Terrible experience with ANA

My wife, a Japanese speaker, myself and our daughter (3 yo) had a 3 week-long trip planned in Japan. We bought a return ticket with ANA for Nanaimo-Tokyo (via Vancouver) then, separately, a ticket to Kobe the same day.

Unfortunately, my daughter and I couldn’t make it for personal reasons.

For the first Flight (Nanaimo-Vancouver), my wife checked in alone.

The plane being operated by Air Canada, she was told to explain everything later with ANA staff.

My wife, arriving in Vancouver, found the plane was delayed by 3 hours.

Because of this, she wouldn’t be able to reach Kobe and had to organise herself to find a hotel and a new flight.

Still, she found ANA staff to explain the situation regarding our daughter and me. However, as no Japanese-speaking staff were available, it was complicated for her to give a detailed explanation.

She focused her re-organisation to go to Kobe thinking she will address the first matter (our absence) in Japan with Japanese-speaking staff.

Arriving at her final destination (the 12th of November at 14:20), my wife found ANA staff at Kobe airport and she reexplained the situation in Japanese.

The staff told her she could try to cancel to get a refund but she explained she just needed to make sure my daughter and I would be able to use the return ticket. ANA staff confirmed that yes, we would be able to use that ticket.

When we arrived at Haneda on return day (November 29th), we were told the ticket was not valid for my daughter and me. Our only option then was to pay 731220 JPY (~ 4900 US$) for new tickets. The given reason was “You had to let us know directly, before Japan”.

We tried to explain everything again, but the staff manager showed no interest. When we said that in Vancouver no Japanese-speaking staff was aware, she told us we would have to tell staff in Nanaimo. Then when we said the Nanaimo staff told us to address the matter with ANA staff, she just repeated “You didn’t take the first flight, so you cannot take the return one.” When we pointed out that in Kobe, ANA’s staff confirmed to my wife that we could use the tickets, she said the staff made a mistake. She kept repeating the rule again and again, not listening to a word of reason. She was absolutely unprofessional, ignoring us while sticking to her sentence.

We pointed out their responsibility :

• Staff were aware from the first plane
• ANA didn’t provide any Japanese-speaking staff at Vancouver before the boarding time, that was 3 hours delayed
• ANA never warned my wife, even though they knew the potential consequences
• ANA never contacted me by email and never tried to call me to warn me
• Worst of all, ANA staff confirmed we were good to use the return ticket

By letting us know at the last moment, ANA didn’t leave us with any option.

Three weeks earlier, if Kobe staff didn’t say we would be able to board, I would have found another ticket much cheaper than the one I had to buy.

It’s fortunate we could afford such a price, or else we would have been stuck in Japan, with a 3 year old child, unable to leave until we could find a reasonable price, and paying for hotels and restaurants until then.

Back home, we contacted customer service and asked ANA to assume responsibility for making things right. The airline made many mistakes, leading to a quite unfair situation and we hoped for a refund.

ANA replied a month later, pointing again their rule, saying they could offer a refund for Fuel and surcharge on the unused ticket (total = 700USD) but no more. Regarding the staff mistake leading to this situation, they replied they cannot identify the person, even though we gave them the exact place, day and time my wife spoke with the staff.

This answer make me think that either ANA is not a well organized airline, either their values about making mistakes, assuming and repairing them are not what I would expect from a professional company

In both case, I won’t recommend ANA to anybody, neither I will use their service in the future

This plane route is the best way for my family to reunite once to twice a year but I’ll find another way, even if it has to be longer or more expensive, not a penny of mine will go to ANA anymore.