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My complaint for Air Asia Indonesia
Author: defendy18 Feb
Today on 18 Feb 2008, supposed I had a flight to Balikpapan on 06.30. At that time, I was in front of the customer service desk in front of 1A terminal of Soekarno-Hatta airport. As this is my first flight with Air Asia Indonesia, I didn’t notice that the document I printed acted as a ticket and I should only come to the check-in counter. So, I ran out about 20 minutes there queuing. After knowing that, I was heading to its check-in counter. There, I got a shocking information telling me that I was late to check-in. After five minutes asking for help (and it didn’t help actually), I was directed to talk to his supervisor Mr. A (just call him like that). It was 06.03 when I and three other passengers came and talked to Mr. A. He kept telling me that it couln’t be helped. But suddenly at 06.20, there is other passenger came by and told the supervisor that he was an Export & Import officer and gave Mr. A the amount of Rp. 50.000,00 (when we clarified, Mr. A told that it was the airport tax. Okay, doesn’t matter^^). And, you figured it out??!! Mr. A ran to his desk, held his walkie-talkie, spoke with his “code” and told that passenger to run over the plane!!!
Mr. A told that the tolerance limit was 30 minutes, so the ExIm officer could board. But as I asked what about me, he told that I was 20 minutes late IN FRONT OF HIM! (Note that actually I checked-in 30 minutes before). If I met him 10 minutes ago, I might have a flight now. Just to be considered, should I checked-in to supervisor? Should not, right? Every check-in counter should be the same to overcome this CRISIS(T_T).
From this point, I want to get the paralelism about me and that ExIm officer. This is the fact:
1. Difference
a. He was on a flight to Surabaya that was scheduled 06.50
I was on a flight to Balikpapan that was scheduled 06.30
b. He was an ExIm officer
I was just a mere passenger
c. He spoke frontly
I spoke nicely (Weird though…)
2. Likeliness
a. We were late for 30 minutes (real 30 minutes) because of queuing
b. We were carring a baggage to load in
Yeah… I have bought another ticket right now that worth of Rp. 500.000,00 and that doesn’t concern me. But, the thing left unanswered is where is the credibility of Air Asia Indonesia to protect its passenger if it acts differently to passenger? Mr. A’s word still in my mind: “We are the on-time and on-rules airflight company”. But, where is the rule to differ passenger?
I can’t change my condition right now. But, I hope all other aircraft passenger don’t experience this things up. Maybe it’s nice to be on-time (and I understand that was my fault not to obey the Air Asia Indonesia’s rules causing me ended up like this), but when Air Asia Indonesia is unfair treating the passenger… I kindly feel sad about it.
3 Responses for "My complaint for Air Asia Indonesia"
[...] days after my complaint about Air Asia Indonesia, I was facing another problem with it. Today, I supposed to fly to Jakarta from Balikpapan on [...]
DISABLED PASSENGERS BEWARE AIR ASIA
I have been traveling to and from Malaysia for over thirty years and now reside here with my wife and child. I have businesses in the UK and Malaysia and still clock over 200,000 air miles a year. I have traveled Air Asia on several occasions over the past few years and received the service expected from a budget airline.
Unfortunately my trip to Laos on the 19th of February 2009 with Air Asia turned out to be one of the most disastrous and humiliating experiences of my life. Being disabled I made sure that I informed the ticket center at least 48 hours prior to my departure that as I am unable to climb stairs that I would require the service of their “Ambulift”. The gentleman at your call center confirmed that a note had been put on my reservation and told me that I should report to the two desks that would handle my request and a wheel chair. When I arrived at the airport with my wife and son, we checked in and went to a desk which was right at the end of the check-in desks and was, I believe numbered sixty something. The Malay guy at the desk confirmed my request for the “Ambulift” and then told me to go to desk 41 for a wheel chair, which I did, also telling them that I had requested the “Ambulift”.
After going through passport control I was pushed to the gate only then to be told that the Ambulift was not available. This was some 5 minutes before boarding and at no time prior to this was I informed that it was not available. To add insult to injury I was then questioned as to whether I had even requested it.
To get me on board the aircraft 3 of the ground staff carried me and the wheel chair up the stairs which was not pleasant for me and most strenuous for them but I was on board an we flew to Vientiane only to find that I had an even worse problem there.
After several attempts it was decided that I was too heavy to carry down the steps in the wheel chair and one of the ground staff then grabbed me and attempted to carry me on his back which resulted in me on the floor of the aircraft after he dropped me. I suffered severe chest pain and it was only when the air crew came to my rescue that I was able to stand back up again and get my breath. To cut a very long story short, there was no way that the staff were able to get me down the stairs and I ended up crawling down to the runway on my hands and knees. To add insult to injury several people boarding another aircraft stopped to film my decent on there video camera’s. With apologies from the aircrew who seemed to be most embarrassed, I was wheeled in to the terminal with my suit covered in dirt and dust and my hand filthy.
I can honestly say that I have never been so embarrassed and humiliated in my life.
Air Asia had over 48 hours to advise me that A. The Ambulift at K.L. was not available and B. That there were no facilities in Vientiane for disabled passengers.
I sent a complaint to Air Asia on the 4th of March 2009 and every week since but have yet to receive a reply.
I posted a blog just over a week ago with regards the treatment, as a disabled passenger, I received from Air Asia following a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Laos with my family. Being someone that believes that others should be warned if an airline can not, or does not provide the services that it offers, I related my long tale of woe and castigate Air Asia for its failings. I am now however pleased to report that I am, to say the least, most impressed with the response that I have received from Air Asia following my complaint. I did not receive a long list of excuses, my problems were not blamed on computer error or even worse something that I did wrong. Air Asia did what most big companies never seem to do and simply said that they were sorry and that they had got it wrong. Not only did I receive a written apology, several telephone calls from their call centre but I was also telephoned by the Guest Services and Operations Manager Eddie Tan with a full explanation of what went wrong and most important, what Air Asia were doing to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again. OK anyone can write a letter and anyone can pick up a telephone to shut a complaining customer up, if your lucky but I actually received a heart felt apology from Mr Tan that was genuine. It would appear that ground crew, check in staff and even cabin crew were interviewed regarding the incident in an attempt to pinpoint the areas of failure. Like a lot of things a few miner errors, someone entering a wrong code here, an unread fax there, were compounded into one major cock-up of which, unfortunately, I was the recipient. It’s nice to know that young as Air Asia is and as large as Air Asia is becoming, it is not taking the stance of a lot of airlines and that consider disabled people as a necessary evil that can be treated like morons and that Air Asia has the guts to say, we were wrong, we’re sorry and we will make sure it doesn’t happen again. Apology accepted Air Asia.
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