From:

FUNG Chi Wood (Mr.)

xxx Hong Kong.

Tel: (852) xxx    Fax: (852) xxx

Email: xxx @xxx.com

Website: fungchiwood.com

 

28 November 2007

Members of Legislative Council, HKSAR: Hon Emily Lau, Hon Sin Chung-kai, Hon LEE Cheuk-yan, Hon Andrew CHENG Kar-foo, Hon LEE Wing-tat, Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung, Hon Albert HO Chun-yan, and Hon Albert CHAN Wai-yip.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I sent a complaint letter to KLM, but the reply by KLM was far from satisfactory. Then I wrote again to wish for much better answer.

I hereby sent the relevant documents to you.

I pledge you to look into my case and ask the Airport Authority Hong Kong and government departments to follow-up.

Here is the summary of my case:

1.          I and my wife came to the boarding gate of KLM on 26 December 2006 at 1058 hours, 12 minutes before the scheduled departure time. But the gate was closed and I and my wife were refused boarding. We missed the flight, although we arrived before departure time, and we did not receive warning that the gate would be closed before departure time.

2.          The KLM staff and HIAS staff was very impolite and unhelpful to us, at our request to re-opening the gate, and to help us to catch another flight. The KLM did not have enough and appropriate staff to assist us in this situation.

3.          We asked for help at the information desk of the airport but no assistance could be offered.

4.          We did not get any free of charge offer by KLM, but instead were asked to buy another costly tickets in order to proceed our journey. Thereby we lost our time and money, and endured much longer traveling in the air since we had to take extra flights.

6.          Since different airlines have different gate closing times, this create a lot of confusion and inconvenience for the travellers. We should have a standard gate closing time at our International Airport for all airlines. We should also ask all airlines to put clear warnings on the boarding passes about the gate closing time.

7.          If oversea travellers missed their flight because of the confused gate closing time, this would damage our travel industry. It is necessary to make sure no passengers will miss their flights because of the mismanagement of the airlines. I hope you would look at the past statistics of passengers who missed their flights and find out the reasons behind. I believe gate closing arrangement should be improved and standardized.

Thanks a lot for your kind attention.

With best wishes!

Yours truly,

(Signed)

FUNG Chi Wood

Encl.

My first letter to KLM

KLM’s reply

My second letter to KLM