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Y. J. Foo

AK to charge for counter check-in

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They will think twice later after future Firefly take their customer. :D

I really hope FY can make a good dent into AK's business. :finger:

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I really hope FY can make a good dent into AK's business. :finger:

 

Yup, by charging customer for counter check-in frankly speaking is a not good way to build relationship between customer.

They should creative and use counter as one of part future marketing medium, targeting to customer which difficult or no time to access web.

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is look like ryanair now....huhu..enjoyed flying with LCC carrier

Air Asia actually should realized, that they can not do the same strategy like what ryanair did. Because ryanair doing business in Europe. In Europe,people from low class/rural area/small town also know how want to do the online check-in,online booking,online payment and so on. Here in Malaysia, it is a different situation....

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I really hope FY can make a good dent into AK's business. :finger:

 

Well it pave the way for others to do better, the same with MH before AK was born.

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When AirAsia asked people to book on the net, the same excuses were given. Now, more than 80% of ticket sales is via the Net.

 

AK has a big problem at LCCT - not enough check in counters. Also the MAHB's infra structure is such that all counters are not able to check in all flights. So the efficiency level is lower. AK just wants to encourage pax to use web check in so that it is less crowded at the check ins. And if that is the case, they want us to pay for the better "service"...

 

They are taking a risk - that customers may get annoyed. Anyway, lets see how this pans out.

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They are taking a risk - that customers may get annoyed. Anyway, lets see how this pans out.

Key words there :)

risk being integral to entrepreneurial effort, and

may, meaning possible that customers, or majority of them, may not get annoyed after all. Nett effect, more revenue :)

But I betcha the competitors will be monitoring response with hawk like keenness - for if there is no mass scale customer rebellion, expect said competitors to start implementing similar charges in due course :D

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In near future, offering free counter check-in will be something an airline can brag..

 

Anyway, I am totally ok with AK charging pax for counter check-in, so long as they provide more self check-in kiosks in the airports. Not everyone has access to the internet and printer to do online check-in.

 

Better still, equip those kiosks with the ability to print out luggage tags for those with check-in luggages. Pax can tag their own luggages and place them on the conveyor belt - no check-in agents needed.

 

And, I hate those A4-sized boarding pass. I am a boarding pass collector. :pardon:

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And, I hate those A4-sized boarding pass. I am a boarding pass collector. :pardon:

Look at it positively, you can be an e-Boarding Pass collector too! :)

 

Seriously, AK is trying to get more people to check in at their web site. It saves them a lot of costs. Plus they want you to go to their portal and spend more money as they lay tempting offers for you to pick up!

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I think most of us would have printing the return boarding pass. I never contemplating on bringing a printer together with my netbook when travelling.

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You can go to cybercafe or business centre to print. When I went to Gold Coast it cost me A$1 per page but it was worth it as I was able to have my seats allocated earlier. As such we got two seats together with the third seat empty...

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^^ Wait, are you saying that by doing online check-in, we can select our seats without having to pay? I've never done web-check in for the AK group before, but I was under the impression that if I didn't pay for the "Pick my seat" service, my seats would be randomly assigned if I did an online check-in or kiosk check-in.

 

Which is precisely why I have been avoiding self check in for AK and to instead, be at the airport super early to wait for check-in counters to open, just so that I can request for my party to be seated together and with window seats, or to have middle seats empty if the flight isnt full. If I'm allowed to select seats for free, I'd be more than happy to check-in online! Do tell!

(Sorry D7, but RM25 per pax per sector is just way too much! That would be RM250 wasted on my trip, just for selecting standard seats!)

Edited by reyneo

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In near future, offering free counter check-in will be something an airline can brag..

 

Anyway, I am totally ok with AK charging pax for counter check-in, so long as they provide more self check-in kiosks in the airports. Not everyone has access to the internet and printer to do online check-in.

 

Better still, equip those kiosks with the ability to print out luggage tags for those with check-in luggages. Pax can tag their own luggages and place them on the conveyor belt - no check-in agents needed.

 

And, I hate those A4-sized boarding pass. I am a boarding pass collector. :pardon:

 

Counter check-in is actually never free. It's been factored into your ticket. Airport authorities charge hefty rents to airlines / ground handlers for the use of the check-in counters.

 

I seriously doubt AK will invest in self-service kiosks, especially those with baggage tag printing options, when you consider each machine costs roughly USD150,000 (when I was handling that project with another airline), and mounting the SSKs at the baggage conveyor belts involve tooooooooo much modification works at the airport. There will still be check-in agents needed to attend to smaller matters e.g. excess baggage, ensuring passengers tag their bags properly, signing limited release portion for fragile items. Not all passengers are savvy travellers that knows how to tag their own bags. Yes, they may not need as many check-in agents, but can't eliminate them.

 

Most airlines have gone to web check-in because it is simply a more cost-effective option. Web check-in involves little / no hardware cost to AK. Their mentality is simple. No printer? Pay at counter.

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^^ Wait, are you saying that by doing online check-in, we can select our seats without having to pay?

 

(Sorry D7, but RM25 per pax per sector is just way too much! That would be RM250 wasted on my trip, just for selecting standard seats!)

