Air Asia
 

Does any of you world travelers out there have any experiences , good bad or indifferent on flying in Asia with Air Asia?. Timeliness, customer service safety etc.

Than you

I have been very happy with them and with their on time service... I have used them at least 10 times.

they are very strict about checked and carry on luggage weights...

I pay for preferred seating and sit up front, usually in row 2, seats 1&3 with 2 empty

I've flown them about 6 times. Very clean airplanes, young good-looking crew, can have great prices, especially if you buy during a sale.

Don't be fooled by those $9 flights, though. They tack on fees for seat selection, all luggage, water, use of a credit card, taxes and I think even if you make them print your boarding pass! You should compare closely with the other airlines.

Two things that bother me are that they charge the luggage fees per leg (eg Siem Reap to Singapore is TWO flights) and if you miss a flight, you'll need to buy a new ticket. Also, if you are flying through KL you might want to take an airport map if you have a fast layover.

But as far as the planes and crew, I have no problems and will use them again for future flights.

For domestic flights in Thailand a good alternative to Air Asia is Nok Air. Own by Thai Airways and serviced by Thai Airways.

For the basic reservation 15 kg of luggage is included in the price and their online web site and reservation is very easy to navigate compared to Air Asia.

http://www.nokair.com/nokconnext/aspx/index.aspx

Air Asia is a good quality budget airline. I have flown them many times and will do so again. Their planes are relatively new. Yes, you do pay for every additional extra, however.

ditto the above. We flew lots of Air Asia flights on an extended trip to Southeast Asia a few years ago. No problems whatsoever and price was always great!

Do be aware that if you are making a connection between two Air Asia flights, they will not transfer your luggage (and, of course, they will not transfer your luggage to any other airline for an onward flight). So you will have to clam your luggage and check it back in. If these are international flights, that can take up a fair amount of time, so plan connection times accordingly.

And just to balance out whose flights are always on-time, I'll put on record that I flew HKG-BKI round trip on them and the return flight was 5-hours late.

They either didn't or couldn't fly an extra aircraft from elsewhere to cover ours.

They let me and about a hundred other people languishing in Singapore overnight with no explanation and one bowl of noodles and a terrified stewardess who was also kept in the dark.......it took over 12 hours to do a flight that should have taken about 2......... In return we were offered a discount voucher to fly with them again.....duh! no thanks.

Believe me if there is any problem you don't want to be on Air Asia.

I'd sooner walk than fly Air Asia.

I think people are expecting too much of a low cost airline. At the same time, in the case of the delay or cancellation as described above, Air Asia do sell what they call "Air Asia Insure Travel Protection" which will take care of cancellation, delays, baggage problems etc. The cost is about US $4.50 for the route cited above. One of the many add ons that they will try to sell to you.

I did not expect more from them. Just to state my experience that no one should fantasize that all flights would be on-time. That doesn't happen with any airline in the world.

I too have flown with them many times and am booked again in November to go from Japan to Malayisa! I like Bob, don't expect much from them ( although I do expect relatively on time performance and at the very least a seat :) )
I have had flight delays with full services carriers as well as bucket airlines.....

However I am sure customer service levels differ from airline to airline, I would expect ( for example) Singapore airlines to be far higher than say Air Asia.

we are flying nok air in November after hanuman's endorsements over the years----bkk-phuket rt

I flew Air Asia multiple times on our last trip to SEAsia. Check in was sometimes confusing and generally crowded. One flight we took was delayed about an hour. We did have to pick up and transfer our luggage on the the flight from CM to Krabi with a plane change in BKK. It was quick and easy. The flights have been fine. I do find their website annoying to use. However the substantial price difference between them and other carriers made it worthwhile to fly Air Asia.
I have a question on their policy about check in/boarding passes. If one doesn't print off their boarding pass or use mobile check-in does one pay Air Asia to do this at the airport at the check in counter? Are there kiosks that can be used to avoid this charge?

Also based on hanuman's rec we will be giving Nok Air a try this trip. Their website was very easy to use and I think their baggage allowance was a bit higher than Air Asia's and we did not have to buy additional baggage kgs.

It is free to use the Air Asia kiosk at the airport to print off your pass.

It's a decent flight for short trips and the crew is nice. However, it gets very expensive if you have to check an overweight bag last minute.

The website is a nightmare as they try to charge you for all kinds of options: insurance, meal, luggage, credit card fee, preferred seating, etc, etc

We had a very good experience with Air Asia, very inexpensive, new aircraft, on time. Paid extra for,priority searing. We flew Saigon to Bangkok.

Did they seat you behind the jet???

hahahaha!

Khunwilko's comments are, of course, a huge over reaction. Air Asia is ok. I have had similar experiences to Khunwilo's on full cost, so called "quality" airlines - Qantas for example.