AirAsia From Goodwill to Fine Print

Gone are the days where you can take a business on their word, where their priority is the customer and the goodwill that creates for them.

Airlines are one of the most polarizing businesses around these days. Most treat customers poorly and do as they like when it comes to cancelling and delaying flights. Not one care is given to the customer, it’s all to do with the bottom line, the balance sheet and the stock price.

I recently had such an experience with the budget airline, Air Asia. This tale stretches back to the dark days of COVID and a cancelled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. As COVID was starting to kick off and travel became near impossible, airlines were grounded and flights cancelled en masse.

It seemed like AirAsia where doing the right thing!

It was the perfect storm for airlines holding millions of dollars in fares paid for flights that would never happen. This, combined with the total grounding of 95% of all flights, meant almost every airline was looking down the barrel of bankruptcy.

AirAsia issued millions of credit vouchers to customers who were holding cancelled flights, including me. This week I had my first chance to use one of these vouchers. There are so many terms and conditions that led me to believe that they were offered knowing full well that most people would never be able to use them.

AirAsia vouchers are challenging because of their strict terms and conditions, including limited flight allocations, restrictions on Fly-Thru, and a minimum journey length of 4 hours.

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My chance to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Bali with my voucher was denied because the flight was only 3 hours. I am livid, why should it matter the length of the flight? What is owed is owed.

In the end, I paid for a more expensive flight with Malaysian Airlines, just on principle. No way was I going to give AirAsia any of my money. I am not alone in this dilemma; I posted about this in a Facebook group and had other people tell me of their frustration with trying to use AirAsia vouchers and their poor customer service.

AirAsia, it’s poor form to treat your customers this way. This tells me that I will probably never get to use these credit vouchers, and that is what AirAsia wants.

Who are we?

Meet the team behind We Travel Alone.

Mark Wyld

Blogger, Content Creator, Website Design

I am Mark. I set out on a journey of blogging and creating content nearly ten years ago. Having travelled to over 45 countries inspired me to create some outlets to share our experiences. Through this, Bec and I have made a living online and plan a future as digital nomads.

Bec Wyld

Blogger, Content Creator, Editor

I am Bec. Mark dragged me kicking and screaming into blogging and content creation. We have enjoyed travelling as a family over the past 18 years, and now Mark and I plan to head off as a couple. I have been featured on national radio Radio 2GB in Sydney, Australia, discussing travel with teens.