I am scheduled to travel on JAL Oct 15 and Nov 1 (Chicago to Tokyo). This is a connecting flight from Madison WI (American Airlines).
I just spent almost an hour on hold with JAL while I listened to offensive repetitive static-filled Muzak, awaiting a human being. All I was trying to do was find the seat assigned to me.
When the representative finally answered the phone I was told that unless I had paid $300-500 more than I had paid for my seats, I could get no answer to my question.
This is despicable customer service. I am not a wealthy person and that amount of money is considerable for me. I travel a lot, but can not afford frivolous expenses, and what you are asking is frivolous. I will never again use JAL!
vadim
1.0
Don’t know who rated JAL as one of the top airlines but I flew some of such and it is not even close. Once you get on board you probably will be fine, its clean and service is as was promised. However, no less important in my view is the whole experience with your trip, which include dealing with ‘off-the plane’ services. Unless you need just plain vanilla flight LAX-Tokyo or similar you are in trouble. In my case I needed to fly from LAX to Okinawa and then several flights between islands. Not wishing to pay $50 per ticket for the privilege of buying the ticket old way, over the phone (yes, seemingly taking practice – make customers pay before they even bought anything yet for the fact of paying for the merchandize – genius), I went to their web site. Ok, multi-destination would not work, giving some cryptic errors. Explore Japan (for island hopping discount) generally does not work. When it did work for at least flight from Tokyo to Okinawa it was more expensive then just regular direct flight. After spending hours on trying to buy tickets and calling customers service I finally was able to buy islands flights separately by going to Japanese site and guessing through kanji how to order it there. Then I just bought direct round trip ticket to Okinawa and back. Only discovering later on that flight ‘from there’ is not actually the same as ‘to there’. They offer several flights on the site and choosing the one looking good in terms of connection time I did not realize that its actually into wrong airport (?) and requires a transfer from Haneda to (whatever is this other international airport in Tokyo). Now why it is offered, while there are multiple flights through the proper airport, and with no warning, is just in line with overall service the website provides. Considering my window time is a little over 3hrs and I need to collect luggage, drive on bus over 1 hr to another airport, check-in luggage I have a pretty good chance to miss the flight. And JAL solemnly stated they will not be responsible if I missed my flight. Nor they would even help with the transfer. Nor they would change my ticket to the flight for my airport. Unless I pay exorbitant $600+ rebooking fee. Waiting time on the phone to customer service was over 1 hr several timed I called, one time dropping my call after 1 hr waiting. When I decided to submit a letter with my dissatisfaction to JAL it let me fill out the form on site and write a letter and why I clicked ‘submit’ button I only got a cheerful message that I don’t have access to send emails from their server. Frankly, at this point, I don’t really care of the in-flight service – this is a last time I deal with this company. I could fly Cathay Pacific. Am I sorry I decided to fly JAL instead.
Erica
1.0
I regret not reading these comments before we booked a flight with JAL. My husband and I booked our first leg with JAL for our honeymoon. We went onto their website for the booking. At no point during the booking process are we informed about not being able select seats on the flight until check-in, period. But that ended up being the case. We called up JAL and their response was that we probably missed the bit where we are informed about no seat selection possible. We went back and went through the online booking process again and cannot find the statement where we are informed about their seat selection policy for that flight.
When it comes to seat selection, we feel that if this is a short flight, fine. If JAL is a bare bones budget airline, then fine. If this is not our honeymoon, then fine. Except this will be a long haul, international flight with a supposed 5-star service airline for our honeymoon. JAL is beyond disappointing for us in the booking process, not only are we not informed about critical information that could help us decide otherwise, we cannot seem to get any help in correcting a situation that we did not create.
So to sum up, only fly JAL if you are aware their online booking can miss critical pieces of information (such as no seat selection available until flight check-in time). When something goes wrong pre-flight, you may likely be dealing with rigid, non helpful customer service.
Rina Millare
5.0
Hi. We took JAL in September last year for a Mnl- New York- Chicago- Manila trip. It took some time for me to raise this. The first leg of the trip was great however coming home, at OHare Airport, my husband and I had the misfortune of getting checked in by a male agent, probably of Japanese descent. He was very condescending. I asked if he could direct me to a Priority Pass lounge and he said that my ticket does not give me access to a lounge. True. I told him it’s for Priority Pass. Still he refused to help. When I requested for better seats for Narita- Manila as the seats he gave us were at the second to the last row of the plane, he again refused and said he cannot help. What happened to Japanese service and hospitality? I hope you do something about this. You see, it doesn’t help the brand for JAL personnel to be arrogant and condescending. Thus, when we flew to London in July 2018 we didn’t take JAL.
Bryan C Christensen
5.0
Website is awful for booking. Actually it does not even work. Customer service has no clue what to do. Use a better airline if possible.
John Cornell
5.0
Ref RJLPMK JL2503 KIX-CTS 2018-09-16
I was to arrive on QF33 SYD-KIX on 2018-09-15 and then travel on to New Chitose Airport the following day. Because of the closure of Kansai Airport, Qantas has generously transferred me to QF79 arriving NRT 2018-09-15.
