Air Asia Screws Me Again!

[Guest fountainhall]

Let us know the outcome.

Well, I finally got to Hanoi a day late - but not on Air Asia. To summarise. I had booked a return Bangkok/Hanoi ticket on Air Asia's evening flights way back in November last year. A few months later, I booked 3 nights at the Hilton in Hanoi at a special non-refundable rate. Then in mid-March I was asked to attend a Conference in Singapore immediately before the Hanoi trip, but I could still make it back to Suvarnabhumi in plenty of time to connect to the AA Hanoi flight. Through my travel agent, I booked a non-refundable cheap Cathay Pacific return flight to Singapore and through the web a non-refundable hotel there for 2 nights.

 

Checking AA's website at the end of March, I was astonished to discover that the evening Hanoi flights had been cancelled. I then looked at my booking and saw I had been transferred to the early morning flights, resulting in an 06:40 departure from BKK. Since my Cathay Pacific flight did not arrive back from Singapore until around 14:30, my entire schedule had been screwed up and rescheduling was going to cost at least Bt. 10,000.

 

I

[Guest fountainhall]

for anyone going to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, I thoroughly recommend paying a more for Air France than taking Air Asia

Should have added that the present Air France fare for BKK/Hanoi and BKK/Ho Chi Minh City return is around Bt. 6,400 total. This includes all the trimmings of a full service carrier - although alcohol is not served in every sector.

 

Lufthansa also has return flights to HCMC for under Bt. 6,000 total if you book a month or 2 in advance. And they have a BKK/KL service 4 times a week at Bt. 5,650 total.

 

Plus both carriers are European Union based. So passengers enjoy the same compensation as flying in Europe if there are flight delays or cancellations.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I guess I must just be lucky' I have not had these kinds of problems with AA. When returning to KL from Melbourne the flight was late leaving causing us to miss our flight from KL to BKK. I went to the service counter and the representative (cute guy) booked us on the next flight to BKK at no additional charge.

[Guest fountainhall]

I went to the service counter and the representative (cute guy) booked us on the next flight to BKK at no additional charge.

I fully accept that a gazillion people have flown AA without anything more than an occasional short delay. So I'm definitely part of a tiny minority. With low cost carriers, I am also sure there's a world of difference if you can actually speak to someone, or better still discuss an issue in person at the airport at the time a problem arises. That happened when my flight from Penang was delayed by 12 hours. AA was prepared to reroute some of us via KL at no extra cost. However, with a full planeload of angry passengers and few seats available to KL, only the first ones in the queue could take advantage of the offer. I ended up paying full fare on Malaysian to get to KL and AA provided a ticket onwards to BKK.

 

I also think if you are on a connecting flight and the inbound flight is late, even though the rules say each flight has to be treated as a separate booking, they do try to put you on the next flight - assuming there is one and there are available seats. I wonder what would have happened, though, if you had arrived too late for a connecting flight that day? I'll bet you'd have had to pay for the hotel and any extra costs.

[Gaybutton]

if you had arrived too late for a connecting flight that day? I'll bet you'd have had to pay for the hotel and any extra costs.

I don't know Air Asia's policy, but most airlines will provide hotel and food vouchers, as well as transportation to and from the airport, and often additional things if they are at fault for delays and missed flights. However, if the delay was caused by things beyond their control, such as weather delays, air traffic control delays, etc, then you're usually on your own. The only obligation the airlines have when that sort of thing occurs is to re-book you on another flight.

[Guest fountainhall]

I don't know Air Asia's policy, but most airlines will provide hotel and food vouchers, as well as transportation to and from the airport, and often additional things if they are at fault for delays and missed flights

Only full-service carriers; definitely not low cast carriers in Asia, unfortunately. Their conditions of sale make it quite clear they have zero responsibility for just about everything.

[Gaybutton]

Only full-service carriers; definitely not low cast carriers in Asia, unfortunately.

In that case you simply have to be willing to take the risk in order to save the money. But it sounds like if anything goes wrong, now you end up spending a lot more than you would have spent if you went with a full service carrier in the first place. So, I guess the trick is to be completely flexible about possible mishaps and rescheduling, and best to try to book non-stop flights.

 

It reminds me of the time, when I was a kid, my family was sitting at the breakfast table when the telephone rang. My father answered. I watched him listen for a moment before he spoke to whoever had called and said, "I can't afford a free vacation," and then hung up.

[Guest fountainhall]

After all the tiresome problems of dealing with Air Asia, a true story about my years in Japan to illustrate a totally different approach to customer complaints (although almost certainly limited to companies in Japan).

 

When the fast Narita Express from Tokyo station to the airport opened in 1991, I got a ticket for an 8 a.m. train so I could be at the airport by 9:00 in time for a 10:40 flight. The ticket had several sets of numbers/letters to indicate date, time, car and seat, but was, as it remains today, all in Japanese. So I got to the station early, found my way through its labyrinthine levels to the Express platform which, as the service was new, had dolly birds positioned by each train door ready to usher passengers in. Since the train arrived at the station only 2 minutes prior to departure, being in the right queue was important.

