Air Asia Experiences

[Bangkok Barry]

Just interested in anyone's experiences with Air Asia.

I’ve used them several times, and have never yet found them to be anywhere close to on-time. This week I used them to fly BKK to Kota Kinabalu. The flight out was over 30 minutes late, and the experience coming back was interesting. The flight from BKK landed two and a half hours late, but they made up an hour on the turnaround and we arrived back in BKK ONLY an hour and a half late.

My concerns are with their professionalism. Not once was any apology or explanation offered. Incredibly, when I asked in their ticketing office in KK when the flight might be taking off for BKK I was told there wasn’t one. When I pointed out that I had recently checked my bags in for their non-existing flight he got on his radio and checked, and then admitted there was one but insisted it would take off 45 minutes BEFORE its expected arrival time. With only one international flight that day, I would have expected the Air Asia ticket office at the airport to be aware of it.

On the plane, there were several overhead lights flickering very badly. Not only was this irritating, I considered it might pose a health danger to anyone prone to epilepsy or migraine. It took me quite an effort to convince the cabin crew of the problem, which they surely should have appreciated themselves, but then they did the right thing and turned off the offending lights. In fact, the cabin crew were very good - friendly and helpful - once they were ‘educated’.

But I wonder why maintenance didn’t pick up the lights problem, and what else might have been wrong. Why was the flight so late? Was it a problem with the plane that needed to be fixed? And all their other flights that in my experience are often over an hour late.

The fact that Air Asia (in this case Thai Air Asia) is a cheap airline shouldn’t affect their punctuality or professionalism. A couple of weeks ago I flew what is Europe’s top cheap airline, Ryanair, and everything went perfectly - apart from the morons cheap fares attract, who had never been on a plane before and started wandering around during take-off and landing. They claim a near-perfect on-time record and 25-minute turnaround. If Ryanair can do it, why can’t Air Asia?

Personally, I’ve had enough of them.

[Soph]

Cheap - of course. I managed to fly Hat Yai, KL, Borneo, Phuket for cheaper than the flight over from Phuket to Samui.

But, freezing cold and I hate the way they dont give seat numbers, so come boarding time everyone makes a mad dash for it, pushing the elderly, young and disabled well out of the way - hilarious

Always been more or less on time though

[jing]

Still refers jetstarasia than airasia.

[ilyushin]

JetStarAsia, Tiger Air, ValueAir and Nok Air are my budget choices. Air Asia doesn't even come to mind when making a trip.

[skylar]

Flew AirAsia from Bangkok to Hat Yai - the only airline to depart and arrive late. Nok Air, Bangkok Airways, Thai Airways and Phuket Air were on time.

[terdsak_12]

Late, Late, Late. Cramped, Cramped, Cramped.

[britmaveric]

Pleasant and cheap. (late too btw)

[sonthaya]

If you fly cheap airlines, that's what to expect.

As a retired airline pilot I'll stick to Thai Aw. for safety reasons, better safe than sorry.

[markg]

If you fly cheap airlines, that's what to expect.

As a retired airline pilot I'll stick to Thai Aw. for safety reasons, better safe than sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

mmmm interesting and more than a little scary. I just assumed that aircraft and pilots etc would be subjected to the same rules regarding servicing of the aircraft and training of the staff...............I never gave it a 2nd thought.

I have flown air asia 4 times. First 3, very impressive. Last one - got to the airport 2 hours early only to be told that the flight had been CANCELLED and the next one was in 7 hours. No reason given. They gave me a Mcdonalds voucher for food. I m a f**king veggie so that was no comfort. I think the flight was cancelled because there werent enough people on it. The flight i did get, 7 hours later, wasnt even full. I also nearly missed my connecting flight in KL. I will think twice before using them again.

[Bangkok Barry]

If you fly cheap airlines, that's what to expect.

As a retired airline pilot I'll stick to Thai Aw. for safety reasons, better safe than sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As someone who was in the business, do you base this concern for safety on any facts at all. Are cheap airlines less safe? That's a pretty serious suggestion and I think we'd all like to know.

[monochaser]

It is rather amusing to hear all of the complaints. Yes they are late. Yes they are less safe.

Yes You Get What You Pay For!!!!!!

[Bangkok Barry]

It is rather amusing to hear all of the complaints. Yes they are late. Yes they are less safe.

Yes You Get What You Pay For!!!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And as I and others have pointed out, other airlines such as Ryanair and Tiger are cheap but still have a reliable service. Why not Air Asia?