I rang your 03-6733-3062 English line to change my flight to Sapporo to leave from Tokyo. I was offered a flight from Osaka-Itami or cancellation and pay full cancel fees. A third option of a one-way fare at nearly 25,000yen from Haneda was also offered, but I had to pay fully for that over the phone.
Given that I cannot get a flight to fly from Australia into either Kansai or Itami to get an onwards flight to Sapporo from Osaka, I think it was a bit customer-unfriendly to expect me to travel from Narita to Itami on the Sunday morning to get a flight to Sapporo and not even offer a full refund.
I was, and still am, surprised you are not offering customers flights out of Tokyo when your OneWorld partner is flying its Kansai customers into Narita or Haneda. in this emergency.
Hon-Siong Chan
5.0
I booked my flights from Melbourne Australia to Tokyo Japan next year April and selected our seats upon its launch of the journey. There are 4 seats in rows 19 & wo and we selected windows so our kids can enjoy the sky view.Lately I received notification from JAL that it was reconfiguring the seats and our selected seats are now reclassified as premium economy instead of economy. We are now moved all the way to back of the aircraft and in the middle aisle. JAL told me they cannot do anything. This is like a deceptive plan and they didn’t honor their product
Niko Gianno
5.0
My name is Niko Gianno and I am flying tomorrow 29th from Tokyo haneda to London Heathrow. I am writing this complaint bcz I am so unsatisfied with your services. 2 weeks in advance I wanted to change my ticket, and the customer service produced so many problems, firstly without being able speak proper English. The process alone took over 2 hours. And we pay for calling.After changing the ticket, there was no email confirmation to verify the change. In that process I asked to have an exit seat, and they said they will look into it. Yesterday trying to check my ticket I couldn’t access it through your website, so I called again, and again I asked for an exit seat, cz I am tall, and they said they will look into it. I try to check in now and I see that my seat is in the middle row in the middle seat. The worst seat possible. Why is your services so poor? What am I going to say to someone if they ask me about JAL and my flight experience? Why is it so hard to have proper communication? You are an international airline. Coming from Japan nonetheless, where everything is supposed to work sublime. This is the first time ever I have made a complaint. Truly horrible service. Any other airlines in the world would not treat people the way you have, and if there were any problems, they would upgrade the flight and the seat of the passenger. Customer satisfaction is key to successful business. What do you think I should say to any reviews about JAL? Please upgrade my seat as requested 2 weeks prior. Contact me at my email [email protected].
Very disappointed
Niko Gianno
GOPA KUMAR
5.0
ATTN : JAL AIRLINES AND AMERICAN AIRLINES
This is a complaint to highlight the stress that was caused to me and my family by American Airlines operated by JAL.
We arrived at the JAL counter for checking in JL 8416 on the appointed date and were informed that we cannot board the flight by the counter person (Ms saraha )as we did not have a transit visa of Japan Narita to HND for our onward flight JL 8401 to SFO USA (PNR XJUSAA) . She also checked with her supervisor and he also did not have much clarity on this .
We were advised to cancel the tickets , On their advise that there is no option , I called my travel agent in India and asked for a cancellation , which was done and I lost Rs 40,266 in the process . However after cancellations the counter person of JALcame loking for us and said that there was a mistake and we indeed could board the aircraft as transit can be arranged . I got in touch with my India agents Cleartrip , but they stated there is no way to reverse the cancellations , I requested the JAL officials for reenstating us but they also said they could not do any thing , I wanted to meet the top officials but was informed that they would not be available .
It seems obvious that it was a process lapse and training issue by the JAL personnel and supervisor at KUL airport which led to creating a unfortunate experience for myself and family .
Therefore , I would want an response , action and your revert on the damages caused .
I had paid a total fare (Travel agent India cleartrip ID 18050656276 ) of INR 1,34,166 (Rupees one lakh thirty four thousand one hundred and sixty six only ) after cancellations fees charged by the airline of INR 40,266 ( Rupees forty thousand two hundered and sixty six ) i received the balance .
Also since i was with family & virtually stranded , I had to book the next available airline to SFO via NRT on All Nippon PNR EHCDBM on NH7967 and onward UA 838 to SFO on 24th June 2018 . I paid INR 2,09,999 (Rupees Two Lakh nine thousand nine hundered and ninty nine only ) for the urgent booking made( Travel agent trip ID 18062375720).
N. Smith
1.0
I contacted JAL service number to get a seat assignment for a first class ticket After a grueling 50 minute wait, the JAL attendant proceeded to tell me that she could not assign seat because it is a code-share flight. her English was acceptable, nevertheless, I could not help feeling like I was talking to a robot, for she kept repeating the same response over and over, and not offering any options or other possible venues to assign the seat, how complicated can that be?
I called the ORIGINAL booking airline AA as well as MALASYA, and got the same response, well at least Malasya said, sometimes they can assign seats for JL, and sometimes they can-not, for this flight they could not.
Now, if these flights were free or next to nothing, I would understand the lack of service for something quite simple. Bt that is not the case.
