The West Australian’ website this afternoon managed to fit the news around the AirAsia adverts, just about. Every advertising space on the front page – no less than six of various sizes – was occupied by AirAsia. They could have done with the pretence and directed users to AirAsia’s site, with a column of headlines running along one side. On the other hand, anything that distracts from the car-crash that is Troy Buswell can’t be all bad.
Click image for the full-size catastrophe.
Posted in Misc
Tagged air asia, air asia x, airasia, airasia x, media, newspaper, perth, troy buswell, wa, west australian
According to TravelWeekly AirAsia’s next Australian destination will be Perth, with weekly flights commencing November 2 and daily flights from March 2009. Intial fares from $99.
Eurocheapo has an excellent list of the pros and cons of budget airlines, well worth reading.
Why I Love/Hate Ryan Air “dealing with low-cost carriers such as RyanAir is like playing a game. In order to play well, you need to know the rules (how much luggage you can carry on, each additional checked bag costs extra, you can’t check-in online if you’re not an EU citizen or you’ll be denied boarding, etc.). Most complaints about the airline come from people who don’t know the rules. So yes, you can be angry that RyanAir’s rules are different from everyone else’s, but you’re not going to get a whole lot of sympathy from me if you don’t know or follow the rules of the game. RyanAir makes a ton of money off of the folks who don’t know the rules.”
Same approach to low cost airlines in Australia and Asia is necessary, as this post on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree
We arrived in Kuala Lumpur from the Gold Coast having allowed one and a half hours to spare for a connecting flight to Thailand.
The plane was half on hour late into KL but by the time we cleared customs and arrived a the check-in for the next Air Asia flight to Bangkok we were told that as we were outside the 45 minutes cut off for boarding we would have to purchase new tickets.
These tickets were offered at almost twice the price we had originally booked on the net. As we were at a low cost terminal well away from the main KL International Terminal we were trapped and had to buy the overpriced tickets.
When we wisely decided that we would also change our booking on the return journey so as to allow more than one and a half hours we were told that this would incur a fee of nearly $80 each just to change the booking! Once again we were at their mercy and had to pay up or risk losing our KL to the Gold coast sector.
All this in the first ” promotional” week of the airline. Another friend had a similar though worse experience this week when his Air Asia X plane was 3 hours late into KL and he consequently missed the connecting flight . Air Asia X made him purchase another ticket.
In each case the supervisor pointed out that as they are ” a point to point carrier” only they had no obligation to help us.
This airline needs to learn some sense of moral obligation and should be avoided at all costs until they have learned this lesson.”
The lesson, of course, is that budget airlines make it your business to ensure that your connections are adaquate, and with lower “on time” reliability rates than most full service carriers you need extra padding built into your itinerary. Budget airlines can be a fantastic way to fly, but they require more homework and the saving isn’t always worth it – if, for instance – you need to factor in the cost of a nights accommodation to ensure that you have a connection you can make. Always make sure your familar with the terms and conditions.
More information on Ryan Air’s online check-in (the free standard) vs counter check-in (3 euros) which is mandatory for non-EU citizens previously from Less Than a Shoestring.
“Azran told Traveller last year that AirAsia X wanted to link Australia and Europe with regularly available fares of about $1000 return. However, he said last week that figure will not include “taxes and charges”, which typically can add up to 70 per cent to the base fare.
While it’s certain there will be ultra-low promotional fares for the new service and no details have yet been given on regularly available fare levels, it’s likely that total charges between Australia and the UK could amount to as much as $1700 return – only about $300 less than the best fares on the traditional airlines.
Using AirAsia X’s booking system to quote fares between the Gold Coast and Kuala Lumpur, a $222 one-way fare for travel in May escalates to more than $750 return when it includes taxes and charges, as well as “options”, such as $20 a piece one-way for checked baggage, $7 for a meal and $7 for online seat allocation.
This makes it difficult to compare AirAsia X fares with those of Jetstar, which also flies to KL, and charges different rates for meals and other add-ons.
Jetstar, meanwhile, is unlikely to begin linking Australia and Europe before late next year, following delays in the delivery of its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
…
Jetstar’s primary focus will be on restoring European services – to Paris, Rome and Athens – that Qantas was forced to abandon because of continuing losses. It will decide in the next few months which of its south-east-Asian hubs – Bangkok, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Ho Chi Minh City – will provide stopovers for the European flights.”
The phrase ‘regularly scheduled’ suggests there may be some cheaper occaisional promotions but $1000 airfares to Europe, unfortunately, were pie-in-the-sky.
Oz Traveller 