Warning! Do Not Fly Tiger Airways!

[LindsayBKK]

Letter I wrote to Tiger Airways, no reply of course.

Below links, I have never seen an airline with so many complaints.

Mobile Phone bill was 3000bht just for being on hold.

//edit - e-mail addresses removed as per forum rules//

Tony Davis

CEO Tiger Airways

Address: Changi Airport Post Office

P O Box 82

Singapore 918143

Fax: 61 x xxxxxxxx Confirmation no: JK75CL

Dear Mr. Tony Davis,

I have just returned home to Bangkok after the most stressful trip to Perth (I am Australian)

& I thought you may be interested in Customer feedback. If not then that wouldn’t surprise me from what we had to endure.

The beginning was the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport 2 weeks prior to our departure. We were due to fly out On the 1st Dec to Singapore then connect to Tiger Air for the afternoon flight to Perth. The 30th Nov came and still no Flights out so we decided to do the long way down to Singapore via Train then Bus and hope that flights would continue on our return. So we knew we would need another day to get to Singapore so we had to change our SIN-PER departure to the 2nd Dec. Ok so we go online Tiger airways website booking change link & change the date to the 2nd Dec then on completion I click the NO to the seat selection and after that I get an error message as follows. It is lucky I copied the error message.

Error

Your booking information has been submitted and is pending confirmation.

HOWEVER, we have experienced an unknown error while processing

some additional information.

Please DO NOT attempt to re-book your flight.

Please call the Tiger Airways Call Centre to check on the status of your booking.

Case Number: TR018978819630

Error reported at: 20081129032948

The next day we start calling Tiger airways firstly Bangkok, after trying many times and being put on hold for 30 minute intervals, finally getting through the Call Center Girl tell’s us she can not help as it a Singapore matter. What the? Singapore Matter???

Tiger Airways is Tiger Airways no matter what call center you should call! But Bangkok Center didn’t see it that way.

So we try to call Singapore Call Center and all we get is an engaged signal or put on hold for 30-45 minutes. After that time we would give up and redial or it disconnects automatically. (I have included a phone bill statement as evidence). When we reached Hat Yai in Southern Thailand we start to call Australia in an attempt to find somebody who can help but no same thing on hold or engaged. But then on one attempt we get through and was it Australia? NO! It was an Indian girl with an Internet line in India representing Tiger Airways Call Center Melbourne. The line was so bad we were telling her to speak slowly and word by word but even that was no good. We asked her if she could help us she said YES but then she would say NO after we asked her to change the departure date to the next day. We were about to catch a bus to Singapore so we knew we had to keep trying as we knew that there was no hope in hel_l of catching the flight THAT DAY. Still being 13 hours away from Singapore we call Bangkok Call Center again. I am sad to say that it came down to my Thai partner begging & pleading the Thai Tiger Airways Call Center and even still after explaining our situation we can not change our booking online it is blocked over & over & over & over that she finally allowed us to fly the next day out of Singapore. She asked my partner what seats we would like? To which he replied any! We will even sit in the toilet if you like. So now she says we will have to pay a fee of 3000bht and we said FINE Just do it PLEASE. So she takes credit card details and he says thankyou . I have never felt so relieved in my life.

We wanted to call her all the names under the sun but that does not help when you know she is the last option.

YOU HAVE NO CALL CENTERS! Tiger Airways does not want passengers to call at all. (If they had a website that worked properly then maybe that would be possible). There are only 2 female operators in the Bangkok call center and the one my partner spoke to said she was just a “Little Fish”. I do not know why Tiger Airways has call centers when they can’t help a passenger or do anything. Go ahead try calling your call centers. It also takes them 2 days to reply to an email like I sent twice. [email protected]

This is our first and only flight with Tiger Airways and our last. We don’t know how a CEO of Tiger Airways can sleep at night when people don’t get flights and or give up trying to change bookings or paying for things they don’t get . But I guess that’s what your hoping will bring extra income for you . I know we are not the only one’s to have problems but all I know is that it is not going to happen to us again . I will also put this letter in as many places as I can find on the internet as well as all media outlets.