WILL NEVER FLY THESE AIRLINE AGAIN
Never again JAL, NEVER AGAIN American, I am donating my american airlines miles to some poor organisation who will get some awful flights upon redemption.
Ren
1.0
Counter service of JAL has always been inconsistent.
Either they speak broken English which sounds rude or newbies asked for unnecessary travel documents which makes whole check in process unpleasant. Please train your staffs properly if you wish to be on par with best airlines like Emirates, and Singapore Airlines. Throw your Japanese ego away and learn from the best.
Rajeev Kaul
5.0
I , Rajeev boarded flight JL 740 from New Delhi to Tokyo on 20th May’18 , had the seat as 17K. I use JAL everytime over Thai , Cathay or Air India because of the courtesy of the staff. But this time , i had a bad experience, when i collected my baggage , i found that it was damaged , it’s pull handle could not be opened whereas it was working fine when i gave it to the ground staff at the boarding counter. Further more on checking, i could find that the lower stand were damaged too. As i was tired because of the overnight journey , i preferred to go to Hotel rather than making a complaint. I am writing this to JAL so that someone listens . I have my return journey on coming Saturday in JAL but now i am thinking whether i should use their services or shift to some other airways once for all.
Sarah Edge
1.0
This one-star rating is for their customer service.
I waited on hold for 1 hour and 45 minutes for their Mileage Department. No one picked up.
I called again the next day to try to reserve a ticket through their Ticketing Department. 1 hour and 35 minutes later someone picks up.
They barely apologize. They do not answer questions directly. They don’t offer any help. They have to transfer me to the Mileage Department. I ask how long I’ll have to wait and cite how long it took the previous day. They can’t answer. They don’t know. They transfer.
Lo and behold I’m on hold again for God knows how long.
Worst. Customer. Service. EVER. I’d give them negative stars if I could.
Worst of all there is no option for me to handle this myself online.
Suri Omar
5.0
Upset with main dish (not so tasty and bored menu), fresh cut fruit was not a fresh cut fruit, when other people got their dessert (Hagen dazz ice cream) we got nothing as we paid same price ticket as non Muslim passenger so I felt very frustrated…I’m hungry in flight so I asked flight attendant for extra bread but she said no extra food for Muslim menu and only got chocolate bread..then I asked back if bread is ok or not for halal menu but she said she was not sure about it… Staff should be more sensitive with Muslim passengers…I felt so frustrated that all this happened..this was my 2nd experience with Japan Airlines (before this Bangkok to Osaka on 27 March…again food issues) I assumed Japan Airlines is one of the best airlines but after all this it is changing my view.
VINCENT LEE
5.0
I am writing this because I was on hold for approximately 45 minutes with Customer Service. I gave up and hung up. Do you not have a queue to monitor customer wait times like many other industries do? I also noticed that this form is not to be used to voice complaints about reservations, seat availability and reservations changes. What’s the use of this form if most of your complaints surround these areas? Why do you even have a customer concern form? Before I continue, I want to emphasize that before I booked a flight with JAL, I did it because of JAL’s reputation as a great airline to travel on. My perspective has changed 180 degrees. Here is why.
I booked my flight from PHX to TPE departing 30/4 and returning on 17/5, reservation. Unlike other airlines, JAL indicates ‘NO SEAT ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE UNTIL 24 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE.” This is absolutely absurd! I travel a lot and I’ve never experienced the inability to obtain a seat assignment no matter how many days prior to departure.
Has it ever occurred to you that telling passengers to reserve their seats 24 hours in advance of departure will cause a huge BOTTLENECK of people trying to get an assigned seat? I’ve already spent 45 minutes on hold calling your U.S. contact with no answer. Have you considered a “call back” system whereas customers can hang up and get a call immediately without having to stay on their phones indefinitely? Who runs your airline?
I want an aisle seat assignment on flights JL815 (KIX to TPE) and on JL60 (KIX to LAX) on the dates listed in my itinerary. If you cannot accommodate a seat assignment, I want the option of obtaining a FULL REFUND immediately so I can book a flight with another carrier.
Your seat assignment policy is so absurd that I fail to see how your airline remains in business. Maybe I’ve been lucky on international flights before, but I’ve never had a problem booking and confirming a seat well in advance of 30 days before my flight’s departure. I do fly internationally a lot!
I hope you will have the foresight and courtesy to assign me a seat or simply lose a my business forever. And, please don’t forget that social media is a good way to get people’s attention about your seat reservation policies. My intuition tells me if the public knows this, they’ll go with another airline.
I appreciate your willingness to read this. Thank you;.
Vincent
Chris Liell-cock
5.0
Japan Airlines cancelled a flight from Narita to Sydney overnight 22 Jan 18 and has done nothing to help my daughter Greta get a seat after 18 hours. This is terrible service! Not even a hotel to stay in or meals just a sleeping bag and sort yourself out. Disgraceful
Mlives
I had the same experience, with the return flight on 23 Jan 18 also cancelled. Fortunately I had booked through Flight Centre, and they spent between 3 am and 6 am getting my booking back to Boston sorted using Qantas. No notification; nothing, it was just by chance i checked the flight status online at 3 am to learn the flight was cancelled. Very disappointing.
