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AirAsia X drops pre-selected extras in online bookings after NZ ComCom warning

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AirAsia X will drop the use of pre-selected 'opt-out' services and change how it discloses processing fees when selling airline tickets online after being issued with a formal warning by the Commerce Commission.


The censure was issued over AirAsia X's flights from Auckland to the Gold Coast in March 2016, when the airline's advertised price for the flights didn't include a pre-selected checked baggage allowance and charged an unavoidable "processing fee."


"The Commerce Commission believes that in pre-selecting luggage at an extra cost to the advertised flight price, and not properly disclosing a mandatory processing fee, AirAsia was likely to have misled consumers over the price of its services," the regulator said in a statement.


The regulator's chair Mark Berry said AirAsia X had cooperated fully with its investigation, and changed its online booking process so luggage is opt-in and customers can avoid the processing fee by July this year after being contacted by the commission.


More here:


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Yes, that is because consumer protection is not strong here. The authorities could not be bothered. The laws are weak, inadequate and seldom enforced. Aggrieved consumers also seldom take legal action.

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Hahahas, AirAsia have had same problem with Australia's' ACCC and India Government before, these countries (Surprised India!) have much more stronger and comprehensive consumer and competition law compared to Malaysia, therefore of course, they will need to behave like puppy. Malaysia, ada mereka kasih (are they bothered)?? Let's see how our new Malaysia Aviation Commission can come up with, I do have hope in them.....

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Credit Card...

Not just credit cards - even bank transfers are subject to fees when initially they were FOC.

 

Nowadays, the only way to escape charges for payment is to use the BiG Card.

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AirAsia X will drop the use of pre-selected 'opt-out' services .....

 

In the same vein, I think MH will also need to watch their step - travel insurance is 'pre-selected' for you just before confirm/payment stage

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Just to be fair, when i travelled to Australia a few months ago, Jetstar and Virgin Australia will charge AUD $8 or AUD $12 credit card processing fees too. A few years ago QF did charge processing fees too but dropped later.

 

Well, more often than not, I only found out credit card processing fees are indeed unavoidable (unless using Jetstar debit card) and another way to escape would be direct bank transfer. I don't see how different it is compared to Air Asia's case.

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While we're on this topic, AF also charges processing fee if you pay using credit card, at least when I booked with them sometime back. I avoided this by using a debit card. This is an industry-wide thing I guess, so much so that EK advertises that they don't have any processing fee on their promo emails and website before this

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AFAIK, Airasia's credit card charges as the most unfair. It is RM 8 per sector per pax. So a family of 4 booking a holiday will have to pay RM 64 for the privilege of using a credit card for payment.

 

If you pay using internet banking, its a flat fee of RM 4 per transaction - a more equitable method of calculating payment processing fees. It used to be FOC.

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Therein lies the problem with Malaysia & Malaysians - we can't self discipline ourselves. Must wait for enforcement before we do the right thing...

 

Not unique to Malaysians. Hong Kong as another example has the same mentality. They wait till some white guys tell them it is a no-no or adopt examples from a western country (preferably an English speaking country) when something is outlawed. Otherwise, they will revert to what was handed down from their colonial master, who left almost 2 decades ago. The consumer protection here in HK is weak too. For example, tickets should be sold as all inclusive price, rather than allowing airlines to advertise cheap air ticket and then passengers only being disappointed by the often extravagant amount airlines would add to as fuel surcharge etc. That has not been changed for a long long time and nobody made any noise about it either.

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What I would love to pursue with our own MAVCOM is how MH's Enrich charges hefty fuel surcharges on redemption tickets but none on revenue / commercial tickets.

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What I would love to pursue with our own MAVCOM is how MH's Enrich charges hefty fuel surcharges on redemption tickets but none on revenue / commercial tickets.

Some airline cheapest ticket could be cheaper than enrich fuel surcharge on redemption ticket. Enrich redemption is only worth while for upgrade.

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The AirAsia group is an obedient puppy outside of Malaysia. Here they're like a mafia. Case in point, the klia2/LCCT naming fiasco

 

Couldn't agree more, that's what i'm going to said...

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