Passengers victims of Biman's dispute with online ticketing sales partner

Dhaka: Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suspended its online ticketing service over quarrel with its sales partner causing suffering for thousands of passengers waiting to book tickets.  

A London-bound passenger wanted purchase tickets from Biman's website using his phone which is supposed to be a convenient and time saving method. Also, amid the pandemic, booking tickets online is the safest way available.

However, when the passenger attempted to purchase tickets online, he failed, due to an ongoing suspension of Biman’s online service.

That passenger also tried to purchase Biman’s ticket from other online platforms where the airline’s tickets are usually available. However, even in other platforms, tickets for Biman are also unavailable.

Now the passenger has no choice but to go to Biman’s sales centre which would be time consuming as well as risky amid this pandemic.

Moreover, there are hundreds of such passengers who are suffering because of this as online sale of Biman's air tickets has remained suspended for about a week.

Meanwhile, Biman authorities are blaming Travelshop Ltd, the exclusive service provider of Biman for selling tickets online, for the suspension of the services.

On the other hand, Travelshop, claimed that they were forced to suspend the service, as Biman did not pay its dues.

Amid this quarrel, passengers looking to buy tickets online are crowding Biman ticket sales centres in this pandemic situation.

Even different travel agencies said they are finding it difficult to sell Biman air tickets, due to the suspension of the online services. They now need to get in touch with a Biman call centre and then send an application to Biman authorities to get tickets for the passengers. “This is time consuming and frustrating for both passengers and us," an official from SkyJet Tours and Travels said.

On this issue, Dr Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal, Managing Director and CEO of Biman, said the national flag carrier hired Travelshop on a temporary basis in 2019 to sell tickets online. But the company repeatedly failed at various stages in the full implementation of the expected activities.

“Finally, from August 10, 2021, they stopped providing relevant services to Biman in a completely unreasonable and unethical manner, and tried to create confusion in people's minds," he claimed.

To handle the current crisis, Biman MD said, "If any passenger calls us, we will send tickets to their mobile phone or to their residence, if they inform our call centre."

He said the ongoing process of purchasing, changing and refunding tickets for all routes of Biman through its domestic and foreign sales offices, authorised travel agencies and call centres is underway. In addition, the sales centre at Biman's head office in Balaka is open 24 hours a day, he assured.

However, SM Mukhtadir, Chief Operating Officer of Travelshop, said they have sent at least 20 letters to Biman in the last 17 months to get their dues worth BDT 37 lac. But Biman authorities did not bother to respond, let alone pay their dues, he claimed.

"US-based company Amazon, who hosts our web server, gave us an ultimatum that they will stop their service unless we clear their dues within August 10. Informing this matter, we again wrote to Biman, but they didn't reply," said Mukhtadir.

Amazon suspended providing services to them from August 10, as they failed to pay their dues, he mentioned.

Denying Biman's allegations, he said since the agreement, they had been providing services to Biman without any hindrance, and there was no complaint in this regard.

Tickets worth BDT 125 crore have been sold through Biman's online platform since the pandemic started last year. If there was an issue with service from Travelshop’s end, they could not have been able to sell so many tickets, claimed the COO.

“If you want to provide online services, you need a server at present, and Biman will have to pay for it. If the airline does not pay the server rent, then it is normal that the service will be suspended. There is no incompetence here," he explained.

Biman MD, on the other hand, said they have never paid the server fee before and have cleared all service-related bills on time.

He claims Travelshop is asking for the money out of nowhere. “If they have an issue with their host company, they should have resolved it first, rather than demanding money from us," Biman MD claimed.

Also, to end the sufferings of hundreds of passengers, Biman MD further said that the airline is going to ensure the provision of advanced online services through a world-recognised service provider soon. However, it might take 2-3 months to complete the total procedure for this purpose.