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

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.

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.