Air Asia

[beentheredonethat]

At a time when Qantas is copping a lot of criticism - and rightly so in my opinion - it's worth telling my story re Air Asia, a budget airline. The fares are unbelievably cheap but the airline continues to surprise and satisfy. They're efficient, they run on time and the staff are friendly - take note Jetstar.

At the moment I am in Hong Kong, and had planned to fly out today to KL to connect with a flight to Bali. There's been a typhoon hanging round and last night, suddenly and unexpectedly, it turned and headed for Hong Kong. I received an email and an SMS from Air Asia telling me my flight today would be delayed. This meant I wouldn't make the connection to the Bali flight (2 separate flights, not booked through).

I phoned the airline, they told me to go online and do a live chat. This was almost instant and I was able to explain my problem. Although initially I was given the usual story of go to the airport etc I was able to insist that it wasn't practical and finally they said somebody from the pre flight team would ring me. I had a long stressful wait but finally it was resolved...no extra cost, they agreed that it wasn't practical to do the first flight and have to find accommodation in KL, changed my flights to the next day...even made an effort to find me the same seats!

Would Qantas under its present management have done the same? HELL NO!

 

[jetlagger]

At a time when Qantas is copping a lot of criticism - and rightly so in my opinion - it's worth telling my story re Air Asia, a budget airline. The fares are unbelievably cheap but the airline continues to surprise and satisfy. They're efficient, they run on time and the staff are friendly - take note Jetstar.

At the moment I am in Hong Kong, and had planned to fly out today to KL to connect with a flight to Bali. There's been a typhoon hanging round and last night, suddenly and unexpectedly, it turned and headed for Hong Kong. I received an email and an SMS from Air Asia telling me my flight today would be delayed. This meant I wouldn't make the connection to the Bali flight (2 separate flights, not booked through).

I phoned the airline, they told me to go online and do a live chat. This was almost instant and I was able to explain my problem. Although initially I was given the usual story of go to the airport etc I was able to insist that it wasn't practical and finally they said somebody from the pre flight team would ring me. I had a long stressful wait but finally it was resolved...no extra cost, they agreed that it wasn't practical to do the first flight and have to find accommodation in KL, changed my flights to the next day...even made an effort to find me the same seats!

Would Qantas under its present management have done the same? HELL NO!

Nice to hear about your pleasant experience... But trust me.. It doesn't ALWAYS work like that with the LCCs... Things can & do go wrong for all sorts of valid &/or non valid reasons.. Though from my experiences of LCCs & legacy carriers the latter usually sorts out the inconvenience/s in a more humane manner & provide more alternate comfortable flight & hotel options..

Just a thought & nice to hear about your Air Asia reservation communications.. Wish you a pleasant journey.

 

[mannej]

At a time when Qantas is copping a lot of criticism - and rightly so in my opinion - it's worth telling my story re Air Asia, a budget airline. The fares are unbelievably cheap but the airline continues to surprise and satisfy. They're efficient, they run on time and the staff are friendly - take note Jetstar.

At the moment I am in Hong Kong, and had planned to fly out today to KL to connect with a flight to Bali. There's been a typhoon hanging round and last night, suddenly and unexpectedly, it turned and headed for Hong Kong. I received an email and an SMS from Air Asia telling me my flight today would be delayed. This meant I wouldn't make the connection to the Bali flight (2 separate flights, not booked through).

I phoned the airline, they told me to go online and do a live chat. This was almost instant and I was able to explain my problem. Although initially I was given the usual story of go to the airport etc I was able to insist that it wasn't practical and finally they said somebody from the pre flight team would ring me. I had a long stressful wait but finally it was resolved...no extra cost, they agreed that it wasn't practical to do the first flight and have to find accommodation in KL, changed my flights to the next day...even made an effort to find me the same seats!

Would Qantas under its present management have done the same? HELL NO!

I have flown D7, so have no issues with that, however there is ample evidence out there of Air Asia pulling out of routes and leaving people high and dry.

 

[pauly7]

I have flown D7, so have no issues with that, however there is ample evidence out there of Air Asia pulling out of routes and leaving people high and dry.

Yes I agree with that, it's all about your personal experience. My sister was left stuck in a similar situation to what you describe above and Air Asia did nada (poor thing - a month later Tiger did the same!!!). You get what you pay for.

