Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Do not fly with JAL - Japan Airlines

I am currently an unfortunate ticket holder of a Japan Airlines plane ticket. I have never experiened such incompetence, such disregard for customer service and idiocy in an airline in my life. Trust me I have flow in rinky dink airlines in Africa to decaying eastern European airlines who will bend over backwards to keep you as a loyal and happy customer even if the likelihood of your being one, due to geography, is low.

NOT JAL. NOT Japan Airlines.

First, though they claim to be an international airline, most speak only a merest hint of English. I was given two numbers to call when our flight was cancelled, one Japanese language only and the other English. First the IVR starts with a 10s introduction in Japanese. I thought I had misdialled and hung up and tried again. I heard the same 10s introduction in Japanese. I pressed 0 as those stressed clients will often do. It resulted in a series of loud rapid beeps. So I dialled again and waded through the Japanese intro hoping, hoping, since not word was familiar, that an English message would follow, it did. It told me to press 6 for an English agent. I did. She could not.

I had to speak one syllable at a time and barely express my concern or dispair with the syntax I was forced to use. I could not tell her that according to the IATA rules and Warsaw pact that they had to accommodate me for the duration of my layover. I was only responded with a 'ooooooo' which I have come to know as a Japanese form of 'uh' or 'I have no idea what you said so I will just repeat what I said and perhaps you will grow frustrated and hang up'. I did not. I never will. I will campaign.

I am sitting in a second rate hotel at Narita Airport on my third day of layover. Marroad International clearly had it's day but that was probably a half century ago. This is where JAL sent us to with vouchers for one night only. One night of the 8 we were told we had to wait before we were booked on a flight home to Vancouver. One. The per night rate at this "International" hotel is nearly 200 dollars. Oddly enough when we arrived two days ago, we were quoted 140 and twice we were told 200 but when we told them 11000 Y, they quickly back tracked, agreeing with the lower rate. No one here speaks English despite the International in their name. They know yes and now and very simple questions where the result is my giving them money. I bought one night of internet to connect with work and find a flight home for 100oY in room only WITH with a bleeding cable. Can you believe that? This is the high tech capital of the world and I had to borrow a LAN cable and can only use it in my room. When it didn't work and all the error messages were in English, bad English, I called downstairs and the lady at reception spoke no English except internet not working, she came up. She tried to click a few buttons to no avail. She had to call external tech support to call me back. They spoke perfect English. VOD never came on. It is meant to come with the Internet. The code had a alpha prefix and the remote is numeric only and never the twain shall meet.

We call JAL yesterday to extend the voucher and they refused. I begged. Literally, I begged. She put me on hold a few times. I dont know why, the reply was always the same. No. I will campaign to get that bastard money back. It is their fault they cannot ...NO WILL NOT RE ROUTE ME home. Cannot, NO WILL NOT reroute me to another airport in Japan because they don't do that sort of thing!!!! So here i sit in one of the world's most expensive cities, paralysed and without help from JAL,

The first night at the airport was the worst as a thousand people stood in queue to beg their case. The thing is we shouldnt have had to. We should have stood in line to receive our new booking, hotel vouchers to cover the time and money to eat with. BUT no! each case was handled by how desperate the situation, how angry you were or upset or how young.

I NEVER RAISED MY VOICE. MY PARENTS ARE ASIAN, THEY SHUT DOWN WHEN YELLED AT. IT DOESN'T WORK. IT DOESNT REALLY WORK IN NORTH AMERICA EITHER. IT GIVES THEM AN EXCUSE TO YELL BACK. ALL I GOT WERE POLITE STARES AND THE LAST WORD OF MY SENTENCES REPEATED BACK TO ME. ...

JAL COULD HAVE SHOULD HAVE REROUTED US ALL. PUT US ON PARTNER FLIGHTS, PUT IS IN HOTELS FOR THE WHOLE TIE BUT THEY DIDN'T ASS HOLES. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. WORST JAPAN AIRLINES THE WORST AIRLINE EVER.

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