Hello Everyone,
We have been reading and hearing about the enigma and persistent idiocy personified called NIGERIA and those of us at home most times will want to take up and cross daggers with the mainstream western media for painting us bad, but the real truth and only truth is that things are beyond bad in NIGERIA.
Arik Air claims to be the wings of Nigeria, promises you heaven in the air and paradise on the land but they are nothing but a HOAX just like the rest of them.
SCAM #1:
Lets start with their fake online booking system,I had an opportunity to book a return fare for one on their site to Akure last week and this was confirmed online with a PNR and a total fare of 24,940 NGN but when I went to their ticketing office at the FAAN office in Ikeja to pick this up, the agent started speaking big English that my total fare is 26,000 NGN. His reason was that the fare I got online and booked was caused by "COMPUTER ERROR". As you can see from the attachment, the error reduced my tax for the return fare abi?
While this laughable, the sore point is that ARIK kept this information (including the computer error) online for more than 100 Million web users and prospective visitors to their website to be misled and apparently pay more when the ticket is being issued. I have booked a sample as attached below.
SCAM #2:
Obviously, the "Wings of Nigeria" has been clipped by bad weather. I was at the sorry affair called the Domestic airport to travel and to beat the problem of traffic holdup and endless queue at check-in, I left my humble abode as early as 6am for a purported ARIK flight that will depart Akure for 9:30am.
Check in started at 9am and till 11am, nothing has been said about the flight.
After repeated inquiries and calls to the "so called" duty manager, I was informed that flight has been re-scheduled due to BAD weather and NO announcement to this effect was made.
Eventually, when reason prevailed on them to announce the delay in flight, they shifted it by another 2 hours and the cause of delay was given as "late arrival of aircraft", from where I do not KNOW.
My investigation revealed that they are using the same aircraft for many routes; depending on the number of checked-in passengers and that the aircraft that was supposed to transport me to Akure has been diverted to another route until FURTHER NOTICE.
To think that this airline came out with gun blazing and making noise about being forthright, having many aircrafts to spread their wings all over Nigeria and taking over the former Nigerian Airways buildings, they are failing in service delivery. Maybe, the demon of Nigeria has final caught up with the wings of Nigeria and clipped it for good.
I am taking this up with the relevant authorities including FAA that purportedly (I am not sure of what to believe again) gave them license to fly to the USA.

Sounds like you got a bum deal, I'd definitely take things further.

Almost exactly my experience with IRS two days ago. An Abuja-Lagos flight scheduled to take-off 2.30 pm was delayed for more tahn 2 hours. I, and several other passengers, had to collect our money back when it was past 4, and joined Bellview( ) which took off 5.Their reason was they were expecting the aircraft from Kano.

I'm surprised at this coming from Arik though, because they are my favourite. I have travelled Virgin more than any other airline, but after experiencing some disappointments,especially delay, I have shifted to Arik, and I've not being disappointed so far.

The case two days ago, where I had to be using Bellview/IRS, was just because I was desperate to be in Lagos, by the next available flight.

foolish posts

Even advanced countries do have errors once in a while, and to think this pieces of problems you have with Arik reduces them to what you have described, then you must have your head examined.

bronx_dog:

foolish posts

Even advanced countries do have errors once in a while, and to think this pieces of problems you have with Arik reduces them to what you have described, then you must have your head examined.

This post is VALID.

Users not responsible for their errors. The online FEE is binding on them. Only in Nigeria, you get such rubbish.

It same story, we dont value good-service to our people.

@ Siena hunn.
Am the least surprised at your post. When I read the original post something inside me told me you would comment and you did.
The websit issue does not in any way warrant calling ariK air a hoax on the web. I think the topic is a bit sensational.
Ariks feat in the past few months especially the new routes launched with a brand new airbus A340-500 will rigourously rebuff any ( if any) hitches with website and pricing.
Running an airline is complex. people have their luggage stolen at heathrow through lapses by handlers attached to almighty Bad Attitude airlines.
The other day an oxygen bottle exploded in a Quantas aircraft critically injuring passengers and damaging the boeing 747. No hel was let loose.
Abegiii let arik air be oooh.

it happens in almost all airlines in naija, but arik's own is getting too much, the last time i flew to abuja on arik, they forgot my luggage and sent it he following day. i know of a friend that his luggage was delayed for 4 days by the same arik air. its so sad. they better buckle up.

