By Kwan Kim Huah

As I read from The Star on April 28 that cases of profiteering increasing food prices have seen a rise during the MCO despite a decline in demand of essential items, I felt the same goes to our national carrier MAS.

A one-way economy class ticket on MH003 direct from London to KLIA scheduled on April 28 cost GBP1,387 (about RM7,826) on April 23 when the same ticket cost less than GBP700 (about RM3,850) in March.

Many Malaysian parents like us are trying to bring home their children from UK during the coronavirus pandemic. We felt that MAS took advantage of our anxiety as we saw our Malaysia High Commission London FB posting on April 15 that MAS' last two flights were scheduled on April 21 and 28, and advised Malaysians to book their tickets in advance because there would be no flights for the months of May and June. As we all know, there aren't many airlines flying during the pandemic either.

To make the situation worse, we found out from the Malaysia Quarantine Center Support Group FB on April 28 at 04:32 UK time that MAS suddenly announced flight delay of MH003 from 22:40 on the same day to 10:00 the following day UK time, a delay of almost 12 hours.

MAS should understand that many Malaysians have to travel from other parts of UK to Heathrow to catch this flight, and the last-minute flight delay of 12 hours has caused unnecessary inconvenience and anxiety as many have to look for accommodation at the last moment, when most hotels near airport are closed amid the London lockdown.

If this flight was advised by Malaysia High Commission for Malaysians to take as posted in their FB, one would have thought that our government has coordinated carefully this last flight with MAS, and any last-minute delay of more than four hours should have been avoided.

At the same time as MAS delayed the flight, MAS lowered the price online by 44% from GBP1,387.06 on April 23 to GBP773.66 at about 13:45 Malaysia time, and another 10% to GBP640.66 at about 18:00 on April 28 Malaysia time.

Immediately we wrote to MAS by e-mail and FB requesting for refund as written in our entitlement on our ticket. However, to our surprise MAS replied that they did not allow refund but would 'gladly' credit us with GBP318 for the price difference of GBP746.40! Their offer is totally unacceptable as they have the upper hand and pay us as they like and when they like.

We also called the Global MAS Center and were told to do any cancellation and re-purchase online ourselves. When we asked the personnel online to help us change our ticket to the lower fair ticket to speed up the transaction at this late stage, they apologized for not being able to help.

MAS, sorry no cure for robbing our money and give such poor service!

We thought MAS' hefty price was to help cover their cost for compliance to the 1.0 meter distance seating arrangement to avoid close contact, but to my dismay MAS went all out to cash in during the last 48 hours before flight departure to fill up all their empty seats!

Why would MAS carry out their misdeeds heartlessly to their own citizens during the pandemic when we have been supporting you all these years and don't forget all the bill-outs by the government using taxpayers' money. Many times we would have flied with our neighboring countries' airlines and enjoy better meals but instead we choose to fly with you MAS, a full-service airline just because we are children of Malaysia and You are supposed to be the "flag carrier" of Malaysia. We are sorry that you are making losses in your business all these years but cashing in during pandemic will tarnish your goodwill completely.

Can the domestic trade and consumer affairs minister look into this or should federal enforcement director do something under Anti-Profiteering Act?