X for Unknown

Dear Editor, After reading about Mike Hays’s problem with missing his flight to Bathurst via Melbourne, I wish to bring to light my own nightmare with Air Asia/Air Asia X. As a tour operator I was keen to explore the possibility created by the new Air Asia flights into Gold Coast, Australia. Hence, at the first opportunity available to experience the services fist hand myself, I made round trip reservations with Air Asia for Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur then onward by Air Asia X to Gold Coast. On the first leg of my flight on Friday, November 16th, 2007 the flight (FD3573) from Bangkok to K.L. was officially delayed for an hour. As the connecting time at KL is 1 hour and 45 minutes the airlines supervisor at Bangkok Airport assured me that she would make urgent contact with Air Asia Kuala Lumpur and asked me to put on Air Asia’s ‘Guest’ sticker as according to her, the airlines staff would be standing by to assist me as soon as I got off the plane at Kuala Lumpur. When flight FD3573 arrived at the terminal in KL, the Thai flight attendant of the Bangkok-KL flight gladly pointed out to me that the Gold Coast bound plane was sitting right on the next bay. But as it turned out no local Air Asia staff was waiting there as promised. The Immigration personnel was most helpful in expediting the entry procedure in a couple of minutes and directed me to the staff at Air Asia’s Lost and Found counter which is the only place where an Air Asia staff was available at arrival hall. The junior attendant grudgingly phoned the ground handling staff to mention the urgency of my arrival to connect with onward flight(D7 2702). I was asked to go to departure counter, entertaining the idea that the case was now in good hand. However, the counter staff was only prepared to convince me that I needed to buy a new ticket for the next flight to Gold Coast, two days away on Sunday night! I was trying to persuade him to let me board without check luggage but to no avail. The duty manager of Air Asia finally came but only to say that he did not receive any urgent notice from Air Asia Bangkok beforehand and steadfastly refused to help, incredibly asking me to contact their call centre as the flight was closed meaning that I had to find my own way staying overnight in KL and figuring out what to do next. Seeing the hopelessness of getting any help from the Asia Air staff concerned I asked for the contact person of Air Asia during office hours to sort out the mess but the supervisor said he could not divulge this information as ‘it is a secret’ unquote and only willing to give me their call centre number as well as an email address which is as good as brushing it all away. After a long journey to into town and finding a room to stay around midnight but still keeping faith with Air Asia, I dutifully called the call centre the next morning but there was consistently no answer. In order not to miss an important business appointment on the Gold Coast the following day, I took a Singapore Airlines flight from KL to Singapore for connection to Brisbane by Qantas to end a 40 hours saga caused by an ignorant and uncaring airlines. It is most appalling that the staff at Bangkok Airport would promise that things would be taken care of and the staff at Kuala Lumpur would not want to know anything about the whole matter. It must be said that it is tantamount to lying to the passengers when the airlines staff do not follow up but simply brush away their problems without regard to the well being of the passengers. The Airlines has fallen dead silence on the email that I sent asking for clarification immediately after failing to contact anyone at their call centre. Beside wasting time and money to be holed up for almost 2 days, I find the attitude of the supervisor and counter staff at Air Asia terminal in Kuala Lumpur most condescending and unfriendly and the non-responsiveness of the Airlines left a lot to be desired. My eagerness about possibility of sending clients to the Gold Coast with Air Asia has evaporated into the thin air and wonder if the ‘X’ part of the name should really mean what it stands for, UNKNOWN.