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snowy32
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Location: NZ
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 Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:18 pm Post subject: Air Asia free seats! |
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They're having a give away of 500,000 free seats for travelling later in the year. The give away only lasts 2 days and it just started today.
www.airasia.com |
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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Has anyone actually done this?
I'm probably being cynical, but what's the catch? |
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snowy32
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Location: NZ
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:24 am Post subject: |
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You still have to pay airport taxes and that sort of thing.
That's all I could think of. |
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xCustomx
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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| So you just book a normal ticket and only pay the taxes, as long as the ticket is below 500,000W? |
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willneverteachagain
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| wasnt there a scam about this a while back? |
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willneverteachagain
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| So you just book a normal ticket and only pay the taxes, as long as the ticket is below 500,000W |
what the hell are u talking about? where did u 500,000 won from?
from what i can see, most of the places are places people never heard of and would have not 1 reason to go there. I did some clicking and it says 29.99 |
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willneverteachagain
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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Depart
Wed 19 Dec 2007 - Singapore(SIN) to Bangkok(BKK) Flight Departs Arrives Passenger Fare Type
FD 3502 11:00 AM (SIN) 12:15 PM (BKK) Adult
29.99 SGD I FARE
FD 3504 03:35 PM (SIN) 04:55 PM (BKK) Adult
29.99 SGD I FARE
FD 3506 08:40 PM (SIN) 10:00 PM (BKK) Adult
29.99 SGD I FARE
FD 3508 10:50 PM (SIN) 12:10 AM (BKK)+ Adult
29.99 SGD I FARE
Return
Sat 19 Jan 2008 - Bangkok(BKK) to Singapore(SIN) Flight Departs Arrives Passenger Fare Type
FD 3501 07:05 AM (BKK) 10:30 AM (SIN) Adult
0.00 SGD W FARE
FD 3503 11:45 AM (BKK) 03:00 PM (SIN) Adult
0.00 SGD W FARE
FD 3505 04:45 PM (BKK) 08:05 PM (SIN) Adult
0.00 SGD W FARE
FD 3507 06:50 PM (BKK) 10:10 PM (SIN) Adult
0.00 SGD W FARE
it doesnt look like a scam to me unless the tickets are fake somehow[/quote] |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:04 am Post subject: |
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| willneverteachagain wrote: |
| wasnt there a scam about this a while back? |
No, there is/was no scam. For many people like me who live in Southeast Asia, Air Asia is like the public bus. "snowy32" is right that you have to pay the taxes, and they're significant, especially for international flights.
Also, there's only a limited number of free seats per flight, and some flights/dates around the local school holidays are blocked out (or they sold out really fast).
The last time they did this, in January, it was very difficult to book tickets because their servers melted under the massive traffic. I had a bunch of tickets for the year to book, so I set my alarm and did it all - 32 tickets worth - at 2AM.
The fare is listed in the currency of the departure country. MYR is Malaysian ringgit, THB is Thai Baht, and BND is Brunei dollars. SGD is Singapore dollars, which is par with Brunei.
Air Asia is a godsend for passengers in the region. Before Air Asia, the region had been like Korea and Japan - highly regulated, protectionist flag carriers charging $500US for a two-hour flight. Those dinosaur lines are still around, but they're flying empty.
KL<->Bangkok, round trip, costs $250US, plus taxes on real airlines like Thai or Malaysia Airlines.
Or, $71US taxes included, round trip, on Air Asia.
*Friendly Air Asia tip: Their non-assigned seating is easily the most frustrating thing about Air Asia, not because of the airline but because of selfish and aggressive fellow passengers who push, shove and trample their way to what they believe are better seats. This works magic for the airline - 140 passengers can board an A320 in 6 minutes with that kind of last-hours-of-Saigon pushing - but for the passengers it's like festival seating, The Who, Cincinnati, 1979.
However, you can make the sheer stupidity and sheep-mentality of the local population work for you. Yes, I'm dripping in arrogance and condescension here, but after the bazillions of Air Asia flights I've taken, I feel I have earned the right.
Here's how:
If they have two staircases going up to the plane, front and back, BOARD BY THE BACK ONE. Nearly no one does - they all go in the front. The result: the front of the plane is stuffed full of silly local people who seem to believe sitting in front will get them there first, while the back of the plane is nearly empty. You might even get a whole row to yourself, especially if you're willing to take the perfectly-fine last row, even though the seats don't recline (so what). Also, you will get served food and drinks first, though you have to pay for it. Prices are reasonable.
