Now everyone can fly!!! or is it????
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Now everyone can fly!!! or is it????
A letter that appeared in the press on AA's professionalsim
As a person who needs to transit at Denpasar to go on to my place of work, I welcomed AirAsia and have already subscribed to their services no fewer than 20 times. Letters regarding AirAsia's service, or more accurately the lack of it, have appeared in alarmingly volume in malaysiakini. Yet as far as I can see, no effort has been made by AirAsia to respond to these letters.
As a frequent customer, let me recount a recent episode I was involved with. I turned up just a few minutes late for check-in at the airport. I patiently waited in the queue at KLIA where the AirAsia counter says ‘Indonesian Flights’.
There were many passengers also in the queue, the majority of whom were maids with a lot of luggage. Check in was therefore understandably slow. Without any notice or announcement, there was no way I could have known whether or not I could be accepted for my flight since the very long queue was formed by passengers checking in for three different destinations.
I reached the counter after an extended wait and only then was told that check-in for my flight was closed exactly forty-five minutes before the published departure time. In answer to my queries, I was firmly told I came late and therefore AirAsia would not put me on the next available flight nor refund me any portion of the fare I had paid.
This despite the fact that I had no check-in luggage and I could have easily walked to the departure gate well before the published time of departure. As I had to look for alternative flights to proceed to my destination, I stayed on in the airport for some time. It was then that I heard over the public address system the last call for passengers for the AirAsia flight I had paid for.
And what was the time of that announcement? Well past the published time of departure of that said flight.
Being a ‘warga emas’ (senior citizen), I understand and appreciate that there must be rules and regulations in any organised activity. But these rules must apply to both sides of a business transaction. Air Asia tolerates no nonsense from its customers. The rules are published and if you as a passenger are unable to satisfy any part of the published rules, you will not be accepted for a flight nor will you get back any of your money. Fair enough.
However, AirAsia, it seems, does not need to subscribe to any responsibility to punctuality. When its flights depart late no matter by how many minutes or hours, all it takes is for the AirAsia pilot or stewardess to just say sorry before take off. From AirAsia's point of view, its own flight delays can be excused.
What Air Asia is saying is: ‘Our planes can be late even by hours but you passengers cannot be late by even a few minutes’.
As a common man, I too subscribe to the maxim of ‘Now everyone can fly’. I have stood always for the common people. I have cheered all who strive to improve the lot of common people. I have applauded the introduction of discount airlines and have happily subscribed to the services of airlines such as Ryan Air and Easy Jet.
I do not subscribe to the saying ‘cheap things no good, good things not cheap’. There is a need for affordable services and products in the various business sectors. But all businesses must subscribe to the basic rule that clients and customers have basic rights. Businesses infringe on these rights to their own peril.
To Air Asia, I say, yes ‘now everyone can fly’ but I won't be flying with you again. Goodbye.
As a person who needs to transit at Denpasar to go on to my place of work, I welcomed AirAsia and have already subscribed to their services no fewer than 20 times. Letters regarding AirAsia's service, or more accurately the lack of it, have appeared in alarmingly volume in malaysiakini. Yet as far as I can see, no effort has been made by AirAsia to respond to these letters.
As a frequent customer, let me recount a recent episode I was involved with. I turned up just a few minutes late for check-in at the airport. I patiently waited in the queue at KLIA where the AirAsia counter says ‘Indonesian Flights’.
There were many passengers also in the queue, the majority of whom were maids with a lot of luggage. Check in was therefore understandably slow. Without any notice or announcement, there was no way I could have known whether or not I could be accepted for my flight since the very long queue was formed by passengers checking in for three different destinations.
I reached the counter after an extended wait and only then was told that check-in for my flight was closed exactly forty-five minutes before the published departure time. In answer to my queries, I was firmly told I came late and therefore AirAsia would not put me on the next available flight nor refund me any portion of the fare I had paid.
This despite the fact that I had no check-in luggage and I could have easily walked to the departure gate well before the published time of departure. As I had to look for alternative flights to proceed to my destination, I stayed on in the airport for some time. It was then that I heard over the public address system the last call for passengers for the AirAsia flight I had paid for.
And what was the time of that announcement? Well past the published time of departure of that said flight.
Being a ‘warga emas’ (senior citizen), I understand and appreciate that there must be rules and regulations in any organised activity. But these rules must apply to both sides of a business transaction. Air Asia tolerates no nonsense from its customers. The rules are published and if you as a passenger are unable to satisfy any part of the published rules, you will not be accepted for a flight nor will you get back any of your money. Fair enough.
