Once you get past the advertised prices, and consider all the extras like baggage charges, seat allocation, priority boarding and meal costs, the price of the fare is usually not quite what you originally thought.
Then add in the airport taxes and charges and your very cheap ticket has somehow become much more expensive.
There are other issues to take into account as well. You must be at the airport earlier that other airlines and if you miss the check in deadline, you lose your flight. The airport may be harder to get to than the normal airport and may require longer and costlier travel. There is no frequent flier program. And if you are delayed or your flight is cancelled, you may not be compensated.
These are issues that you usually don't have to worry about with other airlines. Therefore there is a question as to the real value of flying low cost carriers like Air Asia. In the current economic environment, more established airlines are discounting their fares, creating less of a price difference with the budget carriers, while still maintaining full service.
What are your thoughts on the discounts provided by Air Asia?
Do you prefer to use the non budget carriers because of the full service?
Or is the price saving from Air Asia worth the sacrifice of service?
Any other comments about Air Asia's cheap fares compared with other airlines?
Post your review and comments below.
sometimes it is just cheaper when you take away all the hassle and expense of getting to a different airport its better to fly a mainstream airline. You get what you pay for with these guys. If you can afford the extra time it takes to fly airasia then you may save money. Remember that the extra time eats into your business or holiday trip.
ReplyDelete'Cheap' airlines aren't that cheap once you've included all the 'extra' charges such as food, seat bookings, entertainment, etc. At least with the main strem airlines, what you see is what you get. Then one also has to put with the narrow seats and little leg room. I for one if given a choice will not fly with Air Asia!
ReplyDeleteI am having a very bad and frustrating experience with Air Asia as I am typing now. On 30 March,I booked flight for 3 from KL-Langkawi departing 2 May, returning on 5 May, thinking that the earlier I book the cheaper fare I will get. Isn't that their marketing gimmick? Well, one week later, out of curiousity, I checked the same itinery. RM60 cheaper. I noticed they have a promotional fare starting from 5 May. Fair enough though I did lodged a complaint. They clarified that it was a rare occurrence, only when people who previously booked had cancelled and the seats were returned to the system, blah blah. Fine.
ReplyDeleteToday, which is more than 2 weeks later, I checked again, the fare had dropped by RM100!! And if I had booked a slightly later departure flight, I would have saved a total of RM200(At the time of my booking all were the same price so I thought I might as well arrived in Langkawi earlier) Now, I am fuming. I tried to lodge another complaint through their email feedback but the server seems not to work. Knowing how "FANTASTIC" Air Asia customer service is and how much they don't give a hoot about their customer, I guess I would just give up doing that and probably post my lousy experience as much as I can on as many blogs as I can to warn people about booking early. It doesn't get you the best price. Sometimes it just makes you feel like a fool being slaughtered.
RM200!! I could get really good several meals for that amount of money. So beware, don't believe what they say. I have yet to fly but I am already preparing for the worst to come. Some nice way to looking forward to a holiday.
basically i feel satisfied with airasia and i'm still airasia's regular customer
ReplyDeletebut recently i found airasia is cheating
as i know and been cross-checked, all international departure airport tax from any chinese airport is still CNY90
and hasn't increased yet
but airasia charges almost twice of it!!!
for example, i bought already hangzhou to kuala lumpur ticket few month ago and the charge is CNY90 as shown in my itinerary
but i did recheck again with the same date of departure and now the charge is CNY172!!!
the same thing does happen on other chinese airport as well, the charges varied from CNY139 to CNY172
how can it happen?
i think the same scam does happen on singapore departure as well, as i know singapore airport tax is SGD21, but airasia charges SGD28!!!
how can airasia explain this???
AIRASIA IS CHEATING!!!
OK you can charge us quite cheap fares, but it doesn't give you the rights to change the flights schedule like your ass ! Is it only your game to make a cheap promotion for early bookings and changing it all the sudden to make many people wants to cancel it and you'll get the refund fees ? Imagine how much profit you'll get from them ??
