Air Asia Screws Me Again!

[Guest fountainhall]

Some years ago I swore I would never take another Air Asia flight. I know others have had no problems with the airline, but I was fed up with many delays (lasting up to 12 hours in one case), cancellations and schedule-change rebookings. Over 50% of my 16 or so flights had been affected.

 

Last November, however, I relented when friends came back from Hanoi and said I must make a trip. As Air Asia was in the middle of a free ticket sale, I booked a 3-day trip from June 9 to 12. The choice was between hideously early morning flights (which I loathe) and early evening ones. There was no discussion. I booked the evening ones.

 

When airlines change schedules, they normally tell you quite quickly after the decision has been made. Hearing nothing from Air Asia, a couple of months ago, by which time summer timetables were inked, I booked the Hilton in Hanoi as friends are to be staying there and it had an attractive early booking non-refundable rate.

 

Then a couple of weeks ago I was asked to attend a Conference in Singapore for the whole of June 8. So I booked another non-refundable flight on Cathay Pacific and hotel for June 7, returning 9. I allowed around 4 hours at Suvarnabhumi to make the Air Asia connection to Hanoi.

 

Doing some checks last night on what the visa procedure is, I thought Air Asia might have some information (they don

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Here is the Air Asia Headquarters phone number:+60386604333. I had some problems with AA call centers, both in BKK and in KL. I finally was able to get the headquarters number and the issue was resolved very quickly. Good Luck, I hope this helps.

[Guest fountainhall]

Many thanks. I'll give them till the end of the week to reply by email. If no response, I'll take up your helpful suggestion.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I wouldn't wait for the e mail.

[Guest fountainhall]

I wouldn't wait for the e mail.

Well, I took your advice. I called extension 4 - Guest Service - and it rang and rang. I gave up after 4 minutes. On the next call, I tried extension 0 for the operator. That rang continuously for 3 minutes, also with no reply. That alone tells me that the organisation is pretty inefficient

[Gaybutton]

Asia Air has an office on the ground floor of the new Central Festival shopping mall. If you are in Pattaya, you might be better off just going over there personally.

[Guest fountainhall]

Thanks GB. The problem is that there is not much Air Asia local offices can do. Yes, they can offer to rebook me on to their other flights. But however that is done,

 

i) I am not prepared to get up at 4:00 am for a 6:30 departure; and

ii) local offices have zero authority to offer refunds on hotel bookings made not through the airline.

 

All that I understand. What I want to do is create a stink at headquarters. From various sites, I have noticed that the airline does sometimes offer pretty decent compensation. If they were to book and pay for the THAI evening flights, then that would solve the problem. And that's what I'll try to get. I doubt if it will work, but . . .

 

Incidentally, after more than 25 minutes on the phone at various times in the last 2 hours, I finally got through on the automatic router to Extension 4 - 'Guest Services'. I spoke to a nice lady, Ms. Mas Azura. I spent a few minutes outlining the issue, whereupon she responded "You'll have to talk with Guest Services". "But isn't this Extension 4 - Guest Services?" I asked. "Yes, we're extension 4, but we're actually Ground Operations, not Guest Services. They always send us the wrong calls." Another example of inefficiency and lack of customer care in Mr. Tony Fernandes' airline! She promised to go directly to the Head of Guest Services who would call me back within an hour. I'm waiting . . .

[Gaybutton]

She promised to go directly to the Head of Guest Services who would call me back within an hour. I'm waiting . . .

You posted this just before 2:00pm. Now it's just after 4:00pm. Did you get the call?

[Guest fountainhall]

Did you get the call?

Is that today's funny question? It's now getting on for 1:00 a.m. and no call. I did, though, send by courier this afternoon a letter to Tony Fernandes outlining the situation. I asked him to tell me precisely when the evening flights were cancelled and why I was not notified at that time. I also reminded him that he is on shaky legal ground if, having failed to notify me, I then incur expenditure on hotels which I will forfeit.

 

Whether that's shaky legal ground or not, I don't know - but it's worth a try! I once strongly complained to Cathay Pacific about deliberate misrepresentation by one of their ground staff. I kept up the correspondence for 6 months (most airlines reckon you'll fall by the wayside long before then), whereupon I threatened a lawsuit. The very next day, they offered me 50,000 miles credited to my account to shut me up!

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I would also persist in calling them back again.

[Guest fountainhall]

I would also persist in calling them back again.

