Customer Commitment

Customer Commitment

Dear Customers,

Drukair (Royal Bhutan Airline) as the national flag carrier ensures to provide the best of the services to our customers. Our aim is to make every customer experience a positive one.

Drukair's Customer Charter outlines the following service commitments and our responsibilities so that we can continue a high level of performance and improve wherever possible to fulfill them.

1. Safety and Security

We are committed to ensuring the Safety and Security of our Customers and Employees—it’s our number one priority. To ensuring safety as an integral part of our working culture we have established company policies and governance to drive our focus on Safety and Security whereby all Drukair employees, from leadership to frontline employees are responsible for:

  1. Establishing and upholding the highest levels of Safety and Security in our operation and our workplaces.
  2. Complying with all Company Safety and Security policies and procedures along with all government regulations and guidelines.
  3. Proactively identifying and reporting hazards in the operation and contributing to our positive Safety and Security Culture.

We continually work to create and foster a Safety and Security Culture that proactively identifies and reduces risks to the operation and workplace before they can become injuries, accidents, or incidents. Drukair also adopted Safety Management System (SMS) and Risk Management System in light of the above.

2. Inform about lowest available fares

We will offer on our website and social media the lowest fares for which you are eligible for the date, flight, and class of service requested. Our ticket counters and city ticket offices, agent outlets or 1300 (In-country toll free) will also disclose available fares.

The fares shown on our website, Internet Booking Engine and any social media will ensure full transparency.

3. Notify customers of known delays, cancellations and diversions

Although flight delay and cancellations are caused by multiple factors, some outside the Airlines’ control. Nevertheless, we will be doing our part in notifying our passengers of this information without being asked.

This includes providing information about a change in the status within the Drukair network, a flight delay of 30 minutes or more in the planned operation of a flight or a flight diversion.

We may use one or more of several ways to communicate this information, such as:

  1. Providing information in the boarding gate areas, airport flight status display boards,
  2. Flight status updates on social media and, for our subscribed customers, voice, SMS and email alerts.

Ultimately we will notify and clarify what passengers can expect during a flight delay.

4. Deliver baggage on time

We are committed to make every reasonable effort to return delayed or mishandled checked baggage within 24 hours if it does not show up when the passenger arrives. Also, a baggage claim report can be made for a mishandled bag from the airport.

5. Allow reservations to be cancelled for a certain period after purchase

When you book/issue a ticket through Drukair Reservations, drukair.com.bt, at our ticket counters, city ticket offices or agent outlets, we will allow the following subject to certain terms and conditions which would depend on the type of ticket purchased.

  1. 90 percent refund if you cancel the issued ticket before 30 days of departure.
  2. 75 percent refund before 9 days of date of departure.
  3. 50 percent refund before 4 days of date of departure.

6. Provide prompt ticket refunds

We will provide prompt refunds for eligible tickets once we receive your request accompanied by any required documentation. When refunds are allowed, we will provide prompt refunds, less any applicable service fees, to the original form of payment.

In the event of a flight cancellation or over sale situation, we will refund fees charged to you for services for which you paid but were unable to use.

You may seek a refund by sending a written request to respective sale office from where ever the point of sale is made.

If you used a credit card to make your purchase, we will submit the request for a refund to the credit card issuer within fourteen business days of receiving your completed request for refund. The credit card issuer will refund the purchase price under the terms of the credit card agreement; your credit card statement may not immediately reflect the refund.

For purchases made with cash or other forms of payment, we will issue your refund within seven days of receipt of your completed request for refund.

Please make sure that you have cancelled your reservation before requesting a refund and remember to provide the passenger’s name, address, and credit card number used for purchase, ticket number, date of travel and departure, and destination cities in your correspondence.

7. Properly accommodate passengers with disabilities and other special needs

We are dedicated to offering convenient and comfortable service to all our customers. We will provide our customers who require additional assistance, including individuals with disabilities and unaccompanied minors, with the attention, respect and care they deserve. In doing so, we will accommodate passengers with disabilities and other special‐needs passengers as set forth in our policies and procedures, including during lengthy tarmac delays.

