PUBLISHED ONFebruary 02, 2024 1:05 AMByBhavya RawatOne woman, who opted out of boarding her flight to care for her ailing mother, said she tried unsuccessfully to get a refund from AirAsia after that.
The reason?
The airline wanted her to provide "clear proof of relationship" between herself, her husband and her mother, she said.
However, Jamie Tan's submitted birth certificate was unclear, resulting in the airline rejecting her refund request.
This Singaporean told AsiaOne that she and her family had booked a short trip to Penang in mid-January to cheer her elderly, ailing mother up.
However, Tan's mother, 83, fell ill and was hospitalised on Dec 29 last year.
When Tan's mother did not recover by early January and was told not to travel by her doctor, Tan decided to cancel the family trip so they could stay and care for her.
Tan, along with her husband, her sister and mother, were only set to fly with AirAsia for the return trip to Singapore.
Their trip to Penang was on another airline. Tan, 50, said she paid about $230 in total for the AirAsia tickets.
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Tan said she contacted AirAsia on Jan 5 to ask for a cancellation and refund for their flight tickets due to "medical circumstances".
Tan shared her experience with AirAsia's customer support in Facebook group Complaint Singapore on Sunday (Jan 25) and included screenshots of the back and forth she had with them on that day.
In these emails, Tan was repeatedly asked to provide "clear proof of relationship" between herself, her husband and her mother.
Tan indicated in her responses to AirAsia that she had provided them with copies of multiple documents, including her passport, birth certificate and marriage certificate.
Tan was later told that these documents were not enough to prove a relationship between her husband and mother.
This frustrated Tan, who said: "How do I prove an in-law relationship even after providing a copy of my marriage certificate to AirAsia?"
Tan told AsiaOne on Jan 29 that AirAsia had sent another email to her, which stated the reason why they could not proceed with her refund request.
It was the unclear photocopy of her birth certificate, according to the frustrated customer.
Tan was confused as her conversations back and forth with AirAsia were about her marriage certificate and proving the relationship between her husband and mother.
"Sure took them long enough to say so," she said.
Tan said that she acknowledged in her earlier emails that the photocopy of her birth certificate was unclear.
She added that she could not provide a better copy of her birth certificate as she had misplaced the original, but included other supporting documents as further proof.
"The NRIC number [on my birth certificate] is clear and tallies with my passport and marriage certificate. I also provided my sister's birth certificate for them to see the resemblance," Tan said.
"I also provided a doctor's memo stating my mum's condition and hospitalisation," Tan added.
"And that my sister and I are her main caregivers, which was 'extra extra proof' of our relationship since I am aware my birth certificate was unclear."
Tan told AsiaOne that despite providing them with all the documents they requested and explaining her situation multiple times, she was repeatedly asked the same questions and given the same replies.
"I felt AirAsia's replies were not handled well, and seemingly no continuation from previous interactions," she said.
"This gave me the impression that they were genuinely uninterested in my case."
Responding to AsiaOne's queries, an AirAsia representative said that the request was rejected as the "proof of relationship provided is not clear", in reference to a photocopy of Tan's birth certificate.
"We have requested the guest to provide a clear copy of the document to issue the credits for medical reasons. We will assist the guest from our end once we receive the requested document," the representative said.
"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience and confusion caused by this matter."
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bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com