A passenger has vented her displeasure online after a budget airline offered her 2,000 baht in compensation for her badly damaged suitcase and nothing for its banged-up contents including a laptop computer.
Images posted on Pantip.com of the damaged bag, a bent MacBook Air, clothes and other belongings drew widespread comment from users of the popular Pantip.com portal on Saturday.
Pantip user No 3193971 said the incident occurred after she boarded the Thai Smile flight from Phuket to Bangkok on May 5. When she arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport around 11pm, she could not find her suitcase. She immediately alerted the airline and was told that no passengers’ luggage was missing and all bags had been unloaded onto the carousel.
She waited at the airport until 1am but her bag never turned up. Staff of the airline, the budget arm of Thai Airways International, told her to return home and asked for her contact details.
At 5pm the following day she received a call saying her bag had been found but was damaged. When she arrived to pick it up, she found many of her belongings damaged as well.
She said airline staff told her they regretted what had happened and offered her 2,000 baht in compensation for the damaged suitcase. She could also choose a new bag from the airline, they said. However, the airline would not cover damage to the bag's contents.
TNN reported that Thai Smile Airways’ corporate communication section expressed regret over the incident and apologised for the damage caused to the passenger’s luggage.
It said the airline had since contacted the customer to ask for more information and would get back to her by Tuesday with a decision about compensation.