  1. Customers with disabilities
    • Drukair will provide our customers who require additional assistance especially for those services provided at the airport beginning with the check-in process, on to the passenger security screening process (especially for those air travelers in wheelchairs), and during the boarding process. Our employees are specifically trained to support the commitment to our customers with disabilities.
    • There are, however, certain service requests that are required to be made in advance. This notice helps us to plan for your safe and comfortable travel. Please check the Special Service Requirements under Travel Information and Travel Tips on our website for details. During lengthy tarmac delays, our flight crew will make every effort to accommodate customers with disabilities or special needs on a priority basis. If your travel includes flights operated by another carrier, please check directly with that carrier for any of your travel needs as different policies and procedures may apply.
  2. Customers with food restrictions
    • We offer a wide selection of special meals to cater to different dietary requirements. If you need a special meal on your flight, please let us know at the time of booking. Or, contact our office at least 72 hours before your departure to provide your dietary requirements.
    • Customers wishing to try Bhutanese cuisine can now order Bhutanese dish under special meal prior to their flight departure.

8. Meet customer’s essential needs during lengthy delays

We are committed to operating a reliable schedule for our customers. Safety considerations, weather, air traffic control, operations and other factors may occasionally cause lengthy delays. Should a lengthy delay occur, we will make every reasonable effort to ensure that your essential needs are met. If safety and security considerations permit, this includes providing snacks, food and drinking water no later than two hours after the aircraft leaves the gate (in the case of a departure) or touches down (in the case of an arrival); operable restroom facilities; and adequate medical attention, if needed.

We also understand that our customers want timely and up‐to‐date information during lengthy delays. As such, we will update customers on the delayed flight every 30 minutes about the status of the tarmac delay, including the reason for the delay, if known. In addition, if the aircraft is at the gate or another disembarkation area with the door open and the opportunity to deplane exists, we will notify customers of this opportunity every 30 minutes.

9. Treat passengers fairly and consistently in the case of over sales

Occasionally we may not be able to provide you with a seat on a specific flight, even if you hold a ticket and have checked in on time and comply with other requirements. This is called an over sale, and occurs when restrictions apply to operating a flight safely (such as aircraft weight limits); when we must substitute a smaller aircraft in place of a larger aircraft that was originally scheduled; or if more customers have checked in and are prepared to board than the seats available.

If your flight is in an over sale situation, you will not be denied a seat until we first ask for volunteers willing to give up their confirmed seats. Priority will be given to patients and for those who have connecting fights. In the event of such situations we will try our best to arrange an alternate flight and reach you to your destination.

10. Disclose cancellation policies, frequent flyer rules, aircraft seating configuration and lavatory availability

We will give you clear information about policies and service aspects that may be important to you on Conditions of Carriage of our website. Additionally, our staffs will also assist you at the airport and ticketing counters if you have any inquiry to make. This means providing clear information about:

  1. Aircraft seating configuration, including seat size and pitch ranges on aircraft we operate;
  2. The important terms and conditions that apply to your ticket and travel, including cancellation policies; and
  3. Aircraft lavatory availability

We also make information about our ‘My Happiness Reward’ frequent flyer program available on our website and materials provided upon enrollment and in updates to My Happiness Reward members.

11. Notify customers about travel itinerary changes in a timely manner

We understand that you need timely information about changes to your travel itinerary. We will notify you, using information in your reservation, about any travel itinerary changes prior to the date of departure.

12. Ensure responsiveness to customer complaints

We understand that every complaint is a feedback for us to improve our services. If you have complaints about our performance, we want to hear about it, as your feedback helps us to identify and address issues with our service. You can provide feedback about your travel experience to our Customer Care team by emailing wearelistening@drukair.com.bt. We also have a feedback form in our inflight magazine addressed directly to the CEO.

We will acknowledge your feedback within 72 working hours. We endeavor to resolve your complaint as quickly as we can. You can also additionally lodge your complaints on our social media channels:

https://twitter.com/Drukair and https://www.facebook.com/Drukair

13. Provide services to mitigate inconveniences resulting from cancellations and misconnections.

To reduce any inconvenience, you may experience during cancellations and misconnections, we will:

  1. Do our best to contact you in advance regarding a flight cancellation using the contact information in your reservation;
  2. Work to confirm you on the next flight we operate that has seats available in the same class of service when rebooking is necessary; and
  3. Make available information about your rebooking through our website; at an airport kiosk, when available; and through our airport and reservations agents.