Since budget flights came into existence in Asia, I’ve taken dozens of flights on AirAsia, Tiger Airways and Jetstar. Out of these three, my favourite is actually AirAsia. Actually in terms of comfort and service Jetstar is the best, but it is a bit on the expensive side.
It is not difficult to see why AirAsia is the best overall budget airline, and why it has received so many awards. Take the ongoing Bangkok airport crisis for example. TIger and Jetstar required customers to call them to make alternative arrangements. However, customers complained of not being able to get through to an agent despite hours of waiting. This causes further frustration for the already frustrated passengers whose travel plans have been disrupted.
On the other hand, AirAsia is obviously well-prepared for such crisis. According to it’s website, it has a system in place to provide automatic credit refunds to customers, who do not need to contact AirAsia at all. Customers can use the credit to purchase tickets in future. This helps to reduce constraints on the call center, while preserving a minimum standard of customer service (i.e. all affected customers would receive refunds without any action required – no frustrations of not being able to get through to an agent at the call center).
The costs of implementing such a refund system is not high at all, it probably just involves an additional feature built into the existing flight booking system. In fact it helps to save costs in the form of reduced customer service load, and more satisfied customers who would return again. On the other hand for the other budget airlines, customers may be so affected by problems in getting their refunds or making alternative travel arrangements with the airlines that they would never travel with these airlines again.
There are other reasons why I think AirAsia is the best.
1. It’s food and beverages are reasonably priced as compared to competitors’, and charges for auxillary services are also lower – i.e. baggage, extra legroom seating, priority boarding, etc.
2. It promises a RM200 voucher for each passenger if any flight is delayed for more than 2 hours. This is a sign of confidence that it is able to ensure minimal delays, for it would result in heavy losses for the airline due to this promise.
3. It flies to the most number of destinations, including long-haul ones to London on AirAsia X
4. It’s recent move to remove fuel surcharges is a good initiative to provide more transparent pricing in an industry that is often criticized for lack of transparency in imposing miscellaneous fees and charges. Unlike other airlines, you see the final price that you will pay on the flight selection page itself, not until you are about to click purchase. One very irritating gimmick of Tiger and Jetstar is that they impose “convenience fees” for paying by credit cards that don’t show up until you select the credit card payment mode.
5. It flies out of T1 at Changi Airport, not the budget terminal like Tiger does. I do prefer the facilities at T1, although the departure tax is slightly higher but still not that high anyway. I suspect it saves airlines more money than passengers do to fly out of the BT.
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Hiya,
Just to point out re: Jetstar Asia. There are cheaper fares if one knows when to look!
I generally find that fares are cheaper if one looks on the website a little after 2100hrs SGT — I suspect this has something to do with the server being in Australia.
But yeah, the tax difference is negligible with Tigger Airways flying out of the Budget Terminal. Between routes that 3K and Tigger both fly to, I actually find that Jetstar is cheaper 50% of the time. It also doesn’t help that Tigger’s flights have the worst early-morning departures ever on the routes I fly.
Wow. Thanks for the tip! Now I know when to check… I always thought prices only change on Tuesdays when they have new promotions, besides the supply-demand fluctuations.
Tiger used to be really cheap. But now the prices seem to have been ‘normalized’. I remember booking tickets to BKK for less than $80 per pax at the beginning. Now, even though fuel prices have dropped drastically, the surcharges still remain high. I suspect it’s because airlines have hedged heavily against fuel price hikes and now are stuck with high priced fuel contracts when prices have dropped.
I would prefer Jetstar any day over Tiger. And yeah, the departure hours are unearthly for Tiger – 6am flights for many destinations. Factor in the taxi ride and there goes the savings.
3K is really cheap for KL flights now… just $33 out of T1 if booked early. That’s cheaper than many coach rides. Looking forward to more budget flights to places like Penang in the near future.
[...] Bernard] – NO BUNS NO LIFE: Biological Terrorist Attack likely by 2013 – this lush garden within: Budget airlines – AirAsia’s the best – the boy who knew too much: The value of long-term research – Endoh’s Dungeon: BRAND’S [...]