Kuwait Times, Tuesday, Aug 3, 2021 | Zul Hijjah 24, 1442
Limited seats cause cancelations for many travelers to Kuwait
Kuwait:
An unpleasant
surprise awaited tens of passengers at Beirut airport who were returning to
Kuwait, as they were told their seats were canceled, although their flight was
still flying to Kuwait. They were not the only ones who faced such a problem.
Passengers on various airlines complained of unfair behavior by airlines, which
canceled their seats that they had booked and paid for, although the flight
itself was not canceled.
Kuwait Times spoke to three different people flying on two different airlines
whose seats were canceled. One was only refunded half the price he had paid and
was told his flight was canceled, while in fact it wasn’t. The other two got
full refunds and were offered two seats on the same flight but for a higher
price.
Khaled from Al-Sayed travel agency explained the reason behind this problem.
“This is due to the limited seats on flights to Kuwait on some airlines, which
does not include Kuwait Airways. This quota of only 35 seats was set by the
Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA),” he told Kuwait Times.
These airlines submitted a request to DGCA to increase this quota or cancel it
completely. “Based on this request, these airlines booked the entire flight.
When they received the response from DGCA that their request is rejected, they
canceled the tickets of a majority of passengers who exceeded the 35 seats on
each flight,” added Khaled.
“The passenger should always be offered either a different date without paying
any additional charges or a complete refund. But refunding only half the fare or
offering rebooking for a higher price cannot be acceptable. We haven’t faced
such a situation at our agency,” he concluded.
According to Mohamed from Ritz travel agency, their agency also hasn’t faced
such a problem. But he said they experienced some cases of cancelation of
flights. “We had some clients complaining that after arriving at the airport,
they were told that their flight was cancelled, which caused inconvenience,
especially since they were not informed in advance.
They blame us for not informing them, but it’s the airlines’ fault, who didn’t
inform us in the first place. These passengers will either reschedule their
flights or be fully refunded,” he told Kuwait Times. DGCA Director General
Yousef Al-Fouzan told Kuwait Times that no meeting regarding increasing the
quota for the airlines has been held yet. He also noted that it’s not clear when
this quota will be lifted.