Amritpal Buttar
5.0
I took JAL from Delhi to Narita on the 18’th. Bad experience with the staff at the Airport check in. family of 4 with little kids where put on separate seats, staff was uncooperative to help us find seats together. even the the staff sitting far away dealing with other customers where getting involved in the ordeal to support there pears. Totally unprofessional and humiliating in front of other passengers, there should be some one from higher management watching over them. The second bad experience was on Flight JL18 from Narita to Vancouver on the 19’th. unprofessional flight attendant. if they where told what she had said or done is not right the only excuse they came with was sorry no English. Its an international flight, staff should be able to communicate in an international language, instead was told to and learn Japanese. What?? The flight attandant with which i had the most issue with was R4 Chen SS Sha. I took the matter to the senior Attend (CH Shimizu Hiroe) and explained her my concern and the Humiliation i was put through. She listen to my concern but was unable to resolve the situation. so i had no choice but to official put in my complain. I had travelled on JAL my times but never had such a bad experience. hope some one looks in to this matter and come up with a satisfactory answer. Thanks
Stephanie Ang
5.0
I have been corresponding to Machi of this email ([email protected]). Ref:566040.
I have booked a return flight from Singapore to Osaka on 17 Nov 17. On my return trip from Osa to Sin on 23 Nov 17, I found out only from your confirmation letter via email that there is a change of airport required from Haneda to Narita. The time given for me to allow the change of airport is 3hr 20mins. As a passenger who is having a vacation, I certainly do not want to stress myself and my family (booked 6 pax including my children and mum) to rush from one airport to another with such short allowance. This has really dampened a holiday which I have been planning and looking forward.
(1) The reply I got from Machi was a standard apology letter with no sincerity in solving my problem. Even in his email, he has recognised the fact the that the website instruction was not clear and as a passenger doing the booking, I have to ensure that I read your small print (which I later found that I need to open up an icon (+) to note the different in airport.).
(2) Machi mentioned in the reply that JAL has acknowledged that my experience will definitely be shared with the different departments as part of the service improvement work system. To me, as a customer, I certainly do not wish my bad and unpleasant booking experience by just a part of your service improvement process. I would be happy is JAL could appreciate my feedback by offering some of form of service recovery plan by giving me a waiver or alternative which is acceptable to all parties.
(3) This is my first booking with JAL. I certainly hope that my experience with your company is pleasant one.
Joanne Tapel
1.0
I had a connecting flight from Chicago to Philippines and suppose to have a layover of 3hours….the layover turned into 7days. Japan Airlines is trying to keep foreign passengers in there horrible country. I had been held here with my family for 7days. My daughter had a cold and was told to take her to the doctor there and get a medical certificate. The doctor examed her and said it was just a cold. And so they kept us from flying still. We were not appropriately dressed for the cold weather due to us flying to the tropics. So my daughter got sicker while in Japan and the day we went back to airlines she got so sick. I told them I would take her back to the doctor again to get proper care and medicine. She got her medical certificate like they asked for and medicine. Came back a third time and they said now that she is better we still had to wait 3more days to fly. It was so disheartening and disappointed in Japan Airlines. They gave terrible service by making us run around and making my daughter go from having a cold to catching a flu in Japan. I will never again fly with Japan Airlines and will tell all my family members friends and will blog about this awful experience with them. I will spread the word to never fly with Japan Airlines or go to Japan. It is a horrible country full of sick people.
Mrs. Flecher
5.0
JAL Airline (American Airline): July 7, 2016@10:50 am-Tokyo to Washington, DC. Purchased 4 tickets-Frequent Flyer from Japan to the USA. Observed flight attendant and a customer continuously speaking negatively about another JAL customer. Ironically, one hour towards the end of the flight, the flight attendant approached me. In clear English, she said, “Thank you for stop kicking the chair.” I responded, I regret that I do not know what you are talking about. She replied, “Oh you don’t know and made a facial expression of mockery and quickly walked off.” I was disappointed in her actions as she behave unprofessionally and belligerently in the presence of my children, husband and other customers.
After that interaction, I spoke to another flight attendant and explained what happened and she apologized. I explained that I would like to file a complaint because I was errantly singled out, harassed and embarrassed in the presences of my family and others nearby. Coincidentally, the person who she sent over to assist me with filing a complaint was the same flight attendant who committed the infraction upon me. Her explanation for her actions was that the lady in front of me said I was kicking her chair. First of all, I am a 49 year old professional who lives and travels abroad frequently who exercises cultural sensitivity wherever I may go. Secondly, I found her explanation to be in error because there was a man in front of me. Thirdly, this was a 13 hour flight and no one informed or confronted me of such an allegation. I recapped and reiterated to her the inappropriateness and unprofessionalism in her actions. Additionally, I told her that she was not honest and that she was lying about the turn of events as well as I do not appreciate being connected with such silliness. Then she stated that her English is not that good and she does not speak well. Nevertheless, she was abundantly clear and bold in publicly relaying and imposing her negative accusations against me for whatever reason she deemed necessary. In closing, I was highly disappointed in the humiliating and unprofessional behavior of your JAL flight attendant. Kindly note, that I am reporting the incident solely because I do not want your other customers to be singled out and entangled in the lowering of dignity.
