AirAsia treats passengers ‘like dirt’

[Naim 6]

Wow, this bloke really has a bone to pick with AK!

 

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/72107

 

...

And yet, the bitter irony is that we passengers are the ones who have made AirAsia an amazing success story and Tony Fernandes and his shareholder partners fabulously rich. Indeed, AirAsia says this as much in its advertising but in reality, AirAsia treats us passengers like dirt.

 

Is this then not a case of AirAsia having a cynical management that is truly contemptuous of us passengers as they rake in the profits? Take Tony Fernandes’s cynical reply about AirAsia delays as further evidence. On Thursday, Aug 23, after I complained to Tony Fernandes via SMS about frequent flight delays disrupting my important appointments, I received a rude SMS reply from Tony saying, ‘Then go talk to the rain. And talk to MAB (Malaysia Airports Bhd)’.

 

Thus, as I see it, AirAsia is little more than just another ugly and greedy monopoly, albeit one that supposedly operates in the low-cost airline sector that progressively gets more expensive as time goes by. But I guess this is what ‘Malaysia Boleh’ is all about, ie, all public relations with little substance.

[S V Choong 4]

Man, I would really like to see how many people out there with their the hands up actually believing the 'Malaysia Boleh' spirits? LOL.... That motto should be taken 7 feet down the earth.....

 

Greedy or not, he should look at the price tag he is paying for the service.... get a freaking life and talk to the hands!

Edited September 7, 2007 by S V Choong

[Peter Smith 1]

Some people can never be pleased. You buy a "dirt" cheap ticket on AK and people expect 5 star service as if they were boarding their private jet. And as for the SMS from Tony, can someone please explain this guy the concept of how the truth hurts. Why the media gives fool's like this the time of day and space in their publication is beyond me.

[Isaac 0]

Can we really send a sms directly to Tony ???? May be it was the staff replied him. Not Tony himself as claimed.

[Chan CS 0]

Well sometimes even when we can send sms to him directly, the meaning of the exact sms might be modified to suit their anger from the delay. It could be that TF was telling something joke and included that phrase, and people exaggerate on it.

 

But I really wonder how can a normal people send TF directly, as what Isaac mentioned.

[Seth K 3]

When I read that, that's what I thought, how could pax get Tony's number, I hope it's not those jokers that write this letters

[Alan B. 5]

Anyone in the service industry will come across assholes like this guy. They always think that they are the only customer. No airline wants it's flights to be delayed. Delays cost money to them. Rain delays boarding. The runway closure is a cause for delays in KUL. So the reply was correct...... stop the rain or tell MAB.

 

Two weeks ago I had 8 flights in one week with MH. 6 of the flights were delayed. One of the flights according to the Captain was delayed due to air traffic congestion over KUL and we had to stay at the gate for 20 minutes before we could push-back. So it' MAB's fault!

[Andy 1]

Some people can never be pleased. You buy a "dirt" cheap ticket on AK and people expect 5 star service as if they were boarding their private jet. And as for the SMS from Tony, can someone please explain this guy the concept of how the truth hurts. Why the media gives fool's like this the time of day and space in their publication is beyond me.

 

 

a very good one Liam i 100% agree with you... they buy a cheap ticket and expect a 5 star service ha..ha..LOL... if those fools think that they want special treatment then ask them to go board a private jet or a five star airlines.. but don't expect this on a ow cost airline..Those idiots don't know how to appreciate our low cost airlines for their services which is affordable giving chance for most of the people or nations to fly.

[BC Tam 2]

Incidentally, boarding a private jet doesn't preclude one from the inconveniences due to weather disruptions. ATC delay, well, depends on your social priority/hierachy I suppose !

Edited September 7, 2007 by BC Tam

[Mushrif A 3]

Can we really send a sms directly to Tony ???? May be it was the staff replied him. Not Tony himself as claimed.

 

Why not? Presumably, "Tony" is a real person, and like many, carries a cellphone that allows one to communicate with him via sms, if one happens to HAVE HIS PERSONAL NUMBER.

 

[Mushrif A 3]

a very good one Liam i 100% agree with you... they buy a cheap ticket and expect a 5 star service ha..ha..LOL... if those fools think that they want special treatment then ask them to go board a private jet or a five star airlines.. but don't expect this on a ow cost airline..Those idiots don't know how to appreciate our low cost airlines for their services which is affordable giving chance for most of the people or nations to fly.

 

I beg to differ from both of your comments. I read twice the letter from the disgruntled pax and no where in his letter did he lament the lack of PTV, caviar, champagne service, lounges, FFP, and neither did he moan about the lack of sleeper seats onboard AK. So, he never did expected a 5-star service (hence, what are you talking about??).

