“We were really surprised upon receiving 5,000 yen (US$50) as compensation money just because the carrier delayed the flight,” expressed Hai Ngoc, a passenger who was on the All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight from Japan to Ho Chi Minh City.

Ngoc was shocked to receive such a large amount of money, given by Japanese carrier ANA, due to a flight delay on the day she had a business trip to Japan. 

Vietnam Airlines (VNA) had delayed its VN300 flight many times due to a massive storm which hit Japan. The flight departed at 8:50 AM, 9 hours later from the scheduled 00:10 AM departure time.

As previously planned, Ngoc’s team would arrive at Tokyo’s Narita airport at 8:00 AM and then move to Haneda airport. Finally, they would fly to Nemuro Nakashibetsu airport where their business meeting would be held. 

The delay seriously affected Ngoc’s working schedule in Japan. Since the VNA flight didn’t depart until 8:50 AM, Ngoc’s team arrived at Narita airport at 5:00 PM and thus missed their connection to Nemuro.

As there is only one flight from Narita to Nemuro each day, Ngoc’s team had to decided whether they should stay at Haneda waiting for the next flight or fly back to Chitose, the closest airport to Haneda, where they would be able to catch another flight.

A day after the storm hit Japan, the Haneda airport was crowded as many flights were delayed. After waiting two hours to buy tickets, a Japanese team leader informed his team that the flight to Chitose would be two hours late, which meant it would depart at 10:40 PM instead of 8:00 PM.

Ngoc’s team was understandably tired after waiting for so long. While her group prepared to board, ANA’s staff profusely apologized for the delay and gave each person a white envelope.

“We all thought it was an advertisement for the company’s new service,” Ngoc explained. She was thereby shocked to discover that the envelope contained 5,000 yen (US$50) as flight delay compensation.

“If Vietnamese carriers did this, they would go bankrupt quickly, since delays happen all the time,” the team joked.

In recent news, a series of flights of the budget carrier Jetstar Pacific have been delayed up to six hours and even canceled due to technical problems with the airline’s planes. This has affected hundreds of passengers, a Jetstar representative said.