It's now 1:00 pm Thursday - and still no phone call - surprise, surprise! I'm quite happy to call them again, but I have already spent quite a bit of cash, time and frustration on phone calls. Plus, how do I get someone from Customer Service to speak to me? The Customer Service line is answered by Ground Services? And the Ground Service manager tells lies when I'm told I'll get a call within an hour. Press 0 for the operator and the phone just rings and rings and rings ad infinitum. I'd rather wait first for a formal response from Mr. Fernandes' office and then decide how to proceed.

[Gaybutton]

I'd rather wait first for a formal response from Mr. Fernandes' office

What makes you so sure you'll get one?

[Guest fountainhall]

What makes you so sure you'll get one?

There are quite a few websites with long discussions about Air Asia, especially complaints. It seems if you complain loud enough and long enough, Fernandes himself gets involved. I have no idea if there will be any reply to me. If not, I'll keep at it. I can be pretty stubborn at times!

[Gaybutton]

I can be pretty stubborn at times!

Seems like this is one of those times. I wish you luck. I hope the guy does respond. Even better, I hope he calls you personally. Let us know the outcome.

 

I've never flown on Asia Air. I'm wondering how much less expensive they are compared to other airlines. I'm wondering if they are so much less expensive that it's worth taking a chance with them.

 

Have any others out there flown with Asia Air? What kinds of experiences have you had, good or bad?

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I have flown AA many times. Only once was there a long delay (1 hour). It caused me to miss another flight. Because AA is a point to point airline and I had booked it myself with too short a period between flights, it was not their responsibility. However, when I went to the customer service counter in KL they booked me on another flight without additional cost. I find AA saves a good amount of money.

[Guest fountainhall]

I've never flown on Asia Air. I'm wondering how much less expensive they are compared to other airlines. I'm wondering if they are so much less expensive that it's worth taking a chance with them

The flights I booked were during one of their seat 'sales'. I paid a total of around Bt. 1,500 for tickets which on TG now cost around Bt. 12,000! I just checked Air Asia's site and see that the same flights in June purchased now would cost you Bt. 4,443.

 

From my past experience, the further in advance you book, the greater the saving - understandably - but also the greater the risk of flights being subject to schedule change. Unfortunately, their free or very cheap sales are usually for time periods at least 6 months ahead. Were I ever to consider flying them again, I would only do so at relatively short notice. I'll sacrifice mega savings and make do with minor savings in return for greater assurance that the flight will actually depart as booked.

 

Within Thailand I have no hesitation in taking Nok Air. Not only do I prefer Don Mueang, but on the two occasions when flights have been delayed or cancelled for technical reasons, I have been rebooked at no extra cost on to TG.

[billyhouston]

While all my recent flights with AirAsia have been on time or, in the case of Chiang Mai to Bangkok a couple of weeks ago, 20 mins early, I feel for anyone who has things go wrong.

 

In 2004 I was booked on Air Asia from Chiang Rai to Bangkok but on arriving at the airport the staff were waiting for me to tell me there was a two hour delay. They explained how they had tried to contact me, but I pointed out that phones don't work in Kyaingtong from where I'd just come. Explaining that the delay would cause me to miss a meeting in Bangkok they immediately booked me on TG at several times the price of my AA flight. Unfortunately when the TG flight arrived at Don Muang the aircraft taxied to the furthest part of the airport, obviously parking for the night and to heck with the customers, and the ensuing bus ride combined with the inordinate time it took to get the bags to the terminal resulted in my being late anyway. Not the fault of Air Asia whose service on that occasion was exemplary.

 

Flew mostly on NokAir when Nok Plus was a mere Bht500 but then they cut back flights very heavily and jacked up their prices. Some years ago, the day before I was due to fly Chiang Mai to Udon (for Vientiane), they phoned to say the flight was cancelled. After much arm twisting they booked me on TG via Bangkok. What should have taken an hour became an all day affair and I haven't flown with them since. I notice that they have reinstated this route a few days each week but at much higher prices.

 

While I have used Air Asia internationally, KL and Yangon, most of my flights have been internal to Thailand. Because my dates are known almost a year ahead (!) it's possible to take advantage of their seat sales and I recently obtained three flights between Bangkok and Chiang Mai for October, December and January next year.... they didn't have next March available at the time. :-) Bht350 for the one hour flight is pretty well unbeatable but later I'll add baggage and seat selection... it's still a good deal. With these flights I'm only connecting from other flights and not to but I do leave plenty of time and delays should not be critical.

 

If you are able to take advantage of their seat sales, are flying within Thailand and are not connecting with other flights it's certainly worth considering Air Asia.