[monochaser]

Tiger costs more. you get what you pay for

[numpty]

more air asia woes

i don t buy this 'you get what you pay for' arguement...if others can do it why can t they

i think it s funny such an unreliable cheap airline are sponsorin man united

[sierra01]

With regard to the safety factor surely the cheapies have to stick to the to the same basic safety rules as the big boys? They have to have air worthiness certificates etc? You no doubt know a lot more than us about it all Sonthaya, I'm sure we would all value your input on it.

[britmaveric]

Cheapies are just as safe - don't let these nay sayers tell you otherwise, Basically you are paying for less service and no thrills. Example Richard Branson owns Virgin Express (a cheapie) - do you honestly think its less safer than Virgin??

[sonthaya]

If you fly cheap airlines, that's what to expect.

As a retired airline pilot I'll stick to Thai Aw. for safety reasons, better safe than sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As someone who was in the business, do you base this concern for safety on any facts at all. Are cheap airlines less safe? That's a pretty serious suggestion and I think we'd all like to know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just look at Phuket Air which is banned from even overflying several countries in Europe, what do you think ?

Old aircrafts and crews without proper licence.

[Guest endure]

If you fly cheap airlines, that's what to expect.

As a retired airline pilot I'll stick to Thai Aw. for safety reasons, better safe than sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As someone who was in the business, do you base this concern for safety on any facts at all. Are cheap airlines less safe? That's a pretty serious suggestion and I think we'd all like to know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just look at Phuket Air which is banned from even overflying several countries in Europe, what do you think ?

Old aircrafts and crews without proper licence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're not comparing like with like. Phuket is a poor full service airline not a good cheap airline.

[flightcrew1]

As a cabin crew member with a major airline for over 20 years with one of the best safety records in the industry I have to say that when flying AirAsia I did not feel any less safe. I have had to "dead head" back to my BKK base on them from Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore several times. They were generally on time. No seat assignments, no food and yes some pushing and shoving to get on the aircraft first. But in talking with the cabin crew they receive the same safety training as us. Their pilots are trained for a full year at BKK airport (Thai AirAsia) and most have masters degrees in engineering BUT no prior flight experience. Of course when they start flying they are only co-pilots and fly with experienced captains. Ok their aircraft are old but the engines are new (so I've been told) but completely reconditioned. I see no difference in say America's Southwest Airline or Europes Ryan Air both in service and quality and they also fly reconditioned aircraft.

[Heng]

Depends on the management. You can hardly say they are all "just as safe" or they are all "flying old poorly maintained planes." Any airline can strive to be Southwest Airlines or stoop to be Valujet.

[sierra01]

Is a clear definition of 'are we safe on the cheapies, if so which ones' out of the question?

[chanchao]

Hmmm... I think I see some statements made here that don't match my experience of flying a lot domestically, both on TG as well as on all budget carriers.

1. Ticket-less airline, resulting in mad dash shoving aside the elderly

Only Air Asia is ticket-less. Nok Air have assigned seats that you can even pre-book on their excellent web site. Now, Air Asia DO have pre-boarding for the elderly and people travelling with children. After that it's free seating, HOWEVER in my experience most Thai people just take a seat starting from the front, then work their way backwards. As opposed to foreigners (incl. myself) who make a dash to the exit-row seats. This however means that usually it's no trouble finding that exit row seat, even when you're not first in line.

2. Safety

In my experience Air Asia is very strict on safety, including having a separate talk with exit-row passengers and explaining what's expected of them in an emergency. They're also strict on not having any luggage there under the seats on those rows. And they never skipped on the safety instruction, even when late.

3. No reason given for delays, etc.

I'm afraid that's just endemic on all Asian airlines. Typically the first bleep you hear out of the pilot is when you're 33K feet in the air, rain or shine. In Europe and the USA it's common practise for the captain to come on-line before take-off, welcome people, inform people of the latest departure time, conditions affecting the flight, reasons and apologies for any delays and so forth. The ultimate in this I experienced on Lufthansa once, where the captain went into exruciating techical detail about the reason why he couldn't get the engines started and what was done to correct the problem. :-) But anyway, also on full-price airlines in Asia (incl. TG) you only hear from the captain come 30K feet, and no reasons for delays.

4. Handing of delays: Allow me to extend a thumbs-up again to Nok Air on this. When a flight was cancelled they called me on the phone well in advance and apologized and re-booked me on the next available Thai Air flight. I actually got TG miles on that flight (!), and they provided a food coupon. (Yes, Burger King, which mind you has veggie-burgers, fries, pies and other non-meat options)

Overall I have to give highest marks to Nok Air for being usually very punctual, their excellent booking site, good communication and follow-up when they do run into a problem, the assigned seats, that they mostly leave from a proper gate (no bus-rides out to what seems like Rangsit), very affordable in-flight drinks (20 baht coffee.. hey!) and cutest livery (not to mention staff) in the business, anywhere.

