Airasia Offers Free Thai Tickets As Fare War Takes Off

[techboy]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Air Asia gives nothing away, they cancel a flight on you but will not reimburse you. THE ARE A BIG RIP OFF

Did you ever actually try to collect from their GoInsure? Get yourself a good supply of Valium first!

[Jirapa]

Yeah right am sure it will be PR B.S and "oh we forgot the £499 fuel surcharge and the 10 hour delay and 25 year old plane, thatll be £10 to use the toilet and £50 for a cup of water, bag allowance 2kg" "hot seats" £200 extra!! £80 "wheels down for landing" surcharge.

Right... if it sounds like a good thing then it must be bad. Why is it that no matter what the topic is here on THAI VISA, inevitably the cynical, gloom and doom kill-joys have to jump in and start putting a completely negative spin on it bringing the atmosphere down to a 9th Grade level? I can only suppose that nobody can simply enjoy life a little without all this negativity as that's how they've been conditioned to think in the Western societies.

I thought the "80 quid for wheels down landing surcharge" was pretty amusing. Made me laugh! That guy's British by the way, check the currency!, and if western conditioning has given him a good sense of humour what's wrong with that? We all know corporates don't really give a dam_n about the consumer other than the profits they stand to gain which is the point I read into yabaaaa's post. Give a little and take as much as you can is what corporate policy is all about in any country. That's not cynical it's fact so we might as well try to get our moneys worth by having a laugh at our own expense.

[chameleon1977]

Yeah right am sure it will be PR B.S and "oh we forgot the £499 fuel surcharge and the 10 hour delay and 25 year old plane, thatll be £10 to use the toilet and £50 for a cup of water, bag allowance 2kg" "hot seats" £200 extra!! £80 "wheels down for landing" surcharge.

Right... if it sounds like a good thing then it must be bad. Why is it that no matter what the topic is here on THAI VISA, inevitably the cynical, gloom and doom kill-joys have to jump in and start putting a completely negative spin on it bringing the atmosphere down to a 9th Grade level? I can only suppose that nobody can simply enjoy life a little without all this negativity as that's how they've been conditioned to think in the Western societies.

I thought the "80 quid for wheels down landing surcharge" was pretty amusing. Made me laugh! That guy's British by the way, check the currency!, and if western conditioning has given him a good sense of humour what's wrong with that? We all know corporates don't really give a dam_n about the consumer other than the profits they stand to gain which is the point I read into yabaaaa's post. Give a little and take as much as you can is what corporate policy is all about in any country. That's not cynical it's fact so we might as well try to get our moneys worth by having a laugh at our own expense.

Totally agree with that. It doesn't pay to be too serious either, I thought it was amusing...well I wrote something similar myself.

[Netfan]

Odd, I just checked about a return flight to KL- 600 baht more expensive than two weeks ago. Same flights. When airlines were pulling this s#it in the US years ago, the consumer agencies sued them for "bait and switch". Not likely to happen here though.

[volatilekoala]

you think somebody in AOT came up with the idea ? or just air asia to boost their sales...

38$ only, plus taxes, plus this, plus that...

better start to do something for us expats spending here year in year out ...

because what kind of tourists will be attracked by such offer ?

backpackers ?

I seriously agree! I live here, I'm a university student and I even speak a bit of Thai but still everything costs me just a little more because I'm a foreigner. Even going to a nightclub like ROUTE 66, my friends get to walk in free and I'm sent to the Farang entrance to pay 200baht.

It's great that they want to get more tourists over here, but how about the foreigners that live here already pay taxes and a higher price for everything? any break for us?

[Roachiebkk]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Some steps to get more tourists:

1. Same entree fees anywhere for farang and Thai

2. Stop the rip off with charging 10 % service in restaurants, not one service guy or girl gets this anyway

3. Include the 7% VAT in the prices announced in the menu

4. All taxi service with same announced prices

5. Pattaya, clean up your beach and get rid of those speedboats on the beach, the made a multi- million pier for what?

6. Find that silly Jeff Savage character and frog march him out of the country or directly into the Bangkok Hilton

[haveaniceday]

Been watching Air Asia flights for a while, BKK-KL-OZ At most it is $56 cheaper than before. Not much difference in the big picture. ALL PR BS.

[Roachiebkk]

you think somebody in AOT came up with the idea ? or just air asia to boost their sales...