 

Showing the ticket to one of the lovelies, she indicated my queue. I waited. The train arrived. I showed my ticket again and went inside where I found my seat occupied. The man, who spoke a little English, told me I was in car 6 when I should be in car 1! I went back outside to the young lady, showed my ticket again, whereupon I got that typical Japanese "oops I fucked up!" look behind a smile. She pointed way down the platform. I pointed to my watch to indicate the train was due to depart in about 40 seconds. "It's OK, OK." So I picked up my bags and ran. Of course, just as I reached car 1, the doors closed, the train departed and I was hopping mad. The only possible way to get my flight was now to take a taxi. This ended up costing US$160 - in addition to the $20 I'd paid for the useless train ticket.

 

On my return, I wrote a thunderous letter of complaint to Japan Rail vowing I'd never use their Narita Express again - in the knowledge that it would be confined to the trash can once the staff had had a few laughs at another gaijin's stupidity. I then forgot about it.

 

Some 4 months later, a man from Japan Railways came to see me. In his hideous lime green uniform, he bowed deeply and said he had come to offer sincere apologies for JR's mistake regarding my Narita Express experience. He then handed over an envelope, bowed deeply again and departed. Inside the envelope was the Yen equivalent of US$180 – in cash!

[Guest]

1 Air France have a habit of crashing their planes with fatal consequences. I would choose Air Asia first on that route.

 

2 Full service airlines are not above cancelling flights when they can shunt passengers onto the next half booked flight 4~5 hours later. That's AFTER paying top whack.

 

3 Most of my low cost airline travel has been in Europe, with a small number of Air Asia, NOK & Bangkok Air flights thrown in. The vast majority arrive within 15 minutes of the original schedule and my worst experiences to date were a 2 hour delay, when there were severe weather problems in Berlin & a delay in a flight back from Spain, which wasted nearly 3 hours. Worst "full service" delay was over 4 hours.

 

For someone travelling around SE Asia on a long holiday where the schedule is not critical & funds have to last, then low cost airlines are an excellent option.

 

However, where taking circular trips around the region, I would try not to arrange a low cost airline flight immediately before my long haul flight home (for example).

 

4 Japan does have the best service culture I have encountered.

 

5 Does Thailand have any consumer protection laws which you could threaten to invoke against Air Asia?

[Guest fountainhall]

In reply to 4 of z909's points -

 

1 Air France have a habit of crashing their planes with fatal consequences. I would choose Air Asia first on that route.

 

Only two immediately come to mind - the A330 crash into the Atlantic en route from Rio to Paris, and that horrible Concorde crash. But then most airlines have had the occasional crash or two. I can think of major crashes involving Thai, United, Delta, American, Alaska, Hawaian, Air Canada, Turkish, British Midland, KLM, Swissair, Egyptair, Air India, Japan Airlines, China Airlines, Air China, Aeroflot (Airbus en route to Hong Kong) and a host of others. And what about Singapore Airlines wrecking a 747-400 and hundreds of lives relatively recently when it attempted to take off from Taipei to LAX on a taxi-way with construction vehicles parked half way down? That was very much pilot error - as was a Silk Air crash in Indonesia (where it is thought the captain might have been committing suicide by deliberately downing the plane). Although we do not yet know the facts, it does seem like it was a mixture of extreme weather and computer error that downed the Air France Atlantic flight.

 

2 Full service airlines are not above cancelling flights when they can shunt passengers onto the next half booked flight 4~5 hours later. That's AFTER paying top whack.

 

This is now not nearly as true as it was in the past. Certainly European-based airlines are all subject to new EU regulations which provide passengers with significant compensation for cancellations or delays of 2 hours or more. That compensation involves provision of meals, sufficient cash to call to those meeting you at the destination, or cash compensation - or a combination of all three. If a flight up to 1,500 kms to or from an EU airport is delayed by 2 hours, you are entitled to 125 euros; double if it extends beyond 2 hours. Cancellation of a long haul flight resulting in a delay in your arrival of more than 4 hours gets you compensation of 600 euros. The only caveat is that airlines are exempt from paying out compensation if cancellations are due to ‘extraordinary circumstances'. Basically this covers unpreventable occurrences such as extreme weather conditions, security risks and worker strikes. I see nothing in the regulations which permits airlines to wriggle out on account of those dreaded words "a delay to the incoming aircraft."

 

3 Most of my low cost airline travel has been in Europe . . . The vast majority arrive within 15 minutes of the original schedule and my worst experiences to date were a 2 hour delay . . . Worst "full service" delay was over 4 hours.

 

As I said, I know I am in a very small minority. But I have never had the problems with European lccs (low cost carriers) like Easyjet as I have with Air Asia! Perhaps they are much less lax in their operating procedures because of the high compensation payments they have to make for long delays and cancellations. Even lcc Ryannair had to pay compensations when passengers were delayed after airports were closed due to the volcanic ash problems.

