Tiger Airways

I would like to change something in the agreement. I have joined the Stripes membership, changed travel companions of members and enjoy the same fare using my Stripes ID **. Thank you.

While the majority of the blame goes to the bad weather, the way Tiger Airways handled the whole situation was very bad! First, no news was available to assure us of the trip. Second, only one meal and one drink was provided to us for the 12 hours wait. Thirdly, after AK51 took off to Malaysia at 7PM, we were still left in Macau airport without any information. Fourthly, Tiger Airways pushed all the blame to the weather without taking a good look at their poor management and poor service. Why do they need to apologize for the bad weather? They are not God! But for their poor management and poor service, are they going to turn a blind eye to? And to top it all, when Tiger Airways was ready to fly, the 5PM flight TR2909 was to fly before the 10AM flight TR2903!

After taking 1.5 months (and me wasting lots of time chasing after them), to recover my lost (and now severely damaged) pram, Tiger Airways had the cheek to include this policy reminder in their email to me:

"Tiger Airways is prepared to carry such items (prams) on a limited release (i.e., entirely "at your own risk" for damage or delay) for free."

Never again! Let this be a warning to everyone out there!

I booked our fares online for me and my daughter, who is 13 years old, for $69.00 each, one way to Melbourne and that should be $138.00. I was in total shock, upset, and disappointed when I printed the itinerary. The total amount came to $660.80 and that was taken from my credit card. I called Tiger Airways the next day, in the morning, and even from work over and over again, there was no answer. When we got to the airport before 8pm to check in for our flight at 8:45pm, I explained the situation and the lady said that she could not do anything about it and I needed to go to their office in Melbourne. I was really disappointed. On Friday, in Melbourne, I tried calling again but there was no answer. So I went to their website and told them that I was over-billed and need my money to be refunded as soon as possible. I scanned a proof of my itinerary and today, I'm still waiting.

I have booked a flight for October 4, 2010 with Tiger Airways from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and the flight was cancelled. The airline company only informed regarding the cancellation a few hours prior to the scheduled flight time and furthermore, the call center was cannot be contacted for the whole day and I was not even rescheduled to a later flight. Upon inquiry at the airport, I was told that 'it is useless to call the call center as they are always unavailable' (this was told to me by a ground staff) and the passengers are supposed to go all the way to the airport to arrange another flight time. However, they offered a refund, so I gladly filled in the form. Little did I know that they have no intention of providing a refund.

Three months have passed, I still did not receive a single call or a refund for my flight. So I called the call center once again and was told they would look into the matter and will take another 4-6 weeks to process this. It has been 3 months and the airline did not even attempt to do anything about this and I will have to wait as they will only just look into the matter now. So if I did not call, I probably would not get my refund? I called again one week later only to receive the same reply. I assume nothing has been done yet. In addition to that, the call center staff was very rude and even raised her voice at me! When I asked for her name, she only said 'I am Feesya, I will not provide any other name'. So if I wished to make a complaint for her poor service, I could only provide a first name? (assuming that is her name) One frustration after another, Tiger Airways has very bad customer service.

The flight was booked for my father, who was supposed to return on that date as he was working the next day. In the end, he had to buy a bus ticket and take a 6-hour journey back to Malaysia instead of a 1-hour flight back home.

I had a flight TR2727 from Manila to Singapore. Departs at 09:10PM and arrives at 12:40AM on 5th Jan 2011. However, I had to cancel my bookings and I called the customer service department to make my cancellation and maybe get back some refund. They told me I could get only the airport tax as a refund which amounts to 22 US dollars, but I need to pay $50 in administration fees to get back that $22. This was really upsetting. It sounded more like a daylight robbery or something like that. I wonder how many people's money they have been taking? I hope the authority gets to read this and more people would come forward and end this airlines' way of cheating people.

I have tickets booked to travel from Hobart to Melbourne on 13/12/2010 and attempted to do web check in. When clicking on the link for the web check in, it loaded a blank page, with no error message. I contacted Tiger Airways and advised them of this and they told me to try later. I advised them I don't have time later as I start work very soon and work through to midnight. The customer service person then advised me to print of the error message and take it to the airport and they will check me in there. I advised that there is no error message and that I would be taking in a blank piece of paper, which they then informed me that it isn't good enough and that I'd have to try again later, to try a different computer and different internet explorer.