38$ only, plus taxes, plus this, plus that...

better start to do something for us expats spending here year in year out ...

because what kind of tourists will be attracked by such offer ?

backpackers ?

I seriously agree! I live here, I'm a university student and I even speak a bit of Thai but still everything costs me just a little more because I'm a foreigner. Even going to a nightclub like ROUTE 66, my friends get to walk in free and I'm sent to the Farang entrance to pay 200baht.

It's great that they want to get more tourists over here, but how about the foreigners that live here already pay taxes and a higher price for everything? any break for us?

Yes I agree. I used to live two minutes from Dusit Zoo and it was wonderful taking the family there on a Sunday arvo. Cheap cold beer and a KFC picnic lunch shared with Monitor Lizards but then they openly and blatantly changed the entrance fees without even trying to disguise it. In big letters in English. Thai nationals 20 baht, FOREIGNER 100 baht each person. I know it's not much but it does make you feel that you'll never really belong.

[Jirapa]

Odd, I just checked about a return flight to KL- 600 baht more expensive than two weeks ago. Same flights. When airlines were pulling this s#it in the US years ago, the consumer agencies sued them for "bait and switch". Not likely to happen here though.

Happens all the time. I believe it was Ryan Air that was offering flights from London to Glasgow for 9 quid years ago and there was a huge advertising campaign around the offer. In actual fact there were only a couple of seats on each flight for a limited period at that price so the chances of getting one were about 1 in 75. Congratulations to anyone who happend to actually want to go to Glasgow during that short period and managed to get one. Again I'm not being cynical it's called corporate marketing and they're smart enough to use the right words so the marketing message is legally watertight.

[BLUEEYEDTHAI]

but its low season :D :D

correct me if I'm wrong but,did'nt I read on tv, some hotel association spokesperson saying not to expect lower prices for rooms. So much for patriotism.

[Jirapa]

you think somebody in AOT came up with the idea ? or just air asia to boost their sales...

38$ only, plus taxes, plus this, plus that...

better start to do something for us expats spending here year in year out ...

because what kind of tourists will be attracked by such offer ?

backpackers ?

I seriously agree! I live here, I'm a university student and I even speak a bit of Thai but still everything costs me just a little more because I'm a foreigner. Even going to a nightclub like ROUTE 66, my friends get to walk in free and I'm sent to the Farang entrance to pay 200baht.

It's great that they want to get more tourists over here, but how about the foreigners that live here already pay taxes and a higher price for everything? any break for us?

Yes I agree. I used to live two minutes from Dusit Zoo and it was wonderful taking the family there on a Sunday arvo. Cheap cold beer and a KFC picnic lunch shared with Monitor Lizards but then they openly and blatantly changed the entrance fees without even trying to disguise it. In big letters in English. Thai nationals 20 baht, FOREIGNER 100 baht each person. I know it's not much but it does make you feel that you'll never really belong.

What's wrong with that when Ferrang in general earn or have so much more money than the average Thai. It's nice to see the government cuts them some slack as if they had to pay 100-200B to visit a waterfall or national park they simply wouldn't be able to afford to see their national heritage especially if they were visiting with a large family. National heratige sites should actually be free for Thais and we should have to pay as if a Thai is fortunate enough to get to any western country they won't be paying 200B to get into one of our tourist attractions it'll be more like 700B -1000B not the 20B they pay at home. It should be our governments that learn a lesson here and give our own nationals almost free access to their heritage!

Food, drink, gasoline, etc.... is the same for all so what's the problem?

Edited May 28, 2010 by Jirapa

[wil3bk]

well....also we here in Germany should learn from Thai Government....we should introduce new entrance fees for foreigners, 5-10 times the amount of our citizens...because if a foreigner has a money to visit our country he must be rich!..so he must have also a little money for an little higher entrance fee.....

people who are poor cant be hurt by this new fees....they must stay homecountry anyway....

just the same in return.......

no thai will complain, because they will know and used this policy from at home...

as a german...i know all people has to be treated equally....well thats not a culture in thailand, sad to say.

[Roachiebkk]

you think somebody in AOT came up with the idea ? or just air asia to boost their sales...

38$ only, plus taxes, plus this, plus that...

better start to do something for us expats spending here year in year out ...

because what kind of tourists will be attracked by such offer ?

backpackers ?

I seriously agree! I live here, I'm a university student and I even speak a bit of Thai but still everything costs me just a little more because I'm a foreigner. Even going to a nightclub like ROUTE 66, my friends get to walk in free and I'm sent to the Farang entrance to pay 200baht.

