Sharp Practice By Air Asia

[chuang]

Anyone who thinks that they deliberately make it impossible to buy a ticket is the one who is DUMB.

I concur..

[gennisis]

It is one thing to try and get you to buy extras with checking and unchecking things...BUT when you make it almost impossible to BUY a ticket because of "error messages" etc that is DUMB. The number one rule of business is to make it EASY for someone who actually is all ready to BUY something to BUY it. Air Asia also has a major problem with a LOT of credit card companies who will routinely DENY a transaction. I would guess that Air Asia does not work well with the credit card companies re fraud etc. I can use the exact same credit card with no problems on most any other site but enter it into air asia and denied. Have experienced this many times. Have had friends call and ask HOW THE HELL do you buy a ticket from these people? Yes some people don't know how to navigate their add ons and extras but that is not what i am talking about. I am talking about ok i WANT to buy this ticket on this date and i have filled out every single item and now i hit BUY and get hassled to death. Only recently after a year or two when you entered a USA address and it came time to click what state you got a list of provinces in malaysia...no USA states. Which as i stated shows me that the air asia execs really don't look at their website much but just allow some computer geeks to do it ...and in the end they do sell a lot of tickets BUT how many more could they sell if they made it a bit more user friendly when it comes time to BUY??

Considering the amount of flyers it really can't be that bad and they really can't be that dumb.

Anyone who thinks that they deliberately make it impossible to buy a ticket is the one who is DUMB.

The error mesages are due to the high volume of traffic trying to book, it's like being in a queue at checkout, if there's a lot of people you wait, if you don't want to wait you leave empty handed.

I've never seen an empty Air Asia flight yet.

IF.... as you say the 'error' message id due to the high volume of traffic,then I would suggest that this message is given at the initial time of booking and not left to the end of the attempt.

This would lessen the number of people trying to book and therefor allow the system to handle the bookings.

[KunMatt]

I used to fly AirAsia all the time and never had a problem but since they moved to DMK the only thing they are good for now for me is to buy throwaway cheap tickets for proof of an ongoing flight out of Thailand that I have no intention of taking.

[SeaVisionBurma]

I'm also glad they've relocated to Don Meuang: no more of those infernal bus rides across the tarmac at Swampy when arriving from domestic flights or from Phnom Penh...that's probably the only thing I would have had to complain about, and it's gone now, woo-hoo!!

Bus rides have not disappeared entirely - I flew DMK-RGN and it was a bus to the aircraft....

Big fan of Air Asia though - can't fault them and have had no problems with booking online....

[asiaexpat]

I am sure all the nice comments about Air Asia and the website are appreciated by AA management; so AA employees, keep making them. Speaking as a well traveled person that always uses airline websites for bookings, AA's booking website try's my patience whenever I try to book a flight. As for service, I don't expect much and get just what I expect. This includes international and domestic flights. The emails keep my inbox full, but booking at the advertised rate rarely occurs for me. All that said, I still book on AA for most of my Asian travel due to the low cost and the fact that the alternatives are not that much better.

[SKguy]

I wouldn't touch Air Asia again with a bargepole. I made a booking on their website for a friend (Chiang Mai to Phuket) and an error occured which was proven to be attributable to their website. Upon arrival at CM Airport the following day to check that the payment had been received, it was noted that the wrong date was shown for the flight. The Air Asia staff were not prepared to be of any help whatsoever, despite the problem having arisen due to their faulty website. My friend had to forfeit the cost of the ticket and decided to book a ticket with another carrier. If Air Asia was the only service available, I would personally choose to make the trip overland.

[stevenl]

I am sure all the nice comments about Air Asia and the website are appreciated by AA management; so AA employees, keep making them.

Ridiculous comment.

[ricklev]

I wouldn't touch Air Asia again with a bargepole. I made a booking on their website for a friend (Chiang Mai to Phuket) and an error occured which was proven to be attributable to their website. Upon arrival at CM Airport the following day to check that the payment had been received, it was noted that the wrong date was shown for the flight. The Air Asia staff were not prepared to be of any help whatsoever, despite the problem having arisen due to their faulty website. My friend had to forfeit the cost of the ticket and decided to book a ticket with another carrier. If Air Asia was the only service available, I would personally choose to make the trip overland.

They have decided it's cheaper to lose a small percentage of customers than it is to provide quality (or even fair and honest) service. It sucks when you are one of the random ones tossed overboard, but that is that. It is what it is. The company simply doesn't care.

I spent two years travelling twice weekly between Bangkok and Chiang Mai and I learned more than most about how they work. I put up with the occasional absurdity where I lost money or time because of the cheap prices. Most people don't have a very bad experience though.

[squarethecircle]

You get what you pay for. I'd rather pay an extra hundred or two hundred dollars and get treated like a valued customer.

[lovelaos]

I've just booked 3 separate flights, it took me less than 10 minutes and I didn't get ripped off. I saved around 8,000 Baht by using AA You lot must be doing something wrong.