Arik Air has been holding on to Manuel Ade (pseudonym), an Abuja-based civil servant’s N43,998 paid to the airline on February 8 to reroute his flight.

After paying that amount, he had to pay another N20,000 that day for the same reason. This means he paid twice to modify his flight.

The civil servant, who wishes to be unnamed, told FIJ that he rerouted his flight scheduled for February 9 from Abuja–Lagos to Lagos–Abuja on that day.

He first sent an email to the airline at 2:38 pm on the day before his scheduled trip, and he was provided with a Keystone Bank account to pay the money into.

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As seen in one of the emails, the Abuja resident was supposed to send a screenshot of his payment to Arik Air then the airline would confirm it and forward the modified flight ticket to his email address. He did as requested but did not get the confirmation from the airline.

About an hour after he had waited for the update, he asked a friend to go to Arik Air’s counter at the Abuja airport on his behalf. This was when he made the fresh payment of N20,000.

“I waited for about an hour without getting any response from them, so in order not to miss the flight, I had to call a friend in Abuja who went to their counter at Abuja airport,” Ade told FIJ.

“With my friend’s help, they modified the ticket. Then I made a fresh payment, which was even below what I was initially charged.

“I did not raise the issue of the delayed confirmation to my friend. All I asked him to do was to help get my ticket modified so I wouldn’t miss the flight.”

It’s been seven months since the civil servant has been trying to recover the N43,998 he sent to Arik Air.

“I personally went to their counter at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos on February 9 to file a complaint before our departure to Abuja,” he said.

He also sent an email to Arik Air on February 8 asking for details on how to get a refund.

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“When I went to their customer service at the Lagos airport, the lady there told me that it’s my bank that will do the refund stuff. Upon my arrival in Abuja, I went straight to First Bank Central Area where I filled out a form to that effect.

“Since then, I have been going to the bank to no avail. At some point, they told me that the corresponding bank said there was no money in the account.”

He also said that First Bank told him on September 11 that Arik Air had not responded to its emails.

“They said it’s only Arik who can authorise the refund,” he said.

FIJ sent an email to the airline on Wednesday morning, copying both the refund and customer relations units.

Blessing Michael from Arik Air’s refund unit simply noted that the passenger was “flown LOS-ABV on the 9th of February 2024 with seat number 11F 11E”. FIJ sent a follow-up email reiterating that the passenger paid twice for the flight modification.

Joy Adimike, a customer relations officer at Arik Air, requested evidence of the logged transaction to enable her to escalate to the relevant unit.

In response to the forwarded evidence, Adimike wrote, “After verification with our finance team, we have been advised to inform the guest to log the transaction again with the chargeback unit of the bank. Requesting that the bank issue a reversal instruction to the merchant, Arik Air.

“The guest will be required to fill in a dispense error form at the bank. Guest should insist the bank log the claim on the arbiter platform. Arik Air sincerely apologises for all the inconvenience caused and experienced.”