AirAsia
reviews and complaints

A painful experience with air asia in klcc - 6 sep 2010

Having seen a lot of attraction in media and in the web I have booked a return passage for my family of 3 (Includes 4 year old baby girl) from brunei & ndash; kl & ndash; kolkata, and have paid the required fare as per airlines policy, eg; extra baggage over 15 kgs, selecting your choice of seat, ordering your meal etc etc. For your information, I have travelled approximately around 30 years now with several airlines, but with air asia it was my first trip and will be the final one. To be more accurate, we have extra baggage and have paid for the excess baggage fare in kolkata without any concession so far (As other airlines provides for travelling in a group or a family). The following day ie; mon 6 sep 2010 have booked (3 months in advance in may 10) for kl & ndash; brunei at 1310 hrs, now, here begins the real policy of air asia and its’ miserable management, unhelpful and how to make money attitude of its’ staff. I along with my family checked-in well in advance at 1130 hrs (Flt time 1310 hrs and boarding time 1230 hrs printed in our boarding pass) in & lsquo;drop in baggage’ counter & lsquo;s 14’ where I was asked to pay myr 160 for 7kgs + excess baggage. As our boarding time approached I along with my family had to go through & lsquo;security check’ where all passengers of & lsquo;mixed flights’ being checked (Or harassed!) , where they were four of them checking passengers & lsquo;hand baggages’, and we were interrupted and told to re-check one of the hand baggage which they said & lsquo;over sized’, I then along with my friend rushed to counter & lsquo;s 14’ where a very rude and unhelpful lady was attending passengers, as our flight was announcing boarding time I had to skip the line and requested this unhelpful lady to check-in my so called oversize hand baggage who flatly refused and asked me to stay in queue. By the time when my turn came, she said gate is closed for brunei flight, then I complained to her, that if she has done it earlier it would not have happened. I then had no alternative and had to run through the security and immigration carrying my baggages and my baby girl bathed with sweats, as I gone through the procedures, my flight has left us behind. I complained to many officers on duty, all said it was all my fault that left us behind. Here I wish to express few of the points that other airlines follow that we know for flying with them many years. Firstly, as all other airlines, air asia should assume that checked-in passengers are already in the terminal and may be going through problem and must look for them, as all the details of checked-in passengers are already exists in their system. This they did not bother to do neither announced the names of the checked-in passengers. Secondly, if any passengers are stopped with this type of problems should be helped by their staffs as done by other airlines. My experience told me that I could see many passengers facing such problems running for help in the terminal and later found to be left behind. Then I was referred to counter no r14 where I found another & lsquo;south indian origin’ attendant who was not even unhelpful but adding pain to the stranded passengers, from whom I got negative response. I then was asked to go to counter no s25 where according to r14 attendant, a & lsquo;duty manager’ will be there to sort this problem out, I went there, here again another & lsquo;air asia’s’ specially selected & lsquo;rude’ and unhelpful attendant was attending, whom I narrated my problems, which does not seem to affect him and asked me to wait for his & lsquo;duty manager’ to come, by the time, my 2 hours already gone, I was not aware where is my wife and small baby, (Let alone for rest and food!) , I told him I donot have all day to wait for his & lsquo;duty officer’, he just ignored me and did nothing. Finally, I had to take refuse in & lsquo;police post’, where, at least got some helpful tones, and I was asked to speak with one of their officer over the phone, and was told that as this case is between the & lsquo;air line and the passenger’, they would not be of any help. Within this few hours, I met up with many stranded passengers running here and there without any help by airline staffs, then I decided to solve this problem of mine by approaching through proper channel and went to & lsquo;air asia’ office in the 1st floor, where I met a security guard who did not allow me to go inside, instead called another & lsquo;indian origin’ a punjabi young man who introduced himself as one of the managers, from whom I got same negative response, finally I had to go back to police again and wrote a report. Please note that by the time I made this report it was already 1630 hrs, 3 hrs and 20 minutes since my flight left us, still I was running for help without trace of my left luggages and my family stranded in some corner of the over crowded halls. Then the duty policeman sent two of his staff to counter r14 and submitted my report, where there was another man on duty & lsquo;jason’ who called me in his counter and finally wanted to help, provided I pay extra money ie; b$ 387, in addition to the previous return fare I paid for brunei & ndash;kl b$ 728:90, b$ 65 for excess baggage, which totaled as b$1180.90, a normal return fare for any other & lsquo;world class’ airlines. I have not mentioned about the extra hotel charge I have paid for another extra day in kl. So now you will have the clear picture how anybody can say this is & lsquo;low cost’ airline. The reason, I am sending this report is not for the hard time I got from air asia, but for those who are suffering now and will and having hard time choosing this airlines, as I have witnessed people crying for help in the terminal, luggages off-loaded for checked-in passengers, growling staffs with greedy eyes how to make money out from troubled passengers. I assure all that with this sort of service in the name of & lsquo;best low cost airline’, this airline is just after making money by looting its’ innocent passengers and this message must be spread wide and fast to save innocent people. I sincerely discourage all innocent first time passengers like me to give an extra thought before taking this airlines offer and attractions!