Tiger Airways has proven that with the extra money we spent with the “special seats”, call charges, booking fee’s, & baggage charges, we could and should have just flown direct with Thai International BKK-PER and have a pain free trip. Plus free meal, baggage, free seat, direct flight, arriving Bangkok and Perth at Daytime not AM.... I have learned my lesson thanks to Tiger Airways. I have a sneaky suspicion that Tiger Airways was set up by the Bigger Airlines in order to make ALL Low cost airlines look bad thus moving people back to Big Name Airlines. It worked for me anyway.

I have also included some pages from the internet for your reading pleasure. I did read a few reviews before I booked with Tiger Airways but only until I returned and entered “Tiger Airways Call Centers” into Google that I found such interesting reading. I have never seen an Airline with so many bad comments about it’s Call Center , Flight Cancellations, and Customer Service.

Also that was not the first error message I have seen, you also get error messages when trying to book tickets online.

Then people retry booking seats and get charged twice to which of course there is no refunds as in your Terms & conditions.

This is probably why so many call your Call Centers as they get error messages.

Tiger Airways Call Centers Bangkok 66xxxxxxxx Singapore 65xxxxxxxx (International) 65xxxxxxxx (Engaged) no answer

Melbourne (via INDIA) 61xxxxxxxxx

I would be interested in your comments. Mr. Lindsay XXXXXXX

//edit - long list of unnecessary URLs removed//

Budget airline Tiger Airways is struggling to cope with the amount of contact centre traffic it's attracting from Australian callers, according to media reports.

The Herald Sun reported that it was told by one customer that she'd spent days ringing the airline, but had only ever got an engaged signal. Tiger spokesman Matt Hobbs admitted the number of phone calls had caught the airline by surprise.

Hobbs told reporters demand from phone customers had led the airline to substantially increase the number of staff at its call centres. "We are a low-cost airline in the true sense of the world, and we are never going to have a call centre of 1000 people waiting to answer the phone so that people can get through on the first ring at any time of day," he warned.

Edited February 13, 2009 by Tywais

[neverdie]

Sounds like the trip from hel_l. At least the plane didnt crash.

[Isee]

So now she says we will have to pay a fee of 3000bht and we said FINE Just do it PLEASE. So she takes credit card details and he says thankyou . I have never felt so relieved in my life.

We wanted to call her all the names under the sun but that does not help when you know she is the last option.

There seems to be a break in your timeline...I'm just not uderstanding it. You changed your flight for 3000 baht which was fine by you, but then you want to call her all the names under the sun.....???? Did you not get the flight changed??

[LindsayBKK]

If a super moderator wishes to delete the links be my guest.

But this is a public service announcement about this airline, it's

lack of customer service & by the number of people telling their

stories.

[LindsayBKK]

So now she says we will have to pay a fee of 3000bht and we said FINE Just do it PLEASE. So she takes credit card details and he says thankyou . I have never felt so relieved in my life.

We wanted to call her all the names under the sun but that does not help when you know she is the last option.

There seems to be a break in your timeline...I'm just not uderstanding it. You changed your flight for 3000 baht which was fine by you, but then you want to call her all the names under the sun.....???? Did you not get the flight changed??

Did you not read where I said (to the Bangkok Center) we told her more than 4 times over and over she did not want to change it

cause you need to call Singapore Center or do it online. But the account was blocked by the error message. Then my partner sweet talked her

then & only then she said ok. Begging is not and should not be part of customer service! Don't you think? It was not the money but the

way she acted like it's OUR problem. If she had changed the seats the first time we called her we would not have had so much trouble calling

the rest of the world just to get a seat changed. Any other questions?

[NanLaew]

I reckon 3000 baht of phone airtime was what... 2 or 3 hours? And then the OP alone must have been over an hour in the making + the web search for all those embedded internet links... maybe half a day more?

Let it go Lindsay.... breath deeply and let it all go.

