My wife and I were supposed to travel to Kuwait during the Eid holidays from August 31 to September 2, this year. As per the Kuwaiti immigration law, for certain professionals, they will get visa on arrival. In that list, university graduates are also included. I have a post-graduate degree. I have already travelled to Kuwait in the last two years from Dubai, and have been given a visa on arrival at the Kuwait airport. At the Dubai airport, we reached by 2pm on the date of travel, but at the ticket counter, the staff said we could not travel as my profession was different from the Kuwait immigration list. So I talked to the flydubai manager regarding the refund of the ticket money. I have spent Dh1,500 for the ticket, but the flydubai staff told me that they could only refund the amount of Dh100. As my case is genuine and I was not even allowed to travel, I requested them to give me my full amount as a refund, or at least half of it. Finally, the manager asked us to register a complaint through email to their customer service centre but we didn’t receive any proper reply from their side.
From Mr Bennette Jose
Dubai
The management of flydubai responds:
Thank you for contacting us and for giving us the opportunity to comment following enquiry. We have also received the same enquiry from the passenger through our customer service team. The payment that Mr Jose is receiving for his flight is based on our terms and conditions and the type of ticket that was booked. Since the ticket was a “Pay to Change” booking and Mr Jose was not able to travel due to his visa status, no cancellation or refund could be processed for his flight from Dubai to Kuwait. Mr Jose has received the balance of his fare for his cancelled return flight and all applicable taxes have been given in the form of Fly Dubai vouchers valid for six months. We would advise our passengers to familiarise themselves with our Terms and Conditions before booking a flight.
Mr Jose responds:
I think there is no other solution for this matter as per their reply. I am really thankful to Gulf News for the effort. As per their reply, I hope I will get the voucher to travel any time. We are not satisfied with their offer as we spent Dh1,500 and they are only ready to refund Dh100 for each ticket.
The management of flydubai responds:
Thank you for sharing the response from the passenger. We have provided an explanation in full in our earlier response and the matter is now closed.
(Process initiation: September 13. Response from organisation: September 19.)
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.