I am scheduled to travel on JAL Oct 15 and Nov 1 (Chicago to Tokyo). This is a connecting flight from Madison WI (American Airlines).
I just spent almost an hour on hold with JAL while I listened to offensive repetitive static-filled Muzak, awaiting a human being. All I was trying to do was find the seat assigned to me.
When the representative finally answered the phone I was told that unless I had paid $300-500 more than I had paid for my seats, I could get no answer to my question.
This is despicable customer service. I am not a wealthy person and that amount of money is considerable for me. I travel a lot, but can not afford frivolous expenses, and what you are asking is frivolous. I will never again use JAL!
Don’t know who rated JAL as one of the top airlines but I flew some of such and it is not even close. Once you get on board you probably will be fine, its clean and service is as was promised. However, no less important in my view is the whole experience with your trip, which include dealing with ‘off-the plane’ services. Unless you need just plain vanilla flight LAX-Tokyo or similar you are in trouble. In my case I needed to fly from LAX to Okinawa and then several flights between islands. Not wishing to pay $50 per ticket for the privilege of buying the ticket old way, over the phone (yes, seemingly taking practice – make customers pay before they even bought anything yet for the fact of paying for the merchandize – genius), I went to their web site. Ok, multi-destination would not work, giving some cryptic errors. Explore Japan (for island hopping discount) generally does not work. When it did work for at least flight from Tokyo to Okinawa it was more expensive then just regular direct flight. After spending hours on trying to buy tickets and calling customers service I finally was able to buy islands flights separately by going to Japanese site and guessing through kanji how to order it there. Then I just bought direct round trip ticket to Okinawa and back. Only discovering later on that flight ‘from there’ is not actually the same as ‘to there’. They offer several flights on the site and choosing the one looking good in terms of connection time I did not realize that its actually into wrong airport (?) and requires a transfer from Haneda to (whatever is this other international airport in Tokyo). Now why it is offered, while there are multiple flights through the proper airport, and with no warning, is just in line with overall service the website provides. Considering my window time is a little over 3hrs and I need to collect luggage, drive on bus over 1 hr to another airport, check-in luggage I have a pretty good chance to miss the flight. And JAL solemnly stated they will not be responsible if I missed my flight. Nor they would even help with the transfer. Nor they would change my ticket to the flight for my airport. Unless I pay exorbitant $600+ rebooking fee. Waiting time on the phone to customer service was over 1 hr several timed I called, one time dropping my call after 1 hr waiting. When I decided to submit a letter with my dissatisfaction to JAL it let me fill out the form on site and write a letter and why I clicked ‘submit’ button I only got a cheerful message that I don’t have access to send emails from their server. Frankly, at this point, I don’t really care of the in-flight service – this is a last time I deal with this company. I could fly Cathay Pacific. Am I sorry I decided to fly JAL instead.
I regret not reading these comments before we booked a flight with JAL. My husband and I booked our first leg with JAL for our honeymoon. We went onto their website for the booking. At no point during the booking process are we informed about not being able select seats on the flight until check-in, period. But that ended up being the case. We called up JAL and their response was that we probably missed the bit where we are informed about no seat selection possible. We went back and went through the online booking process again and cannot find the statement where we are informed about their seat selection policy for that flight.
When it comes to seat selection, we feel that if this is a short flight, fine. If JAL is a bare bones budget airline, then fine. If this is not our honeymoon, then fine. Except this will be a long haul, international flight with a supposed 5-star service airline for our honeymoon. JAL is beyond disappointing for us in the booking process, not only are we not informed about critical information that could help us decide otherwise, we cannot seem to get any help in correcting a situation that we did not create.
So to sum up, only fly JAL if you are aware their online booking can miss critical pieces of information (such as no seat selection available until flight check-in time). When something goes wrong pre-flight, you may likely be dealing with rigid, non helpful customer service.
Hi. We took JAL in September last year for a Mnl- New York- Chicago- Manila trip. It took some time for me to raise this. The first leg of the trip was great however coming home, at OHare Airport, my husband and I had the misfortune of getting checked in by a male agent, probably of Japanese descent. He was very condescending. I asked if he could direct me to a Priority Pass lounge and he said that my ticket does not give me access to a lounge. True. I told him it’s for Priority Pass. Still he refused to help. When I requested for better seats for Narita- Manila as the seats he gave us were at the second to the last row of the plane, he again refused and said he cannot help. What happened to Japanese service and hospitality? I hope you do something about this. You see, it doesn’t help the brand for JAL personnel to be arrogant and condescending. Thus, when we flew to London in July 2018 we didn’t take JAL.
Website is awful for booking. Actually it does not even work. Customer service has no clue what to do. Use a better airline if possible.
