Viva Macau Airline – Complaint Letter

I am writing this complaint letter to inform you how disappointed I am of using the internet flight reservation of the Viva Macau Airline.

On March 23, 2010, around 11 A.M, I tried to book flight tickets for 4 passengers from Jakarta – Macau from May 12, 2010 to May 17, 2010. First rate that I got from the internet was:
Jakarta – Macau (May 12, 2010) USD 149
Macau – Jakarta (May 17, 2010) USD 99

For these rates, I entered all the detailed information of all passengers until it came to the payment stage. It was stated the total of USD 1,152 net (taxes and administration fee included) plus USD 17.28 processing fee. For total of USD 1,169.28, I put the credit card information and clicked the “submit” button. However, the process didn’t go through because of no more seats available prior to this reservation as it mentioned on the website. There was no confirmation number nor any emails I received for the this trip itinerary.

With my curiosity, I called the Viva Macau Airline in Jakarta to ask if there are no more seats available for the flight that I intend to travel. I believe it is common sense that if the seats were not available for the dates chosen, it would not appear available in the website either or there would be a message of fully-booked flight. For this common sense, I was right. The representative of Viva Macau Airline in Jakarta told me that there were still available seats for the dates chosen. I told this representative what happened to me regarding this flight reservation through internet. She asked me to call my bank and to make sure if there was a transaction for this flight booking. If transaction was in process, she asked me to call back Viva Macau Airline.

After spending some times to clarify the transaction from my bank, I finally got an answer that there was no transaction of the first flight booking. Since I didn’t want to spend more time struggling with the internet booking flights, I decided to call the Viva Macau Airline in Jakarta. It was so disappointed because almost 30 minutes, I spent my time to call the office, but no one picked up the phone.

Frustrated with the situation, I re-checked my email just to make sure if I have received any email regarding my first reservation included confirmation number and trip itinerary. Unfortunately, there was none. Left with no choice after giving a couple of shots calling Viva Macau Airline in Jakarta with a hope that someone would answer the phone, I went to the website of Viva Macau Airline. Since there was no confirmation numbers emailed to me, I re-did the flight booking that was from May 12, 2010 to May 17, 2010. At that time, the rate from Jakarta – Macau was still USD 149; however, there was an increase rate from Macau – Jakarta to USD 119. Shocked by the rapid increment rates within less than an hour, I decided to purchase these tickets with total of USD 1,250.48 (including USD 18.48 processing fee which is also increased from the first transaction). Up to this stage, I paid USD 81.20 more than I should have paid on the first transaction. For this second transaction, I received an email with my confirmation number, trip itinerary and also the detailed of rates that I was charged on my credit card.

After reviewing and printing all my documents from Viva Macau Airline, I clicked “Go back to Home” on Viva Macau Airline website. Since there was an increasing rates, with high curiosity, I re-checked the rates as chosen above. Surprisingly, the rates changed again. This time within no more than 15 minutes. Here are the rates shown on my last preview:
Jakarta – Macau USD 119 (May 12, 2010)
Macau – Jakarta USD 99 (May 17, 2010)
Shocked by this changing rates, I felt this situation was unacceptable.

These are the following questions that I felt unfair for this transaction: