[Leah123]

We flew from Melbourne to the Gold Coast Australia on August 25th 2008 on Tiger Airways. We arrived (after the one and a half hour flight had been delayed 4 hours already!) at 8.30pm.

When we collected our luggage we realised that my husbands hard case had had one of the wheels knocked right out of the socket (a mighty fall) and was totally missing.

We went up to the desks to report it immediately, and there was not a single staff member to be seen in the whole airport. We went back to the carosel and saw an outside luggage guy with a yellow vest on. We advised him that our bag had been broken and that there were no staff on the desks to report it to. He said that they were all out on the tarmac loading the next plane out!(leaving NO staff in the terminal at all???)

We waited another 10 minutes and no one arrived, so we left the airport. As it was the last flight of the night we weren't even sure if any staff members would appear back at the desk at all. We also had to get home to our children. We then had to drag the bag across the dirt path (no kidding!) of about 100 metres to the main terminal (in the dark, no lighting) to the cab rank. (VERY POOR! - VERY DANGEROUS)

I promptly rang them the next day Melbourne number but overseas call centre (of course not toll free, engaged lines continuiously, but finally on hold for ages to get a human) who asked me to fill in all the necessary paperwork.

We sent everything to them and clearly advised that there were no staff to report the damage to on the evening.

I just got a reply back two months later from them, denying that there were no staff on the desks. I was furious, at basically being called a liar. I said I would go down and take a photo of the staffless desks as evidence, as I am sure it happens regularily. Of course they refuse to do anything about it, saying "you needed to report it to staff on the night" but I kept clearly saying THERE WERE NO STAFF!!!????

Any future passangers be VERY CAREFUL. Even while waiting to board the flight the women beside us told us of there reluctance to refund a duplication of airfare, when their website crashed while she was booking. Of course you get put through to an overseas call centre, with phone operators with very limited English. As she said to them "why would I have two tickets for the same person on the same flight???" She had been arguing for 2 months to get back the money through their faulty web booking system. Why would a system accept an exact duplicate booking?

I've heard lots of other horrid stories about this airline. One of the worst being my brother-in-law, who had booked well in advance for a flight from Canberra to Melbourne for a good friends wedding. They emailed him a few hours earlier on the day that he left (having to be at the airport early in the morning) that the flight had been moved forward 2 hours. Of course checking your email on the day you fly out at 5am in the morning isn't something you do, and they didn't text him either, so he got told when he arrived. He was devestated, not only did he miss his friends wedding, but lost flight costs, but also $80 in taxi fees to and from the airport for nothing.

FUTURE TIGER AIRWAYS PASSENGERS BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!!!!! I would say, only book with them if you aren't bothered about actually getting there!!!!!! Otherwise pay the extra for another airline for the security of knowing you will at least be treated decently.

I wondered if anyone else had experienced a similar problem with Tiger Airways especially lack of staff at the terminals? Their flights may be cheap but they are horrendously run, and their lack of morals and ethics are very concerning.