However, AirAsia, it seems, does not need to subscribe to any responsibility to punctuality. When its flights depart late no matter by how many minutes or hours, all it takes is for the AirAsia pilot or stewardess to just say sorry before take off. From AirAsia's point of view, its own flight delays can be excused.
What Air Asia is saying is: ‘Our planes can be late even by hours but you passengers cannot be late by even a few minutes’.
As a common man, I too subscribe to the maxim of ‘Now everyone can fly’. I have stood always for the common people. I have cheered all who strive to improve the lot of common people. I have applauded the introduction of discount airlines and have happily subscribed to the services of airlines such as Ryan Air and Easy Jet.
I do not subscribe to the saying ‘cheap things no good, good things not cheap’. There is a need for affordable services and products in the various business sectors. But all businesses must subscribe to the basic rule that clients and customers have basic rights. Businesses infringe on these rights to their own peril.
To Air Asia, I say, yes ‘now everyone can fly’ but I won't be flying with you again. Goodbye.
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I sympathise with you BUT you did turn up late.
It's a shame that this happened. However, boarding announcements are meant for checked-in pax to proceed to the gate. Delays could have been due to a myriad number of reasons.
It's a shame that this happened. However, boarding announcements are meant for checked-in pax to proceed to the gate. Delays could have been due to a myriad number of reasons.
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Well said bck2basic,
You are not the only one to suffer this fate from Scam Asia. This airline is just a front for a company that has no regard what so ever for its customers.
Check-in is generally a confused mess, why, because the staff at check in get paid peanuts and are therefore not really motivated.
They are short staffed and work lots of overtime. Most systems are manual not automised to save costs, at customers expense.(admin charge ect)
Check in staff are not well trained usually young and inexperienced and promoted at a great rate because of the high attrition rate. Scam Asia use the fallback system at KLIA to bypass the PCPS baggage handling system because they refuse to pay the RM0.90 that all other airlines pay for and use, at times your bags end up in the rubbish pile or are sent to the wrong baggage chutes. Scam Asia is definatly not a cradle to grave employer in this area.
Scam Asia provides cheap tickets, another scam. They calculate the load factors on each specific flight and have accurate statistics on the actual passengers carried on each flight, therefore they sell at 1.99 ect the known free space that would never otherwise be sold. So, when they advertise 500,000 cheap seats the market should know that their revenue managament inventory system has alerted them to the fact that it is guranteed that 500,000 seats on their network will not be sold. So they dump these seats. During high demand periods such as Hari Raya, CNY or Christmas their fares will be very high, no 1.99 here!
Overall their fares can be very high as compared to MAS supersavers ect but at least at MAS you get the service!!!!!!!
Scare Asia's flight delays are legendary, some flights never fly they are so delayed but they will tell you their dispatch reliability is 97%-98%. This is because if a flight is delayed it is then retimed and a retimed flight is not considered a delay, another scam. They also operate a 25minute turnaround this means pax & bags must be deplaned and boarded maintenence defects rectified and aircraft refuelled in this time frame. Well in my opinion things become very rushed and in aviation when things get rushed mistakes happen. So maintenence defects may be overlooked, not written up in the maintenence log or defered to the MEL (Minimum equipment list) when a few minutes more could have resulted in the condition being rectified. Due to large volumes of baggage and the short time frame your bags will be roughly handled & have more chance of being damaged. Pilots would not have the time to check weather and notams and would rush through checklists. This would be exacerbated if the flight was previously delayed and the crews were trying to get back on schedule. I always wondered if the flight attendants have the time to check the cabin for security/suspicious items.
With the price of Jet fuel where it is at the moment and the greed that prevails at the top, the only areas to cut costs would be wages & maintenence. I always wondered why the senior quality assurance maintenence manager resigned and I was told it was because he would not risk his career. I also wondered why so many DCA pilots joined, was it because of favours done! I also noticed that the place is full of ex rmaf pilots, I also noticed that the rmaf seem to have a lot of crashes as reported in the press.
In closing I would say that I would not put my family on Scare Asia or Scam Asia or whatever they call themselves and that there is a big difference between a LOW FARES AIRLINE & A LOW COST AIRLINE and that I think this is a CHEAP LOW COST AIRLINE.
You are not the only one to suffer this fate from Scam Asia. This airline is just a front for a company that has no regard what so ever for its customers.
Check-in is generally a confused mess, why, because the staff at check in get paid peanuts and are therefore not really motivated.