Dear sir,

My name is helen nathalya, i'm one of the passenger of qz - 7717 (bkk-cgk) on 16th of august 2010. the reason im writing you this is... i got an unfair fee which got charged on me. here's the full story:

I bought the ticket (x9qr8q) via internet without any luggage fee, because I just carried my cabin size luggage. but on my way back from bangkok, right before entering the waiting room, one of your staff stopped me and asked me to put my luggage on the weight and it says 11 kg, and the she asked me to pay extra for 4kg for 660 bath (169 bath/kg that's equal to rp.45.000) and I paid.

As I arrived in jakarta, I saw on your banner says:

A. extra weight (means by already having a purchased luggage fee) will be charge rp.45.000. / kg
B. the luggage fee @ the airport is rp.90.000 (up to 15 kg)

So I think that would be overcharged on me, I supposed to in point "b" (as I didn't had any purchased luggage fee earlier)

Now I want to ask for your responsibility for the case, thank you.

Fyi: I did see mr. rully @ terminal 3 on 17th of aug in jakarta airport and told him about the story.

Best regards
Helen nathalya

(Time:9.20am Date:10Aug2010 Place:Thailand International Flight)
When i check out, the airasia check out counter pound weight of luggage . After that go to baggage fee counter E24 to payment fees . Then i need more details luggage fees. I think it will be wrong luggage fee. I tell her to check the weight of bag again. Then she say that her dont know the weight.She unhappy, give me very bad face & rude. "How i know the weight luggage". She ready tell me go to previous counter E02 again. I show the boarding pass again & circle total bags weight to her.
This things show her very unprofessional & rude staff.

Actually i happy with my journey in Thailand, but unhappy i back to my country when i thinking this happen.

I am absolutely shocked by the complete lack of customer service and the totally inefficient processes I have experienced before even getting on a plane with air asia! On 2nd august I received an email saying my flight on 4th september d7 2007 (Stn-kul) had been cancelled. This caused me huge inconvenience trying to rebook flights, accomodation, transfers - not to mention the costs incurred. But the most painful experience has undoubtedly been trying to get a response or contact at air asia who actually knows what they are talking about. Even getting to speak to sometone has turned into a complete nightmare. On 2nd august I spent over 2 hours trying to speak to someone - I was even cut off twice by operators. Eventually I did speak to someone, they confirmed my flight was cancelled and booked me onto a new flight. Well, I thought, atleast that's sorted!

The next morning I received an email to say that I should disregard the email from 2nd august and my flight was not actually cancelled! Ofcourse, by now I didn't want our flights changed back, after spending a whole day and lots of money trying to sort things out. But what flight am I booked onto? I have emailed everyday since then and tried to find an actual complaints procedure but there appears to be no way of getting this information or a respose from air asia. This is totally unacceptable. All I can hope is that I am booked on the flight, but finding out that for sure is proving impossible.

The worste customer service I ever experienced!

