Random Notes on AirAsia

Self check-in kiosk

I was on a business trip to Sabah last January. As the management wanted to cut cost, I was ‘forced’ to fly with AirAsia, the budget airline.

I decided the give AirAsia’s self check-in service a try. You know, Tony Fernandes is doing everything to improve efficiency and cut cost. If passengers check-in by themselves, the workload of the ground staff would be reduced. Ideally, this should speed up process at the counters and help the airline to cut cost. AirAsia’s website declares:

Our self check-in service gives you a quicker, more convenient way of checking-in. Now, you can choose to check-in at your convenience by using your mobile, at our airport kiosks or via the internet… We assure you it’ll be quick, convenient and easy to use. Try it now!

Thing didn’t turn out so rosy. After checking-in at the kiosk and obtaining the boarding pass, I still had to check in my baggage at the counter. And on that day, the queue at the ‘baggage drop counter’ was longer than those at normal service counters!

Self check-in is useful if we do not have baggage to check in. But with tight security imposed at the airports these days, how often can we fly without check-in baggage?

~~~~~~~~

AirAsia used to hire only female cabin crew, but now it has started to observe gender equality. In my return trip from Sabah, two out of the three cabin crew were males. Unlike the stewardess, who wore red, the male cabin crew wore black. I don’t really like their black uniform. And, apparently, I prefer pretty stewardesses to handsome stewards

~~~~~~~~

I saw an AirAsia stewardess closed the cabinet door with a kick of her heel. C’mon, can you please be more feminine?