Air Asia

[kathekas]

Hi

Have booked to fly to Krabi with Air Asia.

Does anyone have any experience of how strict they are with check in luggage and also the rule of one piece of cabin luggage per person.

We have purchased excess baggage up to 25kg

Thanks

[DonTron]

AirAsia....

1) You have to pay extra if you have any form of luggage

2) They will weigh it and weigh your hand luggage and they will charge you a LOT if you exceed the limits

3) Since there are no numbered seatings, you can buy a "first in row" ticket so you get in the plane with the first group. This cost 250 tbh and is a total waste of money (I tried it)

Air Asia is discount discount discount all the way

[tominchaam]

Excess luggage is 165 baht per kilo. They do their best to collect it as well.

[NanLaew]

The OP says 'we' so I assume that the 25kg can be split 50/50 with a traveling partner?

If that is the case and you have 2 checked bags, I don't think your excess weight charge will be too excessive, they may even waive the lightest bags overage. If you are only using 1 bag then they will charge but I don't consider their excess baggage charges to be excessive when compared to what you are paying for the seats! They only get steep with multiple, heavy bags.

Carry on baggage is monitored and if you are too cheap and try to take 2 or 3 obviously bulky bags inside, they may have a cow.

The 'Express Boarding' is worth the extra baht IMHO. However, pay attention to the boarding call as they don't come and seek you out beforehand for the front seats on the bus to the plane. Make sure they give you your red sticker for Express Boarding at check-in and DO wear it as it does make you stick out like dogs <deleted> to the gate staff.

AirAsia are quite efficient; they are using (mostly) new Airbuses and some of their cabin crew are stunners.

[fred2007]

AirAsia....

1) You have to pay extra if you have any form of luggage

2) They will weigh it and weigh your hand luggage and they will charge you a LOT if you exceed the limits

3) Since there are no numbered seatings, you can buy a "first in row" ticket so you get in the plane with the first group. This cost 250 tbh and is a total waste of money (I tried it)

Air Asia is discount discount discount all the way

Now I flew with air asia many times, what do you mean by any form of luggage? I had my luggage free as long it did not eceed 15 kg(from memory) and the hand luggage was not more than

5 kg ,but that was 2 years ago. Before I used Thai and now I will never touch them again.

[macduff]

I booked with air asia over the internet in the uk for a domestic flight from suvani to udon. I think off hand it cost me and my wife around 2500bht in 2006.When i checked in it cost me the same again and had to pay immediatly at the desk. Then i had to line up again to hand the baggage in and show the reciept.When we finally got on the plane we found out it was every man for himself and on top of that the plane was an delayed an hour.That was the first and last time i'll use air asia

[totlanh]

They are cheqating bastards and dont trust their scales

[tw25rw]

Express boarding only seems worth it if you really want one of the 2 exit seats (unlike most airlines, they don't keep the exit row clear, just 2 seats). You can't sit in the front row for some reason.

[tw25rw]

I found they were fine if you stuck to the rules. Get there early carrying luggage withing their limits or within the weight you paid for in advance, then get on the plane. No issues.

I wonder if anyone ever buys the crap souvenirs they wheel up and down?

[wileycoyote]

Ah,that was me !

[britmaveric]

Very strict - usually carry next to nought when I fly with them.

[SmugFarangBore]

When booking on-line and flying from Thailand they charge 50thb for up to 15kgs of checked baggage, 463thb up to 20kgs and 875thb up to 25kgs.

[macduff]

I found they were fine if you stuck to the rules. Get there early carrying luggage withing their limits or within the weight you paid for in advance, then get on the plane. No issues.

I wonder if anyone ever buys the crap souvenirs they wheel up and down?

When you've travelled from the UK on an international flight,it's hard to stick to the weight restrictions of domestic airline.In fact it's impossible.I was prepared for the extra weight costs but i think it was too excessive. And i wasn't on my own.there was an American group that were complaining about the extra costs.I only chose air asia because it had the best connecting times to my final destination udon thani.

if i knew it was going to be so much aggravation.i would've flown with nok air and took there nok air plus with the extra baggage allowance which would have been around the same price. I think with the air Asia delay in departing i probably would've been sitting in the plane behind air asia waiting for runway clearance.

[MeetJohnDoe]

AirAsia are quite efficient; they are using (mostly) new Airbuses and some of their cabin crew are stunners.

That's for sure...those short short red skirts should be illegal

I always use the express-boarding to avoid the cattle rush...have always gotten an exit row seat with loads of extra leg room.

[PattayaParent]

Have never had a problem flying wih overweight bags on AA Internationally, never been charged an excess.

Never flown them domestic though.

[kevindk]

I think the rules are there so we'd better prepare ourselves in case excessive luggage if we're flying with budget carriers. However, I found it's kind of case-by-case thing as I myself evidenced some were allowed to check-in with quite number of kilos exceeded while there's still some were charged just by a kilo.

