Tiger Airways

[ShaunWilson]

Booked a last minute holiday to Surfers Paradise with family 2 weeks ago. Have had an absolute ball for 8 nights, 9 days in the sun. Get to Gold Coast airport, and flight cancelled. Had to queue for 3 hours to see someone, to be told that they couldn't get us on a flight until Thursday (meant another 4 nights stay in Queensland). Asked them what they were going to do about it, and got told nothing.......no refund, no hotels, nowt. Told them to stick it, booked flights with Virgin from Brisbane for tomorrow, with cost of $1100, hire car and now stuck in a crappy motel for the night. Thank god i bought travel insurance!!! The good thing is, because they told us it was a weather delay (to much haze???) our insurance policy kicks in, and we get full refund on the extra costs we have had to fork out. Best $133 ever spent!! So advice for people travelling with this bunch of cowboys, take out travel insurance!!!!! They have given us a credit for the return flight of $700 and told us we have 12 months to use it!!! Like i'm going to use this lot again!!!!

[Guest ReadyPenny]

My hubby has always said I am TV buyer, if I see it on TV, I believe it's real and it works and I rush out to the supermarket to buy it!!!

 

He's right, much as I hate to admit it, and from what I have seen about this crowd on their TV programme Airways, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!!! Talk about bad press, can't believe they actually admit on air how poor their service is!!!!!

 

Hope you get back what you are due, have a safe and pleasant journey, despite feeling a little disgruntled!

 

Mandy

[Guest graandjac]

Now dont take this the wrong way.....not just saying this ........but we had a great flight back from Melbourne with Tiger Airways;)........yeh I can hear you now........he bloody would pmsl:p, hope you get back safely.

[catherine.c]

Yes, I too had return flights to Tasmania which were great, cheap and on time!

Catherine

[Guest rachinadelaide]

Gulp - flying with Tiger on Friday.... Hope I don't end up on the TV abusing the staff cause I was 5 minutes late for check in....!

[Guest sjs]

They are crap! Bunch of cowboys - exactly! We travelled with them to Perth and we got charged $180 for being over in our luggage (10 years in the travel industry I should know better but I do know that it usually largely depends on the girl whom is checking you in if she is willing to give you a bit of leeway - do not expect leeway from these lot!) we then went to board the aircraft to be told that I should have checked my buggy in and now it was going to 'mess up our weights in the hold' - I told her that I have travelled all over the place and have always taken my buggy right up to the aircraft door and not only that the lady at check in should have noticed and made me check it in if this was the case! And to top it off gets on board and discovers we have no cash so read the smallprint on the drinks/food menu to see if we could use our card - yes we could - so proceeds to order drinks and nibbles only to present our card and be told we couldnt use it - as we opened the kids drinks and crisps we could have them complimentary but they wanted our alcohol back !!!!!! No chance we raided the pockets and found enough cash to pay for these much needed drinks! Her reply when I pointed out the smallprint about the card 'we have been complaining about it for ages and they still dont change it'

 

 

:realmad::realmad:

[Guest UzinOz]

I'm flying with them next week and I'm a bit apprehensive reading these stories

 

I'll be making sure I'm in plenty of time!

 

Jackie

[ShaunWilson]

Well finally got back to sunny Adelaide this evening!!! Left Gold Coast with 33 degrees, and car temp on way home from airport in Adelaide was saying 7!!!

 

Back to the original topic though, i have spoken to a few people who have said they haven't had problems, but to me, the frequency of problems that people seem to have is far too frequent!!! And for them to cancel the flight, then not lay on an extra flight the following day, and to say to us that they would put us on flight 4 days later, stranded in gold coast with 3 kids!!!!!! Told them that wasn't good enough, they then said tough!! Sunday night, no accomodation, and no hire car, with everywhere closed!! An absolute joke of a company, and very very poor customer service. I have now spent total of 90 mins on phone just trying to get a letter from them to tell me it was weather for the reason for cancelation, but still do not have it!!! This is needed for the insurance company to refund my $1100 it cost for us to get home using another airline, who couldn't do enough to help us!!!