Obviously, there is a big difference between checking in 2 people and checking in 10 people. I am happy with the default seat allocation most of the time. In my recent flights to and from TPE, we were allocated seats that were at the front of the aircraft (at that time, we checked in as soon as the flight was available for web check in) as we were the first and second pax in the sequence!

 

How much seat selection is worth, I don't know. It is up to us as individuals to value this service. I know it costs more than RM 25 if you opt for this facility on EasyJet.

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So the default seat allocation gave you the middle seat free without you having to do anything at all? Thats generous of them... was it because the system knew that the flight was very empty or something like that? Or were each individual seat randomly assigned, and you just so happened to get 1A while ur partner got 1C?

 

Oh yea, and I'm travelling in a group of 5, but for a return trip, so x2= RM250. And I guess the main problem is that 4 of us were booked together, while one of my friends booked later on his own, so we have 2 different PNRs. Even if we did web-check in one after the other, I dont think the system will allocate our seats together right? :(

 

To me seat selection isnt worth RM250, especially when the service is FREE at the airport check-in counter. Sure, if majority of the people did web-check in or prebooked seats, we may not get the seats we want, but with a human being selecting the seats for us, I'm sure he/she can at least allocate us seats thats are next to, or if not, near each other.

 

Oh and since you brought up Easyjet, IIRC, they don't have allocated seating at all... so it cant cost any money at all. (They are thinking of trying it out though http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4967487/) lol

Edited by reyneo

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With LCC's you have the option to pay or not to pay for something. It is your decision and you have the freedom of choice.

 

Web check in gives automatic allocation. If you don't like the allocation, you don't have to complete it anyway. You can try checking in again later and the allocation is different. In my case I got A and B seats on one flight and B and C seats on the other. I was happy with the allocation and as luck would have it, the third seat was unoccupied.

 

EasyJet has SpeedyBoarding (AK used to have Priority Boarding) and you have to pay more than RM 25 (I think €6.50) for that.

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The worst seat I got was on KUL-PER on the old A333 seat type. Middle seat of middle row. :(

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how about provide a number of IPad or cheaper Ipod touch in the airport, somewhere near the Kiosk to let their passenger to perform "web check-in"?

 

or

 

setup few units of Desktop for cheaper cost? either one will cost lesser than a Kiosk rite?

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Web check in gives automatic allocation. If you don't like the allocation, you don't have to complete it anyway. You can try checking in again later and the allocation is different. In my case I got A and B seats on one flight and B and C seats on the other. I was happy with the allocation and as luck would have it, the third seat was unoccupied.

Thanks for the info! I didn't know you could look at the seat they assign you and cancel the check-in if u r not happy with it. For my next flight, I'll try to do the check-in a few times, and hopefully in one of the attempts, I'll get the seats I want. =]

Edited by reyneo

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Thanks for the info! I didn't know you could look at the seat they assign you and cancel the check-in if u r not happy with it. For my next flight, I'll try to do the check-in a few times, and hopefully in one of the attempts, I'll get the seats I want. =]

 

Please let us know once you've tried it. I tried once but was unsuccessful - I tried web check-in and dislike my seat so I thought I can try to check in over the counter. They gave me back the same seat.

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Please let us know once you've tried it. I tried once but was unsuccessful - I tried web check-in and dislike my seat so I thought I can try to check in over the counter. They gave me back the same seat.

I think, from my experience, they tend to automatically give bad seats (middle) when you do web check-in early. Once you are allocated a seat, you will get the same seat even if you go to the counter.

 

If you want to get reasonable seat, don't attempt web check-in at all.

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With dedicated check-in counter and conveyor for each flight at LCCT, check-in baggage go missing or wrong destination is almost zero. However, with common baggage drop off and manual sorting, chance for baggage to land at wrong destination is substantially high.

 

What is AK policy on missing baggage? Pax to collect from airport or AK deliver to pax’s address?

 

Curious to learn the statistics in due course.

 

:drinks:

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I think, from my experience, they tend to automatically give bad seats (middle) when you do web check-in early. Once you are allocated a seat, you will get the same seat even if you go to the counter.

 

If you want to get reasonable seat, don't attempt web check-in at all.

 

Just to clarify, the seats are already pre-assigned via the system before the start of the day. No matter if you do web check-in or counter check-in, you'll still end up getting the same seat. Unless if you do counter check in and you can convince the GS to change, only then you'll get a new seat. Also since the seats have already been assigned via the system, there have been glitches whereby the system assigned same seats to almost 3-4 pax. Only then you can hope for a different seat to be given to you. :drinks:

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Understand MH no longer offer Asean Pass for EY :(

That's a shame. I just checked their website and the ASEAN pass is no longer there. It offered really good value. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to get one and use it. :sorry:

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Back to the topic for a moment.

 

I booked a last minute flight to SIN on Sunday. Owing to the booking being made with less than 48hrs before departure you are unable to use web or self serve check in. As a regular I know where to go (look for the where the Thai flights are checked in) but for others it must be confusing when the departure board says Kiosk.

 

I've noticed that more people are trying to use the self serve machine and always seem to be having problems. In addition there are nowhere near enough terminals (4) so you end up with a queue. The pic illustrates what I’m saying:

 

5323531096_789f29d543.jpg

Edited by Robert

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