MANDALA AIR

I know , most of you are just like me . Unheard of Mandala Air . When I first heard about it , I don't know which country is this airline from . Which terminal does it land in Singapore , how much is the air fares like , how does the steward and stewardess dress like and other curious questions that you often asked when you never heard of the name .

Don't fret much over it , Mandala Air is just a few days young when I blog this entry . Their very first flight was on the 25th June 2010 at terminal 2 , Singapore . It was one of the lowest fare among Tiger Airways , Lion Air , JetStar and etc . We made a booking to Jakarta for an event held on 26th June 2010 . Because of the misleading website , three of us booked a wrong date but only to realise after we have already confirmed and made the payment . The result ? NO Exchangable , No Refund , No Cancellation . Our money got burnt ! We called Mandala Air at Jakarta to explain the problem and hope they will be able to help and resolve the matter but true to the rules and regulation , we can't get our money back ;(

So we booked again this time . Mr. and me booked the flight within 48 hours because we were too busy beforehand and thought it will be alright to just book later . What happen this time round ? Mandala Air does not accept any credit card payment within 48 hours of travel . We were stucked at moment of seconds . Mr.called Mandala Air to get help . Now , why must we booked Mandala Air , you must think ? Its all due to the time that only Mandala Air being one of the lowest fare , have the time to depart that we want . Period . Mr talked to the staff for 15 minutes and they kept repeating on the problem . No solving is made . Until Mr was so furious hence increase his volume and finally after 18 minutes , the staff told Mr to go to Changi Airport counter to make payment . Booking was already confirmed . Afterwhich , we slept .

The next day when he went to airport to make the payment , he was surprised that Mandala counter have not yet open . So he waited and when its operation starts , the staff told him that he cant make any payment now and come back later 2 hours before we depart to make the payment . Well, our departure time was at 620am . At 4:00 am , we went to make the payment but they couldnt receive our payment because the staff told us that the booking was not confirmed . They couldn't accept us . We were so so so mad !!!! Crazy , isn't it ???

We waited as told by the staff that he will help us to check with Lion Air but can't confirmed if there's any flight to Jakarta . We knew there wasn't any morning flight from Lion Air so we do not want to take any more risked and checked immediately which airline was available there and then . Never mind whether its low fare or not . We just want to be at Jakarta on time . Thanks to our I-Phones for being so helpful .

After all the dramas , we ended up taking GARUDA AIRLINES . Double the price , double the service but we were much way satisfied .

Moral of the story ? Never ever take Mandala Air . We had enough !!