In the past year I've been flying quite frequently to West Malaysia—sometimes for business; a couple of times for running events; but mostly for treasure hunts over the weekends. Most of the trips were by AirAsia flights.
AirAsia is a lot cheaper than Malaysian Airlines. It's a no-frills airline, but I'm never very fussy about those little things, especially when it comes to short flights. On average it takes between 2 hrs 15 mins to 2 hrs 30 minutes from KK to KL. Sometimes—although rarely—the flights may be even shorter. There are so many flights between KK and KL each day that I'm never worried about not getting a seat. At times, I'd even wait till a day or two before the flight before purchasing the tickets, although I don't do that very frequently.
Until very recently, passengers had no option to predetermine their repective seats in the plane. So what used to happen was they'd rush for the seats on first-come-first-serve basis. The only exceptions were those who purchased the so-called express-boarding tickets. They'd be given the privilege to board the plane first and therefore could choose the seats they liked. These days all the passengers can, for a small price, predetermine their seats. I welcome this in AirAsia flights. Therefore, there is now no need to rush when boarding the plane.
AirAsia also sells food during flights. It adopts the policy of "no outside food allowed". I think that's fair enough. Amongst others, AirAsia sells hotmeals too. Check out the following menu which is found within the pages of their inflight magazine.
AirAsia is a lot cheaper than Malaysian Airlines. It's a no-frills airline, but I'm never very fussy about those little things, especially when it comes to short flights. On average it takes between 2 hrs 15 mins to 2 hrs 30 minutes from KK to KL. Sometimes—although rarely—the flights may be even shorter. There are so many flights between KK and KL each day that I'm never worried about not getting a seat. At times, I'd even wait till a day or two before the flight before purchasing the tickets, although I don't do that very frequently.
Until very recently, passengers had no option to predetermine their repective seats in the plane. So what used to happen was they'd rush for the seats on first-come-first-serve basis. The only exceptions were those who purchased the so-called express-boarding tickets. They'd be given the privilege to board the plane first and therefore could choose the seats they liked. These days all the passengers can, for a small price, predetermine their seats. I welcome this in AirAsia flights. Therefore, there is now no need to rush when boarding the plane.
AirAsia also sells food during flights. It adopts the policy of "no outside food allowed". I think that's fair enough. Amongst others, AirAsia sells hotmeals too. Check out the following menu which is found within the pages of their inflight magazine.
Glorious, glorious food. The one on the top left is the Nasi Lemak—tender chicken rendang with fragrant coconut milk and pandan rice. To the right, on the other page, is the Chicken Rice—a Chinese Malaysian favourite of fluffy seasoned rice served with roast chicken and accompanied by a special secret chilli, ginger and garlic sauce. Those on the bottom left page are the Vegetarian Nasi Briyani and Asian Fried Rice with Chicken Satay respectively. And finally the one on the bottom right page is the Black Pepper Beef.
I'm sure some of you must have tasted those food in the menu above. But other than those, AirAsia also sells sandwiches, cashew nuts, Oreo biscuits, and soft drinks. Perhaps the most famous "hotmeals" in all AirAsia flights are the instant noodles served in paper cups.
I have raised the hotmeals issue with the flight attendants on a few occasions before this, but obviously there isn't much that they can do about it. In fact, I don't even know if they even bothered to bring my suggestions to someone who could actually decide on the matter.
Since it's very likely that I will continue to fly on AirAsia on a frequent basis, I'm trying my luck here to write an open letter to Dato' Tony. I know it's a long shot that he will ever get to read this, but perhaps someone who knows a friend of his friends, who in turn might eventually notify the good Dato' about this letter somehow, and then he can do something about the hotmeals? So here goes nothing...
Dear Dato' Tony,
I am a frequent flyer of your AirAsia. First of all, may I congratulate you on the many achievements of AirAsia as announced through your inflight magazine. At the rate you are going now, I am sure AirAsia will continue to win many more awards in the years to come.
But Dato', would it be possible to look into the hotmeals in your flights between KK to KL and back? I am sure those are all very delicious food. Since last year, I started counting the number of times I have been in your flights. Of course I've been on AirAsia much earlier than that, but I only started counting last year. And after I reached 10 times, Dato', I thought it's time for me to write this letter to you. Each time I asked for any one of those foods mentioned above, the inevitable answers I got have always been "sold out" or "finish already". And I'd always end up eating cashew nuts or Oreo biscuits. The only hotmeals that never seemed to run out so far were the instant noodles which I hate so much.
Of course it is possible to book hotmeals online. But I usually book my flights weeks ahead (sometimes days ahead), and I couldn't make up my mind that early whether I'd like to eat onboard; and even if I did, I don't normally plan what I'd like to eat for lunch or dinner a few weeks ahead.
So there were times when I'd find myself in your flights, Dato', with an empty stomach and all that's available were instant noodles, sanwiches, cashew nuts and Oreo biscuits. During the most recent AirAsia flights I took to KL about 2 weeks ago, I booked seat 10F on both the going and return trips. I thought that's close enough to the front of the plane. But when the food started selling, I still got the "sold out" response.