Ref RJLPMK JL2503 KIX-CTS 2018-09-16
I was to arrive on QF33 SYD-KIX on 2018-09-15 and then travel on to New Chitose Airport the following day. Because of the closure of Kansai Airport, Qantas has generously transferred me to QF79 arriving NRT 2018-09-15.
I rang your 03-6733-3062 English line to change my flight to Sapporo to leave from Tokyo. I was offered a flight from Osaka-Itami or cancellation and pay full cancel fees. A third option of a one-way fare at nearly 25,000yen from Haneda was also offered, but I had to pay fully for that over the phone.
Given that I cannot get a flight to fly from Australia into either Kansai or Itami to get an onwards flight to Sapporo from Osaka, I think it was a bit customer-unfriendly to expect me to travel from Narita to Itami on the Sunday morning to get a flight to Sapporo and not even offer a full refund.
I was, and still am, surprised you are not offering customers flights out of Tokyo when your OneWorld partner is flying its Kansai customers into Narita or Haneda. in this emergency.
I booked my flights from Melbourne Australia to Tokyo Japan next year April and selected our seats upon its launch of the journey. There are 4 seats in rows 19 & wo and we selected windows so our kids can enjoy the sky view.Lately I received notification from JAL that it was reconfiguring the seats and our selected seats are now reclassified as premium economy instead of economy. We are now moved all the way to back of the aircraft and in the middle aisle. JAL told me they cannot do anything. This is like a deceptive plan and they didn’t honor their product
My name is Niko Gianno and I am flying tomorrow 29th from Tokyo haneda to London Heathrow. I am writing this complaint bcz I am so unsatisfied with your services. 2 weeks in advance I wanted to change my ticket, and the customer service produced so many problems, firstly without being able speak proper English. The process alone took over 2 hours. And we pay for calling.After changing the ticket, there was no email confirmation to verify the change. In that process I asked to have an exit seat, and they said they will look into it. Yesterday trying to check my ticket I couldn’t access it through your website, so I called again, and again I asked for an exit seat, cz I am tall, and they said they will look into it. I try to check in now and I see that my seat is in the middle row in the middle seat. The worst seat possible. Why is your services so poor? What am I going to say to someone if they ask me about JAL and my flight experience? Why is it so hard to have proper communication? You are an international airline. Coming from Japan nonetheless, where everything is supposed to work sublime. This is the first time ever I have made a complaint. Truly horrible service. Any other airlines in the world would not treat people the way you have, and if there were any problems, they would upgrade the flight and the seat of the passenger. Customer satisfaction is key to successful business. What do you think I should say to any reviews about JAL? Please upgrade my seat as requested 2 weeks prior. Contact me at my email [email protected].
Very disappointed
Niko Gianno
ATTN : JAL AIRLINES AND AMERICAN AIRLINES
This is a complaint to highlight the stress that was caused to me and my family by American Airlines operated by JAL.
We arrived at the JAL counter for checking in JL 8416 on the appointed date and were informed that we cannot board the flight by the counter person (Ms saraha )as we did not have a transit visa of Japan Narita to HND for our onward flight JL 8401 to SFO USA (PNR XJUSAA) . She also checked with her supervisor and he also did not have much clarity on this .
We were advised to cancel the tickets , On their advise that there is no option , I called my travel agent in India and asked for a cancellation , which was done and I lost Rs 40,266 in the process . However after cancellations the counter person of JALcame loking for us and said that there was a mistake and we indeed could board the aircraft as transit can be arranged . I got in touch with my India agents Cleartrip , but they stated there is no way to reverse the cancellations , I requested the JAL officials for reenstating us but they also said they could not do any thing , I wanted to meet the top officials but was informed that they would not be available .
It seems obvious that it was a process lapse and training issue by the JAL personnel and supervisor at KUL airport which led to creating a unfortunate experience for myself and family .
Therefore , I would want an response , action and your revert on the damages caused .
I had paid a total fare (Travel agent India cleartrip ID 18050656276 ) of INR 1,34,166 (Rupees one lakh thirty four thousand one hundred and sixty six only ) after cancellations fees charged by the airline of INR 40,266 ( Rupees forty thousand two hundered and sixty six ) i received the balance .
Also since i was with family & virtually stranded , I had to book the next available airline to SFO via NRT on All Nippon PNR EHCDBM on NH7967 and onward UA 838 to SFO on 24th June 2018 . I paid INR 2,09,999 (Rupees Two Lakh nine thousand nine hundered and ninty nine only ) for the urgent booking made( Travel agent trip ID 18062375720).
I contacted JAL service number to get a seat assignment for a first class ticket After a grueling 50 minute wait, the JAL attendant proceeded to tell me that she could not assign seat because it is a code-share flight. her English was acceptable, nevertheless, I could not help feeling like I was talking to a robot, for she kept repeating the same response over and over, and not offering any options or other possible venues to assign the seat, how complicated can that be?
I called the ORIGINAL booking airline AA as well as MALASYA, and got the same response, well at least Malasya said, sometimes they can assign seats for JL, and sometimes they can-not, for this flight they could not.
Now, if these flights were free or next to nothing, I would understand the lack of service for something quite simple. Bt that is not the case.
