Air Asia - Make You Pay By Hook Or By Crook

Day 46 - 954 days to go

I learned a few lessons from buying plane ticket from Air Asia today.

1. You dont have a choice to say no for certain item. I tried many times to cancel the insurance but to no avail. End up I have to force to pay for the insurance or not able to complete the transaction.
2. When other low cost airline charge you for only basic fare and airport tax, they charge you at least 9 items without having a choice. Basic fare, passenger security fee, passenger service fee, airport fee, airport tax, aviation levy, fuel surcharge, AA insurance and convenience fee.
3. They also tried to charge me seat selection fee which is RM30 one way, meal, and comfort kit.
4. I would say they really have a creative director. I respect their creativity but do not agree with the fact the they do not let me choose if I want to buy insurance.
5. The best part is the convenience fee which appears from noway until I want to pay with my credit card.

I am not satisfy with Air Asia for a few issues which include their forever fail customer service phone line or email (I have been taking Air Asia for 10+ times to many countries even for sending my maid home), this round it really forced me to look for alternative. Well, thanks AA for letting me realise that beside AA, Firefly and Tiger Airway, I came to know Lion Air. I hope AA respects customer a bit more or risk losing more customers eventually. From now on, I will give other airline a chance as much as possible as I don't think we get good service in terms of the business model (their staff are quite nice in general).

They think they are still better than other budget airlines but I heard more and more people going to firefly and tiger airway. MAS is a giant and if you make the sleeping giant wake up, you may end up facing stiff competition. Customers have many choice and there is no such thing as loyal customers if you do not continue to provide good or at least fair deal.

One thing I learned is that if you go to Singapore from KL, you may want to take malaysia airline. However, if you come back from Singapore, you may want to take singapore airline as I found that they charge a lot less (if any) for airport related tax and fee. Maybe just because they are supported by Singapore government and hence passengers do not need to pay many creative fees or taxes.