Excessive luggage is always my concern especially on multiple flights (say..to US). Last time I had to pay for an extra bag in US domestic flight because I had 1 bag exceeded (I carried 2 pieces for international flight allowance). It's not a wise choice as later I realized my friend could take up luggage as much as he originally flied off. That's because he stuck to the same airlines and used a multiple booking.

That means if you have a good plan ahead, try to use the multiple booking with the same airline for both international and domestic flights. In case your airlines is not available within domestic, it's time to think of how to deal with excessive kilos (get prepared to pay extra kilos or browse for a better carrier having generous allowance)

[phuketkenny]

Personally, I have given up on Air Asia. They are really the worst carrier in Thailand one could select. I have seen so many arguments in the cue from people with excess baggage charges that it is beyond silly. The worst story I have heard is this week, from a friend of mine, who pre-paid his bag, just one, which was a golf bag. They refused to honor the pre-payment, charged him for the bag and refused to refund his pre-payment. Their argument was the golf bag was a sports bag, not standard baggage. He will never fly Air Asia again.

I tired using them to fly to Hong Kong, connecting through Bangkok. No bag check through, then the flight was delayed nearly one hour. I missed the connecting because it took almost another 45 minutes to get my bag. I tried to collect on their GoInsure travel insurance and was told they only paid out on delays of 6 hours or more. Clearly they have no understanding of customer service and are only interested in getting 300 baht here or there while not realizing they will lose thousands of baht in lost customers. How long before it has an impact? Probably never as the Thai clients seem less concerned with these issue.

I have finally learned my lesson the hard way. The old axiom you get what you pay for has never been more true. I can fly with Thai Air return to BKK or HK for 1500 baht more than Air Asia, but 750 baht one way includes meals and drinks, well worth the difference in comfort, service & convenience.

Good bye, Air Asia for me.

[huggybear]

Their argument was the golf bag was a sports bag, not standard baggage.

To each their own....................

And it's this type of wanking that always gets me........

Tell me, why did the customer in the very beginning not say it was going to be a golf bag? A set of clubs is a lot different than a "sports bag" when you are doing weights and balances for an aircraft.

I fly Air Asia all the time, they are alright, just save the headache, come clean with what you are bringing in the very beginning and if you are going to use them stick to the weight allowances.

[kevindk]

This debate can be lengthened endlessly as everyone has different perspective and expectation.

Personally, I find it's not that hard to go through and fly with budget carrier as long as you put it right in your mind - a budget carrier. Therefore, I don't expect their super convenience all way through from booking to filing a refund. Booking is quite easy via online for most of them and they find ways to raise their revenue by charging some services that we may be used to free-using when taking other airlines. Seat selection (for some LCC), check-in bag(s), express boarding pass and etc seem to be their solution. That limits our ease when flying them besides the cheap airfare.

Having said that, don't expect that much. Always be prepared yourselves. Show up on time (early arriving to check-in is unharmed), carefully regard your luggage to fix its allowance, always make clear any "not normal" stuff that you are about to carry on or check-in (end of the day, their revenue is what they expected). It prevents or at least, minimizes probability you are getting angry while paying for "surprise" fee.

However, I do expect standard service needed to be performed consistently at all times. I find no way to accept any rude or irresponsible response both ground service to on-board. Delaying is sometimes understandable for some reasons, but cancel without notice or extreme delay which tremendously affect customers is a no no. In that case, a relevant refund or reasonable compliment should be acquired. I hate to "beg" them my refund just because of their fault. At least we need to be served in the way of customer-oriented view.

I myself have flown many times on LCC. There were times I was ill-treated (canceled flights without prior notice and stayed over midnight being unable to do anything to rescue my plan ...) but many times I found it alright flights with happy-cheap fare. I guess there are things I need to adapt in order to minimize any hassle or uncomfortable incident after all.

Kevin

[wileycoyote]

Good advice

[ozfarang81]

Yet another RANT on Air Asia. Please refer to the other 200 Air Asia threads in this forum. The OP asked a specific question, we don't need to hear all the associated crap for the umpteenth time.

The fees are all quite clearly stated on the air asia website. It appears the OP is flying a domestic flight within Thailand: http://www.airasia.com/site/au/en/page.jsp...e=FeeScheduleFD

The website also has an extremely comprehensive FAQ. read it.

[SmugFarangBore]

Yet another RANT on Air Asia. Please refer to the other 200 Air Asia threads in this forum. The OP asked a specific question, we don't need to hear all the associated crap for the umpteenth time.

Perhaps not, but it does serve as an indicator that there are many annoyed Air Asia customers out there.

