The problem that I currently have is not a cancelled or delayed flight with PIA, rather a cancelled booking that I did not authorise and that has left me twiddling my thumbs in Lahore. It might make some people think twice before deciding to fly with PIA when they start from Sydney. The email I sent last week (on the way to Pakistan) when I found out about the mysteriously cancelled booking, is followed by the message I sent to their customer care department today, the day I was supposed to fly.
30/09/22
Dear Sirs,
8CS25Z
Unfortunately, this refund transaction has been processed incorrectly. I have today seen that my entire booking has been cancelled. This is not what I wanted. Please note the following:
-The original booking included the return leg on PK604 on 11th October
-Your website informed me that the flight PK604 was cancelled and I had rebooking options
-I chose PK602 on the same day 11th October (07.55)
- I was wrongly charged $39.20 (Australian dollars) for a change fee. It should not have happened because the airline cancelled the flight.
-I wrote to customer care to ask for it to be refunded.
-I received the refund of this amount in my credit card account.
-At the same time, I see that a further ‘refund’ amount of approximately $152.40 has been paid to my account.
I check my booking 8CS25Z and I see that the booking has been entirely cancelled. This is absolutely NOT what I wanted to do.
-Please reinstate the chosen booking at the original cost. To confirm, the flights should be:
05/10 Wed PK605 ISB - GIL 09.50 AM
11/10 Tues PK602 GIL-ISB 07.55 AM
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest possible convenience.
Regards,
Stephen Griffiths
05/10/22
Dear Sirs,
I write with reference to 8CS25Z. The departure date from Islamabad was today, but PIA inexplicably cancelled my booking. I came to Pakistan specifically to fly to Gilgit.
I realised that the booking had been cancelled during a stopover on my way to Pakistan from Australia. After arriving in Lahore, I visited the PIA office to sort the issue out. I had already written an email to customer care asking for the booking to be reinstated, but had received no reply. the gentleman in the Lahore office tried his best to help, but as it was an online booking , he could not issue me new tickets and, more alarmingly, told me that all flights were now sold out. He did try to call customer care for me twice, but was cut-ff each time.
Now, I find myself in Pakistan with no feasible way to get to the far north in the short time available to me. PIA resold the seat that I had booked and paid for.
What really is unpardonable is that PIA has not had the courtesy to reply to my email with an explanation of what happened. Even the amount paid to my credit card account (I refuse to call this a ‘refund’) for the cancelled booking was not equivalent to the amount originally paid.
I require you to reply to this message with an explanation of the situation and how you propose to solve it.
Stephen Griffiths