The other day an oxygen bottle exploded in a Quantas aircraft critically injuring passengers and damaging the boeing 747. No hel was let loose.
Abegiii let arik air be oooh.

you compare airline with excellent track record and a new bee??

the point remains: no good services is offered to Nigerians in Nigeria.

Buying A340 does not make any sense if no good service is included!!

Usual excuses for our inefficencies from the responses by posters! we excuse virtually everything and that is why things hardly work in our country.

No excuses for this ordeal. Until it happens to you then you will not understand.

What I think is lacking in the Nigerian business world is a lack of tough regulation. This is the reason why services provided to the Nigerian public are generally carried out without much concern for consumer satisfaction, the provider being aware that the consumer's ability to seek redress (and his chances of getting it if he did), are severely limited.

In a better organised society, the provider of air transportation services to the public would be careful to ensure that their service meets a minimum standard set by a regulatory authority. Presumably, the FAA is the regulatory body for the airlines, but one wonders whether an individual Nigerian passenger on a Nigerian airline, can optimistally approach the FAA, expecting to receive redress for his grievance. The whole system is a mirror of the overall weakness of the rule-of-law in our society.

@Poster

STORY STORY, STOOOORY.

Y all the unnecessary rants. Did you expect Arik to be 100% efficient. Abeg Arik is okay juh. U live in Nigeria. Deal with it.
With regards to the delays, it is obvious that you lot are not frequent fliers. Delays happen. Several factors including weather, aircraft maintenance and the inability of FAAN to clear aircrafts for take off/landing.

Its part of our culture and mentality. Bear with them, its indeed a general issue in Nigeria.

Encomium:

Its part of our culture and mentality. Bear with them, its indeed a general issue in Nigeria.

thats exactly what is wrong with Nigeria: WE BEAR WITH EVERYTHING.

in Greece, Police kill 1 people; hell was loose; they cant BEAR it

in Nigeria, Police kill 20 people; it is life as usual; they tell the family BEAR with Police.

Until we as nation DECIDE to change our life for better, NOBODY will do it for us.

@ Igbogolo: I can only respond based on the info Nemeziz9ja posted.

Right or wrong, justifiable or not, that's what Customer Service is for.
Regardless of where in the world you are, if you feel the service you got wasn't to your liking, you complain.
Sitting back and accepting things you're not happy with isn't the greatest of options - how will services improve if the providers get no feedback?

Criticism makes for the provision of better services.

It doesn't matter if the lack of, or delayed service was justified (it may well be).
Whatever happens, the customer's King.

Its not only Arik thats a hoax other airlines like Virgin and Aero needs to be categorised into that level.

The christmas expereince at the airport MM2 was not only disturbing but intriguing.
Having missed a flight to owerri on the 24th of December on Aero i was put on standy by list that never worked.Up on till the 30th of december was i able to make a trip.The customer service at the MM2 lounge of Aero are inefficient and lack professionalism.

As for virgin i cannot understand how a reservation made since june 2008 to travel for Dec 30 would be changed on the 17th Dec without my knowledge.The virging officials claimed i called to tell them that i want to reschedule for owerri -Lagos on the 17th, which i never i did.
They were bent of frustrating me not to make the rtip to owerri.
You know what i discovered they were trying to scheme out because when i bought the ticket in june was for 15k but as at 30th it was selling for 37, 800 business class.
So i challenged and threatened before they effcetd a change without my knowledge.

FAAN should come to the aid of Nigerians during festive seasons like christmas.There were persons who were forced to travel to unknown destinations because there was over booking or bad weather, some airlines like aero did fly pasengers to port harcourt instead of owerri.Passengers who flee into the country from abroad had no choice to sleep at the airport the international wing.

@siena

its been a while, good to see ur posts again

and happy new year

@ All.
Happy new year people. I pray 2009 heralds our explosion into fotune, goodhealth and hope.
The topic of this thread I understand is that Arik is a hoax and a scam because the online booking price is different from the OTC price by two thousand and something naira.
Now am not holding brief for arik, but this mild differential in pricing does not in any way warrant brandishing arik as a hoax!
The proper topic would have been about arik's online pricing and not arik air in its entirety. Thats my problem.
Arik air in NOT a hoax and a scam because the company is very visible offering pride to the country and our citizens and spreading the wings of Nigeria as far as UK heathrow.
I have booked online for arik to Abuja before. Everyhthing went smoothly. I have also booked aero online severally and everything went ok. I just made sure I arrived on time to confirm my booking. shekina! One experience in my reckoning does not warrant the raher outlandish topic.