 

Also, "cheap" is all-relative and some of you even suggested adding the adjective "dirt" to the word, but does any of us know if the pax paid $0.99 for the basic gross price of the ticket or a ticket price that was more expensive than MH's (or any other full service carrier) cheapest fare bucket on that same route?

 

Obviously he was venting his frustration about the inability of AK to keep to its published schedule on several occasions that he flew on AK, and also, amongst others, the inaccurate advertising by AK. There may be factors that were beyond AK's control such as the single-runway rush hour period in the mornings etc, but a key factor is AK's inherent lack of buffers within its schedules, that tend to create a domino effect whenever there's a delay. If AK advertises a particular schedule, a pax can reasonably expect AK to keep to that schedule. MAB did not decide to close one rwy because of, say, an incident on the runway that necessitates its closure - hence, AK could have planned to deal with it by, say, increasing the buffer between flights, which may then require additional planes. Of course, it chose not to, as additional planes mean more cost and less $$ for Tony & Co.

 

The poor pax may be forgiven for not understanding the intricacies of how an LCC operates and the resulting risks of delays from the tight scheduling but AK should have treated the matter in a more consumer-sensitive manner.

 

What you are suggesting in many of your comments is that, it is OK for treating the customer in that manner simply because the customer is not that well-off to afford a non-LCC flight/ carrier.

 

[Mohd Firdaus Bolong 0]

But I do think AK have to be introspective,its the passengers' money that enable them to buy those new Airbus and they do have to improve on the delays.Technical problems can no longer be accepted as those aircrafts are new and if the problems to the delays are technical ones,then we should be worried,those aircrafts are less then 5 years old and are already breaking down,thanks to the overusing.........

[Azmir I. 1]

Its very easy to blame others when youre at home.Ive been on MH flights also and the delays are also frequent.Youve got to know the phylosophy of LCC operations,fly as frequent as possible,stay on ground as short as possible,multi-tier pay/fare structure and etc.Even MH also has technical glitch,if you can have some hard facts on technical delays,machines do breakdown,whatmore if its an airbus Fly by wire-its a flying computer,then youre comments do have merit.Its normal when somebodys upset ,he or she is bound to vent anger.Parly TF is right,weather latelyhas been bad,and yeah blame it on MAB,they were the ones who closed one runway for the A380 upgrade which even MH themselves dont know wheather there gonne get it or not.

[Peter Smith 1]

Mushrif, clear example you have shown on interpretation. My comments were general and not pertaining to this passenger directly, similar to the way he interpreted the forementioned SMS. The relation to the word "dirt" is a pun on the title. And 5 star service in situations like these are just exaggerations to highlight a point, as in my reply. I don't expect this person to expect Moet during taxi and cavier as an appetiser on an AK flight it was to highlight a point.

 

I do however disagree with your final comment. Those passengers whom may be in the position to only have AK as an option (I for one can relate to this), they generally have only praise for airlines like AK, who make flying affordable to the masses. I don't believe this person is in such a position given his comments relating to AK making him late for meetings, etc. However, should AK be taken away from this man, thus forcing people to pay a premium for full-service carriers, I do believe he, as well as many others will be irrate once more!

 

Many of the factors are not in AK's direct control, for example weather which forcing a/c to divert in any given case always see's passengers blaming the airlines, quite extraordinary. One very real factor, is the single runway ops at present, it is in no way in AK's control and obviously the queue's for departure are out of AK's control. To expect an airline to reschedule its entire network based upon airport upgrades is unrealistic, as with all carriers in such a situation you just hope for minimal delays as a result.

 

Obviously the tight turnarounds also hinder making up lost time due to delays, however, a plane can't make money sitting on the ground and having the a/c in the air more hours in a day, allows AK to reduce its cost base, making flying more affordable.

 

Finally, technical delays whether 20yrs or 20 days old, they will happen. On todays more modern jets, which are essentially just flying computers, like your home computer are bound to have problems here and there, most of which can not be prevented, but rather just have to repaired when they appear.

[Brennan Raj 0]

Well that article has a little truth in it. For an example , in my 9 flights this past 4 months from LGK to KUL and KUL to LGK, 8 of the flights were RETIMED. Well I appreciate the fact that they send an SMS saying that your flight is RETIMED early enough rather than finding out that your flight is delayed when you are at the airport ready to check in. However my point is, if the so called RETIME is so frequent, why not permanently change the schedule?. And its not only on my flights this happens. Im pratically everyday at the airport in LGK and almost everyday the flights are RETIMED. So why not change the schedule a bit later so that passengers know before hand about the timings that have changed and making it easier for them to plan their journey and appointments? The RETIME is always an hour and a half all the time so why not adjust the daily flights schedule so that people dont have to book flights which would be RETIMED in the end?

