By Richard Teo
Once upon a time , AirAsia's slogan was 'Now everyone can fly.'
But nowadays this no longer holds true. In the beginning, AirAsia was really making a serious effort to enable everyone to fly on the no frills airline.
Fares were not only cheap for those who purchased their tickets in advance. Also there were no hidden costs and the total fares after taxes were cheap and really affordable to the man in the street.
In fact if you were lucky enough the tickets you bought could even be cheaper than the cost of the ticket for a long haul bus.
Not only were there cheap tickets but there were a lot of extras that normal airlines did not provide.
Senior citizens above 60 were given priority of boarding, you could select any seats of your choice, there was no such thing as fuel surcharge added to the cost of the ticket.
In short, there were no hidden costs.
But AirAsia , nowadays cannot boast of its 'now everyone can fly' slogan because its concept has been totally altered.
Now, its policy is to charge for everything. Senior citizens no longer have the privilege of boarding first. If you want to board first you have to pay for priority boarding. If you want to select your favourite seats you have to pay for it.
Just you think that is the end of it, you are hit with another cost. It's call processing fees for using a credit card for your online booking.
In short, there were no hidden costs.
But AirAsia , nowadays cannot boast of its 'now everyone can fly' slogan because its concept has been totally altered.
Now, its policy is to charge for everything. Senior citizens no longer have the privilege of boarding first. If you want to board first you have to pay for priority boarding. If you want to select your favourite seats you have to pay for it.
Just you think that is the end of it, you are hit with another cost. It's call processing fees for using a credit card for your online booking.
It seems that the credit card company commission is even passed to the passenger in the guise of processing fees.
The moral of the story is that we should no longer be deceived by the AirAsia slogan of 'Everyone can fly'.
Maybe its time travellers should revert back to our national carrier MAS. At least there are no hidden costs and what you pay is transparent.
And if you are a golfer the more reason why you should travel MAS because they don't charge you for your golf bags whereas AirAsia charges RM50 for that extra luggage. And if you are a handicapped person, please be aware that AirAsia charges RM15 for using their wheel chair.
Lastly, MAS provides you the luxury of boarding and landing using an air bridge whereas with AirAsia, you have to be content with climbing up and down a gangway to board and disembark your flights.
The moral of the story is that we should no longer be deceived by the AirAsia slogan of 'Everyone can fly'.
Maybe its time travellers should revert back to our national carrier MAS. At least there are no hidden costs and what you pay is transparent.
And if you are a golfer the more reason why you should travel MAS because they don't charge you for your golf bags whereas AirAsia charges RM50 for that extra luggage. And if you are a handicapped person, please be aware that AirAsia charges RM15 for using their wheel chair.
Lastly, MAS provides you the luxury of boarding and landing using an air bridge whereas with AirAsia, you have to be content with climbing up and down a gangway to board and disembark your flights.
The reason? Because AirAsia can save paying the airport authorities for using the facility at the expense of discomfort to the paying customers.
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