I have had a bad experience while travelling with flydubai. I booked the round trip flight to travel on September 6 from Dubai to Colombo, Sri Lanka and back on September 12 for three people. We were carrying luggage within the limit of 40kg for each of us.

While coming back from Colombo, during the check in, I learnt to my surprise that we could only take 21kg worth of luggage - 7kg each for a handbag and no checked luggage.

How can flydubai do this? When a family is carrying 40kg on their flight for a vacation and coming back on their flight, how can they allow us to take back only 7kg each?

The ground staff of flydubai started misbehaving during the check in and did not hear us out and asked for money for the additional 8kg that we were carrying. They didn’t accepted any credit card, US dollars or dirhams and asked only for Sri Lankan rupees. I had exhausted all my rupees, since I was not planning to come back.

They took more than an hour discussing with each other and sent us back to the main gate to fetch more money. I went back again through security and exchanged my dirhams near the airport entrance and got the money. Again, I had to go through security, check in and gave them 11,536 rupees (Dh282) to them.

After all this, I asked for the receipt and then they started again back with the same confusion and started threatening to not allow boarding, since by that time, they has wasted more than two hours of our time and the flight departure time was approaching. They refused to give any receipt and I felt really humiliated due to this harassment by the flydubai staff and faced real issues while handling this and carrying a small child.

I will never travel with flydubai again because of this and I want my money back for overcharging and not providing me with a receipt.

I complained to flydubai online and I got a case identification number, but after more than 10 days, I have not heard a single word from them.

From Mr Jitender Puri

Abu Dhabi

The management of flydubai responds:

flydubai offers a number of fare options to our passengers providing them with different options that suit their travel needs. When Mr Puri made the booking he chose a promotional fare for the outbound journey, which included a 40kg baggage allowance per person. For the return journey, he chose a pay to change fare that includes a 7kg hand luggage per passenger and does not include a checked baggage allowance.

As a gesture of goodwill, the flydubai representative in Colombo Airport offered to check in some of the bags without payment. Given the total weight of the baggage for his family, he was asked to pay for 8kg of excess baggage. The passenger preferred not to pay this and decided to leave some of the baggage.

We also ask our passengers to treat our staff with understanding and respect. Customer satisfaction and a smooth travel experience is a priority for flydubai and we always try to help our customers in the best possible way.

(Process initiation: October 12. Response from organisation: October 19. Process completion: October 30).

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