@ Viiviko.
My darling, december was hot my dear. Aero was booked full till the 27th. If you missed your flight due to fault of yours someone on waiting list will take your place. If there are no absentee passengrs the nest day, who do you blame.
If you want to try what I have said, miss your international flight and see weather your anger airrline will put you in the next hour flight and prodd you lovingly on your way in 3 hours. just try it and come and tell us here okay?
I travelled to abuja from lagos on the 23rd on afrijet airlines. we were turned back to the tarmac after 9 minutes airborne due to bad weather in abuja. That was a professional thing to do and nobody complained.
My dear overbooking happens everywhere even on your angel airlines.
Truth is our local airlines are not as shitty as some of us may want to potray them and most of our local airlines are even better that local trips abroad.

Thank you everyone for your reply to my post. The primary purpose anyway is to get Arik to sit up and be upfront in their service delivery. I have just returned from my village and after enjoying all those delicious bowls of pounded yam, I beg to differ with some comments.

@ Sienna; Thank you for your reply to my post. A bum deal; as I was made to realize is an everyday reality in Nigeria,all I ever want from Arik is to deliver what they claim to have and I am paying for. I am taking things further with a letter to the relevant authorities and the Arik GM but whether anything will come out it becomes the general billion Naira question.

@ Jarus: My brother, thats Nigeria for you and I pray you will not experience what I went through with Arik. Every airline in Nigeria in unique in their errancy and idiosyncrasies.

@ Bronx Dog: Thank you for your reply. "foolish posts

Even advanced countries do have errors once in a while, and to think this pieces of problems you have with Arik reduces them to what you have described, then you must have your head examined." The Holy Book said a living dog is better than a dead lion and I am sure a dog like you in Bronx is gonna be worse off than someone like me in Nigeria. FYI, when next you want to make a domestic trip, try any of these some called flying clubs tagged airlines in Nigeria and lets compare their service delivery to that of even the now-failed Zoom.

@ Landis: Thank you jare my brother. Its only Nigeria that we can get such rubbish. I bet some people just travel abroad and learn nothing in and outside classroom. I understand the dot com revolution is not what some Nigerians organizations will subscribe to fully but nevertheless, the error in their fare calculation is their headache and not mine, so if there is COMPUTER ERROR, they should shut down the site and resolve it rather than scamming net savvy and efficient customers.

@ Igbogolo: exploding oxygen bottle on Qantas aircraft abi? I bet with you Qantas must have realized what that event meant to their business at this crucial period of economic depression and acted right to the point. Or was it only the part about explosion that you read on the news? And if you think a misleading online pricing that is still left functional after a month for all online users to see is not a scam, then I am afraid for your standard of evaluating reality. I am sorry for Nigeria.

@ chyk91: Bros, I hope you eventually got the lost luggages and it was delivered to you. When the dog living in Bronx wrote earlier on, he was comparing Nigeria to (is it civilized or developed organized countries?) some others, in Nigeria, the contents of your luggage might end up at Computer Village is your don't fast and pray for a miracle.I think Arik is losing the buckle to their belt by claiming what is not.

@ Tats: You got our problem in Nigeria right to the point. Excuses and excuses, , they will never own up to their responsibilities. What we all fail to realize in this aspect is that, the buck will get to its final destination and no one else will pass it for us.

@ anengiyefa: My brother, EVERYTHING is lacking in NIGERIA oh. From good leadership to responsible followership. EVERYTHING.

@ A-town: Don't worry smart ass airport officer, the chicken will soon come home to roost.

@ Encomium: Thank you.

@ vikiviko: Thats the reality of the aviation industry in Nigeria and my grouse with them is that they see it as just a normal way of doing things, you either take it or leave it and all those bladderdash that they will reply you with. So, I pay for a dummied fare and yet I am supposed to have a say, God forbid.

So, "pellow Nigerians" that still see the apple cart from the upright position like Igbogolo, I hope you see the reality of the situation and lets move for a change because "you might just be the next victim"

Peace.

