Customer Experience From Hell: How Malaysia Airlines and Turkish Airlines Left Me Stranded and Speechless

We’ve all got our fair share of travel horror stories.

Missing hotel reservations. Lost passports. Dodgy cabbies that take you on a ‘tour’ of the city.

Canceled flights no doubt feature high on that list.

And while I understand that cancellations happen for numerous reasons, it’s how airlines deal with cancellations that ultimately matters.

It’s not what people say or do that we remember, but ultimately how they make us feel.

And the way I was made to feel after catching a recent codeshare flight with Turkish Airlines and Malaysia Airlines from Istanbul to Melbourne was horrible.

Ultimately, after rescheduling my connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne by a whole 24 hours, I turned up to the airport the following day to learn that my booking hadn’t been ticketed, even though I had an itinerary and had paid for said ticket, and was told to simply step aside by Malaysia Airlines with little effort made to help me if not for my persistence.

But it wasn’t just that. I identified far too many customer experience fails along my entire journey that, in 2024, truly make the mind boggle — especially when you consider how contrary my experience was with the marketing materials these and all airlines put out.

If what I experienced is Malaysian Hospitality, I don’t want it.

Here’s a step-by-step look at what happened, my experience, and what they could have done better. Heck, these airlines should consider this a free consulting report.

The cancellation

1. Original flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne canceled

I received an email and text message from Malaysia Airlines three days before my scheduled flight to Melbourne, informing me that it was canceled and that I would instead be flying 24 hours later.

Said email didn’t make any sincere effort to apologize for the inconvenience caused, nor did it

Offer alternative travel arrangements or compensation were offered, despite the fact that I’d be stuck in Kuala Lumpur for 24 hours.

2. Malaysia Airways refuses compensation, passes the buck

I called MA’s call center, and after explaining the situation repeatedly, was told that because this was a codeshare booking, they couldn’t do anything and that it was Turkish Airlines’ problem and that I should call them. Apparently the fact that the email and SMS came from Malaysia Airlines meant little.

3. Turkish Airways refuses compensation, passes the buck

TA’s call center essentially passed the buck back to MA, telling me that because this was a Malaysia Airlines operated flight, they should compensate me and that the blame lies with them. They also suggested reaching out to the travel agent, in this case, Expedia, and asking them.

4. Expedia refuses compensation, passes the buck

Like TA and MA before them, Expedia simply said that the fault lied with the airlines, and that I should contact them for compensation.

After all of this, I had no choice but to spend time organizing my own accommodation and transfers, and hope that my travel insurer American Express, doesn’t find some loophole to avoid covering my costs.

Checking in to the subsequent Malaysia Airways flight

Having arranged my own accommodation, I made the most of my 24 hours in KL — eating local food, and in the interest of seeing as much as possible in the little time I had, going on my first ever Hop On Hop Off bus (tell me you’re a tourist without telling me you’re a tourist, right?!).

I enjoyed the day, but after several weeks in Europe, I was itching to get back home and crank myself back into sixth gear work mode. Wishful thinking.

5. Ticket doesn’t exist…what?!

Malaysia Airlines’ self-service counter queues were curiously longer than their human-operated ones, so I took the old route.

After waiting about 30 minutes, I got to the front of the line only to be told that my flight hadn’t been ticketed. They could see my booking reference, they could see that I was booked on the flight, but repeatedly told me that Turkish Airlines had not ‘ticketed’ the flight, whatever that actually meant, and that there was nothing Malaysia Airlines could do.

I had my reservation, booking reference, itinerary, proof of payment, but none of this mattered, and nobody at the check-in counters seemed to care.

They refused to take ownership, and instead told me to call Turkish Airways.

Strangely, while the MA check-in staffer was on the phone, she looked at me and gave me the thumbs up, not once but twice. This put me at ease and gave me a false sense of hope, only to then give me a piece of paper with Turkish Airlines phone number on it. What the?!

Not once did anybody say sorry or extend any understanding or empathy, not just in this step or throughout the entire process.

6. Turkish Airways call center tells me to “leave feedback”

With time against me, I respectfully (or not so respectfully in truth) withdraw from the check-in line, and retreat to a quiet corner of the airport to call Turkish Airways. After a long wait, I get through, explain the situation, and again, I’m told there’s nothing they can do, and that it’s Malaysia Airlines’ problem.