It's great that they want to get more tourists over here, but how about the foreigners that live here already pay taxes and a higher price for everything? any break for us?

Yes I agree. I used to live two minutes from Dusit Zoo and it was wonderful taking the family there on a Sunday arvo. Cheap cold beer and a KFC picnic lunch shared with Monitor Lizards but then they openly and blatantly changed the entrance fees without even trying to disguise it. In big letters in English. Thai nationals 20 baht, FOREIGNER 100 baht each person. I know it's not much but it does make you feel that you'll never really belong.

What's wrong with that when Ferrang in general earn or have so much more money than the average Thai. It's nice to see the government cuts them some slack as if they had to pay 100-200B to visit a waterfall or national park they simply wouldn't be able to afford to see their national heritage especially if they were visiting with a large family. National heratige sites should actually be free for Thais and we should have to pay as if a Thai is fortunate enough to get to any western country they won't be paying 200B to get into one of our tourist attractions it'll be more like 700B -1000B not the 20B they pay at home. It should be our governments that learn a lesson here and give our own nationals almost free access to their heritage!

Food, drink, gasoline, etc.... is the same for all so what's the problem?

Excellent then make Dusit Zoo FREE! You already pay for any attractions inside anyway.

[sjjmmi]

well....also we here in Germany should learn from Thai Government....we should introduce new entrance fees for foreigners, 5-10 times the amount of our citizens...because if a foreigner has a money to visit our country he must be rich!..so he must have also a little money for an little higher entrance fee.....

people who are poor cant be hurt by this new fees....they must stay homecountry anyway....

just the same in return.......

no thai will complain, because they will know and used this policy from at home...

as a german...i know all people has to be treated equally....well thats not a culture in thailand, sad to say.

China oso have this Foreigners tax @ most parks or place's of interest

[Roachiebkk]

well....also we here in Germany should learn from Thai Government....we should introduce new entrance fees for foreigners, 5-10 times the amount of our citizens...because if a foreigner has a money to visit our country he must be rich!..so he must have also a little money for an little higher entrance fee.....

people who are poor cant be hurt by this new fees....they must stay homecountry anyway....

just the same in return.......

no thai will complain, because they will know and used this policy from at home...

as a german...i know all people has to be treated equally....well thats not a culture in thailand, sad to say.

Don't you love this old presumption....... 'If they travel they must be rich' Well if you are LIVING here performing some such service which may even be to the benefit of the Thai people and definitely their economy, paying taxes, higher rent, paying higher prices for medicines, doctors, hotels why should you be fleeced as well by every business that thinks 'You farang, you travel, you rich' Why do the hi-so Thai's not also take some of this burden?

[wehugheog]

Found a free flight, but if I would BKK <-> KUL then the airport tax is 700 THB instead of THB 100 looooooooool

That is, the tax on the trip I would have to pay for and they slap a THB 275 on the free flight, where there is NO tax/fee on it normally.....

Hm, so that 875 THB extra fees to get a "free" flight....

Yeah right.

Edited May 28, 2010 by wehugheog

[hansnl]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Well said!

Well said ??? How could you even understand what he was saying?

Simple, by switching on his or her brain before reading!

[Chunky1]

Air Asia -

Free Flights*

*Doesn't include meal charge, seat charge, tax, fuel charge, tax, baggage charge, online convenience charge.

So, yes, free!

[MisterBean]

Oh gosh, we have hijackers in an airline thread! Yup, things cost more for foreigners, ok we get it. Move along folks, nothing to type here... plenty of threads on discriminatory pricing elsewhere to jump into.

and now back to our regularly scheduled thread........

I can understand a person being frustrated because they are unable to take advantage of a sale or promotion but I don't see what there is to complain about with getting a seat for free. I think AirAsia worded the promotion poorly but there are still plenty of free seats available.

AirAsia has free seat promos often so attaching one to reviving BKK is a nice marketing angle but it is not the only reason for a sale. There are a hundred flights in the first 2 weeks of July from KUL-BKK, over 80 of those flights have free seats. On most days all the flights are free. They advertised free seats to BKK from June 7 to Aug 31 and when I check one of the routes on sale I find 80% of the flights have a promo seat available. Flights from Phnom Penh to BKK during the same period are wide open, 100% of the flights have at least 1 free seat. I don't see any scam or marketing bs.

