AS A.
Despicable experience - lack of enforcement of safety procedures during critical phases of flight, non-functional seats in the aircraft and lack of customer service in reimbursement or cancellations.
1. Serious onboard defects and safety-confidence concerns Flight crew did not enforce safety requirements during landing, taxi or take-off. The aircraft and flight were affected by multiple operational issues on the plane, including but not limited to: 1) Inoperative electronic seat controls across all seats 2) Passengers remaining in fully horizontal lie-flat positions during takeoff and landing phases 3) At least one lavatory with non-functioning sink faucet, requiring improvised handwashing The presence of fully horizontal seats during takeoff and landing, particularly in the context of known seat-control failures, represents a serious deviation from standard safety procedures and resulted in a full loss of confidence in the operator’s adherence to safety and operational standards. Documentary evidence I have photographic evidence taken onboard showing passengers lying in fully horizontal lie-flat positions during a critical phase of flight. The photo metadata indicates a created timestamp of 05:06 (Central European Time, my phone's timezone as it was in airplane mode), which further confirms the landing phase at the Red Sea technical fuel stop, based on the flight timeline. Passengers remained sleeping horizontally on non-functional seats (the seats could not be put in their upright position due to an electronic problem in the cabin; each seat needed to be manually manipulated). This evidence demonstrates that the cabin was not in the required upright-seat configuration during landing, further reinforcing my loss of confidence in the operator’s adherence to standard safety procedures. 2. Delays with no compensation Flight B4081 departed from Milan (EU) with a scheduled arrival in Malé at 14:05 and arrived at approximately 17:30, resulting in a delay of over 3 hours at final destination. As no extraordinary circumstances have been communicated, I requested €600 compensation per passenger, payable in cash (direct deposit), in accordance with EU Regulation EC 261/2004. The customer service has been “reviewing” the case for over 2.5 months. For an elite airline, this is absolutely atrocious. 3. Needless to say further direct and foreseeable financial loss caused by the delay also not compensated. Due to the late arrival in Malé, I missed my pre-arranged speedboat transfer, which is the only means of reaching my island destination in the Maldives. As a direct consequence: I was unable to reach my booked hotel on the scheduled day I permanently lost one prepaid hotel night, which was non-refundable and could not be used I therefore requested full reimbursement of the unused prepaid hotel night, as this loss was a direct and foreseeable result of the flight delay. This claim has also been left for 2.5 months as “open”. What kind of investigation is necessary for such a simple case is unclear. 4. Reimbursement for a cancellation of the return flight is also in question as customer service is not responding. Due to the loss of confidence in the airline and crew to safely operate flights, I opted to cancel my return leg of the ticket. I was promised a reimbursement according to their policy (with a fine of 750 EUR) BUT given the exhorbitant price of the ticket, I still am in the right to a reimbursement of €519.36. Their customer service left the email communication on a cliffhanger of that it should be reimbursed in 45 business days. Why such a long delay and not a single answer following the cancellation. Absolutely no service whatsoever.