Airasia Reviews | Opinions of Airasia shared by travelers

The old bait and switch has been around since advertising was first conceived, but Air Asia has perfected the technique to an art form. They promote a super rate and then by adding a myriad of charges to increase revenue with a website that seems designed to confuse and bulk up the fare as much as possible whilst the “session is about to expire” message urges you to take action and not delay.
What seems like a Budget fare is quickly turned into one that is the same as a full service airline because you need to pay to: top up the planes tank, check in, for a snack (and if you try to bring outside food on board the service Nazi’s will threaten you), to bring luggage, be insured… To sum up the experience, I felt like a foreigner in a crowded market full of pickpockets and couldn’t wait to log off.
So buyers beware when booking online and hold onto your wallet while navigating the latest online game “Run the Air Asia Pickpocket Gauntlet.”

Value for money? Yes and no. It is a cut-price carrier, but is it worth it? I found the online booking process arduous and deliberately misleading, with nag-screens and boxes to click that look as if you're accepting terms and conditions of the airline, but in reality it is a sign-up flogging AirAsia Insurance. I am sure that a huge number of passengers are unwittingly charged. This airline has also introduced a $3 'tax' if passengers don't use automated check-in by printing out their itinerary and scanning the bar code, citing that this is for our convenience. What? My printer was broken! You still have to queue up to deposit your bags, so where is the convenience? As to the planes, mine was looking pretty filthy both inside and out, and was delayed due to mechanical issues after we had boarded. An hour and a half wait with no aircon, and we were away. It wasn't until I was safely back on earth and online that I saw the anti-AirAsia blog about safety - http://airasiaannus.blogspot.com/2009/09/airasia-safety-part-2.html - so I am sure that was the last time I will fly AirAsia.

Reading the blog, I actually took the time to check the links to original news articles where the airline's senior management brag about cutting corners on safety matters, ie, ""Connor McCarthy says AirAsia's operating secrets aren't so secret: a lot of small cuts on the cost side and a lot of incremental increases on the revenue side. A no-frills airline requires fewer staffers -- Singapore Airlines flies nearly the same number of passengers but has four times as many employees -- and Southeast Asia's labor costs are low. Regulations are more lax too; a Ryanair pilot can only fly 900 hours a year under European Union law, but AirAsia's crew can log 1,000." from the AirAsia boardmember, Connor McCarthy [Jeff Chu - Washington Post/Portfolio.com: Business Travel, Tuesday, October 23, 2007] And that comment is the tip of the ice berg.

Fly AirAsia? Not Me.