They are short staffed and work lots of overtime. Most systems are manual not automised to save costs, at customers expense.(admin charge ect)
Check in staff are not well trained usually young and inexperienced and promoted at a great rate because of the high attrition rate. Scam Asia use the fallback system at KLIA to bypass the PCPS baggage handling system because they refuse to pay the RM0.90 that all other airlines pay for and use, at times your bags end up in the rubbish pile or are sent to the wrong baggage chutes. Scam Asia is definatly not a cradle to grave employer in this area.
Scam Asia provides cheap tickets, another scam. They calculate the load factors on each specific flight and have accurate statistics on the actual passengers carried on each flight, therefore they sell at 1.99 ect the known free space that would never otherwise be sold. So, when they advertise 500,000 cheap seats the market should know that their revenue managament inventory system has alerted them to the fact that it is guranteed that 500,000 seats on their network will not be sold. So they dump these seats. During high demand periods such as Hari Raya, CNY or Christmas their fares will be very high, no 1.99 here!
Overall their fares can be very high as compared to MAS supersavers ect but at least at MAS you get the service!!!!!!!
Scare Asia's flight delays are legendary, some flights never fly they are so delayed but they will tell you their dispatch reliability is 97%-98%. This is because if a flight is delayed it is then retimed and a retimed flight is not considered a delay, another scam. They also operate a 25minute turnaround this means pax & bags must be deplaned and boarded maintenence defects rectified and aircraft refuelled in this time frame. Well in my opinion things become very rushed and in aviation when things get rushed mistakes happen. So maintenence defects may be overlooked, not written up in the maintenence log or defered to the MEL (Minimum equipment list) when a few minutes more could have resulted in the condition being rectified. Due to large volumes of baggage and the short time frame your bags will be roughly handled & have more chance of being damaged. Pilots would not have the time to check weather and notams and would rush through checklists. This would be exacerbated if the flight was previously delayed and the crews were trying to get back on schedule. I always wondered if the flight attendants have the time to check the cabin for security/suspicious items.
With the price of Jet fuel where it is at the moment and the greed that prevails at the top, the only areas to cut costs would be wages & maintenence. I always wondered why the senior quality assurance maintenence manager resigned and I was told it was because he would not risk his career. I also wondered why so many DCA pilots joined, was it because of favours done! I also noticed that the place is full of ex rmaf pilots, I also noticed that the rmaf seem to have a lot of crashes as reported in the press.
In closing I would say that I would not put my family on Scare Asia or Scam Asia or whatever they call themselves and that there is a big difference between a LOW FARES AIRLINE & A LOW COST AIRLINE and that I think this is a CHEAP LOW COST AIRLINE.
Just one more for you to think it over:
Thier refuse to use aerobridge in order to save a small amount of money. If one divide out to the number of pax on one flight,that would work out to be around RM0.60 (USD 0.16)per pax. Ask your self, would you pay RM0.60 for the usage of the aerobridge to keep yourself out of the sun on a good day and out of the rain on a bad one? Not to mention the risk of falling down while disembarking the a/c on the metal steps (and then walking up staircase into the terminal building vv) they provided and the medical bills that follow up. What about those invalid or physically challenged like old people?
Try MAS and weight the differences inn services against the little bit of money you safe,you choose. Personally, if I have to catch a connecting flight,I won't use them.
Thier refuse to use aerobridge in order to save a small amount of money. If one divide out to the number of pax on one flight,that would work out to be around RM0.60 (USD 0.16)per pax. Ask your self, would you pay RM0.60 for the usage of the aerobridge to keep yourself out of the sun on a good day and out of the rain on a bad one? Not to mention the risk of falling down while disembarking the a/c on the metal steps (and then walking up staircase into the terminal building vv) they provided and the medical bills that follow up. What about those invalid or physically challenged like old people?
Try MAS and weight the differences inn services against the little bit of money you safe,you choose. Personally, if I have to catch a connecting flight,I won't use them.
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I'd say the AA team have done a good job all this while despite the few delays which happen.Just can't expect everything to be perfect,no?At least they are not running on a loss.....
I personally think that a big chunk of the AA passengers are those who can make do without the aerobridge.This includes me as I've been on AA flights.Aerobridge or not,don't make a difference.The level of service that I experienced was good,not in the sense that it's a 1st class service but worth the cash paid, with the AA staffs being helpful.Wanna better service?Fly MAS.....Simple as that.I'm not saying that AA is perfect but I admit that there is still room for improvements.
Like someone in this forum use to say....Don't condemn MAS because of a few bad apples.....Same thing applies here......Keep up the good work Air Asia........Now Everyone Can Fly....
