Stranded Citilink passengers file complaints

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TUBAN: Dozens of Garuda Indonesia Citilink passengers trying to fly to Jakarta filed protests at Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sunday after their tickets were declared forfeit.

On Sunday, a Garuda Citilink officer closed the check-in counter for Citilink flight GA 083 bound for Jakarta an hour prior to the 11:15 a.m. flight.

Dozens of passengers, who claimed to have been queuing for about an hour at the check-in counter, were then declared late and their tickets were considered invalid.

“We have queued for some time, and suddenly the counter was closed. If we indeed came late [to the check-in counter], the fault is ours, and we will accept the consequence of that mistake. Now, there are dozens of passengers who have queued for a long time [at the counter] but are declared late,” said passenger Prima Yosephine, 40, who had bought four Citilink tickets, each costing Rp 1.1 million, for the Jakarta flight.

After a time of uncertainty, the stranded passengers were promised seats on a later flight at 7:05 p.m.

A similar incident also saw dozens of passengers waiting for the Citilink GA 099 flight for Surabaya, which was scheduled at 12:15 p.m., declared late, despite the fact that they had already been queuing for a long time at the check-in counter

Garuda Indonesia’s Citilink representative office in Denpasar was still unreachable for comment, despite repeated attempts by Bali Daily.