Etsi halvat lennot: Citilink

Plussat: I have traveled to over 60 countries and I’m not prone to negative feedback but checking in a bag on Citilink in Phnom Penh was the most unhelpful customer service situation I’ve ever experienced. The Citilink website indicated one charge (which I had prepared for) for excess weight of luggage but the check-in counter charged more and only in US cash - so when I could not get my pin to work to get the additional cash, they sat back, grimaced at me, and told me they really didn’t care, I’d have to leave my bag, they couldn’t let me pay in IDR (rupiah) or pay in Jakarta, didn’t have credit card to let me charge, or pay pal, Venmo, or any other way to pay. The airport cashier wouldn’t exchange rupiah. Again, they didn’t care. One woman told me I could wire her the money into her personal bank account, though. The cashier just told them to bring my bags out and told me I should just take them back, whatever, call someone. If I left them, I asked how I would pay because they only take cash and in Phnom Penh, but they couldn’t answer. They couldn’t even lend me a bag to take things out of my bag. Luckily, I was wearing a scarf and used it be a makeshift bag for myself to unpack enough from my suitcase to bring the bag down to the amount of cash I had. I barely was able to board my flight. Of all these people, one of the ticket gentlemen was kind enough to walk me through to board the plane, apologizing for everyone.

Miinukset: Citilink is a budget airline and I get that they keep overhead down with charging people for luggage but they need to do 2 things; put the costs of their charges on their website for consistency and to support the customer experience, have at least one credit card option in an airport ticket booth. Help their employees be better than that kind of behavior. In this day and age, Paypal credit card app processing can even be done on a phone. There’s zero reason to not allow at least some flexibility with payment, even if it’s processed on their website.