PS. makes a change from the usual 'AirAsia is rubbish' threads tho'

Edited February 13, 2009 by NanLaew

[Nignoy]

So I gather you were,nt happy with Tiger then we fly regularly with them singapore to Phuket never had a problem , but are,nt you lucky all those new Websites

[H2oDunc]

The way I read it is you book your flight with the CHEAPEST airline and then expect, nay!, demand top airline customer service and access to staff. Does it not figure into your equation that there is a reason this airline is considerably cheaper than the rest ??????????????????????????????????????????

We have a saying in the UK that says " you get what you pay for "

Just my opinion.Never flown with them, nor would

[ozfarang81]

thanks for the opinion but after about 10 trips with tiger on various routes i have had no issues and will continue to use them. Thanks Tiger!

[Sporting Dog]

Sorry to hear about your problems - but from reading your correspondence I am not surprised you have received no reply. You are a lost, never to return customer for Tiger. The damage has been done, there is no reason for Tiger to waste (in their view) any more time or resources on you.

I flew Tiger Perth to BKK once. I'll not use them again, the schedules are horrible, the seats are too small, they plied a group of Aussie yobs with alcohol the whole way so they got ruder and more obnoxious as the flight went on (they make a killing from the on board sales - fuc_k the other passengers on board)...and I've found that with a bit of searching and being flexible with travel times, the full-service airlines are often not THAT much more expensive. However I would and have used Tiger (or Air Asia, Nok etc) for short haul journeys (BKK-SIN max for example).

I am also wary with all of the cheap airlines and have the view tha if anything goes wrong, or there are unexpected changes, its easier and less stressfull to just write-off the tickets and rebook, find alternatives.

Edited February 13, 2009 by Sporting Dog

[peter991]

I sympathise ... but you did travel during a very difficult time - with both of Bangkok's International Airports out of action (not Tiger's fault). Fair enough, Tiger needs to learn to communicate with passengers.

Yes they are a budget airline (March 2009: PER/BKK/PER inc. all taxes and charges :: Tiger $AUD398; Thai $AUD968, Singapore Air $AUD1200.

I am not 100% sure what date I will fly next month so I queried what it will cost me to change the details ... it's currently $AUD50 per sector ... so if I change my dates of PER/BKK and BKK/PER it will cost $AUD300 ... PER/SIN and SIN/BKK and return. Add the no free baggage, pay for all meals etc ... Thai looks better by the minute - plus its a direct flight.

Just wondering - is getting a 'new' plane a hot and miss affair with Thai on the PER/BKK run ???

Peter

[Sporting Dog]

no...I'd be pretty confident on getting one of TG's crappy old ones!!!

[Isee]

Any other questions?

Yep, one more. I think a few other people have made some decent points that you should consider. Would you consider them to be valid points?

[LindsayBKK]

Any other questions?

Yep, one more. I think a few other people have made some decent points that you should consider. Would you consider them to be valid points?

which point? maybe one of these....

1. I sympathise ... but you did travel during a very difficult time -

with both of Bangkok's International Airports out of action (not Tiger's fault)

Our Flight was from Singapore to Perth, did not book Tiger Bkk > Sin .

That's why we needed another day to get to Singapore. Bangkok Airport not an issue.

2. Sorry to hear about your problems - but from reading your correspondence I am not surprised you have received no reply. You are a lost, never to return customer for Tiger. The damage has been done, there is no reason for Tiger to waste (in their view) any more time or resources on you.

Yes but I was not expecting a reply.

3. I reckon 3000 baht of phone airtime was what... 2 or 3 hours? And then the OP alone must have been over an hour in the making + the web search for all those embedded internet links... maybe half a day more?

Well now that you put it that way. yes only 3 hrs, your time not worth anything? cute.

4. thanks for the opinion but after about 10 trips with tiger on various routes i have had no issues and will continue to use them. Thanks Tiger!

Lucky You, don't worry they have had an increase in cancelled flights and I am sure it will happen to you soon.