 

Flying with them is great ecspecially when u get great deals on ticket prices.But sometimes it gets to you when your 8.15 flight has been RETIMED to 11.25 ..like today..

 

So right now im at the airport waiting fo my flight which is RETIMED. ive got not much complaints because i have no important appointments. Just that if i had reached home earlier i could made friday night a little bit productive ...

 

Just my two cents. Do correct me if I am wrong anywhere..

 

cheers

Edited September 7, 2007 by Brennan Raj

[Juanda I. 0]

Well, as the saying goes, time is money. If this guy (the complainant) doesn't want to waste time with unexpected delays, then pay the money and go with a full service airline, not with a LCC. LCC caters for the leisure market, ie people on holidays with time to spare .. not business men/women wishing to meet meeting deadlines. When will people learn that the L in LCC stands for Lepak ..hahaha

Edited September 7, 2007 by Juanda I.

[Prashant K 0]

The way i see it you get your money's worth. You pay more, travel with a 5 star airline. You pay less for for an LCC you cant expect world class service. Its as easy as that.... But with regards to this situation, Tony has no control over it. He doesn't control the rain or the MAB does he?

[Naim 6]

AirAsia treats passengers ‘like dirt’

Dr Andrew Aeria

Sep 7, 07 1:24pm

 

In late-August, my AirAsia flights to Kuala Lumpur from Kuching (AK5211 on Aug 23) and back (AK5212 on Aug 25) and my flight to Penang from Kuching (AK5951 on Aug 31) were delayed for an hour, 1 hour 15 minutes and 25 minutes respectively - just another three episodes of numerous flight delays that I have had to endure over the past few years when flying AirAsia.

...

 

The writer is Andrew Aeria and he is most likely this person:

http://www.fss.unimas.my/index.php?option=...8&Itemid=46

 

He's also an Exco member of Aliran based in Penang, hence his KCH/KUL/PEN routes.

 

+++

 

[Rozhan 0]

Personally to me, a little delay of a little over 1 hour or less can be tolerated, especially when such delay is clearly communicated to passengers so that they can plan their time. Even retimed flights which I have had were communicated via SMS 48 hours or more before scheduled departure.

 

For as long as AK keeps offering value-for-money fares, I'm satisfied enough.

[Mohd Idham 0]

Nothing good about AK lately....hhmmmm, must think twice if u wanna fly with AK...

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

I agree with Liam there and others who share his point of view

We can all say what we want here about how he should operate his airline and etc.

But you guys have no idea what it takes to run an airline like air asia .

What mother nature pulls off is beyond our control .

If he were allowed to take off and reach his destination and put in a holding pattern to wait for weather to clear up

My oh my , they'd be burning precious $$'s up there for nothing . For the passengers , ahhh its nothing , we'll just wait till it clears up .. Imagine whats going to happen to the guy who said ' go even if its raining like cats and dogs out there '

[Robin 0]

Pay low cost get 5 Star. No way man! I always tell people surrounding me that if you take Air Asia, you deserve for delays and all sorts of inconvenicences.

There is no way for you to pay RM100 airfare to get 1st class services like lounge, caviar etc. Air Asia only suitable for leisure traveller. Businessman, please bear in mind, you don't save few hundreds then you might loss few millions due to flight delays, cancel and cause you cancellation business contract, lapse your good business relationships in the worst case. Better think twice!

There is no free and easy lunch in the world now.

Edited September 8, 2007 by Robin

[Romizi 0]

The 'POKOK' of this story was "OUR SAFETY"

 

Neither whos right nor whos wrong... this is all about the SAFETY

 

When ur life is about to fly either, might U think about ur fees charged..?? Or 5 stars services..??

 

[Keith T 2]

Hmm... when I don't like or stop liking a carrier, I vote with my wallet and stop flying with them (such as SQ).

 

Admittedly you don't have a choice at times, such as in monopolistic situations when only 1 carrier is flying a certain route. But other than that, I think it is strange how people continually fly with the same carrier even though they are not happy with the level of service rendered by that carrier. FFS no one is forcing you to fly with any carrier!

Edited September 8, 2007 by Keith T

[Azmir I. 1]

The 'POKOK' of this story was "OUR SAFETY"

 

Neither whos right nor whos wrong... this is all about the SAFETY

 

When ur life is about to fly either, might U think about ur fees charged..?? Or 5 stars services..??

In our Flight safety Dept we have a group who monitors the FDA (Flight data Analysis),if there is any event (overspeed/overstress/etc) will be highlighted and particular crew will be called to explain the event and how it happened.So,in AK safety is our No.1 priority.