ReplyDeleteAir Asia advertises promotional fares on an on-and-off basis. Study their game and you will be rewarded with some super fares. Some even much cheaper than the bus fares for the same routes. BKK - PNH for USD 9/50, HDY - BKK for USD 7.50, BKK - URT USD 7.50, and the list goes on (with departure taxes!). Overseas Colombo (I am a Sri Lankan) - KUL return for USD 80/- incl meals, 15 kgs and airport taxes on both flights). Bangkok to Hat Yai by bus takes over 12 hrs and costs about 700 B. On AirAsia a 1 hr flight for 245 B is just amazing ! Currently I have 13 flights booked (inclding 6 international with 15 kgs, meals and airport taxes) for USD 260/-, Dec. travelling. If I am to book them today with them it will cost over USD 600/-on the same flights. Any other normal airline, I don't even want to think about it. Ofourse I have not gone on AirAsia X. But I saw a Colombo - KUL - Melbourne return sold for USD 230/- recently. Normallly it is over USD 700/- on a normal carrier. I hope they make profits becasue I want to see them flying forwever.
ReplyDeleteI used to use Air Asia in the past. Just now I was unable to book a ticket from them online and was told that they "do not accept credit cards issued by US banks." As far as I can tell it does not say that anywhere on their web page, and the three major credit cards they accept are Visa, MC and American Express, and in the pulldown menu you can chose the USA as one of the card-issuing countries. Isn't this what they call fraud??
ReplyDeleteI feel Airasia is Cheap because,even compared to Silk Air. I travelled last time from Trivendrum(TRV) india to Singapore and a connecting flight to Surabaya(SUB) total cost INR 28,000. This time i have already booked flight from TRV to KUL KUL to SUB and back totally for INR 13,000. Now tell me, Is that not a HUGE price difference? Also i have prebooked meals on all the flights and even selected a seat before hand. I have even checked their costliest price, it wont come above 21,000. Still cheaper. Legacy carrier like Singapore airlines and Malaysia Airlines cost me Not less than INR 32,000.00 NO matter how early or late you book!
ReplyDeleteI just want to get from point A to B! I dont care if its very comfortable or less. Just decent seats with adiquate legroom is good enough for me.
By the way i have already flown them from KUL to SUB earlier!
I found it very reliable and comfortable journey with air asia but i got problem during online ticket booking
ReplyDeleteHave flown Air Asia once Melb to KL and several times internally in Malaysia with no problems. Would only fly Melb to KL if tickets are cheap...you get what you pay for literally with a budget airline.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing...at Kota Kinabalu airport, a friend and I managed to board the wrong plane (8 planes in a row on the tarmac and 3 boarding at once). Was only when we were sitting in seats and didnt see our friends opposite that we realised our mistake! Made a hurried exit and just managed to catch the right plane which was waiting for us, thanks to the crew alerting the other plane that we were on our way! So much for security!
there is a way to easily find cheap airasia economy promo with a single search. you can research the ticket price for next 15 days and find one that suit you best. i find this tool while googling:
ReplyDeleteFind Cheap AirAsia Flight
good luck happy to share with you.
We only decided to try this airline because we hadn't planned far enough in advance for our holiday and Dragonair packages were full. After flying with AA just once, we've decided to plan better in future so we never have to fly with them again!
ReplyDeleteDo you like to travel Asia with some excitement and saving please try this one cheap international air ticket
ReplyDeleteI always travel to KUL from the Gold Coast and can only say..I will ALWAYS!! travel with them..I cant believe some of the "whinging that all the ANNONIMUS!!!writers complain about..Shirley Px
ReplyDeletei think air asia are deceptive and misleading. The advertised fares are not what they claim them to be. Take for instance today they say there is a 'world domination' fares and quote A$149 per to KL and A$207 KL to london but when you put in any qualifying dates the fares (excluding taxes are nothing like that).
ReplyDeleteI don't trust air asia and I suggest other don't either. I am currently trying to represent a case where schedule fees for additional stuff was advertised under schedule of fees and the when trying to book the fees were 4 times that amount. Help people don't help and have no power to help. there customer relations are set up to give you the run around.
more than happy to add further comment if someone wants more information.
julia332@hotmail.com
AirAsia's behaviour is close to criminal IMHO. There website and fares are misleading, they try to get you into booking stuff that you don't want or need, just think about the travel insurance - they are insuring you about their own failures... and you have to read carefully the fine print in order to find out how you get out of it, clicking OK (after selecting Cancel) does not cancel! Etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, their web site availability is just ridiculous, I got their busy site so often during my booking and had to start over again, I can hardly count it. I wonder how they can sell anyting at all. Best error message was that Thai Baht and a Thailand credit card are cross-country. Stupids.
I guess that was my last booking for a long time (and the return flight on TG was actually cheaper, including baggage etc).
Good thing about EU legislation - they are not allowing this kind of misleading advertizing (and criminal conduct) anymore and kick some airline's ass which showed the same behaviour. Would be nice to have some more consumer protection in this part of the world as well.