I guess you didn't see any of the links before they were deleted, the youtube ones with the stranded passengers, the pilots and crew went home leaving the passengers at the Changi Airport was a good one. As long as you don't have to call them your fine...good luck

5. The way I read it is you book your flight with the CHEAPEST airline and then expect, nay!,

demand top airline customer service and access to staff. Does it not figure into your equation

that there is a reason this airline is considerably cheaper than the rest ?????????????

We have a saying in the UK that says " you get what you pay for "

Where in my letter did I mention anything about 5 star service?

All I wanted was to change 1 date. Yes your right, being difficult.

Yes it's the same when you speak to a Tiger Call Centre Melbourne via India.

"It is my firm belief that if you are an Airline Call Centre you should know where you are in the

time space continual".

Let it go Lindsay.... breath deeply and let it all go. Thankyou Tiger I will fly Thai Intl. direct next time.

[ExoticMatter]

Tiger were coming up with cheap flights to NZ so I decided to do a quick 'background' Net check on them. Found some very negative reviews, flights not exisiting, no customer services at all, no money back for cancelled flights,the list went on; It was enough to put me off!

[jeffer]

Can someone start a 'I Hate Jet Star' thread please, doesn't seem to be one of those currently.

I'm a happy Tiger, Air Asia, Jet Star customer, flown all of them plenty of times over the last few years. I don't expect the world so for what I pay I've few complaints. Trying to fly anywhere in the region early December would have been difficult no matter what airline you were flying with due to the Bangkok airports being held hostage and a police force and army in name only so expecting a smooth resolution of any problems might have been expecting too much. 3000 baht for phone calls... Try Skype next time.

[Isee]

You come across as being overly aggressive and subjective in your outlook and your replies. You failed to address the most valid point raised and that was that ALL international airlines had problems flying out of BKK and their call centre would have been swamped as a result. I can't help but picture you as being not so different to the woman who missed her flight at HKIA which is on youtube at the moment. Maybe you should give up on flying and paddle a canoe instead and then you can change your dates as often as you want without worrying about calling a call centre that reason would dictate was in a meltdown.

Thanks for your posts, I think I will make it a point to fly Tiger if I get the chance and see from myself.

[LindsayBKK]

You come across as being overly aggressive and subjective in your outlook and your replies. You failed to address the most valid point raised and that was that ALL international airlines had problems flying out of BKK and their call centre would have been swamped as a result. I can't help but picture you as being not so different to the woman who missed her flight at HKIA which is on youtube at the moment. Maybe you should give up on flying and paddle a canoe instead and then you can change your dates as often as you want without worrying about calling a call centre that reason would dictate was in a meltdown.

Thanks for your posts, I think I will make it a point to fly Tiger if I get the chance and see from myself.

Yes I am fully aware and I will say it again for some, I called all call centers. Bangkok didn't want to help so I called Singapore and get the same & then engaged signals. Even if you are lucky enough to have your call answered they are not interested. With only a few girls in each call center I don't see anybody getting threw in the best of times. Just don't call them. Like the good Mr. Hobb (Manager of Tiger Airways Melbourne) said.

Budget airline Tiger Airways is struggling to cope with the amount of contact centre traffic it's attracting from Australian callers, according to media reports.

The Herald Sun reported that it was told by one customer that she'd spent days ringing the airline, but had only ever got an engaged signal. Tiger spokesman Matt Hobbs admitted the number of phone calls had caught the airline by surprise.

Hobbs told reporters demand from phone customers had led the airline to substantially increase the number of staff at its call centres. "We are a low-cost airline in the true sense of the world, and we are never going to have a call centre of 1000 people waiting to answer the phone so that people can get through on the first ring at any time of day," he warned.

see from yourself then see for yourself just don't get stranded like the good people in Rockhampton & Changi flights as in youtube. kiss kiss overly aggressive & subjective? 555555

[samgrowth]

I have NO sympathy for you.

For low cost airlines, may it be Tiger, JetStar, AirAsia, Ryan or others, your ticket is only good for the flight you book. If you miss a connection, even if it is their fault, they don't care. You should just buy a new ticket. That is why all low cost airline try to sell you insurance to cover for this kind of mishaps. I am quick sure you did not buy the insurance.

