Are Air Asia taking the ....
 

Hi all

Would be very grateful for some advice.

Have some relatives who are booked to fly with Air Asia from Stansted to Perth via K.Lumpa, leaving Stansted next Wed night (20th Jan).

They have been told this morning by Air Asia that their flight from Stansted is now scheduled to depart on 21 Jan 0400L, which means they will miss the connecting flight to Perth by 1hr30. The next flight to Perth departs 22 1/2 hrs after they are now due to arrive in K.Lumpa.

They booked direct with Air Asia, both flights are with Air Asia, and it is all one one ticket.

Air Asia have told them that as they now miss the connecting flight, Air Asia CAN change them to the flight almost 24 hrs later, but as my Auntie & Uncle "want" to change (not that they have any choice), they have to pay Air Asia 16,000 (local currency - sorry, not sure what that is). Also, they are entitled to NO compo, NO food / drink vouchers & NO hotel whilst in K.Lumpa.


They have called Air Asia twice today about this. The first time they were told the bit above, then the second call, they were put on hold by a lady in their call centre for over 30 mins whilst she was trying look into their problem, then an answer phone kicked in telling them to leave a message.


Surely this cannot be right?????


Many thanks in advance
IB

Air Asia are a point to point lo cost carrier. They do not sell connecting flights. Even if your relatives have both flights on the same ticket, they can only be booked seperatly, constituting two seperate independent contracts, STN-KUL and then KUL-PER. I'm afraid that legally Air Asia are in the right.

Morally however I agree that this is unjust, especially for an airline which markets itself as a low cost alternative on the 'kangeroo route' from Europe to Oz. My advice to you would be to calmly appeal to their sense of reason. Having flown short haul with Air Asia I know that as a company they are more 'human' than a lot of their European peers. Failing that check your rights under the EU air passengers charter. If they have changed their flight times significantly so close to the departure date they will be entitled to some form of compensation.

Good luck!

Anansis.

P.s. 16,000 Malaysian Ringits is around £3000- are you sure its not 1600 (£300)? That would seem more realistic.

Another good example of why to avoid low costs carriers - especially on long haul where self-planned "connections" are made.

I would think 160.00 would be more realistic. So about 30.

I understand with Ryanair and such (Ryanair specifically says "DO NOT book connecting flights with Ryanair or any other airline"), but Air Asia has been promoting connections involving the KL flights, so it is behaving unreasonably (though probably legally).

It should, IMO, either honour connections or not advertise them as such.

Neil

Pacer, when I went on to the Air Asia site to make a test booking to Oz, I was only offered 1 destination ex STN and that was KUL. I don't recall seing anything suggesting the possibility of through travel to Australia. If booking seperate flights with these types of carrier it is always prudent to give yourself more than adequate connecting times. I have travelled to ATL with a legacy carrier and onward with a loco carrier. I gave myself almost 7 hours for the connection (which is still not a guarantee, but reduces stress levels).

To clarify, the adverts have been in the Press, effectively suggesting the use of connections. I forget the wording but it was along the lines of "Fly with Air Asia X to KUL, then onwards with Air Asia to..." and listed prices for both. I don't know what the website does, but the implication is certainly that connections are an acceptable idea, whereas Ryanair are totally clear in insisting that they are not.