Sri Lankan last chapter, the last one, I want to close it. The customer service replied, see below as promised also on my blog. The answer in my eyes does not really answer the very specific points I have addressed, but be it so. And no, I am not interested in the 10,00 skyward miles, as much as I refused the $40 “voucher” at the airport in Colokbo. Apology accepted, no more poisonous anger, but I won’t fly with SriLankan Airlines again. Chapter closed.
Let’s turn to more pleasant things: I am enjoying the summer in Germany and on Friday a good friend of mine, Schnulli, invited me to a BBQ-Party to his friends in Freising. Carina, the girl friend of his comrade Robin, where both are playing in the Madrid orchestra, is a world class piano concert player and gave us an “unplugged” session for more than an hour. Similar to this credit card advertisement this experience was “invaluable”, nothing that money can buy. All 8 of us in the audience were absolutely stunned and mesmerized to watch her passion and precision.
Given the good weather the last days, I decided to improve my flying skills and went to fly on Thursday, yesterday, today. Yesterday, I took Bernhard, a comrade of mine, for a ride from Augsburg to Leutkirch-Unterzeil, to Füssen (“Neuschwanstein Castle”) and back to Augsburg. Here a view straight out on the Castle, better to view on the maximum resolution here. The entire small picture set of this weekend is here.
Tomorrow, in case the weather is good, I have already scheduled another flight.
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Dear Mr. Seifert,
Greetings from SriLankan Customer Affairs.
We write further to our interim response to you dated 26th July 2007 It is with concern that we noted the points highlighted in your complaint and called in for reports from the relevant department.
Please let me explain the reason for the flight being full despite you reporting on time for the flight. It has become a necessity to overbook certain flights as a result of the significant number of booked customers who fail to show up for their flights. It allows airlines to accommodate the greatest number of customers who want to fly, while solving the costly problem of operating flights with lost seats, also allows airlines to maintain affordable fares. SriLankan, like most airlines, oversells certain flights. The overbooking is carefully calculated based on historical booking data of a given flight, time of the year, market, etc. On those rare occasions when there are too many customers for a flight, we will attempt to solve the problem by soliciting volunteers willing to relinquish their seat and fly later in exchange for compensation. Rarely is a customer obligated to give up a seat on an involuntary basis. However, in either case, compensation is offered and customers are accommodated on the next flight with available seats. On this particular day, our staff had requested for volunteers to relinquish their seats on the said flight. However in the absence of volunteers, we had to regretfully deny boarding some of our valued passengers.
We are extremely sorry if this situation was not handled in a more professional manner. Let us assure that we certainly do not condone any service that fall short of our valued customer expectations and will be taking this issue up with our Airport Services management. Giving due consideration to the inconvenience experienced by you, we are agreeable to offer you 10,000 skywards miles (presuming you are a member of SriLankan, Emirates Airlines frequent flyer program) purely as a gesture of our goodwill. You may redeem the said miles for a return ticket from South India to Colombo. If you aren’t currently a skyward member, you may visit www.skyward.com and join skyward with 3 easy steps that will take about 5 minutes. Please advise us your skywards membership number in order that we may regularize the offer
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any further clarifications. Thank you for writing to us and giving us an opportunity to explain. In conclusion, let me say that I am indeed sorry that we were unable to provide you with a level of service that our customers have come to expect from SriLankan. I am confident that given the opportunity we will be able to redress that the next time you fly SriLankan.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Champika Abeysirigoonawardena
Manager Customer Affairs
SriLankan Airlines
Tel: +94(0)1973 31315
Fax: +94 (0)1973 35145
E-Mail: ckperera [at] srilankan [dot] aero
Web: http://www.srilankan.aero
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