I then re-explained to her that I have to go to work and she then told me that it was my own problem and that she couldn't do anything and I should have done it earlier. I then asked to speak to a supervisor and she hung up on me. I then tried a different computer as well as trying internet explorer and Firefox and still had the same problem. I then rang back and spoke to KYM staff #xxxx who advised that she was the supervisor for the day. I explained my situation to her and she told me my only options were to try later a different computer or browser. I advised her that the previous person had told me that same information and I had already tried several computers and browsers with the same issues. She then stated if I prefer to check in at the airport, it would be $25/person ($100 all up).

I advised her that I didn't prefer it and I preferred the web check in however it was not allowing me to do it. She then continued to give me the same information previously in the call and I advised her again that I had already tried those options as advised and still was having no luck. She then placed me on hold, without any notification for seven minutes, came back off hold and I began to speak. There was no reply. I said hello again and she placed me back on hold for another 10 minutes.

When she finally came back, I asked to speak to a supervisor as I didn't appreciate being put on hold for no reason and with no notice. She said there weren't any supervisors there and that I would have to try those options or ring back and speak to someone else. She then hung up on me. I rang back a third time and the person who answered stated they are not allowed to give out their staff numbers (even though other people had) and that she could not speak top me without my reference number. I advised her I didn't currently have it on me and that everyone else looked my details up using my name. She stated that she can not do that and refused to help without my details.

All up I had 62 minutes worth of call time (which will be approx $100 alone) and absolutely no help except for telling me to pay an extra $100 and check in at the airport even though the system was the error. I have about $100 worth of call time which resulted in no response. I was in tears for about 50 minutes of the 62 (which if the calls can be listened to, you will see I am not lying) and now I either need to drive 50 min round trip to go to my sister-in-laws to attempt to do it again or pay another $100 to check in when it is a system error that has caused me not to be able to log in.

I have booked my tickets to travel from & to Singapore/Bangalore on Oct. 27, 2010 & Nov. 15, 2010 respectively. I was very happy and made little & making shopping but on the 22nd day of Oct. 2010, I got a call from Tiger airways, Singapore. I guess it would be from a call center, I'm not sure yet about it, however she (the caller) said that my flight on Nov. 15 from Bangalore to Singapore is been cancelled! I was just shocked and did not know what to do at that point of the time; they suggested me with options which never go with my plans.

They asked me either to take a refund (may be after one long month as they say in their email that it will be on the normal refund policies of the company) or advance my travel date by 2/3 days! My question is why should I have to change my plans, my travel date because of their (Tiger Airways) problems? Secondly, they are not even putting me on any other alternative flights on the same day rather they were forcing me to advance my earlier travel date, Why? People never travel for the convince of the air carries, air carries must understand this when they ask such questions to customer to advance their travel dates. I'm not here for any kind of compensation or any other benefits but I want to know when they cancel.

They must think of the customers and the agony, disappointments caused to the customers, the difficulties that the customers have to face and/or faced, the extra cost/expenses that they may have incurred for booking the ticket on other flights. This is totally not correct way of customer service they are providing. Now, certainly and defiantly, I never travel by any Tiger Airways and/or any of its subsidiaries in my life and do not suggest/recommend it to any of them in this world.

I had a confirmed ticket for Flight No. TR 2637 from Chennai to Singapore at 18.15 hours on 17.10.2010. I did not receive any intimation about cancellation of the flight and I reached the airport from the city after spending Rs400 for taxi. However, there was no Tiger Airways counter functioning at the airport and there was no one from Tiger Airways to intimate about the cancellation of the flight even after 17 hours. After locating the phone no. of the Chennai contact person i.e. +914-4420-17050, I tried to contact him several times but he did not respond.

After several attempts, he responded and he was unaware of the cancellation. He asked me to wait to find out the position and then he told me that the flight has been cancelled. When I asked him why there is no prior intimation which could have saved me a lot of trouble traveling back and forth from my house to the airport, he replied that he cannot do it and mail would have been sent to me. As I told him that no mail had been received, he angrily replied that I have to talk to Tiger Airways Singapore only.

If this is the attitude of the local contact person of the airlines, how does the airline hope to get more passengers for which it is canvassing through various advertisements? I feel the airline needs to overhaul itself with respect to customer relations by kicking out such persons as well as maintaining its flight schedules for which cancellations have become a regular feature of late. Passengers traveling to Singapore may please note the reckless attitude of this airline and be careful in booking tickets through this airline.

