Belavia Passenger: Service Rated “Zero Out Of Ten”

A resident of Minsk was scammed twice, and the scammers refused to return the money.

Threads user deingrossertoterhund described the situation he found himself in after using the services of Belavia.

“I flew on a Belavia flight from Minsk to Dubai on September 15,” he writes. “The flight was delayed by exactly six hours.

I purchased seats 7J and 7K with extra legroom in the seventh row, paying an additional 60 rubles for each. In reality, there was no extra legroom at all. The flight attendant said that the information on the website is incorrect and that many people face this issue. I wrote to customer support, citing the law, and demanded a refund. They refused, saying, ‘You flew in the seats you purchased.’

But the best was yet to come.

The return flight on September 23 is happening right now. Belavia replaced the aircraft. My pre-purchased seats were canceled. I bought extra-legroom seats again—row 16 on a Boeing 737-800. At check-in, they told me I’d be in row 7—meaning a standard seat instead of the one I’d paid for. No one even bothered to listen. No one explained the reasons either, and of course, there’s no compensation to be expected.

Now the flight has been delayed again by an hour and a half. And I have a feeling this won’t be the last delay. In the end, Belavia has let me down twice without explaining why; their service rates a “zero out of ten.”

Other social media users reported facing similar problems. The website Charter97.org features some comments:

- I flew to Sanya in late April. I paid an extra 60 rubles for seats with extra legroom. But there wasn’t any! Why do that?

- We’re in China right now. I’ve had two back surgeries in a row. I was advised to undergo rehabilitation in China. We also paid 60 rubles each for round-trip seats. It was the fifth row. There was nothing comfortable about it. Row 23 was right behind the restrooms. Indeed, there was much more space there. And it’s unclear what we actually paid for.

- Today—it’s the same story. We bought tickets from Dubai to Minsk, paid 40 rubles each—specifically for window seats. In the end, they seated us in the middle, right at the very back, where the restroom is. They switched the plane to a “Boeing,” delayed the flight by two hours, and refueled in Aktau.)

Who’s going to refund the money?

You can support the website Charter97.org

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