Airasia Getting Worse...

[ricklev]

I flew Air Asia twice weekly for two years between Chiang Mai and Bangkok; maybe 300 flights or so.

Every once in a while they screw you in a way no one who hasn't been probed in such a manner can appreciate or understand and then there is NO customer service to rectify their unbelievably bizarre fuc_k up.

There is also always a fair chance that refunds will never be credited.

I came to expect a wierd poke every 25 flights or so. Still, purchased well in advance during sales, my commute usually cost me less than the bus (not that I would ever take the bus).

Folks that don't fly Air Asia regularly are generally happy with the service...... Those that know, know...... That's

their business model.

Edited July 19, 2009 by ricklev

[aroydee]

Bangkok Air to HK????

Prompted by this thread, I started to re-consider my Air Asia flight BKK-HKG coming up -- so I looked at Bangkok Airways, which on their home page offers a flight option on that route.

But when I try to find a flight, nothing comes up, at all... for ever.... Have they canceled service on that route? Any other low fare alternatives?

Thanks, people!

[Rinrada]

Booked earlier this year 7 Tics for 99 Bt r/t to CM and was great ..incl tax it was about £10 EACH...and no probs...Custy

Now best that I can get is 1400 Bt..r/t....... ....grrrrrr.....peng...../

[pepi2005]

Booked earlier this year 7 Tics for 99 Bt r/t to CM and was great ..incl tax it was about £10 EACH...and no probs...Custy

Now best that I can get is 1400 Bt..r/t....... ....grrrrrr.....peng...../

Well, but to remain fair, you cant blame them for not having super-discount promotion sales all year long...

AirAsia ticket prices depend very much on the time you're booking ... if you are lucky enough to book during a promotion, it can be tremendously cheap, and if you have bad luck and have to book (or change your booking!) on the day before the flight, it can be even more expensive than Thai Airways (who often discount remaining seats to get the flight full ... no idea why AirAsia doesn't apply this logic as well).

Greets from the thread starter,

p.

[grantbkk]

I have used Air Asia for 60 to 70 short hops with absolutely no problems. Once bought 5 round trip tickets BKK/Phnom Penh for Bt11,000.

Basically you get what you pay for. I suggest you change to another airline or lower your expectations.

If you have no expectations you will never be disappointed.

[dageshi]

AirAsia is very simple, you book well in advance, if you want some creature comforts then you have to pay extra for them and crucially you have to pay extra for them in advance, that's why they are likely to run out of hot food on the plane because they will have made a calculaton as to whether it was worth the money to put the extra unordered meals on the plane and probably figured it wasn't, that's not their fault, that's yours for not booking in advance. More than that AA's business model is about booking well in advance and sticking to it, they don't have the staff to do all the rearranging and changing of dates because they are a budget airline, and they are a budget airline that flies absolutely EVERYWHERE in asia which I take to be a massive sign of their success, if you can't stick to your plans or need some flexibility DO NOT FLY AIRASIA.

Now for my recent experience for AirAsia. About 5 days ago I was flying from KL to Stanstead on AirAsiaX, I'd booked the flight 4 DAYS in advance and paid 150 quid, including comfort pack (blanket e.t.c.) and 20kg baggage allowance, didn't bother with food because I'm an adult and on balance decided I could feed myself before I went. Now flight was going to depart at 3:30 in the afternoon, I was there around 12:30 to find out that the plane had been cancelled and would be flying instead at 4ish in the morning that night. So what did they do? They got us on a bus, took us off to a hotel, we each got rooms, we got an evening feed at 6pm, we were bussed back to the airport at 12 we got onto our flight and departed with a little bit late because someone decided to check their luggage but not actually bord, lord knows why.

Now stuff like this happens, planes get faults e.t.c. they handled it pretty well in my opinion, they lent people mobile phones to make travel arrangements, took itineraries and contacted other airlines to see if it was possible to change flights. Now I do have some criticisms primarily that they could really do with having wifi where the bording cards are issued so people could get online and change flights e.t.c. since doing this is time critical problem and also that they could have told us a bit more regularly whats going on, but on balance they did pretty well and I would fly with them again, certainly given the cost of the flight and the fact it's a direct flight, I've paid more than that to fly one way and spent 6 hours sitting in hub airports, 150 quid four days in advance is pretty fuc_king difficult to beat.