Can you believe this which was happened at KL Air Asia on Jan 29, 2011
ReplyDelete1.) Racism
The term and condition are not in Chinese. If you were not English educated, remember to hire a translator (best with lawyer) to read through the agreement prior to purchase. Everyone can fly with Air Asia and bear your own risk if you did not understand English.
2.) Too civilized ground staff / customer service
The ground staff will tell you that your dB is too high (not too sure whether there was a dB meter at Air Asia customer service desk) and if you ask for permission to record your conversation with Air Asia ground staff as an evident, they will directly share with you that Air Asia will sue you for recording the conversation. If you insist to record your conversation, Air Asia ground staff and customer service will ask security to “move” you away.
3.) Interesting Price rate
When you ask for rate of same flight at the same day, watch out…. Air Asia customer service might share at least two different rating within 30 minutes.
4.) Interesting flight schedule
Air Asia might tell you a flight schedule that has already been cancelled. Either the computer system or customer service staff was not well train
5.) Friendly reminder to Northern Chinese – Your dB will surely exceed Air Asia dB requirement. So, if you plan to fly with Air Asia, then you better learn how to lower your normal dB.
6.) Friendly reminder to all non English educated human being – seek for lawyer to read Air Asia term and condition before fly with this specific airline. Furthermore, hire a translator as when you experienced difficulty, this person will be the best help to you and your family, and not Air Asia ground stuff or customer service.
7.) Do not trust Air Asia On-line Sales Team
They will say one thing, and the ground staff / customer service will do another thing, which is totally disaster to consumer.
8.) Excellent communication system in case of emergency
When there was an emergency happened, Air Asia ground staff and customer service will ask you to file a complaint at Air Asia website. And they are so helpful to remind you that you have to pay for the hot line.
Southern Air line has reduced their price rate tremendously from Guan Zhou to KL and Penang since 2010.
Great ad for Southern Air. You complain about th terms & conditions being in English, yet have written a book. Lol. Good try.
ReplyDeleteCheck airasia ticket easily at Airasia Online Booking
ReplyDeleteAir asia change flight details however they like, the booked flight time to them is viewed as a guide to within a day.
ReplyDeleteYou may pay for a 'direct' flight then you get an email saying it now leaves three hours later, is diverted via some backwater which adds two hours and has a re-fueling stop that takes two hours.
They are slippery, dishonest operators. Avoid them, pay the extra hundred and go with a company with even just a little integrity.
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ReplyDeleteTravel teaches toleration. Flights to Goa
ReplyDeleteWe are very happy that you expanded and increased your flights here in Clark. Although travel agents here were hoping that you were bit careful in choosing your personnel and appointed agents. You could have at least picked up the ones who have the qualifications and at least would really WORK.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with airasia is pretty mixed.
ReplyDeleteThe upside first: they do offer super value fares, if you can book nine months ahead. Bangkok --> Yangon only less than USD 4 one way, please tell me, where can you find a fare like this??
It's also great to book with airasia if you are a long-haul traveller, becoz the price won't increase with the duration of your stay when you book return flights. some airlines charge more when you decide to stay longer (like three months), but airasia has a standard rate for every flight. it's pretty cool.
The downside:
The sneaky charges -you know what it is, the hidden insurance, the baggage charges, and the credit card processing fees.. it's annoying at first, but then you get over it.
Their flights are usually on time in my case but I once booked their zero ticket from HKG <--> Medan, and the flight was cancelled in the end. I won't say their compensation package is great. but at least when you call their hotline, it's not some recorded message. there are real people manning the phones. to me , it's great. I find their staff friendly and helpful in general. I am a girl, but I love the sexy red uniform the air stewardesses wear. :-)
So my conclusion is, I will still keep flying with them, simply because they provide super value for money (if you can book early).
If u have to fly last minute, you might have many other options, but the chance is they would still be the cheapest (though only by a small margin)
There are a lot of cheap fares when travelling in Asia and this seems to be fare enough. I wish there is more cheap fares when it comes to this.
ReplyDeleteTo be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.
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No doubt Asia have great market for air industry thousands flights came in one weak if any company capture this market through cheap flights i m sure those airline gonna generate huge revenue and loyal customers.
ReplyDeleteAir Asia have good loyalty among the people if they starts cheap umrah packages for Pakistan, India, Indonasia and Bangladesh because there are too many Muslims going for umrah from these countries.
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Passengers look for cheap fares of an airline before flying. It helps passengers to compare flight prices. Thanks for sharing this nice post!
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