I

would like to publicly thank Lion Air for ruining my birthday celebrations in Lombok this weekend.  I, along with thousands of other passengers, had to endure the painful realization that Lion Air is an organization in chaos.  Once the realization set in that our flight had been canceled, Lion Air workers seemed to vanish into thin air.

After a three-hour delay, we were told that Lion Air would pay for our night'€™s accommodation and transfer us to hotels so we could catch the rearranged flight at 5 a.m.  We were then taken down to the Lion Air office where after 20 minutes the counter staff ran away, issuing no hotel vouchers.  It was 12 a.m. and we decided to pay for a hotel for the 3.5 hour wait.  

We arrived back at the check-in desk, checked in our bags and proceeded with all the other passengers to the holding area. Again, nobody had any information about the flight and passengers were becoming extremely angry.

At this point, chaos ensued, with passengers shouting over the loud speaker, asking Lion Air'€™s management to deal with the problem. Airport security just stood watching.

It was now 6:30 a.m. and no Lion Air staff were at the service counter. No Lion Air flights were departing, so we decided to call it a day. We headed downstairs to collect our bags and saw hundreds of passengers waiting to check in, but only one check-in counter open. After multiple attempts to get my bags back, I ended up paying an official looking man Rp 50,000 and suddenly my bags arrived.

Lion Air is an Indonesian disgrace that needs to be dealt with by the aviation authorities. We have had no communication with Lion Air, or explanation to what happened to our mystery flight. We have lost over US$2,000 in accommodation, transport and airline tickets, with the painful realization that I have to deal with Lion Air in an attempt to get our flight tickets refunded.

 Lion Air needs to do the right thing. Along with all the other passengers, I would like full refunds of all costs associated with this painful trip. Lion Air also needs to take a long hard look at its operating procedures and have plans in place to accommodate passengers quickly once unforeseen circumstances emerge.

Lastly, they need to have a manager at the terminal at all times. It is my belief that a basic lack of leadership caused this problem, with Lion Air workers leaving their posts in the customers'€™ hour of need.  

 Frankly, I do not care what caused the delays. What horrifies me is the complete lack of management with regard to the situation. Passengers were lied to and nobody on the ground seemed to have any authority to make decisions and act on them.

Shame on you Lion Air.

Ricky Green

Jakarta