Then my cousin flew them and had such a poor experience she no showed for the return and booked another airline. Had awful service, got ill from the 'food' and was very uncomfortable in their seats.

So - if it works for you then great. But they aren't high on our families list as you can imagine!!

 

[ermen]

is it normally the less popular routes that get pulled? so far in my limited experience with them is that they did deliver what they said they would (though was going to destinations with multiple flights per day)

 

[mannej]

is it normally the less popular routes that get pulled? so far in my limited experience with them is that they did deliver what they said they would (though was going to destinations with multiple flights per day)

Were the Europe routes less popular?

 

[richie9x]

Personally I have had no troubles with Air Asia and find them very good value for money. I use to live in KL I must have flown with them about 50 times, mainly for weekend getaways. On Thursdays I use to see what flights were available on Friday night with a Sunday return. Look for the cheapest place I could get to within 3 hours flying time and that I could get to without a prearranged visa. They have allowed me to see many parts of Asia I would have never otherwise got to.

Often the same flights on premium airlines were 4 or 5 times the cost.

Sure the seat pitch is a bit tight. It is uncomfortable if the passenger in front reclines. But I can put up with it for a short flight. They have a very young fleet which is good.

I quite like the food choices - simple but good. I would rate them above what you usually get with Qantas in economy. Would recommend the hotdog, hainanese chicken rice or nasi lemak.

I have had a occasional delays and changed schedules. But nothing more than premium airlines. The worst I have had is a four hour delay, which they did give advance warning of the morning of the flight so I was able to plan around it. But they are a LCC. So to a degree you have to have your own plan B in case things change, rather than rely on the airline to provide your plan B. But I was quite impressed by what the OP reported.

I have only had 3 flights with Air AsiaX. No complaints with them either.

 

[jetlagger]

Were the Europe routes less popular?

Obviously less popular.. As well as the fact that lots of competition exists on the said routing between KUL/EURO... But the simple fact is that Air Asia could not make money for long haul selling tickets at next to nothing prices - even with high loadings - Same scenario for CHC. It was just not economically sustainable.

All long haul routes for LCC are never long term sustainable, unless subsidised .. It has been tried & tried so many times... Same dilemma with Scoot & Air Asia X.. After the hype of the intro fares have been exhausted & subsidies removed, airfares have be to increased to sustain levels of adequate profit margins for any long term viability.

 

[mannej]

High loadings = less popular for the bean counters?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

All long haul routes for LCC are never long term sustainable, unless subsidised .. It has been tried & tried so many times... Same dilemma with Scoot & Air Asia X.. After the hype of the intro fares have been exhausted & subsidies removed, airfares have be to increased to sustain levels of adequate profit margins for any long term viability.[/QUOTE]

I'd say the issue with long haul routes is that you don't get the turnover of the flights like you do with short haul.

That said I think Air Asia have a reasonable business model and have been around long enough that they're able to manage their yield pretty well.

Certainly the cheapie flights from a few years back don't happen as much, but then jet fuel is a lot more expensive these days.

I'll happily fly home with AAX and enjoy a sleep in a premium seat for around $350. it S&*TS me off that they charge $520 for the same thing out of Australia, but charge about $350 if it's part of a return trip from KL.

 

[travelislife]

Refer this thread for my recent experiences. http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ions/been-upgraded-by-optiontown-32716-3.html

From the loads I am not sure they are making a lot of money from it as the costs to upgrade using optiontown is very cheap I feel. $350 is a great price Jeffrey O'Neill, I don't recall seeing it that good.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

travelslife - you only get that price KL to SYD. SYD KL is $520 at the cheapest.

Seems you can do KL _ SYD return for around $700. AAX are just another airline that's ripping us off

 

[ermen]

Problem with long haul flights is that fuel becomes a larger percentage of your cost base. So your competitive advantage versus the full service carriers is diminished. Coupled with low yields per ASK doesnt exactly make a winning formula.

 

[elbarto]

Nice to hear about your pleasant experience... But trust me.. It doesn't ALWAYS work like that with the LCCs... Things can & do go wrong for all sorts of valid &/or non valid reasons.. Though from my experiences of LCCs & legacy carriers the latter usually sorts out the inconvenience/s in a more humane manner & provide more alternate comfortable flight & hotel options..