[ozfarang81]

Yup, smugfarangbore, same with any airline. And DEFINITELY applies to Thai Airways... they have just as many annoyed customers, and there has been plenty of threads here and elsewhere about poor service from Thai. but the satisfied customers will outnumber them 1000 to 1 in both cases and Air Asia will keep growing and Thai Airways will probably keep losing money. Within about a year all of Thai Air Asia's fleet will be brand new A320's, all delivered in the past 2 to 3 years. Thai will still be putting you on the 10 to 20 year old A300 and B737-400's for a few more years yet before the A321's finally arrive. Don't get me wrong, I will fly Thai when I can and I am a star alliance gold member so I can use their lounges, but sometimes the price difference between FD and TG is ridiculous and the extra service TG provides just isnt worth it IMO. After 40 plus sectors with Thai and Malaysia Air Asia I still happily fly with them.

Another thing, iF it wasn't for the decent competition Air Asia provide you can bet TG's prices would be higher too! And as has been said a million times before, if you book without knowing the terms and conditions and the services the airline provides and complain later, you have nobody but to blame but yourself. So all those people standing in the checkin queue whinging about excess baggage are all clueless travel novices who did not bother looking into what they were buying in the first place. They deserve everything they get!

[macduff]

At the end of the day you get what you pay for. For me personally with flying from the UK and connecting from suvani to Udon with all the baggage restrictions as there is on every carrier. Air Asia will never be my prefared domestic carrier. I would rather wait 5 hours for a Nok air flight.

[ozfarang81]

At the end of the day you get what you pay for. For me personally with flying from the UK and connecting from suvani to Udon with all the baggage restrictions as there is on every carrier. Air Asia will never be my prefared domestic carrier. I would rather wait 5 hours for a Nok air flight.

youll need to take a bus or taxi from Suvarnabhumi to Don Muang then.

[macduff]

At the end of the day you get what you pay for. For me personally with flying from the UK and connecting from suvani to Udon with all the baggage restrictions as there is on every carrier. Air Asia will never be my prefared domestic carrier. I would rather wait 5 hours for a Nok air flight.

youll need to take a bus or taxi from Suvarnabhumi to Don Muang then.

Up to now yes,but hopefully that will change soon

[SmugFarangBore]

and Air Asia will keep growing and Thai Airways will probably keep losing money. Within about a year all of Thai Air Asia's fleet will be brand new A320's, all delivered in the past 2 to 3 years.

That is providing Air Asia don't go out of business this year. They are precariously close to doing so at the moment.

Air Asia announced their first ever operating losses last quarter due to having to buy out their fuel hedging contracts early which cost them, on top of losses already made, some $90m.

If they did go out of business, it is likely their Thai subsidiary would survive in another guise though.

[arco27]

I have said it on previous Air Asia threads, you buy a discount ticket so expect discount service and stick to the rules. I have now flown over 400 times with AA and have never had any real problems. 3 flights out of the 400 had slight delays, one flight was 3 hours late, but I got a text from them before I left home. I always got one check in case with between 12 and 15kg plus my laptop bag as carry on luggage and never had a problem. The KL budget terminal is not the most pleasant place to wait and the passing immigration just to re-check in to fly to Thailand is a bit of a drag, but I put up with that because I save thousands of Bath. The connections of TG between Brisbane and BKK are horrible especially since the return flight goes via Sydney, last time I flew with them my friend had a cockroach in his meal and barely got an appology. For me AA is fine, I don't expect too much on an 9 hour flight and the short flights between South East Asian cities and Thai domestic flights are just like bus rides. At AA's check ins I am always surprised how much luggage people carry with them and how rude they are to the staff when they are made to pay excess, most arguments always are about luggage. I guess I am a seasoned traveler, but I hate flying and even more I hate draging luggage with me, so it is behonde me whey anyone would want to travel 30 to 40kg suitcases and 3 or 4 carry-on bags stuffed to the hilts.

[tominchaam]

I find Airasia of today a good airline and I am pleased to enjoy their cheap fares in this part of Asia. I find no reason to complain about their rules as those are clear to me before I do my bookings.

[luvthailand]

I have flown AirAsia many times and believe that they offer great value.

To answer the original poster's question, if you book your tickets together then they count the weight together. I just flew 4 AirAsia flights with my mother, a combination of domestic and international, and each time they applied this credit. My bag was under and her back was over by quite a bit.

Most of the time, if you are just a few kilograms over (collectively), then they won't charge you. My mom did get charged on one of four flights (KL to CNX), we were about 5 kilograms over (I think my bag was about 10 and hers was about 25).

They do not normally weigh your carry on luggage, which is supposedly limited to 7 kg but practically speaking is limited by size, not weight. My friend carried on 12 kg last night, no problem.

One tip is that you can just go up to the airline counters before getting in line and weigh your bags. If you are over, you can place something heavy in your carry on, etc.

Also, the overage charge is less for domestic flights than international flights.

luvthailand