Wednesday 2 November 2011

Expensive Cheap Air Asia

Air Asia, the world's best low-cost carrier is not cheap at times, in fact, it punishes air travellers on certain aspects. I found this out the hard way.

Excess Baggage Weight
In 2009, I brought 100 of my books for a book launch from KL to Kuching. I was very much over weight and was slapped with a whopping almost RM500 for the excess.

Not Sports-Friendly
Two years ago I was invited to participate in a golf tournament in Kuching and brought my own golf set from KL. Though I was not over weight, I was charged an extra RM50 for bringing a sports good. What is the logic? Why discourage sports? This is one of the fields that Air Asia should promote and encourage. In fact, I would go further as to suggest that it should encourage sports enthusiasts by offering FREE passage for their sports equipments. This could be one of the many good things it could give back to the community.

Punishment for Rescheduling Flights.
A one-way RM200 (rounded figure) flight became a RM500 flight, all because I changed my date. Except maybe for the insurance coverage, surely the other aspects are just purely management tasks and a part of the staffs' job which will not incur extra costs.

We understand, everything meant money to you (Air Asia) but please be logic and be fair to your passengers / customers. You are increasingly not living to your tag as being the cheap carrier. Maybe now you can modify your motto from " now everyone can fly" to "now everyone can fly, grudgingly."