WILL NEVER FLY THESE AIRLINE AGAIN
Never again JAL, NEVER AGAIN American, I am donating my american airlines miles to some poor organisation who will get some awful flights upon redemption.
Counter service of JAL has always been inconsistent.
Either they speak broken English which sounds rude or newbies asked for unnecessary travel documents which makes whole check in process unpleasant. Please train your staffs properly if you wish to be on par with best airlines like Emirates, and Singapore Airlines. Throw your Japanese ego away and learn from the best.
I , Rajeev boarded flight JL 740 from New Delhi to Tokyo on 20th May’18 , had the seat as 17K. I use JAL everytime over Thai , Cathay or Air India because of the courtesy of the staff. But this time , i had a bad experience, when i collected my baggage , i found that it was damaged , it’s pull handle could not be opened whereas it was working fine when i gave it to the ground staff at the boarding counter. Further more on checking, i could find that the lower stand were damaged too. As i was tired because of the overnight journey , i preferred to go to Hotel rather than making a complaint. I am writing this to JAL so that someone listens . I have my return journey on coming Saturday in JAL but now i am thinking whether i should use their services or shift to some other airways once for all.
This one-star rating is for their customer service.
I waited on hold for 1 hour and 45 minutes for their Mileage Department. No one picked up.
I called again the next day to try to reserve a ticket through their Ticketing Department. 1 hour and 35 minutes later someone picks up.
They barely apologize. They do not answer questions directly. They don’t offer any help. They have to transfer me to the Mileage Department. I ask how long I’ll have to wait and cite how long it took the previous day. They can’t answer. They don’t know. They transfer.
Lo and behold I’m on hold again for God knows how long.
Worst. Customer. Service. EVER. I’d give them negative stars if I could.
Worst of all there is no option for me to handle this myself online.
Upset with main dish (not so tasty and bored menu), fresh cut fruit was not a fresh cut fruit, when other people got their dessert (Hagen dazz ice cream) we got nothing as we paid same price ticket as non Muslim passenger so I felt very frustrated…I’m hungry in flight so I asked flight attendant for extra bread but she said no extra food for Muslim menu and only got chocolate bread..then I asked back if bread is ok or not for halal menu but she said she was not sure about it… Staff should be more sensitive with Muslim passengers…I felt so frustrated that all this happened..this was my 2nd experience with Japan Airlines (before this Bangkok to Osaka on 27 March…again food issues) I assumed Japan Airlines is one of the best airlines but after all this it is changing my view.
I am writing this because I was on hold for approximately 45 minutes with Customer Service. I gave up and hung up. Do you not have a queue to monitor customer wait times like many other industries do? I also noticed that this form is not to be used to voice complaints about reservations, seat availability and reservations changes. What’s the use of this form if most of your complaints surround these areas? Why do you even have a customer concern form? Before I continue, I want to emphasize that before I booked a flight with JAL, I did it because of JAL’s reputation as a great airline to travel on. My perspective has changed 180 degrees. Here is why.
I booked my flight from PHX to TPE departing 30/4 and returning on 17/5, reservation. Unlike other airlines, JAL indicates ‘NO SEAT ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE AVAILABLE UNTIL 24 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE.” This is absolutely absurd! I travel a lot and I’ve never experienced the inability to obtain a seat assignment no matter how many days prior to departure.
Has it ever occurred to you that telling passengers to reserve their seats 24 hours in advance of departure will cause a huge BOTTLENECK of people trying to get an assigned seat? I’ve already spent 45 minutes on hold calling your U.S. contact with no answer. Have you considered a “call back” system whereas customers can hang up and get a call immediately without having to stay on their phones indefinitely? Who runs your airline?
I want an aisle seat assignment on flights JL815 (KIX to TPE) and on JL60 (KIX to LAX) on the dates listed in my itinerary. If you cannot accommodate a seat assignment, I want the option of obtaining a FULL REFUND immediately so I can book a flight with another carrier.
Your seat assignment policy is so absurd that I fail to see how your airline remains in business. Maybe I’ve been lucky on international flights before, but I’ve never had a problem booking and confirming a seat well in advance of 30 days before my flight’s departure. I do fly internationally a lot!
I hope you will have the foresight and courtesy to assign me a seat or simply lose a my business forever. And, please don’t forget that social media is a good way to get people’s attention about your seat reservation policies. My intuition tells me if the public knows this, they’ll go with another airline.
I appreciate your willingness to read this. Thank you;.
Vincent
Japan Airlines cancelled a flight from Narita to Sydney overnight 22 Jan 18 and has done nothing to help my daughter Greta get a seat after 18 hours. This is terrible service! Not even a hotel to stay in or meals just a sleeping bag and sort yourself out. Disgraceful
I had the same experience, with the return flight on 23 Jan 18 also cancelled. Fortunately I had booked through Flight Centre, and they spent between 3 am and 6 am getting my booking back to Boston sorted using Qantas. No notification; nothing, it was just by chance i checked the flight status online at 3 am to learn the flight was cancelled. Very disappointing.
