is the ancillary seat 'fees' which MH are saying are non-refundable or non-transferable.

No request was made for the 'fares' to be refunded. Colleague flies today on the new flight which he was arbitrarily put on following the cancelation of 3 prior flights. A new 'extra legroom' seat has been booked and paid for - now I am on to getting MH to refund the previous seat upgrade fee

I have already been on contact with MH - they have acknowledge it needs to be further investigated

Watch this space

Yes, I know that 'fares' aren't mentioned in the post I quoted.

What I am saying is that given how bad MH has been about refunding fares when they should (several other threads here plus personal experiences), I would have low expectations about them refunding other fees when they should. Their customer service is awful and idiotic.

But best of luck, maybe and hopefully they have improved recently.

Great tip - used this today. The recorded message for the hold music was in BM and I was slightly worried but the agent picked up speaking in English and we continued in English no worries.

I appreciate this isn't much help, but this happened to me. One call to customer services (using the uk number) and my seats were allocated on my new flight. Guess I must have been lucky.

Definitely agree the extra leg room seats are worth it, just completed LHR - KUL - ADL return in them and they made a huge difference to comfort.

Hi There,
Did you get a response from the airline?
Just booked my seats today for a flight in March so am hoping I don't have this situation.
Whilst I'm here, now I've paid for the seats I do not seem to be able to view them on my booking via the seat map. The actual seats are showing on my booking but I cannot access the seat map now to change them if I wanted to.
Any ideas?