[Briggsy]

Air Asia offers flights often at 20% of the price of their competitors flying the same route. eg. try booking a flight BKK-KL-BKK with Thai and see how much you are charged.

One of the pay-offs of getting such a cheap price is that there are heavy penalties for changing your flight.

But people insist on paying a bargain basement price and expecting the service you would get from a premium price airline. It boggles my mind. The same people then come on an internet forum to criticise Air Asia.

If you want flexible flight plans, buy a ticket with Thai or Malaysian.

I am very thankful for the service Air Asia offers. Let's hope we don't go back to the overpriced monopoly of yesteryear.

[yiiim2]

I've flown Air Asia many times both internationally, including Air Asia-X to and from Australia to KL, and domestically within Thailand .

The only problem I have ever had was a 2 hours and 10 minutes delay on a flight from KL to BKK. Due to this delay I received a RM200 voucher (about THB1900) automatically in my email inbox about 2 days after the flight which I then put towards an Air Asia flight BKK to Udon Thani thank you very much.

The RM200 voucher was as a result of Air Asia's On Time Guarantee which pays out if your flight is delayed more than 2 hours - see www.airasia.com/site/en/pressRelease.jsp?id=2926c6af-7f000010-6dd8e100-d734ffa9.

As to the cost of their inflight food and drinks I think these are very reasonable particularly when you compare them to buying from outlets at the airport.

I only travel for leisure and look for their specials so generally book well in advance.

I will certainly keep flying with Air Asia as I think they are great value and, from my point of view, provide a great service enabling a lot more people to fly who would not fly if they had to fly with the non-discount carriers.

[Zpete]

Ditto, yiiim2

All over LoS, Malaysia, S'pore, Denpassar, Phililppines and Vietnam.

99% of people having problems with Air Asia bring it upon themselves.

Get a life and follow the rules.

I have had one problem in 5 years, was my own fault.

Take responsibility for your own gaffes

Long Live AIR ASIA.

Edited July 19, 2009 by Zpete

[sunsetlover]

I'd rather get kicked in the <deleted> over and over than have to endure AA ever again.

Planes dilapidated, seats horribly uncomfortable, 2 extra rows of seats in their 737 compared to Southwest Airlines (USA's premiere discount carrier) Southwest prides itself on great customer service, they have not changed their seat configuration since their maiden flight which makes them one of the few airlines I can fly economy and be comfortable, no extra charge for luggage (you get 2 50 pound checked bags), no B.S. surcharges. The price is the price. AA could learn a lot from Southwest Airlines. All the snacks and non alcoholic drinks you ask for for no charge.

150 baht surcharge for disabled passengers that need wheelchair assist (like me). I guess there is no Asians with Disabilities Act. They prefer to not pull up to a skyway at airports, they park the plane and pull out the circa 1960s or 4th world country style stairs. Crew rude. Felt lucky to arrive alive at my destination. This was a flight from BKK to PEN and I was is so much pain by the time I arrived I needed to go to hospital after I arrived. I have had better flights in cargo net seated MAC (US Air Force Military Airlift Command) flights

I will repeat, if it ever crosses my mind to fly AirAsia again someone needs to kick me in the nuts really hard and remind me why they suck.

Are you kidding me? You cannot compare AirAsia with Southwest. You can compare AirAsia with other regional discount carriers, like Tiger or JetStar. Unless you want us then to compare our beautiful legacy carriers (ie. United, Delta etc) with Singapore Airlines!

Bottom line though, AirAsia works for me, I flew them twice in June, BKK to KL and KL to Tianjin China, both flights about 75% less than Malaysia or Thai, and most important, ON TIME. What else could one ask for, from any airline??

[scorecard]

They bill themselves as a low cost, no frills airline. Their literature says it is best to pre-book meals, you get exactly the service you didn't pay for. At least their planes are new (for now anyway), I would have thought people wanting cheap flights use them, if they had all the extras then it wouldn't be cheap.

Having flown AirAsia a number of times i have to say that i think they are just as good, if not slightly better, than most budget airlines i have flown with around the world. There have been many occasions i have flown with a countries flag bearing airline and been treated worse by their staff than any flight i have ever had with AirAsia.

