My 12-year-old son was booked on the flight MH122 from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on Dec 30, 2007 as a ‘Young Passenger Traveling Alone’ and the expected time of arrival at KLIA was 8.50pm where he would connect with a Kuala Lumpur to Penang flight (MH1168) arriving at Bayan Lepas at 11pm.

Imagine my dismay and horror when everyone on that flight had disembarked by 11:40pm with no sign whatsoever of my 12-year-old! To make matters worse, nobody seemed to be able to tell me where he was or if his flight from Sydney was delayed or if he was going to be on the last flight out of KLIA.

It makes one wonder why we have an airport information desk at the Penang International Airport when the staff could not give me any information on the flight from Sydney and with just a shrug of her shoulders said ‘Sorry, but we cannot check on the flights coming into KLIA, just those that come into Penang International Airport’.

And, of course, due to the late hour, there were no Malaysian Airlines reservation staff on duty or anywhere to be seen and hence I was left to worry and fret.

It was only after calling KLIA directly that was I told that the MAS flight from Sydney which was due to arrive at 8:50pm was delayed and had only arrived at 11:15pm – which was a good two hours and 15 minutes during which MAS ground personnel should have been in contact with me.

What would have happened had my son not been able to make the last flight out of KLIA that night? And, of course, no one there also could help me with my inquiry to find out if my young son managed to get onto the flight to Penang. They could not even put me through to a MAS check-in counter but instead gave me three telephone numbers, two of which went unanswered even after numerous rings while the last was a number that was not even valid!

When my son did finally get to Penang on MH1194 at 12:35am, I questioned the ground staff who accompanied him as to the standard procedure on flight delays involving an unaccompanied minor (UM) and was informed that the parent/guardian would be contacted.

I informed her that in this case, I was not informed and could in no way get any information on my son’s situation, etc. I faxed a formal complaint to MAS on Jan 7 (did it twice but there was no acknowledgment). I sent another fax on Jan 14.

At around 3:15pm on Jan 12 however, a woman calls me from her mobile phone to inform me that she was the person in charge of UMs on my son’s flight but something had ‘come up’ and it had ‘slipped her mind’ to call and inform me of the delay! Slipped her mind! And she said she was ‘sorry’ but as she was not at work, she would call me back on Monday (Jan 14) from her office to explain further. Needless to say, the call never came.

On Monday, I received a reply fax from MAS’s Customer Response Unit in reply to my complaint. They said they were ‘deeply concerned’ over my complaint, apologised for the ‘service shortfall’, noted that the situation could have been handled more effectively, said that the relevant people had been ‘reminded’.

Then, hoping that this would shut me up, they said that they were ‘pleased’ to credit 5,000 loyalty points to my son’s account and would - get this - send him a model airplane.

Would any sane person accept such an explanation? We were lucky that my son got to me

safe and sound, but what would MAS have done if something had happened? Send me model planes and given me loyalty points?

I feel that my complaint was taken way too lightly and I still have not get a proper explanation as to why I was not contacted about the delay. Do the people responsible for Unaccompanied Minors on MAS flights take matters such as this with a ‘tidak apa’ attitude?

Am I wrong in wanting to know why the person who was in charge of UMs that night DID NOT call me about the delay? What action, apart from a mere ‘reminder’, has been taken to ensure that no other parent is made to be sick with worry?