I am pissed off though because I want a ticket to fly to KUL tomorrow for free and I want to be able to change to name in case I don't go and I decide to give the ticket to my friend. I don't want to pay any government taxes, I don't care if other airlines charge them. After I get to KUL I want to go to London for $6 and if they can't do it then they are a rip off airline. I sense that is what some people expect. When people say they don't see any difference in the price or its even higher for the trip they were looking for before then something doesn't add up. The seat is free now but somehow it was even cheaper before? Really? You have to be flexible to get these deals, if a free seat isn't there for the 2nd , try the 3rd. If you are trying to book outside of the dates available, or for a city or route that is not included then those seats aren't on sale. This isn't unique to the airline industry, no business can afford to give everything away everyday, besides its AirAsia wait 5 minutes for the next sale to come along and you might get lucky.

[LuckyLew]

you think somebody in AOT came up with the idea ? or just air asia to boost their sales...

38$ only, plus taxes, plus this, plus that...

better start to do something for us expats spending here year in year out ...

because what kind of tourists will be attracked by such offer ?

backpackers ?

I seriously agree! I live here, I'm a university student and I even speak a bit of Thai but still everything costs me just a little more because I'm a foreigner. Even going to a nightclub like ROUTE 66, my friends get to walk in free and I'm sent to the Farang entrance to pay 200baht.

It's great that they want to get more tourists over here, but how about the foreigners that live here already pay taxes and a higher price for everything? any break for us?

No soup for you !!!

[Figglymiggly]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Air Asia gives nothing away, they cancel a flight on you but will not reimburse you. THE ARE A BIG RIP OFF

And thats a fact. Word of warning to all when booking Air-Asia online, pay particular attention to the baggage section. Was under time constraint when making a booking recently and because i didnt intend checking in any bags, i skipped over this section and proceeded to the final price and "confirm booking" only to find an additional 700 odd Bath under the heading of "Services and Fees". Went through the motions again with the same results, because of pressure of time i booked, reluctantly. It was only on receipt of the confirmation mail i could see the additional 700Baht "Services and Fees" charge was replaced by "Super-sized Baggage" charge! Air-Asia normally set the baggage section de-fault to Super-Size, not to no bags or even standard 15kg bags... so even if you dont have any bags for check-in, you must still visit this section to cancel their deliberate attempt to extort some more money from un-suspecting "guests"!!! Before you press the Pay button, why would they not describe the addition charge as what it is, ie, Supersize baggage"?...i guess the reason is they probably couldnt rip you off as much

-- The Nation Rip off

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[junkofdavid2]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Well said!

Well said ??? How could you even understand what he was saying?

That's his language coz he's a "bahtboy"...

[MisterBean]

Found a free flight, but if I would BKK <-> KUL then the airport tax is 700 THB instead of THB 100 looooooooool

That is, the tax on the trip I would have to pay for and they slap a THB 275 on the free flight, where there is NO tax/fee on it normally.....

Hm, so that 875 THB extra fees to get a "free" flight....

Yeah right.

You have to pay these taxes with all airlines. I suppose it would be more accurate to call it a "pay the tax and extras sale" but a "free seat sale" sounds better.

Thai International airport tax 700THB, no VAT

Thai Domestic airport tax 50-100THB plus VAT

Malaysian International airport tax 275THB

I have had to pay these fees for all airlines I have used in the past few years, I don't understand how someone could avoid paying them.

[brianb1944]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Air Asia gives nothing away, they cancel a flight on you but will not reimburse you. THE ARE A BIG RIP OFF

I will second that,I have never found an advertised specialavailable,and when they stuff up,they say "read the fine print" however when they dont stuff up,or you dont stuff up, they are fine. I recently had to reschedule flights to UK with them, wife visa was rejected, original ticket, 44,000 baht, reschedule 26,000baht.

[Murf]

This week: Fare War

Last week: War Fare

[Jimi007]

I checked last nite and again today on AirAsia ... BKK-Bali-BKK departure June 23 for eg: 6,000bht return ... next best fare is 7,500 and then 9,000bht depending on dates ... can't see ANY free flights (+ only tax's and fees) at all !

Last year is was seats for 3 Baht or something. I think Air Asia is usually BS, especially their promotions. Pay the regular fair earlyand you get the best deals from any airline. But not too early!