Worst of all, the customer service rep keeps telling me to simply “leave feedback on our website”.

What?! Check-in for my flight home to Melbourne, a good 8 hour flight away, closes in one hour, and you think me leaving feedback on your website is going to achieve anything? What a kick in the teeth.

I then asked the TA rep to speak with a member of the MA check-in team, which he refused to do, and kept telling me that he had to get off the line, ‘serve’ other customers, and that again, I should leave feedback on the website.

Wow!

7. MA check-in counter escalation

Now, at this point in the journey, I was getting, shall we say, a little annoyed, and a little less diplomatic than I normally am and try to be.

So I made my way back to the front of the MA check-in line, and demanded to speak with an apparent higher-up, and explained that TA said it was MA’s responsibility to ticket and board me.

The higher-up again passed the buck, referring me to the Turkish Airways service desk at the airport.

Of course, I had to ask where that was exactly because for whatever reason he assumed I had that knowledge.

8. Turkish Airways service desk

I explain the situation for the upteenth time that evening, and after some back and forth I’m given a piece of paper with their extension number, and told to see the Malaysia Airways ticket desk, and that MA should call said extension.

Feels like we’re finally getting somewhere.

It’s an hour later, and only 45 minutes until check-in closes, but it feels like I’m making headway here!

9. Malaysia Airlines ticket desk

Despite the MA check-in team twice telling me they couldn’t do anything, and constantly referring me back to Turkish Airways, the Malaysia Airways ticket desk did issue me with a ticket so I could finally board the plane, but not before taking about 60 minutes to do so — making about half a dozen calls throughout the process to figure out how to do so, ultimately meaning that I had missed my flight, and putting me on a flight the following morning, a good 35 hours after my original scheduled departure time.

Not only that, but after being issued with the ticket, I had to ask for alternative travel arrangements to be made. It’s an airlines responsibility to do so when there are delays of more than 4 hours, and so after a further 15 minutes, I was referred back to the MA check-in counter to arrange accommodation and transport for the night.

Observation: throughout these 60 minutes, MA made no effort to update me, showed no sense of urgency. No handover was made from MA ticketing to MA check-in counter, meaning that I had to explain the situation all over again once I visited the MA check-in desk.

10. MA check-in desk

Again, I had to explain the situation, and advised them to call MA ticketing for more info. They eventually got through, after 10 minutes or so, issues my boarding pass for the following morning, checked in my bag, and issued me with hotel, transfer, and food vouchers for the night.

It was 11pm by this point, I had been at the airport wresting with staff for 3 hours, and had to be up at 5:30am. Said airport food vouchers were basically pointless because I had to go “right now” to get my transfer to the hotel — which was a good 30 minute drive away — where the restaurant was closed, and room service was not covered. Awesome. Good thing I fast regularly.

The next day, with boarding pass in tow, I had a much smoother time at the airport, and made my way in early to the airport lounge, where I got to reflect on this entire journey, and write this article while it was all fresh in my mind.

Below are my recommendations of what Turkish Airlines and Malaysia Airlines in particular can do better to truly live up to the customer experience promises of their marketing campaigns.

Recommendations

1. Take ownership and accountability of the entire journey, even if it is a codeshare
2. Actually demonstrate understanding, empathy, and say “sorry” when things go wrong — throughout my ordeal there was no sense of empathy whatsoever from MA or TA staff
3. Aim to have one point of contact throughout a process, or where this is not possible, handover a customer to the next team, explaining the situation so that the customer doesn’t find themselves explaining themselves literally a dozen times or more
4. Building upon point 4, instead of telling a customer that has clearly purchased a ticket to call another airline, call the airline on the customer’s behalf, and explain the situation.
5. Ensure your staff understand processes and who is responsible for what — my entire ordeal could have been smoother if the MA check-in staff were aware that MA could indeed issue me with a ticket, instead of passing the back to TA, and if they had done so sooner I might’ve got my boarding pass in time to get on the flight
6. Provide updates to a customer instead of leaving them in the dark when trying to resolve a problem. I had to ask for updates while at the MA ticket counter, while minutes to check-in ticked down, and my frustration slowly increased.
7. Ensure your staff are proficient in English and actually listen. I had to explain myself repeatedly and many a time it seemed like staff simply did not understand what I was saying. Other times I had to repeat information I had already entered online.
8. Don’t give customers false hope or set high expectations (don’t give them silly thumbs up when you haven’t sold the problem and are instead going to simply tell them to call another airline!).
9. Go out of your way to make wrongs right. In this case, MA could have issued a flight voucher (even Jetstar, a budget carrier does this) to extend the olive branch and increase the chances that I’d give them another shot in the future (now very unlikely). They could have also upgraded my ticket if space was available. Simple gestures that would have gone a long way.
10. Disrupted customers shouldn’t have to ask for alternative arrangements or compensation. It should automatically be offered either by systems or people when certain criteria is met.
11. Offer customers official documents supporting disruptions to support travel insurance claims.
12. Say “sorry” — this simple gesture goes a long way.
13. Refer you to your rights to claim compensation under numerous acts. Other airlines do this. Curiously, Malaysia Airlines did not.