Nobody are forced to fly low cost. If you can't play by their rules, fly high cost next time. You will be spoiled of choice. TG, QF, SQ, MH, CX, etc.

PS. If you did not pay for customer service, don't expect any.

(Is that you?) Edited February 20, 2009 by samgrowth

[Patong Bob]

Just change this thread from Tiger to Jetstar and you get exactly the same friendly service.

Back to Singapore Air for me.

[hagler]

Just another loud cheap charlie middle aged disgruntled wacko who thinks that the world revolves around him.

Tiger have been great the 20 or so times I have flown with them. Inevitably there will come a day when something goes wrong like sometimes happens with any other airline I fly with but I will just accept it as part of life and get on with what I am doing.

Gawd I would hate to live under the same roof as the OP. Imagine if you were in the bathroom when he wanted to use it....

[ovenman]

Back to Singapore Air for me.

Which is exactly what Tiger seems to want (since SIA is their parent corporation). I've flown with them a few times and that's certainly the attitude that came across from some of their staffers. A Tiger Airlines check-in agent at Changi told me once point-blank, "If you want better service, use one of the airlines at Terminal 1 or Terminal 2".

[chiangmaibruce]

The way I read it is you book your flight with the CHEAPEST airline and then expect, nay!, demand top airline customer service and access to staff.

The poor OP must be feeling like he has been done over a second time around, reading some of the trite responses in this thread (the one above being a good example)

For god's sake people the OP is not complaining about not being able to have a luggage allowance of 20kg instead of 15kg, or about missing out on a pillow! This is about an issue of defective online booking facility, unhelpful and almost non-existent call center staff, and the subsequent lack of any dam_n from management (plus all the related inconvenience, stress and added costs)

There are certain minimum standards that if businesses can't or won't meet, then they should not be in business. If the Op's claims are correct then Tiger Airways is one of these businesses. I sure as hel_l wouldn't touch them now.

To the poster that said "why should the CEO bother responding now". Well three reasons are because it's polite, it's professional, and because it might prevent the OP from making good on his promise to tell all and sundry about the 'service' he received.

Yes it happened during a crisis period but that doesn't excuse the gross unhelpfulness of the staff or the many other similar complaints recorded on other web sites - presumably relating to incidents that occurred during non-crisis times - does it?

[jackspratt]

Just another loud cheap charlie middle aged disgruntled wacko who thinks that the world revolves around him.

Just a thought - you don't happen to have a mirror just behind your computer monitor do you?

As far as the OP is concerned, I agree with him. Tiger is not interested in problems or complaints, as evidenced by their lack of any online complaints mechanism.

I have flown with Tiger on a number of occasions, without any dramas. It was also very convenient when they had a direct flight from Sing - Udon Thani. Of course, when they dropped that route, they didn't bother to amend their flight schedules on their website, despite having already started to inform people who had booked prior to the decision being made to drop the route.

As it stands now, unless you make a booking when Tiger is having one of their "sales", there is generally little difference in the cost when compared to, say, SQ.

[MJo]

Yes it happened during a crisis period but that doesn't excuse the gross unhelpfulness of the staff or the many other similar complaints recorded on other web sites - presumably relating to incidents that occurred during non-crisis times - does it?

For the record, i had exactly same problems with Thai Air during the airport closure. Could not get anyone over phone in two days (tried bangkok and jakarta) and could not rebook online so had to go myself to their office to sort it out... There was thousands of people stranded in Bangkok at the time so not surprised if their online and call service was swamped. Surely you can not expect them to employ hundred people just in case PAD will close the airports again ? I as many others here feel that OP might be bit hars on her name and shame campaign against tiger. In the end it was crisis time and all airlines were in total chaos with their booking systems.

I do agree Tiger has intentionally limited their feedback and customer contact for online only but that's what you pay for. If you can live with it fly, if not then look for other options. Simple as that.

[chiangmaibruce]

After I made my previous post I took the Op's advice and did search online for feedback. There are many complaints, and many of them are very similar to the Ops. These include web site errors requiring subsequent contact with non-contactable call centres, no response to complaint letters, etc etc. These complaints appear to date back to the time the airline started flying.