Hello,

We travelled from bali to singapore and notified you 48 hours in advance of our special needs.

on arrival at bali from our house in ubud i was confined to my wheelchair. When we got to the waiting room the aeroplane was not connected to the waiting room by a movable connector (Jet bridge?) which extends from the airport terminal gate to the airplane.

We got to the tarmac ok via use of a lift in the waiting room in my wheelchair. I then had to be carried up the stairs and put into my seat.

Why do you advertise that you can help people like me have easy access to your planes, no small wheelchairs are available and the plane was not even connected to the waiting room. I was very disgusted.

On arrival to singapore the plane was connected but still no slim wheelchair was made available for getting off the plane.

One the way back was the same at singapore and much worse in bali as you landed at the domestic terminal and they had to carry my wheelchair on and off the bus to the international terminal arrivals.

It made me feel very worried that i would be dropped, the guys that did carry me were complaining this was not in their job description.

So why did i choose air asia?

I broke both my legs in bali, where they got my surgery terribly wrong, so i have been travelling to singapore to get myself repaired. It has been very expensive and because i need someone to dress me this time we did not have enough money to use singapore airlines again. You advertise that you can deal with disabled people this is clearly not true.

I am due to go back to singapore at the end of september and am still low on funds, i could afford to use air asia but i now know that i am not welcome on your flights.

From

Jon griffin

Why is my seats number keep changing? I brought a piority seat weeks earlier before departing. But AirAsia change my seat without even giving me notice. What kind of stupid service is this? Book and purchase a seat but in the end still not yours.

I try to call their service center but I was put on hold for almost an hour and no one seems to pick up my call.

I do not think is right to call them "World's Best low cost airline".
It should be called "World's Best low class airline"

Services are SLOW,
Attitude are POOR, ... Hopeless !

Where to begin? Prior to the last couple of weeks, I had never had a problem with Air Asia then a couple of weekends ago I tried to book a ticket, at a promo price, to fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong. From Saturday to Monday afternoon, via my safari browser, I tried to buy that ticket but was unable to. I had never had any problems using safari before on the Air Asia website so for it to no longer be compatible is bizarre. By the Monday evening, the promo price had gone, meaning the higher regular price was the only one available. I wrote a couple of emails to them asking them why I couldn't book a ticket and have still had no response.

This week, on Monday afternoon I used firefox and booked a flight to go from Bangkok to Hong Kong. Everything seemed fine until the final page loaded and told me that my booking status was pending. Strange. Had never happened before. I waited for an email to confirm my flight but nothing was forthcoming. The next morning my friend made a call to tell me that my booking had been cancelled and that I'd have to buy a ticket at a more expensive price. I tried the live chat function, which closed on me on 3 occasions and I wrote another email. I then phoned their call centre three times and wasted thirty minutes explaining myself again and again because the line kept, bizarrely, losing connection. In all, I lost four hours of my life trying to find out what happened with my pending status and why they couldn't email me to tell me my booking had been cancelled so that I could try and rebook it.

In the end, my friend made the booking on my behalf and it so far seems, touch wood, to be okay. We'll see come the 19th August.

I really hate these no frills airlines. Ryanair is still the worst but Air Asia is pretty appalling too. No communication and no customer service. If Cathay Pacific etc... weren't so damn expensive then I wouldn't fly with Air Asia.

By the way, other posters are right. Air Asia are very sneaky and cunning with their charges and the way you book your ticket. The unhighlighted cancel buttons as they try to get you to take their travel insurance, I don't know how they can get away with it. My flight started at around 2900 baht and rose to 3900 baht after various charges are added.

When my wife and I purchased our tickets to bangkok from the air asia website, it stated quite clearly no additional fees.

Indeed, when we departed taipei there was no mention of any fee. However, on the return journey, the air asia clerk refused to check us in until we each paid an 800 b fee. When I balked, the clerk, who was well prepared in advance, presented a page full of microscopic type with the paragraph detailing the fee already circled. We had no choice but to pay the fee or be stranded in bangkok.