[Guest ReadyPenny]

Glad you made it back (finally) safe and sound. I'm sure you will hound them until you have what you need. What a bunch of idiots!! Are they an Australian company? If so the appalling service levels really surprise me!

 

Mandy

[HEAPS GOOD !!!]

We got a bit of leeway with SIA but we still had to send alot of luggage by excess baggage, but hey ho at the end of the day.

 

If they give every one leeway then the plane wnt be able to take off...they do have to draw the line somewhere, $180 sounds like alot of over your allowance, but then again i dunno what Tiger charge....

 

 

HG

[Guest graandjac]

Well finally got back to sunny Adelaide this evening!!! Left Gold Coast with 33 degrees, and car temp on way home from airport in Adelaide was saying 7!!!

 

Back to the original topic though, i have spoken to a few people who have said they haven't had problems, but to me, the frequency of problems that people seem to have is far too frequent!!! And for them to cancel the flight, then not lay on an extra flight the following day, and to say to us that they would put us on flight 4 days later, stranded in gold coast with 3 kids!!!!!! Told them that wasn't good enough, they then said tough!! Sunday night, no accomodation, and no hire car, with everywhere closed!! An absolute joke of a company, and very very poor customer service. I have now spent total of 90 mins on phone just trying to get a letter from them to tell me it was weather for the reason for cancelation, but still do not have it!!! This is needed for the insurance company to refund my $1100 it cost for us to get home using another airline, who couldn't do enough to help us!!!

 

 

Have to agree there shaun that is pretty poor in fact it or the service coulden't be much worse. Welcome to the cold;)

[ozzieclare2be]

ooohhh i was going to book flights to sydney with tiger, hmm might not bother now!!(they sound just like ryan air!!)

[Guest Andrew&Ren]

We are flying with Tiger for the first time this weekend to Sydney....hope it goes ok

 

To be honest though they are a cheap cheap airline here in Aus and like Ryanair and Easyjet back in the uk, people either have fantastic experiences with them or dont!!!! Ive flown with R/Air and Easyjet hundreds of times and never had a problem...but then a few of my friends have had dreadful experiences with both.

 

Hope i have a good experience with Tiger now......

[lorluc]

My SIL flew with them in February up to the Gold Coast....She cant fault them...on time both ways...good service....she was very pleased.

 

Like anything isnt it? Some will have a good experience, others will have bad...

 

In my job, I book alot of flights with various airlines....believe me....none of them are perfect....

[Guest UzinOz]

You're right, none of them are perfect and it's not until you have a bad experience that you stop using them.

Fingers crossed my flights are OK next week

[Guest sjs]

We got a bit of leeway with SIA but we still had to send alot of luggage by excess baggage, but hey ho at the end of the day.

 

If they give every one leeway then the plane wnt be able to take off...they do have to draw the line somewhere, $180 sounds like alot of over your allowance, but then again i dunno what Tiger charge....

 

 

HG

 

 

Its $15 per kilo - but as I say I might have accepted that (even though no leeway given whatsoever- I should have been more aware especially as it was a budget airline) however it was 1 problem after another and I havent experiened such unprofessional service before. The only thing that beats that was when after an overnight flight to Hong Kong from LHR - which my 2 kids slept throughout - then we boarded the flight from Hong Kong to Adelaide which of course my kids were now awake for BUT everyone else was trying to sleep as it was a 'night flight' and the cathay pacific air hostess came up to me and said 'could you try and keep the children quiet people are trying to sleep'

 

:shocked::shocked:

[HEAPS GOOD !!!]

Its $15 per kilo - but as I say I might have accepted that (even though no leeway given whatsoever- I should have been more aware especially as it was a budget airline) however it was 1 problem after another and I havent experiened such unprofessional service before. The only thing that beats that was when after an overnight flight to Hong Kong from LHR - which my 2 kids slept throughout - then we boarded the flight from Hong Kong to Adelaide which of course my kids were now awake for BUT everyone else was trying to sleep as it was a 'night flight' and the cathay pacific air hostess came up to me and said 'could you try and keep the children quiet people are trying to sleep'

 

 

When we came here SIA were wanting to charge us summat like £50 per kilo , we were gobsmacked they already gave us 45K per case which was cool, we ended up sending them by excess baggage.

