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We Loose Our Flights
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Jamal and John Flying AirAsia
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| The next day we called the AirAsia
Indonesia Jakarta Call Center (Free call 0804 1 333 333 in Indonesia
only) And yes now they did know about the cancellation of the Denpasar-Kuching/Kota
Kinabalu flights. I was told I has 3 options. |
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| (1) A credit for the canceled flight
which must be booked through a call center and used inside 3 months of
the canceled flight date. |
| (2) Refund to an Indonesian Bank. |
| Refund to your Credit Card minus
a Rp 30,000 fee/leg, takes 30-60 days. |
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Our Canceled Flights
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| Date
Leg Tickets Cost |
| Oct |
23 |
DPS-KCH |
x2 |
A$ 76.76 |
| Oct |
28 |
KCH-DPS |
x2 |
A$110.56 |
| Feb |
18 |
DPS-BKI |
x1 |
A$ 33.07 |
| Feb |
22 |
DPS-BKI |
x1 |
A$ 41.59 |
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| We are told we will receive a full
credit card refund minus A$ 20 fee. |
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KHO
Comment
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| We could be very annoyed about the
cancellation of our flights however, we can hardly expect AirAsia to continue
running a flight that is loosing money. With their low cost model there
is not the excess funds that high-cost legacy airlines have to support
un-profitable routes. |
| The loss of A$20 due to a petty credit
card fee is a small price to pay for the thousands of dollars we have saved
on the 59 flights we have already enjoyed with AirAsia. |
| Before AirAsia came along, Jamal
and I only had two international holidays in the first five years that
I lived in Bali. The first was a trip to Malaysia, flying Garuda, code
share with MAS Denpasar-Kuala Lumpur. That flight cost over A$500 each
return. Now you can fly AirAsia DPS-KUL-DPS for as little as A$100. The
next flight we had was with Royal Brunei Airlines from Denpasar via Banda
Seri Begawan to Bangkok, that flight cost us almost A$600 per person return.
Now with AirAsia you can fly Bali to Bangkok for as little as A$180. In
the last four years Jamal and I have visited visited Kuala Lumpur, Penang,
Lankawi, Singapore, Jahore Baru, Ipoh, Gua Masang, Kuala Lipis, Kota |
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| Bahru, Kuala Lipis, Kota Bahru, Bangkok,
Chaing Mai, Phuket, Ko Samui, Hanoi, Macau, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta,
Bandung, Kuching, Sandakan, Kota Kinabalu and many of those more than once. |
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Now
Everyone Can Fly
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| AirAsia has allowed millions of people
to fly, people that never dreamed that they would ever fly. Add to that
the 6,500 plus third world employees of AirAsia many of them never dreaming
they would ever have a job, let alone work for an airline, owned and operated
by their countrymen. It is often said the only way for the third world
to ever climb out of poverty is for them to help themselves - AirAsia is
a shining example of that, just a pity there are not a few more Tony Fernandes'
around. Indonesia could certainly do with a couple. |
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Communication
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| AirAsia's PR department is legendary,
seems almost every week a new flight is announced to some new destination
and they manage to get wide free publicity often with stunts and gimmicks.
It's easy to see why they don't like admitting failure - but better personal
contact with passengers when flights are canceled could be greatly improved. |
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Liz Has Her Say
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| Perth Ex-pat Liz a regular feature
writer in Bali's prestigious Bali Advertiser and ex-British Airways flight
attendant, had her return flight from Kuching canceled a month back.
It was her first AirAsia experience, Liz wasn't impressed. |
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I believe they (AirAsia)
have a problem with their customer service and communication.... |
| But I do think what they have done
in this part of the world is amazing. I do think AirAsia shoots itself
in the foot with its communications problems though. Do you ever
try to phone them? It's a nightmare. The Bali numbers never answer.
I gather you found out about the change by chance? One of the reasons
I was so annoyed about my flight being canceled from Kuching was because
they hadn't tried to contact anyone.. A simple phone call would have
saved loads of hassle for them, as well as me! In spite of all that I agree
with supporting Air Asia (I worked for Compass airlines, and am wholly
behind the 'small guys'). I under -stand exactly what you are saying "everyone
(can) fly nowadays. |
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