Upon our return to taiwan I attempted to contact air asia's. Nobody answered the phone, not even an answering machine. Several emails and six months later, I have yet to receive a reply from their customer service department.

We were overcharged by air asia on upgrade of seats from kl to australia
quoted price was 300 ringets at checkin counter.when we got our credit card statement we were charged in Australian dollars. this meant instead of au$300 for 3 persons we were charged au $900
The only means of complaint we have is by email which they just ignore.
i would love to be able to sort this out face to face with airasia but they do not have an office in Australia.

AirAsia booking engine is a trap. I've made a booking for 9 people fly on 14 Aug fly from KK back to HK. After credit card payment, a message popped-up my booking is unsuccessful although I could choose the seats. Maybe purchase by somebody. Also I didn't get a confirmation reference on computer screen. AirAsia misleading me my booking is not success. Alternative, I made a booking for another date 13 Aug. I got a confirmation ref on screen immediately after credit card payment. My credit card has been billed twice!

I've talked to them and email to them few times asked for refund one of my booking. They refuse to refund to me but offer a credit shell...If AirAsia booking engine has no problem, how come I don't received a confirmation reference on screen for my first booking but the second booking does? No one will book a group of people fly on 14 Aug and same group of people fly one day early from same place to a place.

Also I have checked with my bank which transaction comes first and they said the 13 Aug has debit my card first and 14 Aug comes second. Obviously, their system has something wrong at that time!

I found my case is not the only case. Some people also had same problem. As online booking is a major business of AirAsia. Their booking engine is so tricky. I wonder how many people had been to this trap over years?

We booked an air ticket on line for a family member to come down for our wedding. The ticket was issued and we sent the itinerary to her. However, upon check-in, she was told that the credit card we used was declined and she had to pay the fare there. How then can the ticket be issued if payment fails? Why were we not informed VIA EMAIL, after all, the itinerary was emailed to us 5 minutes after the booking was made. It is unprofessional and highly inefficient that a passenger is not aware payment did not go through. If they had made us aware upon booking the ticket we could have made another plan. I am highly disappointed and WILL NEVER use or recommend Air Asia again. I'd rather pay more and get the service than less and just waste money. I was warned by a friend about Air Asia and failed to listen. I cannot believe that a ticket would be issued without payment and the airline expects that if it doesn't go through you'll be able to pay there and then. How about for those people who do not have money to pay for it there and then and rely on family members.

Over the weekend I tried to contact AirAsia's Australian reservation hotline and waited on hold for 1 hour. I gave up. Today, I waited for 2 hours until someone finally picked up. Then, the quality of the connection was so bad that eventually the operator hung up on me. Note - I have never had any problems with phone call quality.

To understand the background leading up to this phone call, please read on.

I purchased AirAsia flights during a sale. Some months later, my wife fell pregnant so I contacted AirAsia to see what our options were. They asked for a doctor's letter to confirm the pregnancy and that we couldn't travel on those dates.

AirAsia offered me a credit shell, explaining that this could be used to make new bookings or transfer credit to family & friends. The shell can ONLY be utilised by calling their reservation hotline - hence my patience on the phone. You can NOT utilise their credit online.

I thought this meant I could change the names on the tickets, so I found two buyers for my tickets. However, the bookings have been entirely cancelled upon accepting their credit shell offer. So now there is NO WAY I can get the same prices for those flights and would have to pay double the price (from roughly AUD1500 to AUD3000).

Their emails were very poorly worded and did not clearly state that my bookings would be automatically cancelled. Instead, they implied that I would be able to cancel the bookings once the shell was created. They implied that I would be able to transfer the bookings to another party but this is certainly not the case.

