Энэ МИАТ-с болж сайн жуулчидаа гомдоох явдал гарах юм даа.



Dear Suugii

As you know, I have left SYSTRA Korea and I am taking some holidays before deciding together with SYSTRA my next position.

My first holidays were in Mongolia as I told you on the phone. As usual (it was my 3rd trip here), I really enjoyed the Mongolian hospitality and the wonderful landscapes; I went as far as the extreme western part of the country and visited the Tavan Bogd National Park. However, I faced a double incident and as I know that you have high level counterparts in the Mongolian administration, could you please give me a favour and transmit this message to them. Obviously, I do not expect any kind of compensation but I just want to inform about Mongolian Airlines (lack of) service, (hostile) attitude towards their passengers and (dis-)honesty. I know that this story (actually the 2nd incident) seems unbelievable but it is absolutely true and I wish that other people do not suffer the same problems with MIAT (for me, it will be anyway a life-time boycott of this company)

1st problem: the flight from UB to Olgii on June 10 (with MIAT of course).
We arrived around 6.30 for a schedule departure time at 8. The screens were unfortunately rescheduling it at 11; it later appeared that they knew that 11 was the check-in time, and that the departure was re-scheduled at 1 (it thus deprived us from the possibility to go back to UB for rest and breakfast). Finally, they started a first boarding around 1, without any word of explanation (we cannot even think about apologies) but the bus which carried us then remained 15 minutes near the plane with closed doors (there was no air-con and the temperature on that day was near 35) before heading back to the airport, always without any kind of explanation or apology. The second boarding was successful and we could finally depart at 2 (thus with 6 hours delay) but as there was no information on the failure of the first boarding, all foreign passengers, including me, were fearing a technical problem of the plane and I was on the verge of giving up this trip and going back to UB.
Obviously, we arrived safely in Olgii 4 hours later and I will not elaborate on the poor quality of on-board service and of the plane since I could easily guess it before the trip and therefore cannot complain about it.

2nd problem: the flight between Olgii to UB on June 21
I thought it could not be worse, I was absolutely wrong. The ticket which was issued by MIAT themselves indicated a departure time at 17.35. We confirmed the flight according to the rules and arrived at the airport at 15.30 (more than 2 hours before); no staff from MIAT was there; only a very unpleasant security staff told us that the check-in was completed. It was impossible to get any kind of explanation from no one and when after a long argument, my guide could finally access the MIAT staff in the boarding zone, the guy told her that the check-in was completed, he refused to give any explanation and when she asked about alternatives (other flights in Olgii or neighbouring cities) he just replied that he was busy and asked her to go away.
Fortunately with the help of friends in UB, I could get the information that an Aero-Mongolia flight was available in Khovd the following morning and thus had to pay for the trip between Olgii and Khovd by car. The flight with Aero Mongolia was good, with a short delay but an excellent plane and on-board service.
The story is not over as when I went to MIAT office in UB for reimbursement of the flight, MIAT retained 50 $ for the cancellation fees arguing that we arrived too late at the airport. 17.35 was actually UB time, thus making it the only place where the departure time is not the time of the departing airport. Even though MIAT rules stipulate that the check-in closes 30 minutes before departure and that we also respected this rule, they dared applying a cancellation fee due to the passengers fault. It is not the first time that I see a company doing Overbooking but it is definitely the first and probably only time when I see Overbooking + Cancellation Fee due to the passeger's fault.

I am going to broadly relay this story but I would like to know the feeling of the Mongolian administration about that. Is it really the way for Mongolia to become a touristical place? Do they approve MIAT commercial attitude?

A last thing about our common business in Korea. I read the news about our selection and am very glad that our partnership was successful. Let's hope that there will be others in the future.

All the best and thanks in advance for the transmission of this message.

With my best regards,

Jean Maurice