I've been bigging up Tiger for some time after a phenomenally cheap flight from Phuket to Singapore last year, but after a few bad experiences with them recently, frankly they can get f*cked!
Late services, completely uncontactable from Australia - they just DO NOT answer the phone on the 'other countries' number on their website, but rest assured you pay for the pleasure of being on hold - 66c (AUD) per minute.
On one occasion when I finally managed to get through to the call centre, the guy I spoke to assured me there were no senior staff working after 5 and that I was unable to escalate a complaint unless I rang back between 'normal office hours'. He was unprepared to take my details and get someone to look into my grievance, even after I re-stated just how uncontactable they are! All I wanted to do was upgrade my frikkin baggage from 15kg to 20kg, which frankly it should be on this route anyway. They wanted 72 hours notice for the upgrade, but after 3 weeks of trying to call them to upgrade, I finally managed to get through with about 66 hours remaining 'til departure, and they refused to upgrade me.
The 15kg baggage allowance on the Aus route is stupid and impractical anyway. Tiger's service is riddled with shortcomings which has made me revert to J* and pay a little more, but know I'm going to get more legroom, a sensibile baggage allowance and services that are more than often on time these days.
My most recent one-way Darwin - Bangkok 111 GBP fare (inc taxes) finished up being 180 GBP after all the phonecalls and eventual upgrade at on-the-spot baggage rates at the airport. I could've gone from Melbourne on Jet* for 177 GBP. With JetStar (and Virgin Blue when travelling within OZ) it's just a case of 'click and forget'. I trust them both. I just don't trust Tiger after my recent experiences.
Obviously Tiger will factor in a customer service function for Australia if they launch here, but the attitiude of the staff member I spoke to stank. Once Virgin Blue tweak their fares accordingly (which will inevitibly happen when the competition actually arrives), then Tiger will be blown out of the water. Flying Virgin Blue is fun and they have a loyal base. Flying JetStar is more formal, but it's getting more of a whiff of professionalism about it with every passing week and services are becoming more reliable - I use them a LOT. Tiger's brand of 'cheap and cheerful' could easily fall by the wayside in Oz, even if they are a bit cheaper. Lots of people can already afford to fly around Oz quite comfortably budget-wise, so low fares aren't the be-all-and-end-all that Tiger seem to think it is.
Before anyone starts - yes, I know it's low cost and I shouldn't expect all the trimmings. I don't. I just want to click and forget, like I said before. This **** smacks of being too cheap, though. Basic principles of the european-style point-to-point, low cost model are being trimmed away and circumvented by Tiger, but surely there's a limit as to how basic you should go?
Rant over.
Last edited by harrogate; 12th Mar 2007 at 08:23.