During the flight, I also need to go the toilet and while I was sitting there doing my business, I thought: When will they start asking for a fee for using the toilet...?
Tuesday, November 4. 2008
Low Cost Airlines - What else will they charge for?
Recently i was flying with a low cost airline to Singapore. To offset the cheap ticket prices, these airlines try to upsell you on more and more things. You may have to pay extra for luggage that you are checking in, you have to pay for food (and you are not allowed to consume your own food on board - but what will they do, kick you out?) and the exit row seats with extra leg space are available for an additional fee.
During the flight, I also need to go the toilet and while I was sitting there doing my business, I thought: When will they start asking for a fee for using the toilet...?
During the flight, I also need to go the toilet and while I was sitting there doing my business, I thought: When will they start asking for a fee for using the toilet...?
Tuesday, October 21. 2008
AirAsia Automated Reply
AirAsia Headache
I just booked my tickets for my trip after Taiwan. I will be flying with China Airlines, JetStar and AirAsia. This morning, I called China Airlines to reschedule my return flight to Germany and went in the afternoon to their office to have my ticket reissued. I do not know why, but it took them over one hour to do that and to process the payment. No idea what was so complicated. After I left, I got a phone call from them. They used the wrong farebasis and need to reissue to the ticket again. So I will go back tomorrow and get a new ticket again.
Maybe I should check my current ticket carefully... maybe the current fare is offering me something better? Or maybe it is just something internal. No idea, will find out later.
Oh well. AirAsia is one of many low cost airlines here. And of course they do the usual tricks to get some more money out of their customers. So they also introduced the baggage-handling fee. For each piece of luggage that you check-in, you need to pay a handling fee. Also they only allow 15kg of checked luggage. Too bad that I threw all my cargo pants with their big pockets away. They might be useful for the check-in, but troublesome at the security.
Anyways, I put down my friend's contact details in the booking form, because I would be traveling around and thus I would be difficult to reach. I entered my details on the booking form designated as guest and a friend's contact details in the "contact" section, but I used my German mailing address there, not my friend's mailing address. This was a smart thing, because when it came to pay by credit card, this address had to match the address of the credit card. The name of the credit card holder was still typed in by hand. The credit card was accepted and the booking was done and apparently with my name as the traveling person.
Luckily I saved a printout of the booking confirmation on the webpage:
Because a little while later, I got the pdf-ticket by email. And it was my friend's name listed as passenger:
Wonder how easy their customer service will be on this...
Maybe I should check my current ticket carefully... maybe the current fare is offering me something better? Or maybe it is just something internal. No idea, will find out later.
Oh well. AirAsia is one of many low cost airlines here. And of course they do the usual tricks to get some more money out of their customers. So they also introduced the baggage-handling fee. For each piece of luggage that you check-in, you need to pay a handling fee. Also they only allow 15kg of checked luggage. Too bad that I threw all my cargo pants with their big pockets away. They might be useful for the check-in, but troublesome at the security.
Anyways, I put down my friend's contact details in the booking form, because I would be traveling around and thus I would be difficult to reach. I entered my details on the booking form designated as guest and a friend's contact details in the "contact" section, but I used my German mailing address there, not my friend's mailing address. This was a smart thing, because when it came to pay by credit card, this address had to match the address of the credit card. The name of the credit card holder was still typed in by hand. The credit card was accepted and the booking was done and apparently with my name as the traveling person.
Luckily I saved a printout of the booking confirmation on the webpage:
Because a little while later, I got the pdf-ticket by email. And it was my friend's name listed as passenger:
Wonder how easy their customer service will be on this...
