Air Asia pulls out of Abu Dhabi

[DJ737]

Hi there

The KUL-AUH route is dropped, eff 22/02/10 seems it didn't work out too well, affected passengers are being offered flights to most other Air Asia X destinations except Stansted.

I got an KUL-AUH-KUL which only cost $69 each way changed to a MEL-KUL-MEL for later in the year at no charge, they even kept me in the same prebooked seats.

Cheers
DJ737

 

[mvjs]

I had my Abu Dhabi flight cancelled also. However, the CSR said they could not do anything whatsoever to the flight in regards to changing dates, destinations, etc. because the flight was more than three months away.

In short supposedly, AirAsia's systems prevent them from changing a flight's date if it's more than three months away. I could understand if it was a restriction on flights less than three months away.

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

Did you get an email from Air Asia X listing your options?

I believe they are contacting passengers in order of the original flight date. (Mine were in early March)

Cheers
DJ737

 

[mvjs]

Hi there

Did you get an email from Air Asia X listing your options?

I believe they are contacting passengers in order of the original flight date. (Mine were in early March)

Cheers
DJ737

No, AirAsia didn't contact me at all.

 

[russianrob]

bugger, I was going to book them to go to the V8s

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

Air Asia should contact you shortly with this email.

Dear Valued Guest,

We refer to your flight D7 2403 on [Friday, 5th March 2010] scheduled to depart at 0255hrs from Abu Dhabi International Airport.
We regret to inform you that all flights to/from Abu Dhabi from 22nd February have been suspended, until further notice due to commercial reasons.

Please contact us at [email protected], together with you booking number if you
· wish to move to the following AirAsia X destinations only, namely, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Tianjin, Taipei, Gold Coast, Perth, Melbourne, Mumbai or Delhi at no additional cost; or
· wish to cancel your ticket and request for a refund; and
· have any concerns you would like us to address; or
· require a letter for your travel insurance provider.
We truly apologies for the inconvenience caused. We truly appreciate your valued patronage and we look forward to welcoming you back again soon.

Sincerely,
AirAsia X Sdn Bhd .

Cheers
DJ737

 

[RSD]

Oh cough! I'm booked PER - KUL - AUH on Air Asia and then onto Cairo with Etihad.

This will be the third time that Air Asia have screwed me around and I think it is time to apply the three strikes rule.

 

[mvjs]

Oh cough! I'm booked PER - KUL - AUH on Air Asia and then onto Cairo with Etihad.

This will be the third time that Air Asia have screwed me around and I think it is time to apply the three strikes rule.

Do you have travel insurance?

You will have absolutely no chance of convincing AirAsia to put you on another airline. I tried over several phone calls. It's simply not part of their policy.

 

[RSD]

Do you have travel insurance?

You will have absolutely no chance of convincing AirAsia to put you on another airline. I tried over several phone calls. It's simply not part of their policy.

I've got an annual global policy so I will sort something out. If we could just get QF to fly PER - BKK life would be so much easier as I could then pick up Royal Jordanian from BKK and fly straight into Sharm via Amman and avoid Cairo completely.

 

[paulk]

Most recently, my wife and I were stranded in Abu Dhabi when AirAsiaX announced they were canceling service to/from Abu Dhabi in January this year. They didn’t notify us (their stranded passengers) until Feb 10th. Neither did they offer any accommodation nor answer our emails asking for help. We had to get back to Malaysia on our own. They won’t reimburse our additional expenses either.

They said they would refund the Abu Dhabi/Kuala Lumpur portion of our trip, but it will take them 30-50 days to process the refund. Such an attitude!

Watch out for these guys. If you are considering using AirAsiaX, It might be a good idea to develop a plan B... just in case.

 

[notzac]

This is a perfect example of why travel insurance is such a good idea.

 

[clifford]

This is a perfect example of why travel insurance is such a good idea.

Please explain how it would help me, when D7 have offered a full refund?

 

[clifford]

Hi there

The KUL-AUH route is dropped, eff 22/02/10 seems it didn't work out too well, affected passengers are being offered flights to most other Air Asia X destinations except Stansted.

I got an KUL-AUH-KUL which only cost $69 each way changed to a MEL-KUL-MEL for later in the year at no charge, they even kept me in the same prebooked seats.

Cheers
DJ737

That's great.