[Guest fountainhall]

I'm sure many hundreds of thousands are delighted by AA's cheap flights and have enjoyed on-time performance. The problems really stack up, though, when, like me, you have flights cancelled and alternative bookings provided sometimes 12 hours earlier - sometimes on the following day. Google Air Asia Complaints and you will find dozens of sites with a massive number of complaints. Two common threads run through many of the complaints -

 

1. the virtual impossibility of getting replies by using the on-line form or calling the service centres;

2. the almost routine changes to schedules and flight cancellations without any reference whatever to the passenger. Unlike other airlines, AA clearly feels it has no duty to a passenger to provide information of such changes until very close to the flight departure date. And if this screws up passengers' connecting flights, hotel reservations and whatever, its general policy is "Fuck 'em!"

 

Typical is the following (which happens to be very similar to my case):

 

Anonymous // October 14, 2009 11:51 AM

Just got an SMS message that our flight in January from Bangkok to Hanoi has been cancelled. This seems weird when we are only in the month of October. We have now been placed on an early morning flight that we cannot make, because our flight from London lands when the morning flight is taking off. The 3 mth credit note is no good either, because we are holiday makers from Europe. So Air Asia will now cost us two more flights. Can this really be fair?

 

Note that AA's policy is No Refunds even when they screw up. You are offered alternative flights or credit for use up to 3 months later.

 

It's really time for Asia in general to adopt the flight delay/cancellation compensation rules in force in the US and much of Europe. The low cost carriers scream that these will only increase fares. But the increase per passenger would be infinitesimal compared to the service improvement and attention to the needs and wants of ticketed passsengers.

[Guest fountainhall]

Here's the reply to my on-line complaint.

 

With regards to your email, we humbly apologize for the inconvenience cause due to flight was cancelled. Please allow us to explain you that now we are sending sms to inform passenger queue by queue and your case is on processing.

 

As per our Terms and Conditions Cancellation, Changes of Schedules: At any time after a booking has been made we may change our schedules and/or cancel, terminate, divert, postpone reschedule or delay any flight where we reasonably consider this to be justified by circumstances beyond our control or for reasons of safety or commercial reasons. In the event of such flight cancellation, we shall at our option, either:

carry you at the earliest opportunity on another of our scheduled services on which space is available without additional charge and, where necessary, extend the validity of your booking; or

B. Should you choose to travel at another time, retain the value of your fare in a credit account for your future travel provided that you must re-book within three (3) months therefrom.

 

However, we sincerely apologize for all inconvenience and we do hope to have your kind understanding. Please kindly reply to inform your decision or contact call centre to process by phone.

 

The underlining is mine. This is from a "donotreply" mailbox, so there is no reply possible. "Contact call centre"? That's joke #1.

 

Joke # 2 is "now we are sending sms to inform passenger queue by queue and your case is on processing". The flight was cancelled many weeks ago. How many passengers have to be informed?

[Gaybutton]

That's joke #1.

Maybe later you'll get another Email from them saying "April fool."

[pong]

 

Have any others out there flown with Asia Air? What kinds of experiences have you had, good or bad?

Effectively there are 4 AirAsia's-they have the same livery, but operate quite independently from one-another: its the original Malay one, the THAi one (their planes Do have THAI Air Asia on them!), the newer Indonesian, and the long-distance XL. There are firm plans to start a new ditto in Vietnam soon.

I have flown on the Malay, Thai + once on XL (KUL-> LSN), some 9 or 10 times now-and have 5 or 6 flight booked for later, incl,. the Indo branch.

Last flights on them were in early march-return BKK-KUL, on the Thai branch, booked for a grand total of about 1700 THB (no checked luggage) in a promotion. You cannot even go by bus for that money.

Hitherto all my flights were more or less on time (some even early arrival), whithin 1 hour of schedule-thats a little better as my average on other airlines. All were eventless, the XL was even quite fine and ranked a little better as other long-dist flights on some airlines.

Referring people to visit their offices is useless for complaints-the only thing they can do is an empty promise. IF it is not on their website somewhere-accept it cannot be done. (like the old T-ford: any coulur, as long as its black).

But then as an European I am well used to the likes of RYAN and Easyjet-and dozens of others, operating on the low-cost model. Air Asia does stand out among these as being the best of the lot!

People tell that their SMS-warning service is reliable and warns you of changed timings etc. It rather seems they organise their effetive flight-schedules a day or 2 before-to prevent any loss-making half-empty planes, fligths are ''consolidated''=merged, and obvously the latter in the day then loose out to the early birds.