I personally think that a big chunk of the AA passengers are those who can make do without the aerobridge.This includes me as I've been on AA flights.Aerobridge or not,don't make a difference.The level of service that I experienced was good,not in the sense that it's a 1st class service but worth the cash paid, with the AA staffs being helpful.Wanna better service?Fly MAS.....Simple as that.I'm not saying that AA is perfect but I admit that there is still room for improvements.
Like someone in this forum use to say....Don't condemn MAS because of a few bad apples.....Same thing applies here......Keep up the good work Air Asia........Now Everyone Can Fly....
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bck2basic, how can people will ask for 100 ringgit if you only pay for 10 ringgit, think of it please if AA say "every one can fly" that is really "everyone can fly", people who earn 10 ringgit can fly now back to their village, but people who earn 100 ringgit will save 90 ringgit by buying 10 ringgit ticket and ask for 100 ringgit service
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Speedtwoten,if you read the letter carefully refunds wasn't the issue.It is about professionalism or may I say the lack of it,that is the issue by the contributer.I have come across may letters in Malaysiakini from various readers about this topic.Good public relations dictates AA to give feedback to their grievances on these subjects in the media.Lack of it would generate adverse publicity.
Get real buddy how many such tikets are really on offer??? Yes you may argue 500,000 seats up for grabs.Realistically how many percentage points does it actually consitute??? No one could argue for a strat it is a welcome/great relief for those who do manage to get these tickets .It is all about good marketing tactics.
The growth of AA has been due to the fact that they have been able to exploit the media positively thus far but their downfall could be due to the media itself if these issues aren't addressed.
There should be room for constructive criticism in any Organization if it wants to genuinely scale greater heights.
Cheers.........
Get real buddy how many such tikets are really on offer??? Yes you may argue 500,000 seats up for grabs.Realistically how many percentage points does it actually consitute??? No one could argue for a strat it is a welcome/great relief for those who do manage to get these tickets .It is all about good marketing tactics.
The growth of AA has been due to the fact that they have been able to exploit the media positively thus far but their downfall could be due to the media itself if these issues aren't addressed.
There should be room for constructive criticism in any Organization if it wants to genuinely scale greater heights.
Cheers.........
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hav an experience last yr.
booked a flight from KL to Penang. Departure time about 10 plus. (cannot remember the actual time)
in KL, decided to take a coach instead and stop by Ipoh and Taiping before going on to Penang. On the way there, way after lunch and in the coach (remember about 2 to 3 pm), received an sms saying the flight is delayed to 7 pm.
Wah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! U be the judge.
booked a flight from KL to Penang. Departure time about 10 plus. (cannot remember the actual time)
in KL, decided to take a coach instead and stop by Ipoh and Taiping before going on to Penang. On the way there, way after lunch and in the coach (remember about 2 to 3 pm), received an sms saying the flight is delayed to 7 pm.
Wah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! U be the judge.
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Would have to agree that Air Asia delays are commonplace.
Have traveled Thai AA frequently - last time we had booked a flight BKK-KKC. Received an SMS the day before departure to advise the flight had been cancelled
...only to find out 2 weeks later the entire route had been cancelled.
Same experience another time for BKK-HKT and HKT-BKK....
Paying the extra 1000THB to fly Thai is now no longer an issue for us.
Have traveled Thai AA frequently - last time we had booked a flight BKK-KKC. Received an SMS the day before departure to advise the flight had been cancelled
...only to find out 2 weeks later the entire route had been cancelled.
Same experience another time for BKK-HKT and HKT-BKK....
Paying the extra 1000THB to fly Thai is now no longer an issue for us.
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I agree with the subject's author. AA is certainly not abiding to normal ethical business day to day operations. If you have a legitimate complaint, you might as well forget about it as you're talking to deaf AA frontline personnel. As to writing to higher AA authorities, that is an utterly waste of paper and time; you will never get a reply.
Let's not mention the false advertising in National newspapers about cheap seats, available only via the internet. That is an absolute lot of B..........t, the so called cheap seats are never available
Sure "everyone now can fly" but it won't be me or neither of my friends on AA. We rather pay a bit more and be safe, looked after and on time with regular airlines... (well most of the time)
Let's not mention the false advertising in National newspapers about cheap seats, available only via the internet. That is an absolute lot of B..........t, the so called cheap seats are never available
Sure "everyone now can fly" but it won't be me or neither of my friends on AA. We rather pay a bit more and be safe, looked after and on time with regular airlines... (well most of the time)
