A lawful hijacking


It started with a 5-hour delay and a very pissed off passenger (me). It ended in Malaysian Airlines facing its plane being seized by the bailiff.

The background

I was flying from Perth to Hong Kong via Kuala Lumpur. The connection was conveniently short – 1 hour and 30 minutes. But then my flight out of Perth was delayed by an hour.

Kuala Lumpur

As soon as we landed, I darted out of the plane to make the connection. On the air bridge, a Malaysia Airlines employee held up my flight number. She informed me that I wouldn’t make my connection and she had moved me onto the afternoon flight – 5 hours later. Annoyed, but understanding, I switched my morning boarding pass for the afternoon pass.

AND THEN….

I walked down the terminal, only to see that the next plane along was my flight to Hong Kong – and it was still boarding!

I went straight to the boarding desk, handed over my afternoon pass and explained the situation. The lady at the counter looked and the pass and said “this is the ticket for the afternoon flight. If you want an earlier flight, you’ll have to pay for it.

The argument went around in circles for 10 minutes until the gate closed and my flight departed – leaving a very pissed off passenger behind.

Getting even

Malaysia Airlines had a problem on its hands – an annoyed (almost) lawyer with 5 hours to plot revenge. After discovering the delightful 1999 Montreal Convention, which essentially required the airline to compensate me, I demanded $440 in compensation.

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Enrichment

The airline “as a gesture of goodwill” offered me “3,000 Enrich miles”. Sounds like a lot right? Turns out each “enrich mile” was worth about AUD$0.0015, so about $4.54 all up.

Court proceedings

I decline the generous offer and instead sued the airline in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia. The airline must have thought it was a joke, because they didn’t bother responding to it. By default, I ended up with a court judgment requiring them to pay me $785.

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Enforcement

The problem with enforcing a Western Australia court judgment against an airline based in Malaysia is that all of its identifiable assets are overseas….. well; almost all. Some of its assets make twice-daily trips to Perth Airport.

The Court issued a Property Seizure and Sale Order that “authorised and commanded [the Sheriff] to “seize and sell… the property of Malaysia Airlines Berhad” at Terminal 1, Horrie Miller Drive, Perth Airport.

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Seizure

I helpfully informed the Sheriff of Malaysia Airline’s flight schedule for the next 30 days and suggested that the property they were looking for included “Boeing 737‐800 type aircraft; aircraft supplies; office and counter equipment”.

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I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when the Bailiff turned up to Terminal 1 and made preparations for the seizure. Whatever happened, the judgment was paid rather quickly, with a frantic remittance advice emailed to me. I must have created a bit of a stir because the email was copied to 7 Malaysia Airline staff.

The final cost for the airline: $1,313 (or in its language, 875,300 enrich miles). Plenty to cover my next trip; if they’ll have me aboard.