I am a frequent flyer of air asia for the past one year to bintulu and indonesia and this was the most frustrated incident with air asia. Air asia and management are really blood sucker, worse than 'loan shark'. Th e story is as below:
On 27/5/2010,. I was late in connecting flight qz 7696 from jkta to kl due to heavy mist in palembang.In fact my colleague had earlier taken the innitiative toinform sales office in jkta airport on the matter but anywhere when I arrived 15 minutes before the take off time, the counter was already closed. It's fair and I didn't blame them for it. The problem was I was put under standby list and paid rp 2, 000, 000 for the actual amount of rp 1, 989, 700 on the following flight qz 7692 at 13:20hrs. I obtained the boarding pass about 35monutes before take-off and while waiting for the staff to issue me the itenarary/receipt, I proceeded to fiscal counter to declare free tax as I hold working permit in indonesia. It took me 10 minutes to clearit due to long queue (Long holidays from 28/5 to 30/5) but some how the receipt was not ready then. By the time I got it, stamp at immigration counter, I was left with 5 minutes where I ran like a mad dog in order to catch the flight. Somehow by then the flighthas left and the staff recorded my arrival time at the gate at 1332hrs which should be 1322hrs instead. Myquestionis why wasn't any announcement made to those customers who were late as the boartding pass had all customers data in the first place. I returned to the counter but there wasn't any apology and the supervisor commented that it's a norm here. I was again offered to put in standby list on the following flight at 15:00++ which I spontaneously refused and turned to mas and purchased the ticket for flight mh 724 at 19:45hrs. No refund on whatever by air asia including the airport tax of rp150, 000 until mas staff advised me to do so. Why are your staff so corrupted, no courtesy and manners to serve the customers and where is your system and training programme in order to make things intact. A real bad experience in my life where I spent 17 hours from my staff house in palembang to my home in puchong. Air asia sucks! Compensate me please unless you feel your staff are right! Always remenber we are malaysian with ego. It's a big shame to air asia & very high profile tony fernandes as md of the company!

Airasia is really sucks. It is operated by a group of conmen who organise themselves as airline operators. This airline is called airasia.
Sometime ago I took airasia to one asian country and I swear not to take this airline again to wherever destinations. After a few years I broke that promise and try this airline hoping that the team led by tony fernendez would change and not shortchanging their customers (Polite way of saying not cheating their customers). I reliase that oldways are hard to change. Profit must be everything for tony fernendez and his team.
When you dont deliver what you promise you cheat on your promise. A group of people who cheat are called conmen. Tony fernendez and his people are a group of conmen.
My family and I book to travel on this stupid airline kuala lumpur/jakarta/kuala lumpur on 27/05/2010 via qz7693 and return via ak389 on 30/05/2010. Qz7693 was delayed by more than half an hour without any notice. Half an hour may be tolerable.
Ak389 is another story altogether. Having checked out from my hotel at 4.00pm jakarta time, send off the driver and was at check in counter at 6.15pm, I was informed by this stupid airlines staff that there was a delay and the new takeoff time is at 11.45pm instead of 8.30pm. Just like that and we were left high and dry!
Attempt to contact customer service department by phone both at jakarta and kuala lumpur failed as it would appear that this airline do not install phone line, they just subscribe to ringing tone and boring monotone voice box. Anyway do this airline have any customer service department in the first place?
My questions is that why bother to take our phone number at the booking time when such a lenghty delay cannot be informed?Would tony ffernendez and his team compesate us for our food expenses, inconvinience etc... ,
Arriving at godly hours and children having to miss the school is not the concern of tony fernendez... Bye airasia, now everyone can fly with a lot of hassle.