It is true that they need to reorganise their online system and their customer service centre could use some work but i was due to fly with them from BKK to Malaysia during the BKK airport closure last December and their service was exceptional. Lets not forget that many of these low-budget airlines are cheap because they make their profits from the overpriced, on-board snacks and meals.

I also share that I have flown many AirAsia flights and I've never had any difficulty whatever. My son flew backwards and forwards to school in Singapore every second weekend for about 2 years on AirAsia, never a problem.

Personally I think, overall, their check-in staff and the cabin atttendants are quite focused and friendly. Their coffee is not too bad either.

Every Airline has bumps (just look at Thai inter. )

I suspect many people keep forgetting AirAsia is a budget airline, if you want the savings they offer (and sometimes unbelievable savings) then accept that It's a budget / no frills airline. A few months back I took my family, four adults and one child from BKK to Chiang Mai for 199Baht each (plus tax of course). A whole lot cheaper than the fast train or any bus and much cheaper than gasoline to take the car, and of course faster.

[AnaisNin]

AirAsia quality and service standards starting to go downhill?

Not possible.

As there is no quality and service standards in the first place.

[loser1]

My two penneth against air asia, my first and last experience of the company. On the second day of last years swampy airport seige i booked a flight from singapore to phuket for a few days in the future when i arrived at singapore a few days later i was informed that the flight was unavailable due to a lack of planes and no back up plan or re-embursement would be made, it seems that even though all air asias planes were stuck on bangkoks tarmac air asia were still taking bookings on the website even though they had no planes to forfill there bookings, nice little earner i ended up buying another flight off silk air with no probs. I will never fly with 'em, unless the price is cheaper than anyone else.

Edited July 19, 2009 by loser1

[jackspratt]

AirAsia quality and service standards starting to go downhill?

Not possible.

As there is no quality and service standards in the first place.

As clearly shown by previous posts on this thread (and from my own experience) - your post is nonsense.

[gunnyd]

150 baht surcharge for disabled passengers that need wheelchair assist (like me). I guess there is no Asians with Disabilities Act.

I really don't see why passengers shouldn't be charged more for using an extra service, other than that leftist liberal politicians call it so called "discrimination" (and get votes from yet another "voter niche" in the process).

.

Well it just screwed the person who pushed me to the gate out of a tip. No other airline I have ever flown has charged from wheelchair assist.

I am happy for all of y'all that love AA. I guess prisoners start to enjoy the fine cuisine and the sweet love they receive after a while.

Being a discount airline does not mean having to SUCK. I will again hail Southwest Airlines. Budget airfares, comfortable flights, and no B.S. surcharges. They beat out the full fare airlines in the US hands down. e.g. SW 2 50lb checked bags free, all other full fare airlines $25 first piece $50 second, $95 a piece for any other luggage. I guess that is why they were the only airline in the US to turn a profit in 2008.

You don't have to operate like AirAsia, RyanAir, or Cebu Pacific to make money.

BTW JOD I am a gun toting, tax hating, Republican. Not taking care of disabled passengers is shameful and has nothing to do with politics.

Edited July 20, 2009 by gunnyd

[Jiu-Jitsu]

150 baht surcharge for disabled passengers that need wheelchair assist (like me). I guess there is no Asians with Disabilities Act.

I really don't see why passengers shouldn't be charged more for using an extra service, other than that leftist liberal politicians call it so called "discrimination" (and get votes from yet another "voter niche" in the process).

Of course Ryanair were taken to task when they started charging for wheelchair assistance, which is illegal, they got round it by charging everybody the fee, that was legal and they still do it.

How do they manage that on a penny or one pound fare...or even a five pound fare? These urban legends....

Edited July 20, 2009 by Jiu-Jitsu

[huggybear]

I'd rather get kicked in the <deleted> over and over than have to endure AA ever again.

Planes dilapidated, seats horribly uncomfortable, 2 extra rows of seats in their 737 compared to Southwest Airlines (USA's premiere discount carrier) Southwest prides itself on great customer service, they have not changed their seat configuration since their maiden flight which makes them one of the few airlines I can fly economy and be comfortable, no extra charge for luggage (you get 2 50 pound checked bags), no B.S. surcharges. The price is the price. AA could learn a lot from Southwest Airlines. All the snacks and non alcoholic drinks you ask for for no charge.

