Why Airasia booking hurts

Yesterday night, I decided to book flights for my trip back to Sarawak for Chinese New Year 2010. Normally we Sarawakians have to book way in advance so we get better price and seats. For years I had abandoned MAS and flown with Airasia for the better deal and savings. There used to be a huge gap in the airfares. However, MAS is very competitive nowadays and came out with what they call the MHLOW fares, which is like 70% off, therefore, this time I decided to book MAS for my KL to Sibu flight. For Sibu to Kuching, MAS is still more expensive than Airasia, so I went back to the red plane for this one way flight. While making my booking, I was so frustrated for their website.

On the first screen after searching for my flight, things seemed pretty straight forward. With one click, they already show my full fare with all the taxes included on the right sidebar. Compared to MAS, this is better, as in the MAS site, I will be shown the ‘from RM…’ fare, and not the real fare, until I click next to find the different fares, such as MHLow, MHBasic, MHValue etc, that all have different features.

Ok back to Airasia, after choosing the right flight, I am brought to the Guest info page where I can key in my info and passenger’s info. Here, I actually have to add luggage pricing if I have any luggage. Seeing that it’s CNY, I will definitely have things to bring home. So I chose the RM5 for 15kg luggage option for each person. If I don’t choose this, I will have to pay RM10 per person when I am at the airport. I chose to forgo the meal as Sibu to KCH is too short a flight.

At the bottom of the page, they have this new thing where I can choose my seats. I thought why not take a look. I was shocked to find that they have different pricing for different areas of the seating, with those that sit near the cockpit having to pay RM25 each seat. YOuch..if I have so much money, I won’t be flying Airasia la. Anyways, I forgo this option as well, I am then brought straight to the Payment page. Here is where it hurts. Automatically, Airasia added Goinsure, the travel insurance plan to my package. I do not want the insurance, but there is no clear button to cancel. The Note, Note: If you do not wish to purchase travel insurance, you can remove it on the right panel. AirAsia GoInsure is underwritten by Multi-Purpose Insurans Berhad. is written in tiny tiny print in light grey. After finding the Cancel option at the right bar, I click on it. a pop up appears. Normally, when you click Cancel on anything, the pop up should say, If you really want to cancel, click Ok if not, click Cancel. However, this pop up showed, If you are sure you do not require travel insurance, click cancel. Here I feel like they are playing the leading on game. Most people might just click OK without thoroughly reading the popup, as the default popups in windows and most sites are to click OK after already clicking Cancel. Anyways, I guess this is no big deal. Am just writing about it for fun. 😛 But seriously, Airasia need to give cheaper flights, being a budget airline, how can it be more expensive than MAS, the country’s main airline. I am flying MAS to Sibu and from Kuching to KL, and saving some money in the process.