Saudia Begins Penalizing Late & No Show First Class Flyers

Saudi Arabian Airlines (also known as Saudia) is taking airline fees to a whole new level … which its self is not shocking … however whom these new fees are targeting is a bit shocking.

Saudi Arabian Airlines has begun implementing a SR50 (US$13.25) penalty for first class and business class passengers who are late, or no shows, for their domestic flights and require their flights to be rebooked, rerouted or cancelled entirely.

Saudi Arabian Airlines’ Vice President of Media Relations Abdullah Al-Ajhar stated, “Instead of being able to provide quality service for our traveling passengers we are often times preoccupied with facilitating late cancellations and refunds, re-bookings, and re-routings.”

This past summer Saudi Arabian Airlines claimed that passengers were to blame for domestic seats often being unavailable, due in part to a significant number of passengers not canceling their reservation when changing their travel panes.  The airline backed up these claims by stating that of the 3.61million passengers that booked seats on domestic flights in the past year, an estimated 2.3 million failed to show up for their scheduled flights.

Passengers flying with Saudi Arabian Airlines in economy class domestically, and all passengers flying internationally, will not be penalized with an SR50 fine for being late, or a no show, for their flights.

This is a very unique penalty being imposed on passengers … especially because airlines tend to penalize economy class passengers, not those flying on the higher fare classes of business class and first class.

Happy Flying!