150 baht surcharge for disabled passengers that need wheelchair assist (like me). I guess there is no Asians with Disabilities Act. They prefer to not pull up to a skyway at airports, they park the plane and pull out the circa 1960s or 4th world country style stairs. Crew rude. Felt lucky to arrive alive at my destination. This was a flight from BKK to PEN and I was is so much pain by the time I arrived I needed to go to hospital after I arrived. I have had better flights in cargo net seated MAC (US Air Force Military Airlift Command) flights

I will repeat, if it ever crosses my mind to fly AirAsia again someone needs to kick me in the nuts really hard and remind me why they suck.

Are you kidding me? You cannot compare AirAsia with Southwest. You can compare AirAsia with other regional discount carriers, like Tiger or JetStar. Unless you want us then to compare our beautiful legacy carriers (ie. United, Delta etc) with Singapore Airlines!

Bottom line though, AirAsia works for me, I flew them twice in June, BKK to KL and KL to Tianjin China, both flights about 75% less than Malaysia or Thai, and most important, ON TIME. What else could one ask for, from any airline??

I'm with you. AA really has never done me wrong, yes delays for sure, but they send a text to me before I leave for the airport.

Also, for my international trip this September, I got the 99thb fare Phuket-BKK ended up being 799.00thb. But I will end up spending 1300 on the hotel room the night before as I cannot trust the delay possibility on the international connect......

[Goinghomesoon]

We don't expect 5 star services.

We just want clearness of the website, sms sent asap when flight delayed, courtesy at the counter. Is that too much to ask?

Anyway, Airasia is now often more expensive than Bkk airways.

So I avoid flighing with Airasia as much as I can.

We flew AA Bangkok-Krabi return a couple of weeks ago. Both our outgoing and return flights had time changes (as they combined 2 flights into 1). Both times I was notified by SMS about 3 days beforehand and AA followed up with a phone call on both occasions. Maybe the way to ensure they advise you of changes is to sign up as a member on their site & ensure your contact details are correct in the member profile.

[sincerechinese]

Just for your info. You can get the airport tax refunded if you don't show up or you miss the flight.

So far, I have not received any single cent of all my refund yet.

The BKK airport sales counter staffs have been very helpful to me but my refunds never arrive, despite more than 6 months.

The KL sales counter staffs don't even entertain airport tax refund claims. They asked me to write in but my e-mails have not been replied.

Once, last year, they changed my flight time, I don't accept and they agreed to give me a full refund of about 20,000 Bahts for a few tickets cancelled but i nevr received them. This happened in Malaysia and I could not lodge any further complaint because I did not save a copy of my original booking. It got disappeared from my AA accounts page when they cancel my booking.

I think the Thailand management of AA is better and more sincere. It's the Malaysian side that is quite unscrupulous. The malaysian owner owned Maxis & Astro which many subscribers are unhappy over their practice too.

Guess we have to bear with it since they are still the cheapest.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

AirAsia is very simple,.....

Now stuff like this happens, planes get faults e.t.c. they handled it pretty well in my opinion, they lent people mobile phones to make travel arrangements, took itineraries and contacted other airlines to see if it was possible to change flights. Now I do have some criticisms primarily that they could really do with having wifi where the boarding cards are issued so people could get online and change flights e.t.c. since doing this is time critical problem and also that they could have told us a bit more regularly whats going on, but on balance they did pretty well and I would fly with them again, certainly given the cost of the flight and the fact it's a direct flight, I've paid more than that to fly one way and spent 6 hours sitting in hub airports, 150 quid four days in advance is pretty fuc_king difficult to beat.

There was free 'WiFi' when I was there a few months ago. Could they have removed it since then?

[sunnymarky]

I booked a Flight online with AirSucksAsia(ASA) recently, using an international Visa Debit card, The money was Debited from my account but I was told by ASA , by phone, it was rejected BY MY BANK. After contacting them I discover this was incorrect and monies were debited. When I get back to ASA they say the money was taken but it will be refunded to my card and that if I want to have the ticket reserved I have to go to an ASA office or shop to pay by cash, There was no time to do this so I dont bother. Problem is they have STILL to refund my 2500 Bht 14 days after it was debited, When you telephone them it's a case of being put on hold and they never come back and their email customer service address has not replied to any email in the lasat 10 days. I cannot believe this airline was voted Worlds best budget airline, BY WHO? The worst customer service I have experienced with ANY airline and to be avoided. I will pay the extra 1000 -2000 baht and fly with an airline that provide a service.