 

5 Does Thailand have any consumer protection laws which you could threaten to invoke against Air Asia?

 

I doubt it. If there were, then AA would not be able to include the last 3 words in its booking regulations -

 

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

Indeed, I cannot see any of the full-service carriers being permitted to include such terminology in their Conditions of Carriage.

[Guest fountainhall]

So much for “customer service”!

Well, as a postscript to this tale, after all the letters and complaints via the Air Asia website, I had the cost of my Hanoi tickets credited to my VISA account. I also received an apologetic email from Thai Air Asia earlier this week. When I responded that I had received absolutely no response to my many requests for compensation over a 3-month period, today I received another email offering me a complementary round trip domestic ticket for use any time until mid-October. So, quite surprisingly, I did get something out of all that effort after all.

[Gaybutton]

I did get something out of all that effort after all.

Excellent! I'm glad your efforts were worthwhile.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I have always heard and believed that the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

[Guest fountainhall]

I have always heard and believed that the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Oh so true! And my screws need a lot of lubrication . . .

[Guest beachlover]

LOL... title of this thread, "AirAsia screws me again!" sounds like it's said with a bit of a grimace.

 

Aside from one major delay (2 hours late) and one minor delay, my experience with AirAsia has always been pretty good. I accept their fares are insanely cheap and that I may not get to my destination exactly on time...

 

One rule is to never book a LCC flight right before a long-haul flight. If the LCC flight is delayed, you may miss your more costly long-haul flight and the LCC takes no responsibility for this.

 

I get a feeling they run a "bus service" like operation and they are growing so quickly, it's more about "get it done" and "get it out" than "get it perfect" (do that later)... hence their operations and customer handling procedures are a bit raw and they make a lot of mistakes on the lead up to getting things perfect.

[Guest fountainhall]

their operations and customer handling procedures are a bit raw

On the contrary, their customer handling operations are very sophisticated. They are specially designed to maximise the airline's bottom line. They cancel flights - and then wait weeks, sometimes several months, before notifying their customers. Refunds are routinely not provided. Then they ensure it is all but impossible to speak to anyone by phone. Ring their KL Call Centre and press for customer service. After waiting for 20 - 30 minutes, if you are lucky you can finally speak to someone - but you discover the '4' which the automatic voice told you to press is not 'Customer Service', it is actually 'Ground Operations'. Dn't believe me? Here's a comment from a recent Skytrax post -

 

I tried booking another ticket, but the transaction did not go through, yet my card was still charged! The process of contacting them was very very painful - their call center placed my on hold for 1 hour 10 minutes, and I was on hold in their chat system for 3 hours.

Write to them - you get no reply. Call their Premium Line which guarantees that you will actually be able to speak to someone. This costs a whopping 1.95 ringgit per minute - and they put you on hold for a long time to generate more income.

 

Millions enjoy their flights. I am clearly one of the few that loathe the airline.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

Millions enjoy their flights. I am clearly one of the few that loathe the airline.

FH...I am sure glad that I have been lucky with Air Asia...I dread the day that I start the merry-go-round you have had with them. With it being one of two airlines serving Ubon (Nok is the other) I hope my luck hold out.

[Guest beachlover]

On the contrary, their customer handling operations are very sophisticated. They are specially designed to maximise the airline's bottom line. They cancel flights - and then wait weeks, sometimes several months, before notifying their customers. Refunds are routinely not provided. Then they ensure it is all but impossible to speak to anyone by phone. Ring their KL Call Centre and press for customer service. After waiting for 20 - 30 minutes, if you are lucky you can finally speak to someone - but you discover the '4' which the automatic voice told you to press is not 'Customer Service', it is actually 'Ground Operations'. Dn't believe me? Here's a comment from a recent Skytrax post -

 

 

Write to them - you get no reply. Call their Premium Line which guarantees that you will actually be able to speak to someone. This costs a whopping 1.95 ringgit per minute - and they put you on hold for a long time to generate more income.

 

Millions enjoy their flights. I am clearly one of the few that loathe the airline.

 

No doubt there's a sophisticated commercial team behind it all. I think slip ups and mistakes are common and might be partly due to the pace at which they're moving and limited resources dedicated to it though.

 

I wonder if there will be a next time for you flying with them... it would be funny if it was a three in a row screw up!

[Guest fountainhall]

No doubt there's a sophisticated commercial team behind it all. I think slip ups and mistakes are common and might be partly due to the pace at which they're moving and limited resources dedicated to it though.

 

I wonder if there will be a next time for you flying with them... it would be funny if it was a three in a row screw up!

With resect, I think slip-ups and mistakes are not part of Air Asia's vocabulary. It is all deliberate policy - to screw as much non-flight ticket cash out of the customer as possible in order to keep air fares low. Their team is very sophisticated and geared to achieving that precise result.

 

Re making it three in a row. If you had read my opening post on this thread, you would have read