Then when the plane lands, if you get two staircases to the plane again, you can be one of the first off for the immigration line. |
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the eye
Joined: 29 Jan 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:48 am Post subject: |
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| The Lemon wrote: |
| willneverteachagain wrote: |
| wasnt there a scam about this a while back? |
No, there is/was no scam. |
Why then , when i booked an available 'free' flight in the allowable time perios, the total was their regular fare price. |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:00 am Post subject: |
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| the eye wrote: |
| The Lemon wrote: |
| willneverteachagain wrote: |
| wasnt there a scam about this a while back? |
No, there is/was no scam. |
Why then , when i booked an available 'free' flight in the allowable time perios, the total was their regular fare price. |
See my post, re "there's only a limited number of free seats per flight". No different from a seat sale with any other airline.
The weekend and holiday free seats sell out first, so try a different day. Also difficult to book are free seats on the KL-Macau and Bangkok-Macau flights, as well as the flights to Kuching and Angkor Wat, and Johor Bharu (Singapore) to Phuket.
By the way, there is no such thing as a "regular price" with Air Asia for any route. The rates constantly bounce around between specific price levels for each route. When seats in the lowest level sell out - or their marketing people predict a certain day/week will be busy because of school holidays - the price bumps up to the next level. |
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the eye
Joined: 29 Jan 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:42 am Post subject: |
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So, the only way to know if you scored a free flight, is by hit and miss... until you finally get a zero fare plus tax?
I thought the whole idea behind the color coding of seat availability was to show which flights had free seats. |
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chickyabroad
Joined: 24 Jul 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:53 am Post subject: |
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I looked at this after seeing this post. Since I'm going to be traveling around SEA next fall, I thought it would be perfect. And the prices do seem very good, every date and destination combination I looked at still had free seats and the taxes only came to about 30 USD one way.
My only concern was that when I went to book, it asked me for my passport number, but the page wasn't secure and even though it looked like the passport information was optional, it wouldn't let me go to the next step without filling it in. Has anyone had any problems with this? Am I just being paranoid? |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:20 am Post subject: |
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| the eye wrote: |
| I thought the whole idea behind the color coding of seat availability was to show which flights had free seats. |
Not flights, months. And not every flight in that month would still have free flights available even if it shows green, nor does it promise that. The most popular flights, like the weekends, go fastest.
Furthermore, the data is not real-time, which means since they made the chart 12 hours ago, more squares have turned yellow and red. So what was green then may not be now. Free flights get snapped up quickly.
| Quote: |
| My only concern was that when I went to book, it asked me for my passport number, but the page wasn't secure and even though it looked like the passport information was optional, it wouldn't let me go to the next step without filling it in. Has anyone had any problems with this? Am I just being paranoid? |
Yes, you're being paranoid. This is not a fly-by-night operation, so to speak - they've just bought 160 Airbus A320s, and are close to becoming the #1 airline in Asia - of any kind - based on passengers flown per year. I've never heard of anyone have anything bad happen to them based on online ticketing. And considering the enemies Air Asia has among the full-cost carriers and their employees because of the threat they pose, if there ever was an issue, the world would be swiftly informed.
Your passport number (unlike the passport itself) is hardly private and sensitive - in SE Asia it's necessary to plop that number down when checking into hotels and guest houses, to pick up mail, for a whole collection of forms... it's not like a social security number or credit card number, which you of course keep confidential. |
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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[quote="The Lemon"]
| the eye wrote: |
Your passport number (unlike the passport itself) is hardly private and sensitive |
I beg to differ on this point, especially sending it over unsecured websites.
(But thanks for your other information - much appreciated) |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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| I beg to differ on this point, especially sending it over unsecured websites. |
I don't want to come off as argumentative, but I think I need to be walked through this to see the danger that I just don't believe is there.
Let's say someone at Air Asia's server host (and your Korean ISP, if that's how you're accessing the internet) has access to your passport number, along with those of 20 million other passengers. What do you believe may happen to you?
All things being equal, getting hit by lightning is far more likely than "identity theft via passport number". And dying in a Seoul or Kuala Lumpur bus or taxi on any random day is even likelier still. Yet we do these things without a second thought.
Consider this: if you come to Southeast Asia, every employee of every guest house, hotel or resort will also have free access to that passport number. Every maid, every bellhop, every front desk clerk. If there's truly a danger in letting your passport number out - and I'm not convinced of it - be more worried about that large, potentially unsavoury crowd than the dweebs running the Air Asia server or your ISP.
Or, just don't worry.
Now your credit card, on the other hand - worry *big* about that - don't let them take it out of your sight, ever. If they say their machine is broken and they need to take your card next door, *pay in cash*. Malaysia is the credit card cloning capital of Asia. I had mine cloned two years ago there. Two weeks after I got home, my bank called me one lunchtime: "are you trying to buy gas in Kuala Lumpur right now?" Um, no. |
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