Beware airline's hidden charges
When ploughing through the many booking pages of AirAsia, be aware of this trick: You are asked if you want insurance or not.
If you do not check the box, a pop-up window appears telling you basically you have to check the box to progress to the next page, but you can remove it at the last stage of the long booking process. This is designed to force you to take AirAsia insurance whether you want it or not. AirAsia’s hope and design is that you will forget by the time you get to the end. No doubt this blatant anti-customer trick has caught many out, causing anger and resentment. Also don’t believe AirAsia’s promo cheap flights, since the insurance trick and then further tricks – paying for excess baggage that you might not have and a fee for choosing a seat – bump up the price, making it a not-so-cheap flight. At least one other low-cost airline does not do these tricks, and baggage up to a certain limit is included in the price, as is your seat. Yes, I was caught. Well done, AirAsia. I won’t fly you again.
ROBERT STABLES
BANGKOK
