Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

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Tartempion
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Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by Tartempion » March 5, 2019, 4:09 pm

Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

I ran into misery booking a ticket for the 3 of us flying Udon Thani to Suvarnabhumi.
I usually enter my name and birthday first, followed by my wife’s data and then our daughter.
When first entering dates and number of people travelling you now have an option for selecting a senior, which gives a discount.
When confirming passenger data I got an error concerning the senior’s birthdate.
Took me some time to visualize the problem: the senior was second on the list of passengers and my wife is not 60+.
Thus I moved names around, my wife first, myself second and the girl third.
Then I went through the paying process using a credit card and had the flights confirmed.
When I got the email with the tickets I found the error: 2 tickets in my name + my daughter’s
I don’t exactly understand how it went wrong, the shuffling of the names, sure I overtyped passenger 1 with my wife’s data.

Anyway, they have a call center number which I called to ask to correct the tickets.
Well forget it, useless discussion with a lady st the call center: can not do, you need to buy a new ticket for your lady....I called my wife for help which only made it worse, I am too stupid to make an error, should verify before paying, buying a ticket with a travel agent or at the airport is a better thing to do etc etc.

Thus I now sent a mail to support to ask to correct and replace the double ticket.
I don’t think any good will come out of this and will probably need to Buy a 4th ticket.
Damage is not that big, 1250 each, except the senior tarif saves you 130B or so.

So I have 2 tickets in my name so far.
Will update if ever they issue a new ticket to replace the double....



macca46
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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by macca46 » March 5, 2019, 4:31 pm

I gave up flying with them in 2014 after they cancelled the then early flight at 7.20 am left stranded at swampy for 7 hours no notification I now fly to DM a bit earlier and bus it to swampy.

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tamada
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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by tamada » March 5, 2019, 4:51 pm

macca46 wrote:
March 5, 2019, 4:31 pm
I gave up flying with them in 2014 after they cancelled the then early flight at 7.20 am left stranded at swampy for 7 hours no notification I now fly to DM a bit earlier and bus it to swampy.
So after only ONE canceled flight, you prefer to spend an extra 45 - 60 minutes on a bus between airports?

"...left stranded..." LOL

As granny used to say, "There's nowt queerer than fowk."

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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by tamada » March 5, 2019, 5:04 pm

Unfortunate mistake with the OP's booking though. Sometimes on a slow internet connection, all sorts of grief can be experienced. I had a similar challenge with a different airline's website but luckily I caught the error before the payment/issue bit. If the booking webpage doesn't have a native, built-in 'back' button, then using the browser back arrow can create the problems the OP encountered. Rule of thumb, if there's no built-in back button (or if in doubt), better to close the booking page and start over. AirAsia's earliest online booking experience was really bad as you ended up filling in the 3 or 4 pages of flight and pax details and if it fell over at the last 'Pay' stage (and it frequently did), then starting over was mandatory.

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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by Tartempion » March 5, 2019, 5:44 pm

I am extremely careful when entering booking data but still things can go wrong.
Today I first booked 10 nights at a Koh Samuel hotel, followed by checking timings to Suvarnabhumi from Udon, then checking the best fitting flight with Bangkok Airways to Koh Samui (they have a monopoly there, thus no competition, thus very expensive) then I booked our tickets to Ko Samui and continued with booking the first part of the trip Udon Thani to Suvarnabhumi. At 3600B for the 3 of us not worth the hassle with bussing from DMK to BKK.
Something with the senior fare changed the order of things: senior name came second and I replaced te main passenger with my wife’s name.

Anyway I got a phone call from Thai Smile call center to change the name of te double passenger.
And although I sent them a mail with all 3 names and birthdays we went through a long conversation spelling my wife’s name PRAPHAPHON to a Thai person....
Went on hold with music for 5 minutes, came back for some more questions, long music again and confirmation email will be sent in a few minutes.

Mail showed 3 tickets, my daughter ticket gone and replaced by my wife....she being the main passenger now.

Decided to give it a rest for the day and checked names at Smile website with booking number and main passenger, did not work with wife’s name but with mine and all names look correct, not the electronic tickets they mailed. Go figure how all this gets mixed up and does not correspond to the 6 tickets I have in my inbox now... I hope all will run smoothly at check in, remember we continue to Koh Samui...

Still need to decide return Bangkok to Udon, in April all flights expensive nearing Songkran...
Need to check options to bus to DMK, but these flights might be also expensive.

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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by macca46 » March 5, 2019, 5:57 pm

My choice TOMATO I have all the time in the world.

Your granny obviously never told that 'sarcasm is the lowest form of wit'.

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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by MusicalBars » March 5, 2019, 6:33 pm

but wit of any kind is an achievment

Tartempion
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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by Tartempion » March 6, 2019, 4:43 pm

Checked booking via Manage Booking and I find 3 correct names, only one wrong birth date.
Not going to worry for that.
Thus the man from the call center who called me did a decent although long during job.
The first lady I called at their call center was incompetent and my. Wife was defending her...

For the return Swampy-Udon I booked Smile also, found saving 2k baht with bus transfer and extra time not worth the hassle.

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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by tamada » March 9, 2019, 9:43 pm

macca46 wrote:
March 5, 2019, 5:57 pm
My choice TOMATO I have all the time in the world.

Your granny obviously never told that 'sarcasm is the lowest form of wit'.
Obviously.

No, she never did. But my school pal Alec Innes's foster mum used to say, "Self praise is nae honour."

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Re: Thai Smile: don’t make an error when booking!

Post by Tartempion » January 6, 2020, 6:29 pm

Well we need to fly to Bangkok again over a weekend.
Compared Nok Air, Thai Lion Air (did not have a return flight that evening) and Air Asia.
Nok Air was the biggest pain in the @, lowest fare added 3x 15kg bags, a whole exercise to delete 2x2 15kg bags, needed to cancel insurance, pay for seat selection and finally pay 120 pp/flight to pay with credit card for zero service on board.
Thus finally booked in 5 minutes time with Thai Smile, 500B more expensive, but all inclusive 3x20 kg, one 20 kg bag being more than we need for 2 nights away, drinks, sandwiches and coffee included.

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