Wednesday, August 29, 2007

AirAsia Ngoh Tiu Nei (AirAsia, I Fcuk You)

I became hero again today, I woke up at 5.55am this morning as I need to catch my Kota Bahru flight at 7.20am @ LCCT. This time I do not have the luxury to travel MAS as for my company policy AirAsia comes first for domestic flights, I was lucky I am on MAS yesterday on Kuantan flight.

I reached LCCT 35 minutes before my flight, realizing I am late for check in, I ran my way to the check in counter, there were so many of them. Unlike MAS in KLIA, all domestic flights can be checked in at any domestic counters but AirAsia, they are so fucking organised that they have a dedicated counter for each and every single destination. Like an idiot, I went to one of the counter, queued up and when it was my turn...

Me: Good morning! I am sorry, I know that I am late, can I still check in?
(One frustrated AirAsia Indian lady because she needs to handle the big crowd before me, looked at my e-ticket and said)
AirAsia Indian Gal: Can you check the counter please? This counter is for KK flight.
(Niamah ke hai, my fault ar you have to handle many customers? Blame your smart CEO lar for the RM9.99, RM19.99 or watever dot.99 deals lar)

Found the right counter, showed the counter man my e-ticket, I managed to look at my watch, I have about 25 minutes before the plane departs. But to my dismay, this Indian guy also rejected me saying...

AirAsia Indian Guy: Sir, you are way too late. Stated here in the terms & conditions the counter closes 45 minutes before the flight.
Me: But please, I am on my business meeting trip and I sincerely hope you can help. I was on teh same situation yesterday at KLIA for Kuantan flight with MAS but they managed to check me in.
AirAsia Indian Guy: MAS is MAS, this is AirAsia, we have rules & regulations. There is another flight to Kota Bahru later this afternoon, you can purchase the ticket at the counter.

YES, I am on the wrong side, so I got no right to argue or rather debate with the people there as it was already stated in black & white that the counter will close 45 mins before the flight. But can the staff some basic manners since they are in service line, knowing me a panicked traveller needing much consolation and yet bang me again & again.

So I forked out RM 153.00 for a one-way trip to KB from the ticketing counter, the next flight is 1.40pm which means I got more than 6 hours to go. Arrrggghhh...





While I walked around the LCCT like a sohai, I managed to look at how AirAsia had created history in the Malaysian aviation industry but the way they manage things, I can feel the quality of services had been deteoriating day by day being compared to my first experience with AirAsia years ago when they just started.

Now, Everyone Can Fly (AirAsia tagline)
not only that Uncle Tony
Now, Everyone Can Smell The Best Ammonia scented toilet in LCCT
Now, Everyone Can Have Their Flight Delayed but NO compensation
Now, Everyone Can Miss Flight if They Don't Check in on time

I am just so pissed that I can continue ranting here...

So fucking pissed to the extent of me spending on perfumes to make myself felt better. I got this girl syndrome, shopping makes mikemmery happier :P




But one compliment I have to give at least for the LCCT airport, they have a relatively fast wifi connection, I managed to download a handful MP3s and did my MSN chatting. My overall emotion cools off as there were something to keep me occupied.

Time for boarding, again it was delayed. Not due to any technical issue, it is due to the heavy downpour that prevented the passengers to get to the plane. Remember the old school way of boarding a plane? They do not have enough UMBRELLA ella ella eh eh eh, not enough UMBRELLA ella ella eh eh...



2.10pm-finally boarded the plane. A scene from my window seating




Reached Kota Bahru about 3.15pm and obviously I am late for my launching in Grand River View Hotel. Took a taxi and reached the hotel at about 4pm, lucky enough I managed to do a half hour product talking and passed the message through the dealers. Again, the dealers turnout to be quite disappointing. So imagine my fcuking feeling of being through all this flight scenes and gave a presentation to only a handful dealers? Wasted my time isn't it?

OK, enough said, I already do not have energy to complain about my launching. My scheduled flight back to KL was at 9.30pm. As my function ends at 5pm, I called one of my Kelantanese buddy to catch up for dinner, it had been a good 5 years since we last saw each other.

Went to this nice Thai restaurant (I am too tired that I did not take any picture of the food here), in the mid of our dinner, I was interrupted by an SMS and the content was as below...



Wah lao eh, KNNCCB, you delay flight can, I late 20 minutes earlier this morning to check in, cannot? Wah, Tony, lu really taikor lar... The biggest notorious gangster in Malaysia also cannot fight you...

I am too tired to get upset already really.. really really dead tired... Now I know why MAS got a turnaround this year to a profitable year. Thumbs up Dato Jala. Hope you got cheaper fare next time, I will travel Malaysia Airlines.

The last thing I had in Kelantan, a sudden crave for ice-cream made me go to one of the shop in airport...