I took JAL from Delhi to Narita on the 18’th. Bad experience with the staff at the Airport check in. family of 4 with little kids where put on separate seats, staff was uncooperative to help us find seats together. even the the staff sitting far away dealing with other customers where getting involved in the ordeal to support there pears. Totally unprofessional and humiliating in front of other passengers, there should be some one from higher management watching over them. The second bad experience was on Flight JL18 from Narita to Vancouver on the 19’th. unprofessional flight attendant. if they where told what she had said or done is not right the only excuse they came with was sorry no English. Its an international flight, staff should be able to communicate in an international language, instead was told to and learn Japanese. What?? The flight attandant with which i had the most issue with was R4 Chen SS Sha. I took the matter to the senior Attend (CH Shimizu Hiroe) and explained her my concern and the Humiliation i was put through. She listen to my concern but was unable to resolve the situation. so i had no choice but to official put in my complain. I had travelled on JAL my times but never had such a bad experience. hope some one looks in to this matter and come up with a satisfactory answer. Thanks
I have been corresponding to Machi of this email ([email protected]). Ref:566040.
I have booked a return flight from Singapore to Osaka on 17 Nov 17. On my return trip from Osa to Sin on 23 Nov 17, I found out only from your confirmation letter via email that there is a change of airport required from Haneda to Narita. The time given for me to allow the change of airport is 3hr 20mins. As a passenger who is having a vacation, I certainly do not want to stress myself and my family (booked 6 pax including my children and mum) to rush from one airport to another with such short allowance. This has really dampened a holiday which I have been planning and looking forward.
(1) The reply I got from Machi was a standard apology letter with no sincerity in solving my problem. Even in his email, he has recognised the fact the that the website instruction was not clear and as a passenger doing the booking, I have to ensure that I read your small print (which I later found that I need to open up an icon (+) to note the different in airport.).
(2) Machi mentioned in the reply that JAL has acknowledged that my experience will definitely be shared with the different departments as part of the service improvement work system. To me, as a customer, I certainly do not wish my bad and unpleasant booking experience by just a part of your service improvement process. I would be happy is JAL could appreciate my feedback by offering some of form of service recovery plan by giving me a waiver or alternative which is acceptable to all parties.
(3) This is my first booking with JAL. I certainly hope that my experience with your company is pleasant one.
I had a connecting flight from Chicago to Philippines and suppose to have a layover of 3hours….the layover turned into 7days. Japan Airlines is trying to keep foreign passengers in there horrible country. I had been held here with my family for 7days. My daughter had a cold and was told to take her to the doctor there and get a medical certificate. The doctor examed her and said it was just a cold. And so they kept us from flying still. We were not appropriately dressed for the cold weather due to us flying to the tropics. So my daughter got sicker while in Japan and the day we went back to airlines she got so sick. I told them I would take her back to the doctor again to get proper care and medicine. She got her medical certificate like they asked for and medicine. Came back a third time and they said now that she is better we still had to wait 3more days to fly. It was so disheartening and disappointed in Japan Airlines. They gave terrible service by making us run around and making my daughter go from having a cold to catching a flu in Japan. I will never again fly with Japan Airlines and will tell all my family members friends and will blog about this awful experience with them. I will spread the word to never fly with Japan Airlines or go to Japan. It is a horrible country full of sick people.
JAL Airline (American Airline): July 7, 2016@10:50 am-Tokyo to Washington, DC. Purchased 4 tickets-Frequent Flyer from Japan to the USA. Observed flight attendant and a customer continuously speaking negatively about another JAL customer. Ironically, one hour towards the end of the flight, the flight attendant approached me. In clear English, she said, “Thank you for stop kicking the chair.” I responded, I regret that I do not know what you are talking about. She replied, “Oh you don’t know and made a facial expression of mockery and quickly walked off.” I was disappointed in her actions as she behave unprofessionally and belligerently in the presence of my children, husband and other customers.
After that interaction, I spoke to another flight attendant and explained what happened and she apologized. I explained that I would like to file a complaint because I was errantly singled out, harassed and embarrassed in the presences of my family and others nearby. Coincidentally, the person who she sent over to assist me with filing a complaint was the same flight attendant who committed the infraction upon me. Her explanation for her actions was that the lady in front of me said I was kicking her chair. First of all, I am a 49 year old professional who lives and travels abroad frequently who exercises cultural sensitivity wherever I may go. Secondly, I found her explanation to be in error because there was a man in front of me. Thirdly, this was a 13 hour flight and no one informed or confronted me of such an allegation. I recapped and reiterated to her the inappropriateness and unprofessionalism in her actions. Additionally, I told her that she was not honest and that she was lying about the turn of events as well as I do not appreciate being connected with such silliness. Then she stated that her English is not that good and she does not speak well. Nevertheless, she was abundantly clear and bold in publicly relaying and imposing her negative accusations against me for whatever reason she deemed necessary. In closing, I was highly disappointed in the humiliating and unprofessional behavior of your JAL flight attendant. Kindly note, that I am reporting the incident solely because I do not want your other customers to be singled out and entangled in the lowering of dignity.