Dear NCCC,

Thank you so much for assisting me in obtaining my refund from MAS.
I�ve just received my cheque for the RM600.
I could not have done it without NCCC.

Regards
Lee

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Actual Case

Dear NCCC, Recently, my wife (a Vietnamese) booked 4 tickets to Hanoi for my family via the online system.� As a foreigner, she was confused as the website only have first and last name fields for entering (she was confused as there were no fields to enter �middle� name(s).� Nonetheless, she proceeded by entering our family last and first names exactly as stated in our passports and hoped to rectify the shortcomings over telephone and /or email.

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To our surprise, when confirming with the MAS authorities, we are required to pay RM150 for each ticket (total RM600) in order to enter our middle names.� I can understand if the penalty fee is charged because a mistake was done but I cannot understand why we must pay to enter our middle names.

On 12 February 2010, I went to MAS ticketing office at KL Sentral to seek a solution.� Unsatisfied with their explanation, I demanded a full refund (hoping to make the trip via another airline) but was told by the supervisor-in-charged that it was impossible to seek full refunds.� So I asked whether I could board the flight on the following day but was also denied.� Seems that the only solutions was to pay the penalty or forfeit the entire tickets.

Still unsatisfied with their options, I requested the supervisor-in-charged to contact their Management, after waiting for more then 2 hours in the ticketing office (which was also where I�ve discovered your article as stated above), I received a written reply from MAS Business Support Centre denying my request to enter my family�s middle names.

As far as attempting to conduct fraud over the internet facility, my wife has entered all our passport numbers accurately in the system.� Even most banking internet facilities in Malaysia allow reversal of �error� transactions involving dollars and sens.�

Perhaps MAS should develop an online system which is user friendly to foreigners.

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