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Air Asia gives nothing away, they cancel a flight on you but will not reimburse you. THE ARE A BIG RIP OFF

Did you ever actually try to collect from their GoInsure? Get yourself a good supply of Valium first!

LOL, I bet! When Phuket Air went out of business, actually before they did, I tried to get a refund for three tickets, as they canceled the flight. It was the day of the tsunami. It took over three months to get my refund and if they wire transfered the money, there would be little left. But I did get it eventually, when I came back a couple of months later...

[denissr]

I checked last nite and again today on AirAsia ... BKK-Bali-BKK departure June 23 for eg: 6,000bht return ... next best fare is 7,500 and then 9,000bht depending on dates ... can't see ANY free flights (+ only tax's and fees) at all !

Oh, no they lied.

[Jimi007]

you think somebody in AOT came up with the idea ? or just air asia to boost their sales...

38$ only, plus taxes, plus this, plus that...

better start to do something for us expats spending here year in year out ...

because what kind of tourists will be attracked by such offer ?

backpackers ?

I seriously agree! I live here, I'm a university student and I even speak a bit of Thai but still everything costs me just a little more because I'm a foreigner. Even going to a nightclub like ROUTE 66, my friends get to walk in free and I'm sent to the Farang entrance to pay 200baht.

It's great that they want to get more tourists over here, but how about the foreigners that live here already pay taxes and a higher price for everything? any break for us?

Yes I agree. I used to live two minutes from Dusit Zoo and it was wonderful taking the family there on a Sunday arvo. Cheap cold beer and a KFC picnic lunch shared with Monitor Lizards but then they openly and blatantly changed the entrance fees without even trying to disguise it. In big letters in English. Thai nationals 20 baht, FOREIGNER 100 baht each person. I know it's not much but it does make you feel that you'll never really belong.

What's wrong with that when Ferrang in general earn or have so much more money than the average Thai. It's nice to see the government cuts them some slack as if they had to pay 100-200B to visit a waterfall or national park they simply wouldn't be able to afford to see their national heritage especially if they were visiting with a large family. National heratige sites should actually be free for Thais and we should have to pay as if a Thai is fortunate enough to get to any western country they won't be paying 200B to get into one of our tourist attractions it'll be more like 700B -1000B not the 20B they pay at home. It should be our governments that learn a lesson here and give our own nationals almost free access to their heritage!

Food, drink, gasoline, etc.... is the same for all so what's the problem?

Sorry, I didn't look at you profiles. And I'm not trying to insult you in any way... But how long have you been here? How many times have I been told Thailand is for Thais, in english and Thai? Hmm, many. I could go on and on about it! The trains and parks are owned by the people of Thailand, so get over that part. I never go to or on either one anymore.

But: Air Asia, do they do a good job? Or not? I am thinking about trying them, but with some of the comments about their cancelations, etc. Can I make a morning flight from Phuket to BKK and get to my Embassy in time for my appointment that morning or not? Otherwise I'll take 1 to go to Don Muang and spend the night!

[MAJIC]

however they giva offer also thai tourism want to take more step to get peoples

Some steps to get more tourists:

1. Same entree fees anywhere for farang and Thai

2. Stop the rip off with charging 10 % service in restaurants, not one service guy or girl gets this anyway

3. Include the 7% VAT in the prices announced in the menu

4. All taxi service with same announced prices

5. Pattaya, clean up your beach and get rid of those speedboats on the beach, the made a multi- million pier for what?

6. Find that silly Jeff Savage character and frog march him out of the country or directly into the Bangkok Hilton

Silly Post too!

[Jing-jo]

Yeah right am sure it will be PR B.S and "oh we forgot the £499 fuel surcharge and the 10 hour delay and 25 year old plane, thatll be £10 to use the toilet and £50 for a cup of water, bag allowance 2kg" "hot seats" £200 extra!! £80 "wheels down for landing" surcharge.

HaHa Air Asia is the RYAN Air of the east they charge extra for bags (PER bag!), charge for food and water

probably hidden deep in the fine print they charge you for any services used in the event of an accident

"Sorry Sir! you cannot use the Oxygen mask unless we have you credit card details first!" "Thank you Sir , that'll be £50 per gramme but there is a surcharge if you get excited and take more than one a minute and do you want to pay extra for a clean new mask that is actually connected!"

They offered £00.1p fares out but ended up costing a friend who went to germany more than the Eurostar and wasn't that much faster by the time they located his bags