Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Travel News : Air Asia Imposes "Convenience Fee"?

I caught a little bit of news on this on Air Asia's FB page yesterday. And again today found postings about the matter on Trip Advisor.

An excerpt from a TA member's posting :

"Recently AirAsia has started adding an item called 'Convenience Fee' when one make booking with them. AirAsia introduced this fee stealthily - ie w/o any annoucement or notification.

Worse still, this fee is not shown anywhere in the fare calculation and ONLY appears on the FINAL page of your booking just before you confirmed your credit card or other payment details. I believe this is done intentionally so that for those who are not alert might missed this additional charge."

The 'convenience fee' is RM5 per person per sector. So for a return that's RM10 extra per person. I remember paying a convenience fee on Tiger Airways too. Am not sure whether it is the same rate for international flights.

Unlike the other services, this is not optional so that means we have no choice; boo. I wonder why no official announcement has been made, though apparently it has taken effect immediately, perhaps it's applicable from November onwards. Just be informed travellers!

No Fuel Surcharge. No Admin Fee.

But, say hello to Convenience Fee :s

8 comments:

  1. I also realize about the fee this week when I helped my aunt to purchase the air ticket.

    What a rip-off

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tiger Airways have convenience fee S$5 per sector

    ReplyDelete
  3. But it is not hidden tiger crouching dragon haha.. its found directly below the ticket fare

    ReplyDelete
  4. convenient for Air Asia to rip us off all right.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Borneo Falcon : If only they had an official announcement about it then people won't feel cheated.

    Anon : :-) They are trying hard to crouch and hide by the looks of it.

    Jason LT : Thing is, I don't see why they are silent about it...but I'll still fly with them nevertheless. RM5 is not exorbitant but the manner in which it's being imposed is questionable. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry for my ignorance, but what's the convenience fee for again?

    ReplyDelete
  7. 6pooe : AirAsia has yet to explain what it is actually, however I think it's just another name for admin fee.

    ReplyDelete
  8. yupp, I did notice that additional fee when I bought my AA flight tickets recently. I think the same fee applies for other low-cost airlines such as jetstar. So, Air Asia as being a pioneer is not that true after all.

    ReplyDelete