But if, like me, you actually needed to go to AUH, where does that leave you?

The answer is... hugely out of pocket (I had 3 round-trips booked KUL-AUH-KUL) and had to rebook on high-cost carriers (HCC's).

I agree with the previous poster that you are taking a huge risk booking Air Asia X if you actually need to be somewhere on a certain date. I for one will never book them again, no matter how cheap they appear to be.

 

[notzac]

Please explain how it would help me, when D7 have offered a full refund?

Sorry, I was replying to paulk .. you appear not to have posted in this thread until now?

paulk noted that he'd had additional expenses getting back to KUL (presumably both transport and accommodation). The travel policy I normally use appears to cover this:

1. We will pay the value of the unused arrangements, less any refunds due to you if you have to cancel any prepaid transport or accommodation arrangements, due to any unforeseen or unforeseeable circumstances outside of your control.
2. We will pay the Reasonable cost of rearranging your Trip prior to the commencement of your Trip because something unforeseen and outside of your control occurs, provided that this cost is not greater than the cancellation fees or lost deposits which would have been incurred had the Trip been cancelled.

The only applicable exclusion to this that I was able to find in the PDS was in the case of a failure to provide services due to insolvency. Clearly not the case here.

 

[clifford]

Sorry, I was replying to paulk .. you appear not to have posted in this thread until now?

And this means I can't make a comment?

And, FWIW, your insurance policy must be a heck of a lot better than mine, which states:
"We will not pay.... because of cancellation caused by the transportation provider; travel agent, tour operator or travel wholesaler"...

 

[markis10]

And this means I can't make a comment?

I find your responses very aggressive in the context of the thread:

paulk "Most recently, my wife and I were stranded in Abu Dhabi ....We had to get back to Malaysia on our own"

notzac "This is a perfect example of why travel insurance is such a good idea"

then you comment "Please explain how it would help me, when D7 have offered a full refund? "


Clearly Notzac was answering a question from someone who has had a cancellation mid trip with what I see is a perfectly valid and polite response, then you post demanding how it helps your situition without posting what that situation is other than to say you have a refund coming.

Perhaps the response should have been "please post more information so we can help"?

Now that we do have more details its still impossible to answer your question in general terms, for instance all the QBE policies talk about cancellations or interuptions, but how may people read the general exclusions that apply to all parts of the policy:

I am sorry that you have been let down by Air Asia multiple times, it must be frustrating, however we should be encouraging constructive input and providing as much detail as possible when requesting help, so the answers can be as accurate and helpfull to the fullest extent permitted.

 

[clifford]

I find your responses very aggressive in the context of the thread:

paulk "Most recently, my wife and I were stranded in Abu Dhabi ....We had to get back to Malaysia on our own"

notzac "This is a perfect example of why travel insurance is such a good idea"

then you comment "Please explain how it would help me, when D7 have offered a full refund? "


Clearly Notzac was answering a question from someone who has had a cancellation mid trip with what I see is a perfectly valid and polite response, then you post demanding how it helps your situition without posting what that situation is other than to say you have a refund coming.

Perhaps the response should have been "please post more information so we can help"?

Now that we do have more details its still impossible to answer your question in general terms, for instance all the QBE policies talk about cancellations or interuptions, but how may people read the general exclusions that apply to all parts of the policy:

I am sorry that you have been let down by Air Asia multiple times, it must be frustrating, however we should be encouraging constructive input and providing as much detail as possible when requesting help, so the answers can be as accurate and helpfull to the fullest extent permitted.

All I can say is that I applaud your great sense of fairness and justice.

BTW, my insurance policy is with AAMI, who I believe have excellent rates, and based on my experiences with claiming on my car insurance, are a good company to be with. Not all travel insurance companies are the same when it comes to making a claim!

 

[paulk]

I think this issue goes beyond buying travel insurance. AirAsiaX has stated they withdrew from the Abu Dhabi market for commercial reasons. I'm told to buy insurance next time I book with them, to protect myself against AirAsiaX when they leave me stranded again... so they can save money while I loose money on the deal.

Duh, am I missing some of the logic here?

What if the AirAsiaX management made the decision to cancel the Abu Dhabi service on or prior to my January 25 departure at KL? Wouldn't the check-in agent be ethicly (or legally) obligated to tell me the return portion of my ticket had been canceled?