Amazing AIRASIA advertisement

The full page AirAsia advertisement carried on page N22 of The Star is attention-grabbing.

A half-page red banner screamed:-

Why pay for frills
when you can fly
with amazing
low fares?

On the lower half, a bubbly girl in a red uniform carried a cheeky placard: "Easy to Book, More Frequencies".

If you have travelled on AirAsia before, you will know that they really mean it when they say, "At AirAsia, no one gets treated like a second-class citizen."

Why? Because we all get treated like third-class citizen lar!

Regardless if you are a Tan Sri, Datuk, Dr, Mr, young or old, citizens or foreigners like the Europeans, Thais, Indonesians, Banglas, Nepalese, Chinese etc ... you all have to fight to get in line when the boarding gates are opened.

And you all have to carry your bags & WALK that distance, under rain or shine, to get to the aircraft.

That's very fair and square, isn't it?

For a few Ringgit, you'll get comfy leather seat ...

Yeah, but they forgot to mention that the leather seat was kinda hard on the bottom and the legroom was virtually non-existent, so you don't exactly feel comfortable if your flight lasts more than an hour and a half. And they don't have pipe-in music to take away the boredom of a long flight. (Alright, I know this is a budget airline but how much does it cost to provide some pipe-in lounge music?)

... and a fun and friendly crew who treats you the way you like to be treated.

Uh oh kay ... their crew are certainly fun & friendly on one of my flights to Bangkok when they started doing a "pasar malam routine" selling their airline merchandise. It was funny the way the steward shouted "Mari, mari, mari, ... cukup murah ... pen cuma harga RM..." I don't know what the foreigners think though.

And one time there was a lucky draw on a flight to Chiangmai, and ten "lucky" passengers were rewarded with various AirAsia merchandise like caps, T-shirts, etc. That was also interesting and liven up the otherwise dull 3-hour flight.

But, I don't think they, in general, treat us passengers the way we like to be treated.

No, no. I don't like to start queuing up more than half an hour before boarding starts, all because it is almost the norm for seasoned travellers to do that in order to get the best seats.

I'd like to be treated with more respect even though AirAsia thinks I'm paying peanuts for my flight and that I shouldn't complain like a monkey.

And more often than not, you will find that it doesn't matter if you were one of the earliest ones to check in.

Invariably, the latecomers will be those who aggressively push their way to the front of the queue, elbowing even the old folks and kids who are supposed to be given priority in boarding.

Someone once suggested an idea in a letter published in a local newspaper. Why can't they implement a colour-coded sticker so that they can allow passengers to board in maybe blocks of 30 people at one time to prevent the ridiculous scramble each time?

And this will also be fair to those who took the trouble to check in early, as well as families with kids & old folks. And also for the sake of the poor harassed gate crew who have to control the sometimes unruly mob.

"It's so easy to book and you can even choose to sit anywhere you like!"

Yes, I agree that one of the best things about AirAsia, apart from it's really low fares, is that it is really so easy to book via the Internet. That is, if you manage to log in to their website.

But again, about having the choice to sit anywhere you like, this again depends on whether you are one of those people who manage to get in the line first.

Like I said earlier, in order to get to choose your preferred seats, you have to be aggressive to the point of offensive sometimes. You need to make sure you are in front of the queue. And boy, do you see some people who's mission in life seem to be to stand right up there in front! (Don't be surprised if you see the same people being photographed scrambling for free food during festive open houses.)

I have witnessed so many embarrassing moments when the scramble to board turned ordinarily decent people into rude and "kiasu" terrors. I have also seen a few arguments broke out when someone refused to give way quietly to those who sneakily jumped queue when the crew lost control of the crowd.

I wonder why AirAsia cannot come up with a better way to deal with this awful situation which reflect so badly on the inability of our people to behave in a civilised manner.

Tak apa lah, low cost memang low class ...

And lastly,

"It's no wonder more than 20 million guests have embraced the AirAsia experience."

It's the low fare lar, stupid!

That's why we put up with the low class treatment at LCCT. That's why despite our grumbles, we still line up in droves to board your flights. That's why you can continue to ignore good suggestions to improve your service.

Amazing AirAsia - amazingly successful despite the flaws.