I can understand that if you stockpiled a lot of Nasi Lemak, for example, in your flights, and then if you failed to sell them, then you could lose in the end. But Dato', you ran out of these hotmeals practically all the time. Well, at least on those flights which I've been on so far. Surely you can add a bit more Nasi Lemak, Vegetarian Nasi Briyani, Chicken Rice etc? Have some confidence in your glorious hotmeals, Dato'—I'm sure they will all still be sold out if you add a bit more on your flights.
Hope you can help to do something about this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Hotmeals Dreamer
10 comments:
yr outbound link to wiki, gets u no where. link to AA official site or even Dato's blog. I'm sure their Corp Comm or Customer Service monitors all trackbacks to their sites. I've seen AA or even Da' Man himself responds to blogs.
delurk,
Thanks for the suggestion. I have since made some adjustments to link to AirAsia & Dato's blog. But of course I still doubt that he will ever get to read this post anyway... hehehe
My experience dealing on-line with AirAsia or DTF.
Few years back, I booked a free-and-easy package to Phuket comprising air ticket and accommodation. Instant reply from the website telling me that everything is reserved - flight and board. Happily I flew there but upon reaching the hotel, I was told that the resort was already fully booked. Though my reservation was in their list, but they (the hotel) had replied to AirAsia informing them that the hotel could not accommodate me. I was shown the reply from the hotel to AA. Unfortunately AA in turn did not inform me. However, the hotel was very kind to offer a replacement in another hotel for me.
After coming back to Malaysia, I wrote a complaint to AA. It took about a year later for them to reply that 'we are looking into the matter'. Two years on and they are still 'looking at the matter'.
When I first learned that DTF was blogging, I decided to 'pop-in' and put in a comment in one of the posting. If you scrutinized the comments allowed, there is only one trend. All are there to praise AA and/or DTF. You would never find a negative comment. My comment was to repeat my complaint and also to point out another negative aspect of AA. However, after waiting for a week, I still could not see my comment approved and allowed to be posted. Then I know why.
However, to my surprise albeit a pleasant one, I received an email from DTF. Well, I am not sure if DTF actually type that email and press the send button, but his name ended the email. 'He told me' that he will look into my comment, and although he did not give a date when he will reply, he promised one. And now 6 months later, I am still waiting for DTF's reply. (Damn, if only I learned)
Corny, sorry for taking up so much space. But this should clear any doubt you may have!!
peter,
Thank you for sharing.
Yes, I'm aware that there is a very, very remote chance that the good Dato' will ever get to read this post. And even if he did get to read it, it will be another long shot whether he's gonna do anything about it. I entertained the idea of commenting in his blog, but reckoned that it won't be published anyway. Some people have told me so.
Perhaps if we can convince people like Kenny Sia to raise the matter, then Dato' will try harder to look into the matter, I don't know. If anything, this post will eventually end up becoming a mere piece of useless essay of me sharing my pathetic experience. Too bad MAS is just too expensive when compared to AirAsia. Sigh...
Is that an Asian mentality or what? It seems that we don't mind sub-standard service as long as its cheaper.
I may not be very happy with AirAsia in certain areas, but I will continue to fly AirAsia, as long it is cheaper than MAS.
No, peter, that is not Asian mentality. That's what we call reality. We do mind sub-standard service, but at the end of the day, AirAsia is still very much cheaper than MAS, and we don't have any other choices if we want to fly cheap. That's why the sigh.
If there is another similar cheap airline in Malaysia, then we have a choice between the two, and that will surely force AirAsia to improve themselves.
Hi! I'd sent an email to dato Tony last year. Complaint about the sudden cancel of the flight to Macau.
I received Dato's replied within a day or 2!!! He is really kind enough. He requested his assistant to contact me and assist@ solve my problem.
;)
Hi Erica,
I can imagine that Dato' Tony is an extremely busy man. Perhaps he receives hundreds of emails each day, and I'd be very surprised if he can find the time to attend to all of them even if he wanted to. I suspect that he has a number of people who would help him reply some of those mails, but even taking that into account, I'd say you're lucky that someone actually replied your mail so soon. Others are not so lucky - they get their replies after months or years. Others still won't get any reply at all!
Like I said, I'm just trying my luck here. I reckoned that even if I wrote to the good Dato' it wouldn't have made any difference anyway.
I tried mine writing to emel and got no reply. i think you need to send this letter directly using manual and not online.
yeah, the price is acceptable but still, some ppl just cannot afford em.
Ryuzaki,
I don't believe there's much difference between the electronic mail and the good old-fashioned mail for this purpose. The only difference, maybe, is that when sent through email, it will probably end up in a software folder; whereas when sent through the snail mail, it will end up in some other hardcopy files to be forgotten.
Regarding the cost, don't pay too much attention to that tagline:
Now everyone can fly.
That's not meant to be taken literally.
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