I will never forget about this experience in my life. I know the reason that i was use Air asia for many many time is 1st because of they have better rate but it's doesn't mean the staff could be rough to the passanger (Costumer whos paying they salary, no costumer no job it's mean no salary), i really don't have idea why that they did it (maybe because of company paid minimum salary so they gave minimum service too to costumer or personal problem which they brought to professional work area, honestly i just guess).
This is the story, it was arround 26 of february 2010, i have flight from Singapore to Jakarta at 08.45 pm or.. Sin time(i forgot), i was arrived at the airport 1(one) our and 15 min before departure but guess what they already close the checking counter (i should be arrived at the airport 2 ours before but the immigration of this my neightbour country give me problem because of ME is the Indonesian passport holder which they close neightbour country BUT that doesn't mean i want to overstay or work in this really really nice country!)
Then after that i went to the table which they call themself Costumer SERVICE (hahaha, , , its a joke) and i asked clearly "Excuse me which checking counter are going to Jakarta?" and She just answer with one of her ekspensive finger direct to the some of airasia checking counter, , , and i ? i sad again "i'm sorry which counter mom? it is going to Jakarta?" and she just nod. I really upset and i said ok thank you.
i went to one of the checking counter and standing in line for 15 min until i decide to ask again to one between MANY of them(airasia ground staff) "I'm sorry i'm going to Jakarta, , ..(it's not finished)" then he said "Oow Jakarta, your aircraft is taking off already"(He think the problem will be finished when he say that)
I said "Haah! OMG are you kidding me? but it's 52 min BEFORE your schedule, how come the aircraft was take off?"
then he said "ya, i'm sorry i couldn't help you".
Then my housband coming and of curse he was surprise when i said i missed my flight. We went to the costumer SERVICE ask AGAIN, talk, talk and non of them want to solve the problem(they are lazy), we really mad (They said "DON'T BE UPSET, WE JUST DO YOUR FAVOURS") EXCUSE ME!
And finally there is one of beautiful arrogance lady who called herself Active MANAGER showed, she is prety arrogance and showed that she has POWER over there, she said to me "DON'T YOU HAVE A MOUTH to ask! AIRASIA DON'T TALK TO PASSANGER LIKE YOU!..."
I said "I am, I ASKED THIS LADY ALREADY...! i still remember that in my ears how arrogance she was with me that time, i am not happy with that and told them to have someone else who MORE WISE than this sh****t(i'm sorry). But it's not over, she TOLD US TO GO OUT! and ask them TO CALL POLISH or Security or whatever, , , , (i think nobody wants to call polish that time, and i'm not afraid at all)
Finally, finally, ...God is sent one of wise guy from airasia which at least could solve my problem event if i lost my ticket and buy another ticket for 09.30 am day after that(its mean i should get the hotel)
Really i felt sad for my husband, he was tired waiting until i leave the super nice country and then driving to the border and million thing to do in the office. ~_~..

>what i mean IS...THIS IS part of the service to arrogance to Costumer?
>And i think i paid the ticket with the real money not with the kiss, so it's not free, , , why they said "THEY DO FAVOURS TO COSTUMER?"
>At least don't got the perfuntory worker whos said dumb word like them.

My family and I went back to miri from kk, it's a afternoon flight 1300hrs something, we dint not take our lunch and expected to take it on flight as we are in a rushing time to go to the airport. The most frustrated thing is that when we are about to purchase the meal, we was be informed that all of the meal was sold out! Wtf! It's the lunch time, and they should provide sufficient meal for passengers! And what make me angry is that they serve from the back row and front row, then slowly come to the middle row... By the time, all of the meal was taken by the passengers on the back and front rows. It's really unfair! So, we end up tying our empty stomach for the flight!
U guys should prepare enough food supplies! You set the rules that cannot bring own food and yet you dint provide sufficient meals to passengers! What a good management you have!

Air asia is one notorious blood sucker!

I think u all notice that air asia now having a new charged hotline abt rm 2 per minute.
Fine. They say this is to provide better services to those needed only and we still can utilise the existing hotline for booking n enquiries. Wrong, they are bull ###!

I called more than 1/2 hour on the 03-[protected], 03-[protected], no body picking up my call. At last I have to call their [protected]. They just force us to call them at their charged hotline! (Just to suck more blood from us)

This is really not ethical. They should not doing business in this way... Frequent changes in time schedule, last minute notice, and now sky high charge for damn customer services. Air asia is doing worse n worse now.

Hey tony, u r making money because of us... Dun u forget.

Skybus ticket is booked together with online air ticket purchase. Lack of details about skybus upon booking.
Pickup point at LCCT is not clearly shown, and different from the actual signage and map in the website.
1 hour after check out, still no sign of bus. No working personnel at the station to assist.
Bus bays does not say operator name / destination. Utter disappointment.