Air Asia Rant

The following; in verbatim; is my open letter to Datuk Tony Fernandes.

"28th November 2008

Datuk Anthony Francis Fernandes
c/o Air Asia Bhd.

Dear Datuk Tony,

Re: Crisis in Thailand - Air Asia’s Lackadaisical Attitude


It is with much disappointment that I have to write this letter of complaint regarding the incoherent action by Air Asia to the current crisis in Thailand.

My I first congratulate Datuk on transforming the aviation industry; from being a staid industry to one where innovative ideas and marketing strategies are regularly implemented.

It was therefore highly disappointing to find that Air Asia has not been pro-active when dealing with the current state of emergency in Thailand.

My situation is:

• My family and I have booked a holiday in Thailand flying by Air Asia and Air Asia Thailand with the following schedule.
o 9th December 2008 Kul – CNX AK896 Booking Ref: SLPZDE
o 12th December 2008 CNX – BKK FD3239 Booking Ref: U3LTBE
o 16th December 2008 BKK – Kul AK883 Booking Ref: REMJEB
• With the current situation in Thailand, my family and I have decided that it may be prudent to change our holiday to a different destination.
• On Thursday the 27th of November 2008, the second day of the occupation of Bangkok Airport, I called up Air Asia’s support line, waited the inevitable 25 minutes to be attended to by a distressed Help Line Assistant and requested that I be allowed to change the destination of my holiday, for which I would be willing to pay any difference in the fares and administration fees.
• Unfortunately the only options available are
o the dates of the flights (within a 3 month period)
o and/or the name of traveler.
o forfeiting in full the fares herein paid.
• Bearing in mind that my family members are travelling from New Zealand and do not have the luxury of changing their schedule or revisiting the region within the next year, these options are not satisfying.

It is obvious that the top management of Air Asia has given no thought to an extremely serious situation that has developed in the industry. It also baffles me that the said management has also not been able to see that if they allow travelers to change their destinations (under emergency circumstances), not only will travelers feel more comfortable with the destinations they are travelling to but Air Asia would probably gain financially as the fares will inevitably be higher as travelers change their cheaper tickets (bought during the early booking period) with “prime fare period” tickets.

I believe that unless issues such as these are addressed, Air Asia’s hope of being a fully integrated airline for the global market shall be stymied as long haul travelers will not be comfortable booking regional connections as there are too many restrictions concerning the change of destinations on flights which have to be booked well in advance. Especially in emergencies like we are facing in Thailand and India.

Air Asia may actually be known as a “fair weather” airline. Fine when everything goes well, but absolutely clueless in event of an emergency.

I hope the feedback in this letter serves to improve the service offered by Air Asia to all your customers who are probably facing more trying situation then myself.

Yours sincerely,



Seet Cheng Khim "

As expected, I did not even get an acknowledgement of this letter.

Tour of South China- Day V Shenzhen

As this was our last day in China, we had a little bit of a lie-in before we were taken to an extremely large shopping mall, or more accurately, several shopping malls which were linked together. By mutual agreement, the ladies decided that they would go shopping leaving the men to do their own thing. We decided to go to a day spa, which was eye opening to say the least. This place was LARGE! By that I mean,  you enter on the first floor, which housed the changing  and shower rooms. Then via a lift, you are then taken to the lounge floor which had at least 200 large  and sumptuous recliners, each with it's own personal mini LCD monitor. There you could get massages for you feet, head and back. I also had my ears cleaned. There was a whole list of pampering you could get done whilst you were seated in those recliners. 

So after 2 hours of pampering, we left to meet up with the ladies and got ready to leave for the airport.

At the Airport, we said goodbye to our local guide, Mary. We were then greeted by the news that the Air Asia flight was possibly delayed. There was confusion as the monitor display indicated that the flight was delayed 'til 12 am, however the counter staff said that the flight was on scheduled to fly at 10pm. Typical Air Bloody Asia. Anyway we were mollified when Raven, our tour coordinator informed us that she bought a roast goose soas we do not go hungry during the wait for the plane. Unfortunately, the photos of us enjoying our last pig-out of this tour was lost when airport security requested that Yew Pun delete the photos as we were by the exist gate.

As it turns out, the Air Asia fight was late getting in, so we had to endure a 2 hour delay. Which meant that we arrived back in LCCT at 3 am. There the group split up and went our separate ways. I bummed a lift with Yew Pun and Doreen, who dropped me off at Straits Meridian at 5.30 am.

THE END

 

 

  

Stolen Musings

Some borrowed Musings which I find Amusing

Why if Air Asia can call me; to sell me insurance: why do they not call me, to warn me that my flight has been delayed? 

....borrowed from Hallie