A lady in Singapore whose family booked air tickets with local budget airline Scoot wanted a full refund of their trip after learning that her grandfather was diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer.

As the issue remained unresolved for three months despite numerous calls made, the customer took to the airline's Facebook page to express her disappointment with the airline's lack of "empathy".

Family trip called off

In her post, one Sarah Low explained that her aunt booked a family trip with Scoot in April.

After learning that her grandfather was, unfortunately, diagnosed with stage four cancer and "left with about six months life span," the family trip was called off.

Low and her husband then tried contacting Scoot to explain their situation, and to negotiate an arrangement regarding their flight tickets.

Here are some of the difficulties she claims they encountered:

• They called the call centre more than five times
• Their story was repeated to various officers and they were pushed around to different people
• Despite hoping for some "empathy," Scoot only emphasised their "six months validity voucher" policy

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Low's alternative proposals turned down

However, Low explained that the six-month validity period was not good enough, as "the family does not have the mood to travel and will not be able to book another trip in six months."

Instead, she proposed three options for Scoot's consideration:

1. Extend the validity from 6 months to 12 months
2. Extend the validity from 6 months to 18 months
3. Full refund of tickets

However, Low claimed that Scoot stood by their cancellation policy.

Scoot's cancellation policy

According to Scoot's website, flight tickets are "non-cancellable and non-refundable" except via ChangeYourFlight, an independent third party agency.

ChangeYourFlight is an agency that partners with various airlines to help people get some value on their ticket back.

Upon finding out that they won't be using their air ticket, customers can request a partial refund on ChangeYourFlight through the form of a voucher.

For Scoot flights, this voucher has a six-month validity period.

Scoot responds

In response to Mothership's queries, Scoot said they offered Low the option of a refund in the form of a travel voucher based on compassionate grounds.

The voucher, which is worth the amount the Low's family paid to Scoot for their flights, is valid for six months.

This means that the flight has to be booked within that period. However, the travel date can be outside of the validity period.

The voucher can also be transferred to friends and family.

This is their statement in full:

"In view of Sarah Low’s family situation, Scoot has offered the option of refund with travel voucher based on compassionate ground. The validity of the voucher is 6 months but the travel date can be outside of the validity period. The travel voucher can also be transferred to friends and family for redemption."

What Scoot's policy says on "extreme or tragic circumstances"

It is unclear, however, how many tickets were booked and if the grandfather who is ill was initially planned as one of the ticket holders.

We have reached out to Low for clarification but haven't heard back from her.

Under Scoot's conditions of carriage, this travel voucher arrangement appears to only be offered to the passenger who is unable to fly because of a medical condition — not necessarily to the group he or she booked his or her tickets with.

A full refund on the ticket value is given in the event of the death or serious injury of the passenger or his or her immediate relatives (defined as spouse, child, sibling, parent, grandparent or grandchild) prior to boarding the flight.

It should also be noted that this offer made on compassionate grounds by Scoot is a departure from the usual process of going through ChangeYourFlight, where customers make requests for refunds but also in the form of vouchers.

The platform creates optimal refund suggestions that are designed to help a customer make a reasonable request, but approval is not guaranteed.

Whether a refund is granted is contingent upon factors such as destination, as well as time until departure.

Here's Low's Facebook post:

Top photo from Wikimedia.