Missed flight

I had a confirmed ticket from Air Arabia, to fly from Sharjah to Hyderabad, India at 10.20pm on July 17. I went to the airport on time and checked in, got the boarding pass, cleared immigration and went to the boarding gate, but boarding hadn’t started. Hence, I sat in the waiting lounge.

As flight time was 10.20pm, I went to the boarding gate at 10pm (Boarding start time was 9.50pm), but Air Arabia staff said boarding was closed and gave the reason that as passengers were being transferred to the plane by bus, they had to close the gate a bit early. They refused to take me.

1 - I had a boarding pass, yet they didn’t announce my name even a single time. This is common practice that all airlines follow.

2 - None of their staff members checked with me and I was sitting in the waiting area. It’s a practice all other airlines follow.

3 - The last bus left in front of me, and they could have accommodated me but they didn’t do it and off-loaded my baggage, cancelled my ticket priced at Dh803.40 and returned only Dh80 airport tax.

Their staff at the airport was very unhelpful and didn’t care for the customers. As a result, I went through a lot of mental and physical stress and had to go back home, and buy a new ticket from them for the next day’s flight at a much higher price of Dh1,790.

Now I want my Dh1,790 back, as I missed my flight due to their mistake and have gone through a lot of stress.

From Mr Mohammad Abdul Haq Ather

Sharjah

The management of Air Arabia responds:

We have checked with the customer relations team and the reason behind Mr Ather missing his flight is that he has reported to the gate after the closure time, whereby any exception to be made would have caused a flight delay, which is against the airline’s policy.

Mr Ather responds:

The boarding time was 9.50pm and I reported to the gate at 10pm. I don’t agree with their reasoning.

The management of Air Arabia responds:

We have checked the records again and the reason behind Mr Ather missing his flight is that he has reported to the gate after the closure timing. All other passengers on the same flight boarded on time and without any delay. Air Arabia maintains high on-time performance records and it is against the airline’s policy to make exceptions that would cause flight delays.

(Process initiation: August 11. Response from organisation: August 26. Process completion: October 1.)

Editor’s note: Do you have similar issues that you would like to raise with us? You can write to us at readers@gulfnews.com.