Monday, February 22, 2010

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?

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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?

13 comments:

  1. Hahaha :D Ouh..so now you are complaining that Airasia is hiring cheap handsome males and get rid of the more expensive gorgeous chicks lar? :p

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  2. I wanted to say Tiger Airway stewardess uniform is prettier than AirAsia, but ok that will be off-topic.

    As long as the air tickets are cheap, there are many inconveniences I can close one eye on.

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  3. i definitely would prefer handsome stewards to stewardess :p about the kicking cabinet door part, i think sometimes people are just frustrated :P or kicking is definitely faster than having to bend down and close with hands

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  4. Cheap thing no good???

    If the services are equal or even close to other premium airlines, few premium airlines will survive....

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  5. LOL At the kicking part! Well maybe AirAsia has more female passengers than male, hence more stewards than stewardess! :)

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  6. Haha...you're not alone on this. Their so-called 'self check-in' via the internet doesn't work. Wonder why they bothered to implement this.

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  7. tekkaus
    Yes, I'm complaining, LOL...

    Shingo
    Price is also my major concern, unfortunately.

    xin
    I know kicking the cabinet door was fast, but don't do so in front of passengers la...

    Grass
    Cheap thing not so good, but I have to bear with it.

    witch
    I think there are about the same number of male and female passengers.

    Mei Ting
    Self check in doesn't work for passengers, but maybe good for AirAsia.

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  8. I wonder if we'll ever see a MAS stewardess kicking the cabinet.

    Hmmm... I've never thought about whether I like more stewards or stewardesses onboard. I guess a balance is just right.

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  9. haha, she's so not feminine!

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  10. I have yet to find an efficient self-check in. There is always a problem somewhere and you end up queuing anyway...

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  11. Happysurfer
    Maybe 1/3 males, and 2/3 females.

    wenn
    That doesn't look great...

    Zhu
    Looks like no airlines have made self-check in work.

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  12. Gong Xi Fa Cai!!
    hahahaaaa..... wat an experience!!

    * let me think abt it... cant remember wat i did
    probably i din do anything at all ~ XD

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  13. for us, only if AirAsia don't fly to the destination that we can opt for other airlines, hahaha!!

    i think if i'll go the self check-in kiosk if i don't have check-in luggage.. i still don't trust the system yet (in LCCT particularly)..

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