I have been traveling with Tiger Airways in Singapore, and found that the flying schedule has often changed if it is within less than four hours without any notification, as stated in the terms and conditions. Hence, this is somehow an acceptance by free per T&C listed. Unfortunately yesterday, the Tiger Airways notification team mailing came to me, and notify that one of the coming flight that I purchased (2210), need to be re- schedule to 1510 which is greater than four hours of difference. With this notification, one of the clause mentioned, "any of the change of date within seven days is allowed and please call +65-68084437 for re- booking". This is an awful experience and is the pits of airline service that practiced by name. Without hesitations, I tried to call the number given, 68084437. The line was busy all the time.

By nature, the passengers are not the reason flights are re-scheduled, but the airline, Tiger Airways. Hence, as the affected party, I urge that this airline should be held responsible, to compensate for the money and time I lost.

On 15 October 2009, we booked and paid AUD741.65 for flights TR2423, Penang to Singapore, and TR2716, Singapore to Perth, for two Adults and two children traveling on 16 May 2010. On 16 May 2010, we arrived at Penang Airport to find that Tiger Airways no longer operated out of Penang on this day and that they had re-booked us on a 19 May 2010 flight without any prior notice. As there were no Tiger Airways staff available, we had to rely on the airport information staff to help us. They spoke to Tiger Airways on our behalf and were told that there were still seats available from Singapore to Perth for that day and all we would have to pay would be a re-booking fee if we could get there. We had no choice but to buy tickets on a Silk Air flight from Penang to Singapore for AUD671.56.

When we spoke to the Tiger Airways customer device desk in Singapore, we were told that we had to re-purchase new tickets (AUD1308.48) and that we would get a refund for the original purchase. We have spoken to Tiger Airways on three occasions since our return and on each occasion, they said they would only refund the amount of AUD741.65 for the tickets from Penang to Perth and that we would receive payment in three to six weeks. It has now been four months and as yet, have not been refunded one dollar.

I booked flights with Tiger Airways at least 6 months in advance to get specials for my family. Tiger has now cancelled both out going and in bound flights to where I live. They told me I would get a full refund but it is pittance in comparison to going with another carrier at short notice, they give no other help financially or changing of flights as I have a connecting flight with tiger that I now cannot get but they wont change this or refund money for this. Been 3 months still no refund and 3 letters later no response from them except on my behalf only being able to contact call center where they are useless. As a company I wouldn't put a name to this as I would be ashamed.

I have had to pay extra to another carrier 3 times the amount and still haven't got a resolve on my connecting flight as I have had to cut my trip short by 3 days to cover the costs not only have I not received a refund of my money but I've had to pay out for new tickets. My 3 children are very dissappointed and have been looking forward to the holiday but this has certainly been and upset to us all.

Tiger Airways is the worst airline I've ever had the misfortune of flying with! My critique is based on my experiences in over 30 years of domestic and international air travel. No matter how cheap it appears, beware the hidden costs! Check-in fee! Oversize luggage fee! Overweight luggage fee! Re-booking fee! Beware of cancelled services! Services are delayed & cancelled regularly; the best you'll get is a meal voucher & a long wait at the terminal to board another flight. 2-1/2 Days at the Gold Coast Airport in one instance.

Beware of lousy customer service! Particularly the off-shore customer service centre at the end of their one and only advertised contact number! Long queues, hang-ups & misinformation are a regular occurrence. Long wait at check-in counters and small and overcrowded terminals.

Let me reflect on my family's recent experience. Last minute travel to Brisbane for the Vic School Holidays, Tiger was the only airline that had affordable (not cheap,cheap) seats available at that time. I called Tiger customer service to confirm the departure terminal, answer "International at Melbourne Airport". We arrived airport 90 minutes prior to departure time & parked the car in long term car park, then headed to the International terminal. Wrong! After wandering around international departures for 15 minutes trying to find the Tiger counter, we were directed to the correct terminal at T4 (old Virgin). I'm told the Tiger customer service person had meant Melbourne International Airport!

After walking the family to T4 (10 minutes or so), we arrived at the Tiger check-in counter 50 minutes prior to departure to find that they were no longer checking in baggage. The "young" fellow behind the counter was not open to any reasoning or discussion re our plight, the only option given to us was to pay an additional $210 to be moved to the 5:30 am flight next morning. So there we were, 8:30pm and home was over an hour's drive away. Taking into account the cost of fuel, toll charges and the 4am start next morning, we decided not to return home and so began our search for some affordable accommodation nearby. Having paid the $24 to get the car out of long term parking, we checked into a nearby motel 2 hours later, best rate $170, all for 5 hours sleep.