It is correct that there is no email address provided anywhere in their web site. On their 'contact us' page it states the following:

Tiger Airways wants to provide quality service to our customers through meaningful correspondence instead of casual e-mail responses. We believe our customers deserve professional and well thought out responses to their concerns and that is why we put so much effort into researching and investigating our correspondence with you. We answer the letters we receive in the order that they arrive wherever possible, with our best efforts to the matter concerned and whoever the person involved. There may be times where a delay in response is unavoidable because detailed investigations need to be carried out on your enquiry.

Really. What an insincere load of hogwash. If, as the previous poster & others have suggested, you shouldn't expect to be able to contact them as they are a budget airline - then they should come out as say as much (obviously putting a nice spin on it - but at least being truthful).

How much for a web site that is maintained and errors promptly corrected? (thus reducing the demand on call centres). How much for a call queuing system that works? For staff who are trained to respond efficiently and courteously? I don't think expecting these business basics to be provided is asking the world - not even for a budget airline.

[ozfarang81]

After I made my previous post I took the Op's advice and did search online for feedback. There are many complaints, and many of them are very similar to the Ops. These include web site errors requiring subsequent contact with non-contactable call centres, no response to complaint letters, etc etc. These complaints appear to date back to the time the airline started flying.

It is correct that there is no email address provided anywhere in their web site. On their 'contact us' page it states the following:

Tiger Airways wants to provide quality service to our customers through meaningful correspondence instead of casual e-mail responses. We believe our customers deserve professional and well thought out responses to their concerns and that is why we put so much effort into researching and investigating our correspondence with you. We answer the letters we receive in the order that they arrive wherever possible, with our best efforts to the matter concerned and whoever the person involved. There may be times where a delay in response is unavoidable because detailed investigations need to be carried out on your enquiry.

Really. What an insincere load of hogwash. If, as the previous poster & others have suggested, you shouldn't expect to be able to contact them as they are a budget airline - then they should come out as say as much (obviously putting a nice spin on it - but at least being truthful).

How much for a web site that is maintained and errors promptly corrected? (thus reducing the demand on call centres). How much for a call queuing system that works? For staff who are trained to respond efficiently and courteously? I don't think expecting these business basics to be provided is asking the world - not even for a budget airline.

well however long you spent researching your post, was a total waste of time. search for <insert ANY airline name> and complaints in google. you will get thousands of hits~!! move on with your lives!

[yogi]

what else i can say?you throw pea nuts,you get monkyes.

cheap fly,cheap service.end of story.everybody knows tiger airways can never get you service,anyway thanks for warrning.will keep in mind.

[LindsayBKK]

18th March

Dear Mr. xxxxxxx

Our CEO , Mr Tony Davis has requested that we respond to you with respect to your letter received on the 15th January 2009.

We appreciate the trouble you have taken to give us your feedback. Rest assured we are committed to delivering excellent service

and will constantly strive for improvement in all areas of our operation.

You may wish to note that we do not maintain any email address for passengers correspondence.

The email addresses - xxxxxxxxxxxx & xxxxxxxxxxxxxx have been disabled over 2 years ago.

The last email as listed on your letter - xxxxxxxxxxxxxx does not belong to Tiger Airways.

We noted your feedback with regards to service rendered by our call center. We have taken up the

matter separately with our Call Center Service Providers. Rest assure that we are in process of

expanding our manpower at our various Call Centers. We do seek your kind patience whilst this is

in process. Regrettably during the time of the unrest in Bangkok (late November 08 - early December 08)

we had experienced an unprecendented sharp surge in volume of calls received at all our Call Centers,

as such we were not able to attend to your call as promptly as you would expect.

Notwithstanding the above all agents who had attended to you for the reschedule request have been

severely counseled to better handle similar situation.

We do sincerly apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Thankyou

Yours Faithfully

Jean Koh

Customer Relations Officer

Tiger Airways Private Limited

[bkkjames]

The question remains Lindsay, are you happy with the letter?