AirAsia flight D72723 4/6/09

I booked a flight from MEL to KUL which would get me to Kuala Lumpur in suitable time to on travel to Shenzhen.

I started the day @ 4.30 am in St Helens Tasmania. I had to catch the only bus for the day @ 8.30. I travelled to LST and then had a wait of 5 hours with limited catering available.

On arriving @ MEL I then discovered my flight to KUL was going to be
6.15 hrs late departing. This gave me a waiting time of 12.15 hours not planned. At approx 9.30 pm the AirAsia check in opened and I was able to get rid of my bag. On checking in I was given a meal voucher.

The problem was, all the catering traders were closing down.

I could only sleep on a bench for 1 hour as the noise and position was too bad.

We were told the plane was going to be late because of fog in Perth the previous day (2/6) some 20 hours before our departure and the airline was unable to catch up. (The steward is now trying to tell me a different version of events.)

So after a sleepless night, I traversed passport control @ 5.30 am expecting we would be airborne @ 7 am as promised.

Wrong again. We lost 30 minutes just loading people on the plane. (Now 7.30). We lost 2 passengers and the flight load schedule) another delay. Then we lost the tow tug. When we finally got the tow tug we had lost our place in the takeoff queue. (Now 7.44).

In the meantime inappropriate music was blaring in my ears with no sound control. Add to that the pilots mumbles. The stewardess thought the time was good to fill the immigration papers and I set my table up. The tug moved us 100 feet so my table was removed.(Now 7.55).

Told there was 7 planes ahead of us by the captain but I counted well over 15 plane movements before we reached the runway (now 8.41am).

The plane rotated @ 08.43 8 full hours behind schedule. My original
transit changeover in KUL of 9 hours now down to 1.15 hours. With the minimum of 45 minutes check in time, I am left with 30 mins. In that time, I have to retrieve my luggage, clear customs into Malaysia, re check in, clear customs, find some food, have a smoke, reboard the next flight. I now discover there is no transit facility as AirAsia, is point to point carrier whatever that means. They did not explain that on the website.

Food, yes you are right. If the original flight was on schedule I did not need to order a meal on my flight. The plane is 8 hours past the time I expected when I booked on line. But now refused a meal as I did not order one. So I am expected to go for 24 hours without decent food. And now after 5 hours since leaving the lounge, I have had 1 cup of fake tea @ a cost of $2.

What a disaster. My 1st & Last flight with AirAsia.
I bet $M that the inflight magazine does not publish this letter in travel3sixty.com, but I am sure I can find many other ways of broadcasting such an unprofessional airline.