There were a whole bunch of other minor issues I encountered, as follows:

1. When I rang Malaysia Airlines to select a seat, because I could not do so online, they told me to call Turkish Airlines, who in turn, told me they could not assign me a seat.
2. Having a delayed and canceled flights hotel 30 minutes away adds insult to injury — this hotel should be within 10 minutes of the airport, and I observed numerous hotels on my way to my eventual destination so they do exist.
3. No comfort packs aboard Malaysia Airways (poor form for a big airline like this), nor unlike many airlines, any moisturizer in their lavatories — a must when traveling long haul and one’s skin gets super dried out
4. What’s the point of self-check in at the airport if the lines are still going to be an hour long, other than saving money on people? Oh, right…I see where priorities lie. It’s in cost-cutting, not customer experience.
5. The Turkish Airlines check-in staff in Istanbul was going to send my bag directly to Melbourne, even though I had a 24 hour delay in KL. I’m not sure who would’ve been there to pick it up. I had to ask the question and he updated the bag tags to KL, but forgot to change the tags on my bag. Again, I told him to change the tags to which he responded with an “oh ya”. Why am I telling you how to do your job? I also had to ask about my boarding pass from KL to Melbourne, which after some deliberation he reluctantly said, “get in Kuala Lumpur”.

Perhaps the biggest issue here is how the hell is it possible that a ticket I purchased, for which I had an itinerary, reservations, booking codes, receipts, and for which I had already completed half of my journey from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur on, not be ‘ticketed’?

What went wrong?

This appears a problem with either the codeshare system or with travel agencies, or something else (I’m not the expert here, the airlines should be), but something as fundamental to our capitalist economy as a ticket you purchased not being honored is wild to me.

Flying international long-haul flights is stressful enough when you simply account for the 20+ hour journeys and the jet lag, let alone everything I experienced at Kuala Lumpur airport.

All said and done, after 40 hours in Kuala Lumpur, 40 hours more than I had planned to spend there, I am back in Melbourne, Australia.

And while I often grieve about Australia’s regulation and its process-oriented culture, when it comes to customer experience, Australia is second to none across almost every industry.

Heck, even Jetstar, a budget airline, delivers a much better customer experience from my own observations than many of the big boys.

People like to dump on Jetstar Airways but for a so-called budget airline, they:

- have self serve check-in for international and domestic flights which takes all of two minutes to complete, compared to 1 hour or more wait times with many airlines

- are often quick to offer compensation and arrange alternatives where unforeseen issues arise

- genuinely want to help and are nice (Australian CX awareness > rest of world by a long shot)

- offer comfort packs on board international flights

- have roomier cabins than many ‘full price’ international carriers

- have a pretty awesome and diverse selection of healthy and not-so-healthy food on board

- offer flight vouchers for significant delay to the tune of several hundred dollars

….aaand their fares are typically 2/3 to half the price of the big carriers.

Malaysia Airways and Turkish Airways have a lot to learn, and I for one, hope that some of their higher ups read this and actually take some of it on board to save others experiencing what I did.

Imagine a family of five with young kids having to go through what I did? Unacceptable.

Addendum

More buck passing from Turkish Airlines, after the fact.

Got to just LOL at this point!

Apparently codeshare doesn’t mean sharing accountability when things go wrong.

Steve Glaveski is the founder of corporate innovation consultancy Collective Campus, Harvard Business Review contributor, and author of several Wiley books on business, entrepreneurship and productivity.