We arrived back at the Tiger terminal 4:30 am next morning 90 minutes prior to departure (Tiger recommends 2 hrs). We'd already paid the extra $20 per passenger to get a 15 kg baggage allowance ($55 pp if paid at the airport). One bag weighed in at 15.3kg, they then proceeded to try and extort another $55 from us for the extra 300 grams. No way was I going to pay them another cent, so I unpacked the case on the scales and removed my diary and jacket which I was then allowed to carry on as cabin baggage at no further cost (What a joke! 300 grams is 300 grams, whether it's in the hold or in the cabin. Why the fuss? )

The guy beside us was about to kill the check-in chick. He had a carry-on bag that he'd taken on board many different airlines while traveling the world. Tiger was telling him that it was oversize by 3cm and was demanding he pay $55, we were not happy. Every other queue was held up with people unpacking suitcases at counters trying to reduce the weight of their luggage. How efficient is that? Especially given that most of the stuff removed is carried on board as hand luggage anyway. $5 of the $55 baggage fee is supposedly an administration charge, sure!

Once we'd left the check-in counter we were in yet another queue, this time weighing hand luggage to make sure it was under 7kg. Once again, people were forced to wait while passengers unpacked their bags in the queue. Moving on, there was yet another delay while we stood in the queue at the security point, a very narrow and inefficient choke point. The T4 terminal is very cramped with little seating available when 2 or more flights are scheduled to depart. Food and beverages are typically overpriced and there are queues at counters. Access to the aircraft is via the tarmac which was quite uncomfortable given the cold winter winds at Melbourne Airport.

Once on board, it becomes apparent that the aircraft is not cleaned regularly. There is no in-flight entertainment and the aircraft is not fitted with in-seat radios or video screens. All food and drink must be purchased and they do not accept cash or Eftpos on board, credit cards only. I had cash but I'd left my cards in my luggage, I couldn't even buy the family a drink of water. What a joke!

I ended up heading back to Melbourne earlier than expected. I booked with Qantas and left my family to return with Tiger as originally planned. My family reported that the service from Tiger in Brisbane was just as bad as Melbourne. Our itinerary had a seat booked for me including a 15kg baggage allowance that I had paid for. Tiger would not allow my family to use the seat nor would they allow my family to use my 15kg baggage allowance despite us all being ticketed on the same itinerary. Once again, my wife had to unpack a jacket to bring a bag below 15kg. It turns out that they subsequently resold my seat and yet offered no refund.

Given the whole "Tiger" experience I will never ever fly with them again. At the end of it all, I could have flown my whole family on a Qantas every day fare, at a time convenient to us, for less cost than we ended up incurring with Tiger. The airline is a joke and deserves every bit of the negative press and consumer backlash that it incurs. The company has taken domestic air travel in Australia to an all time low.

I had booked both ways 3 Air Ticket each on Tiger Airways under concessional fare on Chennai/Singapore leg along with separate fee for seat allotment & baggage was paid by myself using my ABN Amro Master card through their website. ABN Card usage charge was 3.5% on the total amount. Transaction confirmed, tickets confirmed but seat unassigned in spite of the requisite amount I paid at the time of booking. They sent me the booking confirmation on 30 Jan 2010 but there again the seat was unassigned as against the actual seat numbers blocked and paid for. I took up this immediately with their Indian Call Center number wherein they maintained that they need to check and revert with no proper response as they claimed to have no access to do the needful in India, instead I wanted to call up Singapore.

I had no choice but to call Singapore too but the call never were answered, I was left with additional spending on phone calls and unnecessary mental tension and mail communications. This continued since day one, on 29 Jan 2010, until today when my travel date per confirmed ticked falls on 25 Feb 2010. Tiger Airways continued with their deliberate negligence and failure to rectify their mistake resulting to utter service failure. Hence, I was pushed beyond my extreme levels of tolerance and had real pain and mental unrest and agony due to which I came to a decision to not travel in Tiger Airways and ask for full refund of paid amount plus the 3.5% commission on Credit Card for canceling. I sent mails in return on the email id that I received requesting them for full refund and cancellation thereof which again had no response at all until today.