Goodbye Kelantan, KL welcoming...


ps: AirAsia, you suck! you suck! you suck, suck, suck!!! Cuckoo...

20 comments:

tanalan2 said...

Brother..hopes our trip to Cambodia by AA..shun shun lei lei...

Anonymous said...

the moral behind is that.. cheap no good, good no cheap, understand kah

cool down leng cai, i am sure tomorrow will be a better day for you!

cheers!

kenji said...

MAS is 1 of the best airline on the world...the service and everything provided by MAS is first class.
I havent take a Air Asia flight b4.
But, MAS service is better than fxxking Cathay Pacific Airline.

Eileen said...

Ha, no comments on airasia. Anyway, glad you manage to find a way to come back to KL!

Chris said...

Being a Malaysian who enjoys cheap but acceptable things...i've been on Air Asia quite a number of times edi...never had this problem b4...i remember once my fren was late for our trip to bali, he checked in 1/2 hr b4 departure, no problem...maybe u 'hang sui wan' that day mick...

MikeM said...

alan... cambodia trip, lou hai also we must be at the airport early...

mikemmery's friend... agree wif u, cheap things dont come cheap, in btw, i really eager to know who r u leh...

kenji... MAS rocks!!!

princess eileen... managed to fly back safely but then tired like ahem...

chris... ya mayb i suay siao... must go temple n pray already...

Anonymous said...

You do realize that -

If you were on time for your flight, half your rant here would not be necessary? :)

Otherwise by all means pay more to keep MAS alive, so that the rest of us still can enjoy cheap flights with Air Asia :D

MikeM said...

michelle, true but my rant here was not only on missing my flight but also
1. customer service
2. the timing of the flight/the frequency of flight delays

cheers!

Anonymous said...

BTW, the toilets belong to MAB, not AirAsia....

And I think to be able to offer you a cheap flight, the people at the check in counter have to finish checking in people and run to guide you to the plane, so I guess by taking some of their time off by checking in at the wrong counter doesn't help them. Imagine if you had 100 suppliers to serve in 1 hour, how? I'm sure you'll not be able to smile and chat with anyone too.

Basically, you get what you pay for.

Plus I don't think you'd want to board a plane and fly in bad weather which could endanger your lives. That's why the plane delays sometimes. It's for your own good lah!!

Unknown said...

dun worry la...now is hantoo festival...got ghost covered ur ears tats y u kenot wake up

MikeM said...

anonymous, true also lar... but if i were to compare a few years back, AirAsia ppl r more friendlier lar... i formerly from airlines as well... so of cos tend to compare abit...

lim... true true, perhaps hantu sang song to me, so syok...

tanalan2 said...

Yaya hopefully our flight to SR dont delay lor..if not ur turn to F them kow kow .....U know when I was flying by RyanAir in Europe ( Budget airline also ), they hv a policy of compensating passengers 250Euro if theor flight is delayed by 4 hrs ..and the longer it delays the more they pay !! U know how I hope my flight fr Italy was delayed and earn some Euro's by just sitting at the airport !!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

It seems like u hv a habit of "Almost" missing ur flight bro. First is KLIA - Kuantan and now LCCT - Kota baru. Maybe u wanna use a better alarm clock? Cheers!

Bernard said...

"Everyone can fly"..
"everybody can be "hong" (空姐)"

MikeM said...

alantan... cross fingers lar for SR trip... msia unlike europe lar, we all also dont fight for our rights wan mar...

anonymous... i on 2 alarm clocks also cant work lar... how?

bernard... hehehe true true...

Anonymous said...

you know what, the day you posted your entry i was typing a comment to say maybe it's very rare this incident happens but before i could post it, my internet connection was down. the next day it was my turn to go through the same exact thing, hahaha. it would have been ironic if that comment did go through :P

well tmr i am flying back from penang to kl and i really keeping my fingers crossed -_-"

MikeM said...

satkuru... i also tot it's rare but a lot of my traveller friends kena already... i laughed at them until i kena myself... good luck to u...

Bleu said...

i feel your pain.
me and a 2 friends went to KL for xmas holidays two years ago and went back on the 28th December 2006.
we check in 40 minutes late and couldnt go in.
check the flights for earliest way to back to Kuching, 1st of January 2007.
man, lucky for me got MAS. next morning flight. From then on, i never sat in Airasia again.. no matter what it cost me

Anonymous said...

I Though only in indonesia , Air Asia service is suck. But In Malaysia and thailand also (i googling and find the thailand people also think air asia CRAP !!).
Well Mike , anytime you find MR Tony Fernandez, can you kick his ass for me.

Rgrd

Indra

Anonymous said...

Good review, well done. Always interested to hear other peoples opinions on air aisa.
airasiareviews.blogspot.com