Just a thought & nice to hear about your Air Asia reservation communications.. Wish you a pleasant journey.

But it shouldn't be LCCs are in the customer service business too and just because they're low cost shouldn't mean no service. Good service goes along way to retaining business.

High loadings = less popular for the bean counters?

High loads are useless if the yields aren't there.

 

[Rdarby]

I have used Air Asia to KL and on to China several times. It all works well when it works, and they can be very cheap. However if something goes wrong, you may be stuffed. They cancelled a route on me and it took months to sort it out. Their call centre was hopeless, until someone finally owned the problem and started calling me back themselves, and I only had one person to deal with. The fixed up flight ended up being bad as they didn't put me in the extra legroom seat I had paid for!

All up very cheap and worth it, but don't do things like try change flights. Pay and fly and you will be fine.

 

[gibspmuh]

I'll add my voice to those that have been happy enough with what AirAsia offers. Like many others above I've seen plenty of parts of Asia that I otherwise wouldn't have due to the low fares on offer and often unique routes that they offer (though as mentioned above those secondary routes will get dropped in an instant if they don't make money). In near on 100 flights with them I've only had one cancellation and a couple of significant delays (more than an hour or so) so I think I've been pretty lucky. So long as you set your expectations appropriately and luck goes your way then they're fine.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Problem with long haul flights is that fuel becomes a larger percentage of your cost base. So your competitive advantage versus the full service carriers is diminished. Coupled with low yields per ASK doesnt exactly make a winning formula.

Doesn't a 747 burn 19 liters of fuel per nautical mile?


Sent from my iPhone using Aust Freq Fly app

 

[ermen]

Was meaning that you need to carry more fuel for long haul flights versus short haul... So a large proportion of the initial fuel burn is applied in transporting this extra fuel. Thus total fuel costs as percent of CASK i would suspect is much higher long haul than a short haul flight

Reason why people say that SQ could not make SIN JFK direct work in economy

 

[travelislife]

Same reason why Thai has cancelled both the direct Los Angeles and New York flights. They couldn't find a buyer for their A340-500s either. So much fuel to burn just to carry that fuel.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Yes I agree with that, it's all about your personal experience. My sister was left stuck in a similar situation to what you describe above and Air Asia did nada (poor thing - a month later Tiger did the same!!!). You get what you pay for.

Then my cousin flew them and had such a poor experience she no showed for the return and booked another airline. Had awful service, got ill from the 'food' and was very uncomfortable in their seats.

So - if it works for you then great. But they aren't high on our families list as you can imagine!!

A friend of mine flew AAX OOL/KUL/HKT & one thing she mentioned they don't have is a DG spill kit ie the sawdust list substance you sprinkle on the floor after some kid sitting across the aisle from you projectile vomits everywhere which makes it easier to sweep up.

The F/A's just left it there while they continued doing the meal service. A few hours later my friend got violently ill on the plane which was either due to being in close proximity to the sick child or the food however her travelling companion ate exactly the same has her & wasn't sick.

She would still fly with them again however instead of the bulkhead seat she would now pay the extra for their version of the sleeper seat.

At a time when Qantas is copping a lot of criticism - and rightly so in my opinion - it's worth telling my story re Air Asia, a budget airline..........

I phoned the airline, they told me to go online and do a live chat. This was almost instant and I was able to explain my problem. Although initially I was given the usual story of go to the airport etc I was able to insist that it wasn't practical and finally they said somebody from the pre flight team would ring me.

I had a long stressful wait but finally it was resolved...no extra cost, they agreed that it wasn't practical to do the first flight and have to find accommodation in KL, changed my flights to the next day...even made an effort to find me the same seats!

Would Qantas under its present management have done the same? HELL NO!

That's a ridiculous statement. There have been plenty of occasions in the last few years such as natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes & bushfires plus civil unrest in countries where QF will refund peoples' tickets if they no longer wanted to travel or amend their bookings for no charge.

You say the airline has been copping flack & rightly so, then fail to give any reason why or expand on your statement. At least state what your issue is as opposed to making sweeping statements.