Sunday, September 23, 2007

AirAsia money minded

Aku naik AirAsia dari KL ke KB, & now baru tau diorang dah tak buat priority boarding for elderly, OKU & parents with kids. Instead they charged us for RM20 per HEAD (4 kepala, tak kisah anak kecik mana pun) for express boarding unless you are 65 and above!!! How many passengers age >65? My mom took AirAsia from KL to KB this morning and because of sun, she put the blind in order for her to read... Just about before landing one of the stewardess said to my mom, "angkat blind" No please, zip... Where is the manner? They suppose to be friendly and its not something that makes the plane goes awry... This one was in my mail last week... Seriously, Pak Lah needs to tell Tony and his son in law.. stop this nonsense!! //mod AirAsia treats passengers `like dirt' Dr Andrew Aeria Sep 7, 07 1:24pm : In late-August, my AirAsia flights to Kuala Lumpur from Kuching (AK5211 on Aug 23) and back (AK5212 on Aug 25) and my flight to Penang from Kuching (AK5951 on Aug 31) were delayed for an hour, 1 hour 15 minutes and 25 minutes respectively - just another three episodes of numerous flight delays that I have had to endure over the past few years when flying AirAsia CEO, Tony Fernandes, proudly boasts, `Now everyone can fly!' What Tony and his airline conveniently omit to tell us in their advertising is that `Everyone can fly on a regularly delayed basis and so miss important meetings and other appointments'. Indeed, given the airline's deep-seated inability to keep to its published schedules, I can only surmise that these flight delays are a deliberate and central feature of AirAsia's business operating plan. All does when its flights are delayed is to offer a hackneyed apology. Indeed, its ground staff and air crew are so good at this, stating that `the flight is delayed since the plane arrived late or departed late'. They can make this standard apology very fluently these days, word for word, without any reference to their in-flight cue cards. But if we passengers miss our check-in or are late for our flight by even a few minutes, we `burn' our ticket, are disallowed from boarding the flight and are forced to purchase a completely new ticket for the next available flight. Where then is the justice in this policy? Is this not a case of unfair trade, of AirAsia blatantly ripping-off air travelers? Should not AirAsia in all fairness compensate us passengers monetarily whenever our flights are delayed? Just as we get penalised monetarily for being late for our flights, Air Asia should equally compensate us by reimbursing our whole airfare for flight delays. Note also AirAsia's administrative charge of RM20 per flight within Malaysia. Excuse me, but what is this charge for? To continue financing an inefficiently-run airline so that we can all fly regularly on a delayed basis? Given AirAsia's inability to fly on schedule, this charge is unfair and cynically aimed at profiting AirAsia, which recently declared an unaudited profit of RM498 million for the period ending June 30, 2007. Superprofits on the back of a sub-standard service to us passengers. And the epitome of this sub-standard service is AirAsia's continued use of rented, aging, and even smelly Boeing 737-300 planes on its non-KL routes like what we in Sarawak and Sabah have to put up with. What was that about AirAsia going fully Airbus from June 2007? Is there not a huge AirAsia signboard along the KLIA highway to Sepang that states just this? By continuing to deploy such aging aircraft despite its claim to use new Airbuses, AirAsia thus also indulges in deceptive advertising. And yet, the bitter irony is that we passengers are the ones who have made AirAsia an amazing success story and Tony Fernandes and his shareholder partners fabulously rich. Indeed, AirAsia says this as much in its advertising but in reality, AirAsia treats us passengers like dirt. Is this then not a case of AirAsia having a cynical management that is truly contemptuous of us passengers as they rake in the profits? Take Tony Fernandes's cynical reply about AirAsia delays as further evidence. On Thursday, Aug 23, after I complained to Tony Fernandes via SMS about frequent flight delays disrupting my important appointments, I received a rude SMS reply from Tony saying, `Then go talk to the rain. And talk to MAB (Malaysia Airports Bhd)'. Thus, as I see it, AirAsia is little more than just another ugly and greedy monopoly, albeit one that supposedly operates in the low-cost airline sector that progressively gets more expensive as time goes by. But I guess this is what `Malaysia Boleh' is all about, ie, all public relations with little substance.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tu la pasalnya...eventhough mahal, aku prefer naik MAS...
Seriously, aku muntah lepas AirAsia yg aku naik from Senai land @ KLIA(b4 LCCT)...sebab sempit + panas + bergegar gila..

Smiling Sukri said...

Akupernah sembang dgn ground engineer (engineer check enjin k/terbang), dia kata budget flight ni kurang check enjin flight sbb nak kejar trip with limited planes. So, kurang safe sket laa... Katanya kalau check enjin tu max. 25% minor faulty, dia still approve flight to take off. 25% FAULTY FOR FLIGHT, NOT CAR! Ada satu kes tu, dia tak nak approve tp pilot still nak take off, dan he took off. Another fren in that flight tersadai kat Dubai for 24 hours! Tu nasib baik tersadai kat airport,kalau kat desert? Sendiri mau jawab aaa...

Anonymous said...

Major problem with air asia is that they 'recycle' their airplanes. So meaning if 1 flight is delayed, the whole entire chain that uses that airplane will also be delayed. Recently they announce the long haul flights to China and Australia, and it all uses 1 plane. So expect more delays to come. Simple to say, Air Asia is not for those who are in a hurry, or has a connecting flight to catch. Unfortunately 'budget' in Malaysia is really on budget, so we get below par service (and yet be so proud of it??). Kalau kira2 harga dia tak murah mana pun, they got all kinds of charges, which in the end mounts up to some savings compared to MAS, but is it really worth it?

niefeng said...

aku baru aje naik air asia ni hahahahah, bg aku xpress boarding tu mengarut aje, baik ramai2 boikot, tp masa aku naik baru ni ada gak org ambik, mungkin dia ambik yg promotion 10 ringgit tu la, aku dah lama tak naik MAS, tp rasanya MAS dulu mahal, sekarang kut dah murah tak tahu la

[web-mod] said...

niefeng, ko balik sini naik airasia kol brapa?? aku patut 3:40pm... flight cancel jadi 5:00pm... dah check in semua flight delay 5:30pm..

flight aku pun tak penuh, tu yg aku rasa airasia cancel flight kol 3:40pm tu .... ikut suka hati diorang je!!!

aku setuju sgt yg org tulis tu, apology speech tu dah jadi mcm mother tongue for airasia..

niefeng said...

setakat ni aku tak de pengalaman tu, delay sejam ada la heheehhe, tp flight balik kelantan selalu penuh aje, sabtu ari tu aku naik pagi, 7.30, lps sahur terus ke lcct. gomen pun satu gak, elok2 duk klia, pindah ke LCCT, jauh woo LCCT, nasib baik la sekarang dah turunkan airport tax tu, tp ada tax lain lain, tak murah jugak la jdnya

Anonymous said...

i've call airasia call centre using 0387754000 for call within malaysia today. the answering voice machine just keep telling me to wait until there are available customer service officer. i've waiting until more then 10 minutes and suddenly no more connection. it is because my phone prepaid credit have been deduct from $28.19 to only 26 cent left. they stole my $27.93 just using their phone line. to make it worst, i've not yet talk to their customer service and they already charged $27.93. wtf . so anybody who wish to call their call center.... just forget it.. it is better to buy a lot of food for your stomach than be cheated like me

Anonymous said...

pasal artikel kat atas ni. sebenarnya kalu bisness trip aku rasa takde sapa berani naik airasia. kalu setakat nak balik kg ada masa sepanjang hari then boleh la.

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