This evening, I will be en route to Malaysia for China’s eight-day National Day holiday. But the trip didn’t come together without difficulty, thanks to Air Asia’s obscure ticketing rules. The following is a cautionary tale for the southeast-Asia bound:
I began shopping for flights in August, and my first stop was the Air Asia web site. I’d only heard good things about the budget airline, which has dramatically increased its service in China over the past couple of years. They don’t serve Changsha, but they have tons of flights from Guangzhou, which is a relatively painless train or plane ride away. I chose flights from Guangzhou to Kuala Lumpur, filled out my personal information and made choices about my luggage, meals and seats. Everything went smoothly until it came time to fill out my payment information. I hit “Enter” and was immediately informed that my credit card had been denied.
Fears of identity theft ran through my head, so I asked my parents to call my American bank to check the situation. It turned out that they had never received any request from Air Asia. When my dad tried to book a ticket using his credit card, the same thing happened. Google suggests that this problem is a common one: Despite the fact that their website says they accept U.S. credit cards, the transactions are never actually processed. The American credit card companies charge hefty transaction fees, which Air Asia doesn’t want to pay. But instead of giving a straight answer, they just deny your card.
Using a debit card, a solution suggested on some websites, doesn’t solve the problem. Some of my fellow teachers are also going to Malaysia for this holiday, and the only way they were able to fly on Air Asia was to get a Chinese friend to use his local credit card to buy their tickets. I ended up finding cheap tickets from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines. (The prices on their website are significantly cheaper than the prices that turn up using search engines like Kayak.)
Every budget airlines is out to save a buck (or in this case, a ringgit). But if their money-saving techniques make it impossible to actually buy their tickets, the strategy isn’t going to go far. Has anyone had a successful experience with Air Asia’s website? Did I miss an alternative way to buy tickets?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Small potatoes, air Asia works great… Ask ten thousand Asian kids
I agree that Air Asia definitely has its advantages — price especially — but it bothers me that they flat-out lie about being able to use foreign credit cards. Foreign travelers aren’t their main audience, so it might make sense not to pay the credit card company fees. But that’s no reason to lie to us.