 

Its unreal peoples differing views and experiences in life, some good some bad etc etc...whats bad is you just never know when you are going to get either levels of service....

 

 

HG

[catherine.c]

Glad you made it back (finally) safe and sound. I'm sure you will hound them until you have what you need. What a bunch of idiots!! Are they an Australian company? If so the appalling service levels really surprise me!

 

Mandy

 

just so you know, Tiger is a subsidiary of Singapore airlines.

Catherine

[ShaunWilson]

I'm not saying they are bad ALL the time, what i was trying to emphasise was the lack of customer service when something does go wrong. Most other companies, especially the bigger ones, will get you on another flight, and sort out somewhere for you to stay that night. This lot just said, next flight available was 4 days later, take it or leave it, oh and it's sunday night, good luck looking for somewhere to kip down with 3 young kids in tow.

[Guest Tina]

Jet star did the same to us... flight canceled, can get you on the next flight day later, i said "where will we sleep" they said "not our problem" .... had to book with virgin in the end.

 

on another occasion we used tiger and couldn't fault them, but i guess the policy is the same if flights are canceled... find your own accommodation.

 

maybe this is just standard as i have never had a flight that has been canceled before, but when this happens it is very harsh...

[Guest rachinadelaide]

Just back from a weekend in Canberra (first flights with Tiger).....

The report: our taxi didn't turn up, we called and were told it was a couple of minutes away. 10 minutes later we called again and were told they didn't have access to where their cabs were...!!! We ended up jumping in the car as we know Tiger have a strict 45 min check in policy. We got to the long stay car park with 6 minutes to spare. It was full. We reversed at high speed back down the one-way lane and screeched into the short stay carpark (trying not to look at the prices), leapt out of the car and ran into the terminal like contestants on the Amazing Race. Hubby went the wrong way - I yelled insults at him along the terminal until he realised, police watching in amusement. We arrived at the Tiger desk with 1 minute to go!! We were the last people to check in. It was very close. They waited for us to complete check in and closed it off. Tiger staff were friendly and helpful.

Came back home today. Flight from Canberra was delayed by 2 hours!! The next Tiger flight (to Melbourne) was cancelled. Again, staff were very pleasant.

So, all in all - fine. Had it been our flight that had been cancelled I'm sure I would be saying something else! Although they are a budget, no frills airline so you get what you pay for!!

 

PS - Canberra was really worth a weekend visit!

[sichop]

we were supposed to fly back with tA from Hobart, got phone call on way to airport saying flight was cancelled, this was Friday, next flight was going to be on Monday, we got offered the cost of our return cheap flight back. had to pay $500 each to come back with VB and the insurance wont pay out. Would never EVER fly with them again.

[Guest UzinOz]

Just got back from Sydney, first time using Tiger.....................NEVER AGAIN!!!!!

 

checking in at Adelaide the ground staff were unpleaseant to deal with, rude in fact we were supposed to get back last night, while having a lovely lunch at Bondi Beach got text saying flight cancelled, the nightmare began from there, cost us extra $400 for flights back and $175 for extra night in hotel, and it ruined our last day of our break they offered $117 compo.

 

before I flew with them and have said earlier in this post any airline can cancel flights the difference is this one doesn't give a crap

 

Jackie

[ShaunWilson]

I am currently on phone for the 7th time to them!! I needed a letter from them stating that the flight was cancelled due to weather conditions, they said yeah ok. 2 weeks letter they have sent me a letter which is an exact replica of the standard letter they gave me at the desk when they cancelled the flights!!! If the flight is cancelled due to uncontrollable circumstances (weather), then insurance covers it, if just operational reasons, insurance doesn't. The worst thing is I continually get the "it's another department line", but when i asked to speak to them, "sorry, they don't take calls". Absolute joke of a company, and i will be sending letters from my solicitor next week if not resolved!!

[Guest Sman]

 

They have given us a credit for the return flight of $700 and told us we have 12 months to use it!!!

 

Does the travel insurance deduct the above $700 from the expenses they have to cover?