A new employee, of Changi Airport, Honey Aung, has saved the day for newspaper editor Alan Kirk who was stranded because of flight problems.
Alan tells the story.....
This is a story of how a 21-year-old Changi Airport staff member gave a master class in customer support when faced with a traveller whose nine-hour trip was turning into the prospect of a 36-hour sleepless nightmare.
Honey Aung came to the rescue when the Kuala Lumpur leg of my overnight trip from Perth to Phnom Penh, was delayed and Malaysia Airlines scrambled to get passengers on other flights.
Malaysia Airlines rebooked me on Singapore Airlines flights from KL to Singapore and then to PP. But as luck would have it, the first leg of this flight was also delayed and I missed the second one.
So there I was in Changi Airport with no working phone and the Singapore Airlines transfer desk telling me to call Malaysia Airlines to sort it out.
This is where Honey, centre in the picture, performed heroics on Changi’s customer support desk.
She battled to get through to Malaysia Airlines customer support and explained my predicament in multiple calls over three hours. When Malaysia Airlines suggested I pay for the last leg myself because I was a no-show at Changi she fought back, arguing that this was because their plane was delayed.
Honey sent colleagues around the airport trying to find an open Malaysian booking desk. She checked the details of my problem with the Singapore Airlines transfer desk and used the information to press Malaysia Airlines staff into getting me on to another flight.
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She remained patient when Malaysia Airlines booked me on flights back to KL with an overnight stay at the airport and on to PP, then changed its mind and said this was not possible.
All the while, she, and trainee Olivia, right, were fielding questions from queues of travellers with problems of their own. Tharushi, with the title Changi experience ambassador on the left, was working away in the background, trying to solve my problem.
Honey stuck with me when I resisted Malaysia Airlines’ suggestion that I go through immigration to argue my case at their desk on the public side of the airport.
What made Honey’s performance extraordinary was that it was only her second week on the front line after three months of training at the airport.
The trio’s success is the reason I wrote this from a hotel bar. Malaysia eventually caved in and put me up at the Grand Mercure Roxy for the night with dinner, taxis to and from the airport and a flight rebooked to Phnom Penh in the morning.
Changi was awarded the World's Best Airport title in 2023 at the World Airport Awards. This is why.
EDITOR: Thanks Alan for a great story.
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