Customer Service Review: GMG Airlines

Business: Budget airline
Location: Bangladesh
Website: Don't really care

The Situation:

2 weeks before Chinese New Year, my family decides to go to Bangkok for a quick holiday. Of course, because it's already so near to the holiday and it's peak season, flights were expensive. However, my dad excitedly told us one day that he'd found a cheap option: GMG Airlines, which offered return flights on our chosen days at just about RM800 per person all in.

To start with, we're not that fussy. I've been flying Air Asia since it started and had just a small fleet of propellor planes. We're no strangers to budget airlines, and I'm grateful for their existence since they mean I can fly to a whole lot of places for cheap. So we were equally happy that we'd got a good deal on flights.

KL to Bangkok

Our flight was supposed to be at 8am, meaning checking in at 6am, meaning leaving at 5am to get to the airport on time. You can imagine how unimpressed we were when we got there bleary-eyed and sleepless and discovered that the flight was delayed from 8am to 3pm. So we went home, got some more sleep and came back for the flight.

This time, there were no issues and the food was actually pretty good.

Bangkok to KL

So our flight back was supposed to be at 8.40pm. If all went according to plan, we figured I could get home by 12am and get a good night's rest for my first day on the new job the next day.

• 8.00pm - No gate had yet been assigned to the flight. Boarding was supposed to be at 8.10pm.
• 8.15pm - Notice comes up: Delayed until 9.30pm
• 9.30pm - No gate assigned to the flight yet. Dad calls GMG's airport manager in Malaysia (we got his number so that we could call ahead and make sure the flight was on schedule to leave).
• 9.45pm - Notice comes up: Delayed to 11pm. Airport staff have no idea what's going on. GMG's Thai airport manager calls my dad to explain that he has no idea what's going on. The plane left Dhaka for Bangkok but turns back. He's frustrated - wants to quit.
• 11.30pm - Against all odds, the plane actually leaves.

So what happened was - by the time I got home and got into bed, it was 5am. I had to go into my first day of work on 1 hour of sleep. Thanks a lot, GMG!

The verdict:

It doesn't matter how cheap a GMG flight is - they're not worth the money!