@ Nemeziz9ja
my dear you were told to top up the fare at the airport. so its not a scam. arik as it stands can barely keep up with passenger demand in Nigeria. So If you presuppose that the low online fare is designed to lure passengers to arik then you are not making any point.
you would have made a point if the online fare were above the OTC fare but unfortunately in your situation that was not the case.
so leave it at that okay.

@ poster,

Not one to support any argument, but what i understand is that when you book online (most airlines), you get fares at reduced rates. You may just have been unlucky coming across an ignorant Arik staff.

Well, thank you Igbogolo/ When I was booking online there was no "top up" indication, its was reserved as shown and presented and so, I do not know where your top up idea comes from.
I am leaving it at my desired point and do not for the sake of argument rationalize a glaring incompetence.
As scam is a scam; either an inflated budget, misquoted fare or whatever your understanding of scam is, it will never change the reality.

Why all these noises? The aim of the forum was to reveal wat the young fella had encountered during his escapade with Arik. He has said his ordeal and spoke his mind.

i believe that something worth doing is worth doing well. Why is it that even though we wanna be advanced like the Western World, we still wann follow in their errors too? Even if mishaps happens abroad, thats not a criteria or a yardstick to permit such in 9ja. We all must have had same or similar experiences with these airlines, Money no easy to come by so i believe that for every kobo we spend, we should get value for it.

Correction in Nigerian system can only be right if we deal with situations like they are really offenses.

The basic idea here is for Arik air officials, and other airlines too, to take correction and see to it that such errors dont occur again. Because if we decide not to fly with them again and take other airlines, them go loose, believe it or not. =N=1 loss is still a loss.

Airliners, TAKE NOTE

What has happened to Virgin Nigeria saying they will stop flight to jo'borg and London.

Scam??

Naija, there has never been a flight I took in Naija that departed on time.

@ Nemeziz9ja

I think you might have to conduct an opinion poll about arik air.
I am glad to announce that i flew arik to nigeria and i got hooked. the plane was crisp with world class service. and yes the plane was filled to the brim. only few spaces in the first class section.
the air hosts were multi racial( like in emirates), with very very very polite nigerian air hostesses. the economy section which i sat had more leg room than BA world traveller plus.
really, i do not have any reason to fly virgin atlantic to naija again or Bad Attitudes airlines and I am so glad that finally a nigerian carrier is taking its rightful place on that London route. Arik is even cheaper with free option of changing your flight date.

Nemeziz9ja, no one is saying you do not have a right to complain but please do it dispassionately. take it upon yourself to ask others about arik air and then convince yourself.

@ igbogolo:
Long time, no post. The issue has been revisited here

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-241755.0.html

and as you can see, I have every right to be as passionate as I want about a service I am paying for.
I mentioned it in my post that the Nigerian demon has clipped the wings of Nigeria, as you can see now, its moving up to its brain.
So long crisp world class disservice.

igbogolo:

I am glad to announce that i flew arik to nigeria and i got hooked. the plane was crisp with world class service. and yes the plane was filled to the brim. only few spaces in the first class section.
the air hosts were multi racial( like in emirates), with very very very polite nigerian air hostesses. the economy section which i sat had more leg room than BA world traveller plus.

i now boycott arik as much as possible. shuld i start listing wat they've done to me;
1.misplaced luggage SEVERALLY,without even 'sorry' or compensation.(its amazing how even a 10% off on nxt flight can appease an angry mind)
2. been givin a boardin pass only to get to d aircraft and b told its FULL
3.missing perfumes n shoes frm my bag!
they're just plain lousy,oversell tickets and are slow in checking in.d only times i use them is wen ther's no oda flight going to my destination or earo has gone crazy with their prices again.
they do hav der good sides tho; they hav the most frequent schedule to most destinations esp lag abj ph.if u jst walk into d airport,u can b almost certain ders a nxt arik flight depating soon. they're CHEAP(compared to odas)

@Igbogolo

abeg, how did you pay for the arik air ticket in the UK? It appears there's no option for paying with a UK debit/credit card on their website and their UK contact number is a premium 08444 number.

Please advise.

Cheers!

I believe you can pay over the phone as long as the card owner is travelling otherwise you have to pay at their agent in Victoria. 0844 is not a premium rate number, it won't cost more than a local call except you call from a mobile phone.

Hi,
I made a reservation online and then paid at the counter