You canNOT through-book on them_ so if you wanted to fly BKK-(transit KUL)-Surabaya, you must reclaim luggage and check-in a new at KUL-and thus also get into Malaysia-and out 1 hour later again too!

[Guest fountainhall]

Maybe later you'll get another Email from them saying "April fool."

I WISH! - but wanna take a bet?

[Guest fountainhall]

Here's the latest update.

 

This afternoon at 17:37 Bangkok time, I received an email from Air Asia's 'donotreply' mailbox. This provided answers to the 2 questions I had posed -

 

Q1. When were the evening BKK/Hanoi return flights cancelled? Answer: on 23 February

Q2. Why was I not informed immediately? Answer: We checked our records and found that we have sent you an sms to inform you about the cancellation to (my cell phone number deleted) on 18 March but status show "UNDELIVERED" as you can see the record below.

 

Whilst I am grateful for the detailed information (which I thought might be withheld), I am staggered that (i) AA waited 23 days after cancellation before any attempt was made to inform me, and (ii) following failure of the sms, absolutely nothing was done to try and contact me by email or my home phone - both of which are on the booking record.

 

So I have just penned my third letter to Tony Fernandes, this time adding gross negligence to my other complaints. This is getting interesting!

[billyhouston]

I'm sorry 'founthall' if you thought my reply was an attempt to belittle your troubles with AA..... it certainly wasn't my intention. I was simply responding to:

 

Have any others out there flown with Asia Air? What kinds of experiences have you had, good or bad?

 

Having regularly been shafted by Lao Airlines and Air Mandalay amongst many others, I can assure you that I have every sympathy with your problems.

[Guest fountainhall]

I'm sorry 'founthall' if you thought my reply was an attempt to belittle your troubles with AA

Thank you, but I never thought that for one moment. Let's face it, anyone who flies regularly, especially on low-cost carriers or on non-refundable tickets, is eventually going to have problems of some kind. And one way of looking at it is that normally the savings over the long run make it still worth it, even with the occasional hiccup.

 

It does seem clear, though, that the earlier the booking, the more likely problems will arise as traffic patterns change or external influences are brought to bear on the market. Consequently, these carriers, unlike the full-service models like TG, CX, SIngapore and the others, can delay, cancel or merge flights at will. It's right there in the fine print which most people do not read. Judging from the complaint websites, this is a practise that is much more common than I had realised.

 

As I said earlier, I am certain many hundreds of thousands (millions) fly perfectly happily on low cost carriers and are delighted that they can fly for less than the price of a bus fare. My present charade is complex because it involves two pre-paid trips with pre-paid hotels close together. Yet I took every precaution to make sure I could make the AA connection between the SIngapore inward flight and the Hanoi outward flight at Bangkok by flying on the more expensive CX rather than a low cost carrier. With 4 hours for the connection, the chance of not making the evening AA flight to Hanoi was infinitesimal. Yet, as that Hanoi flight no longer existed when I made the CX booking, not even Concorde could have made it in time!

 

What makes me mad is -

(i) the cancellation notification was not 'sent' until 23 days after the event,

(ii) even though it was not delivered to my cell phone (despite the number being correct), absolutely no attempt was made to contact me by any other means, and

(iii) as a consequence of not being informed, I incurred a great deal of expenditure, a good portion of which I will now lose. I do not think any airline, low cost or full service. should be permitted to treat booked and paid passengers in such an outrageously cavalier fashion. So I will harangue Tony Fernandes daily if necessary, as there is no other way of getting redress from the official complaint or guest services people.

 

Yet, maybe I am making too much of a fuss and should just bite the bullet. I see from one website that this not informing passengers also happens with considerable regularity. There are hair-raising stories of families turning up for flights to KL which no longer exist (this seems especially true on AA's long haul carrier Air Asia X), being forced to stay at their cost in hotels and then purchasing new full-fare onward flights after arrival in KL. In fact, the more I read about Air Asia X, the more horrifying that service seems. Although new, the plane seats seem to be falling apart, the meals (which you must pay for in advance) are ghastly and run out mid-flight whether you have paid for them or not, the lights remain on throughout the night as the dolly girls keep trying to sell you all sorts of AA merchandise, and the on-board announcements are so loud it's almost impossible to sleep even if you use ear muffles (all these are genuine comments from Skytrax postings).

 

But then again, I can be a stubborn bastard. So I'll keep up the barrage with Mr. Fernandes, for weeks if necessary. If nothing comes of it, at least I will have been a 'bee in his bonnet' for a while and given his staff a considerable amount of extra work in answering all my website comments and letters.