Previously Dinh had bought eight tickets at a Vietnam Airlines booth in the city’s Tan Son Nhat airport. The six adults and two kids were waiting to get on a plane departing at 5.30am when they were called back to the booth on the speaker system.
The staff then told them the airfares were miscalculated and they had to pay VND1 million (US$50) more to be able to fly.
Dinh and his family did not agree with the staff’s explanation. Both sides consequently got into a fight, resulting in Dinh and his family missing their flight. However, they later got on a flight at 8.45am and did not have to pay any extra money.
Ngo Thu Hien, head of ticket sales and booking in the Vietnam Airlines southern office, told Tuoi Tre after checking the system that it turned out to be a mistake of their staff. The head of the ticket sales at the airlines booth in Tan San Nhat airport has already called to apologize to the customers for all the trouble.
“We will wait until they come back to Ho Chi Minh City to meet in person and say sorry for the inaccurate action of our staff,” she said.
The employee, who just started working three months ago, was new to the ticket system and did not know about different fares for economy tickets. Worried about having to compensate for the loss, the worker did not act appropriately and caused misunderstanding.
The staff at the ticket booth later tried to move the passengers to the 6.10am flight, but could not do so.
“The responsibility is on the employee who miscalculated, as well as the manageron duty, who did not solve the problem flexibly. We will draw a lesson from this,” Hien said.