On the 18 Feb 2010, I called the call center and the Singapore office by the same continued with claims that additional fee over and above what I paid earlier for seat allotment will be applicable for seat allotment and refund/cancellation not possible. I faxed the emails and request for refund in total to Tiger Airways Singapore on 0065 68222310 by 1355Hrs today.

It's almost 20 days and no reverts on the query. On 18 Feb 2010 I checked for refund, then they come back with excuses but I had made up my mind not to travel in Tiger Airways and refund the paid amount and 3.5% Credit Card charges due to such pathetic and uncertainties in service of Tiger Airways leading to mental unrest and agony. Now, they are holding on to their stance that they will not refund as per Ticket terms though they were at fault. What should I do?

Please Note: Tiger Airways have their service out of Chennai but do not have their liaising office in Chennai to assist the passengers on pre and post bookings/queries at Chennai. We also face the difficulty on communication as they are not willing to provide Tiger Airways email id to address the issues accordingly.

Yesterday evening (Post IST 1800Hrs18Feb 2010) they come up with seat allocation which I denied to accept and insisted on refund. As I mentioned, I am firm on refund and I am in no mindset to proceed to travel on this Airline due to such service failures which resulted me in mental stress, unrest with additional expenses on phone calls, wastage of my productive time with agony pushing me to suspend my travel plans to Singapore on Tiger Airways once and for all.

Today, the 19 Feb 2010 around 1000Hrs IST, Mr. Kelvin T., Manager Reservations, claiming to be from Tiger Airways Singapore, called on my hand phone and updated that they will not refund and cancellations not acceptable though they were at mistake. I denied to accept his claim and wanted them to refund in full along with the commission of 3.5% on Credit Card Transaction. He even dared to threaten me on forfeiture of total sum paid if I proceed on legal front. He also asked me as to what proof do I have for all such communication over telephones and wanted the records. Hence, I requested him to advise me their email address for me to address my further queries which he denied to provide and wanted me to use the Sin Fax no for any such communication. Moreover, he was not ready to transfer the call to the PRO or the legal department.

Flight No TT669, Sydney to Melbourne on 29 November (Sunday) 2009 was cancelled. The aircraft apparently went out of service the night before, but we (three of us)only found out when we arrived at check-in at 10.00am the next day. No notice from Tiger that the flight had been cancelled. Fortunately we were second in the queue - if you happened to be number 123 you'd be really peeved! Anyway, we're told the flight has been cancelled. The next Tiger flight available to us is Wednesday - three days later! No assistance with alternate travel arrangements or accomodation. Given a slip of paper with the Tiger call-centre number on it. This number rings engaged for hours. No apology. "Should get a refund in about a month" - not holding my breath. Insurance only covers up to the value of the flights cancelled - so we get a refund to the value of a cheap flight booked three months previously, to buy a premium cost flight from a competitor airline at no notice. Who gets screwed here?

In summary, cancelled flight; no notice to customers; unclear refund process and timing; insurance not worth the paper it's written on; Tiger couldn't care less - on checking, this philosophy is written in to the fine print of their terms; impossible to find a Tiger official more senior than a check-in operator or a call-centre operative. Seven flights in the past six months - will not darken their doors again:-)

On the 6th of October 2009 I was due to board a flight from the Gold Coast to Melbourne on Tiger Airways. When I arrived at the airport EARLY to check in I was told that my flight was oversold and that someone else had taken my seat. I was told to fill in a form and that the cost of my flight would be refunded to me within 4 weeks. I had to then go to another airline and book another flight to get home, at an additional expense of course. To date (18th of December 2009) I have still not received the $214 owed to me.

In this time I have since written 3 letters, sent 3 faxes and have made numerous phone calls - of which I would be on hold for no less than 40 mins. I received a email from Tiger on the 19th of November saying that the money had been transferred into my account. Well, as above IT HAS NOT! I called my credit card provider, because apparently it is now their problem that the money hasn't been credited. They tell me I have to wait 30 days from the time they sent the email. I've waited the 30 days... the day is today. Now they have to dispute it with Tiger and it could potentially take up to another 90 days to sort out!

I've had a flight time changed, and they have asked if I need to speak to anyone, to call their Australian number, however after the automated service giving the information speel, the phone just goes dead, and after exactly 2.50 min the phone then engages. I've over the last 2 days made in excess of 20 calls to this number and still have'nt got through to anyone. I've also sent Fax to their Australian fax number, asking for them to contact me on my mobile earlier today (Monday June 15) and have not had any response to that either.