PS I have placed a complaint with my bank that the monies were taken illegally from my account.

[sunnymarky]

Ditto, yiiim2

All over LoS, Malaysia, S'pore, Denpassar, Phililppines and Vietnam.

99% of people having problems with Air Asia bring it upon themselves.

Get a life and follow the rules.

I have had one problem in 5 years, was my own fault.

Take responsibility for your own gaffes

Long Live AIR ASIA.

"99% Bring it upon themslves" Where do this Thaivisa posters Crawl out from with their garbage

[nookiebear]

On my last couple of visits to Swampy I've noticed that many of the cancelled /delayed flights are indeed operated by Air Asia!!!!!!!!!!!!

[torrenova]

Here's my last escapade with AA.

I book to fly Bangkok to Phuket. All done online as usual. At check in, they want to see the credit card I booked with. Impossible I say, as it is a Kasikorn Bank virtual web card. Now this card has been out for at least a couple of years and I've used it with AA and other airlines loads of times. It is also verified by Visa !

The trouble is that it is beyond her comprehension. It cannot possibly be so and because she doesn't know what to do, we are faced with that Thai "face" rubbish which means either a head in the sand approach and hope it goes away approach, the run away and hope it goes away approach or the stay silent and hope it goes away approach. They cannot possibly admit that they are stumped.

Now the fact that I'd just flown up from Singapore on their airline, on a ticket booked with the same card does not impress them. Neither do the numerous previous flights booked with the same card.

I try to explain it to someone else who I give up on when they say this time ok but bring the card next time. Sure, I'll wheel in the bloody computer terminal and show you it live on the Kasikorn Bank website.

Had it been some card issued by the bank of Bonga Bonga in Africa then I could understand but one issued by the ex Thai Farmers Bank ? Come on AA, employ some people with brains, if you can find them.

[torrenova]

I think we all know the problem with connecting flights and the time to claim baggage, check in again and so forth but is it really beyond the capabilities of their computer programmers to allow people to book a number of flights at the same time ?

They could build in minimum transfer times (I think there was once an airline that did that - maybe in Europe) and advise that connections were not guaranteed and each booking, though handled with one payment, was a separate contract and just combined for payment convenience.

[britmaveric]

AA is a point to point carrier and even say they do not recommend booking multiple same day flights for connections.

[zzaa09]

Best cash in those frequent flyer miles while you can.

[sunnymarky]

torrenovaPosted Today, 2009-07-26 08:17:03

"we are faced with that Thai "face" rubbish which means either a head in the sand approach and hope it goes away approach, the run away and hope it goes away approach or the stay silent and hope it goes away approach. They cannot possibly admit that they are stumped."

Well summarised, Thai Customer Service in a nutshell when the company they are representing have made a mistake. I have never once heard "I am sorry sir we have made a mistake , apologize and will sort it out" or words similar. It just ain't in their little brains

Edited July 26, 2009 by sunnymarky

[PattayaParent]

I've flown with Air Asia internationally several times including 2 flights last week and 2 coming up next week.

The only difference I see in standards from other non-budget airlines is that they don't provide free food or booze, otherwise check in experiences and in flight experiences are exactly the same.

Never had a problem with them and will keep flying with them over any other airlines if they're on the routing I want.

[spongeman]

I have used Air Asia regularly for my CNX-BKK flights, and have never had a single problem. You get exactly what you pay for, no more and no less.

If you're one of those silly old farts always changing their minds at the last minute, then please use a full-fare airline that will put up with your indecision and whims with a smile (and a much higher fare!), and leave AA for those of us who know when we are travelling and just want the cheapest fare from A to B.

Hear Hear. Budget Airlines make their cash from things like date changes etc.

Of course when you go to a travel agent you will pay more. You may even get porked from behind. How else are they going to pay the overheads that online companies do not have ?