If you're travelling without check-in luggage, thats not a problem, but if are ... be weary!
Air Asia: Get your act straight !!!
It was our first time flying on AirAsia. Prior to booking, we were told that as a family booking of 6 (2 Adults & 4 kids), we would be seated together (the system would auto designate), and there was no need to book for hot seats as informed by the call centre associates. We departed on 19 Dec 2009 onboard QZ8491 (SIN_DPS)and all went well. We were happy with the service and concluded that we made the right choice booking with AirAsia.
Things were to change though on our return on the 3rd Jan 2010. Firstly, the check in counter was packed, and there were only 2 rows opened for check-in. Then midway through, the AirAsia staffs requested that the passengers, (ourselves included) to switch to other rows as they were opening up the other rows for other airlines. We were requested to go to a self check-in counter. After we were checked in, we found to our dismay, that we were all scattered throughout the aircraft far apart. We told the staff who check us in that we had a 9 year old girl who was afraid to fly alone, and a 11 year old son who is Special Needs (both child needed to seat with each parent, the other 2 older ondes were alright to be seated alone), he was adamant and was not willing to help, he kept on dwelling on us to have pre-booked the hot seats. As the queue was getting longer, we had to leave it as that and decided to try our luck with the cabin crew instead. The cabin crew only managed to meet to our request after much persistence. Strangedly thought another Indonesian family (who did not pay for hot seats) were seated together as a family! They must have made a nice donation I thought!
Things were to get even worse on our arrival. To our dismay, we only managed to retrieve 6 of our 7 check-in bags. I was told to approach AirAsia's lost baggage counter. There was only 1 staff there and she was serving a Caucasian couple. She brought the couple to the luggage belt, and kept on telling me to wait. The next thing I knew, she instructed me to go over to her counter. I demanded for an explanation. She refused to give any answers except to say that we needed to fill out a lost baggage report. When asked to speak to a Duty Manager, her reply was that we needed to exit the arrival hall, and proceed to the departure hall to speak to him. There was no empathy from her, and it seemed that this was a common instance (loss of baggage) to AirAsia. We finally left the arrival hall and proceeded to the departure hall to speak to the duty Supervisor. He said that he would try to do whatever he could (which was basically send and email to Denpasar), a call to the office in Denpasar also did not prove fruitful.
After 2 days of trying to call the number that was provided on the form, I finally got through and the staff said that they were still trying to trace the luggage. I was also instructed to call the lost baggage HQ in Malaysia, till today 7th Jan, the lines are engaged whenever I call. We have all but given up hope. We lost not only valuables, but also a lot of memories along with that bag.
AirAsia, you may be the World's best budget airline, BUT you most definitely have the World's WORST Customer Service!
And to those of you who happen to see a large maroon Ocean Pacific bag in Bali ... it's mine (",)
P.S ... look out for my JBR in a couple of days!