Lowest marks go to 1-2-Go.. Yuck.. Website is crap, faulty airconditioning and bugs galore in the buses trucking you out to their plane, seems they have yet another rented second-hand plane-flavour almost weekly, plus I just find them scary, which is not based on anything and I find Boeing 747-200's scary no matter who flies them. Seems they ditched the 757's now and got a bunch of MD-80's..

In summary, Air Asia: a good alternative for the price, when Nok Air is full.

[chanchao]

Oh, before I forget: There IS an advantage to ticket-less airlines, namely that check-in is blasingly fast without the usual bilateral negotiations on seating by everyone in front of you. It's put your ID on the coutner and receive your boarding coupon 15 seconds later. Very handy in the morning when you can dash into the terminal to check in, then back out into your car to go grab some breakfast somewhere and re-show up 5 minutes before departure.

[sonthaya]

Depends on the management.  You can hardly say they are all "just as safe" or they are all "flying old poorly maintained planes."    Any airline can strive to be Southwest Airlines or stoop to be Valujet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You got that right, you get what you pay for.

[redrus]

more air asia woes

i don t buy this 'you get what you pay for' arguement...if others can do it why can t they

i think it s funny such an unreliable cheap airline are sponsorin man united 

Its a good job they're giving us money and not the other way around then eh.....!!!!!

Lol.

redrus

[cdnvic]

Late, Late, Late. Cramped, Cramped, Cramped.

Wife's used AirAsia. She's 5'5 and was cramped.

I use Nok, am 6'3 and had legroom to spare.

cv

[sriracha john]

On the plane, there were several overhead lights flickering very badly. Not only was this irritating, I considered it might pose a health danger to anyone prone to epilepsy or migraine. It took me quite an effort to convince the cabin crew of the problem, which they surely should have appreciated themselves, but then they did the right thing and turned off the offending lights. In fact, the cabin crew were very good - friendly and helpful - once they were ‘educated’.

You mistook the problem. Their very expensive disco lighting recently installed to add a party-atmosphere to their flights is supposed to add a bit of class. It adds to their no reserved seating policy which replicates the atmosphere of a sold-out Rolling Stones concert with first come-first served stadium seating.

[bendix]

I've flown AirAsia three times, twice to Chiang Mai and once to KL. On each flight I managed to get an exit row seat, despite not being front of the queue.

No complaints from me. I'm paying a cheap fare . . I don't expect the bells and whistles.

On one return leg from CM, the flight was cancelled. I got an sms informing me of that and telling me I was rebooked on a later flight. No problem as far as I was concerned. Jeez the flight cost 499 one way - what do I expect.

Similarly, I've paid several thousand dollars for business class flights to Sydney, Chicago or London. The flight has been delayed hours or, in one instance, cancelled.

It's part of flying regularly. Mai pen rai.

Going forward, I'll use Air Aisa or Nok for domestic flights and will go with a more regular airline for anything over 2 hours.

[OZONE]

If you fly cheap airlines, that's what to expect.

As a retired airline pilot I'll stick to Thai Aw. for safety reasons, better safe than sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is there any particular reason you think Thai AW is safer and better than any other? just curious.

I've been flying with NW, AA & Lufthansa but think its time for a change since their services are terrible. I'm thinking may be Thai AW might be a better choice?

Edited November 15, 2005 by OZONE

[cdnvic]

On average Thai experiences a fatal incident about every five years (fatalities:pax in bold);

04.27.1980 Thai Airways Hawker Siddeley HS-748 40:53

Don Muang, Thailand HS-THB

04.15.1985 Thai Airways Boeing 737-2P5 11:11

Phuket, Thailand HS-TBB

08.31.1987 Thai Airways Boeing 737-2P5 83:83

Phuket, Thiland HS-TBC

07.31.1992 Thai Airways Airbus A310-304 113:113

Kathmandu, Nepal HS-TID

12.11.1998 Thai Airways Airbus A310-204 101:146

Surat Thani, Thailand HS-TIA

Northwest has a way better record, despite being much larger:

12.01.1974 Northwest Orient Boeing 727-251 3:3

Stony Point, New York N274US

08.16.1987 Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 154:155 + 2

Romulus, Michigan (Detroit Airport) N312RC

12.03.1990 Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14 8:44

Romulus, Michigan, USA (Detroit) N3313L

Similar for Lufthansa:

11.20.1974 Lufthansa Boeing 747-130 59:157

Nairobi, Kenya D-ABYB

09.14.1993 Lufthansa Airbus A320-111 2:70

Warsaw, Poland D-AIPN

Source: airdisaster.com

cv