AirAsia's ad hoc seating an unnecessary hassle
AirAsia's ad hoc seating an unnecessary hassle
Lynn ML Cheang | Apr 17, 09 2:33pm
I write to highlight a flaw in AirAsia's seat allocation policy and hope that AirAsia will take notice and do something to correct it.
I booked in June 2007 to fly Kuching/Penang on 08/03/2009 and return Penang/Kuching on 12/04/2009 for my family of four and pre-booked four meals during flight. My last travel via AirAsia had been in March 2007. At that time, the policy was still on a free seating basis.
On checking in and being issued boarding passes, I was pleasantly surprised to note that we were being allocated seating. It never occurred to us to check the sequence of the seats assigned to us as my son who did the check-in handed to us individually our boarding passes.
Imagine my shock when we were on board to find the four of us separated into three different locations. The lady who took my seat pleaded to exchange her seat with mine as she thought I was travelling alone and I was allocated a seat next to her husband whilst she was allocated a seat three rows away on the opposite aisle.
I grudgingly acceded but became anxious when I suddenly remembered I had pre-booked dinners without my family members being aware about it. I asked the cabin crew and was told that we could exchange seats after the plane took off but that left me even more unhappy as I take issue to having to plead with other passengers for a favour to exchange their seat with mine.
When the plane was airborne, I managed to exchange seats so that my husband, daughter and myself were next to each other. I personally witnessed three other groups of passengers complaining amongst themselves about being separated and that it was a deliberate action by AirAsia to get people to pay extra money.
I managed to speak to the chief steward who explained the policy change in Oct/Nov 2008. He assisted to ensure that my son, seated several rows away, got his dinner and gave me a complaint form to complete as I wanted the backroom people of AirAsia to do something about this.
Consequently, the captain came and explained the whole policy again and replied rather loudly that it was all clearly stated on the website. I told him that I booked way back in June when the seating policy had not been changed and was therefore not aware about it; neither did we receive any SMS about it too.
Furthermore, we had checked in by presenting all four identity cards together so the check-in personnel couldn't have been so dumb as to purposely put us in separate seats all over the plane. It would have been outright illogical and unreasonable.
And we checked in very early, more than 90 minutes before ETD. I further told him that all this confusion and hassle needed to be reverted back to the policy-makers and IT personnel as there were several others experiencing the same treatment except that I was assertive enough to be vocal about it. I had intended to let the matter end there.
However yesterday, upon returning to work, my employee and her family of six whom I assisted with the booking for the same period to Kuala Lumpur complained to me of the same hassle.
Hers was worse as she is only a simple, kampung lady with two children, Farouk, aged 8 and Shima aged 10 being allocated seats all by themselves surrounded by strangers and this was the first time on board an airplane for them.
Naturally the children were in tears and the mother had to plead with the total strangers seated next to her to exchange seats with her two small children. She said they had also checked in early having departed from home at 3 pm for a 5.15pm flight to KL.
Again it was the same scenario on the return trip KL/Kuching even though she had requested the AirAsia personnel on duty at check-in for close seating to which the AirAsia personnel responded to in the affirmative.
She also said that when she asked the cabin crew, all they said was that she could exchange seats when the plane was airborne. As if that would eliminate the hassle.
AirAsia should take note of this predicament at their frontline and make immediate adjustments to their seating policy procedures so as not to put passengers in a state of distress, especially first time travellers, the elderly, the young and the illiterate.
This present situation only imposes the perception that AirAsia is patronising and this is a deliberate attempt to make more revenue and places unnecessary pressure on its frontline staff, ie the cabin crew.
Lynn ML Cheang | Apr 17, 09 2:33pm
I write to highlight a flaw in AirAsia's seat allocation policy and hope that AirAsia will take notice and do something to correct it.
I booked in June 2007 to fly Kuching/Penang on 08/03/2009 and return Penang/Kuching on 12/04/2009 for my family of four and pre-booked four meals during flight. My last travel via AirAsia had been in March 2007. At that time, the policy was still on a free seating basis.
On checking in and being issued boarding passes, I was pleasantly surprised to note that we were being allocated seating. It never occurred to us to check the sequence of the seats assigned to us as my son who did the check-in handed to us individually our boarding passes.
Imagine my shock when we were on board to find the four of us separated into three different locations. The lady who took my seat pleaded to exchange her seat with mine as she thought I was travelling alone and I was allocated a seat next to her husband whilst she was allocated a seat three rows away on the opposite aisle.
I grudgingly acceded but became anxious when I suddenly remembered I had pre-booked dinners without my family members being aware about it. I asked the cabin crew and was told that we could exchange seats after the plane took off but that left me even more unhappy as I take issue to having to plead with other passengers for a favour to exchange their seat with mine.
When the plane was airborne, I managed to exchange seats so that my husband, daughter and myself were next to each other. I personally witnessed three other groups of passengers complaining amongst themselves about being separated and that it was a deliberate action by AirAsia to get people to pay extra money.
I managed to speak to the chief steward who explained the policy change in Oct/Nov 2008. He assisted to ensure that my son, seated several rows away, got his dinner and gave me a complaint form to complete as I wanted the backroom people of AirAsia to do something about this.
Consequently, the captain came and explained the whole policy again and replied rather loudly that it was all clearly stated on the website. I told him that I booked way back in June when the seating policy had not been changed and was therefore not aware about it; neither did we receive any SMS about it too.
Furthermore, we had checked in by presenting all four identity cards together so the check-in personnel couldn't have been so dumb as to purposely put us in separate seats all over the plane. It would have been outright illogical and unreasonable.
And we checked in very early, more than 90 minutes before ETD. I further told him that all this confusion and hassle needed to be reverted back to the policy-makers and IT personnel as there were several others experiencing the same treatment except that I was assertive enough to be vocal about it. I had intended to let the matter end there.
However yesterday, upon returning to work, my employee and her family of six whom I assisted with the booking for the same period to Kuala Lumpur complained to me of the same hassle.
Hers was worse as she is only a simple, kampung lady with two children, Farouk, aged 8 and Shima aged 10 being allocated seats all by themselves surrounded by strangers and this was the first time on board an airplane for them.
Naturally the children were in tears and the mother had to plead with the total strangers seated next to her to exchange seats with her two small children. She said they had also checked in early having departed from home at 3 pm for a 5.15pm flight to KL.
Again it was the same scenario on the return trip KL/Kuching even though she had requested the AirAsia personnel on duty at check-in for close seating to which the AirAsia personnel responded to in the affirmative.
She also said that when she asked the cabin crew, all they said was that she could exchange seats when the plane was airborne. As if that would eliminate the hassle.
AirAsia should take note of this predicament at their frontline and make immediate adjustments to their seating policy procedures so as not to put passengers in a state of distress, especially first time travellers, the elderly, the young and the illiterate.
This present situation only imposes the perception that AirAsia is patronising and this is a deliberate attempt to make more revenue and places unnecessary pressure on its frontline staff, ie the cabin crew.
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