Spicejet to add amphibious planes that can land on water, fields

As per this NDTV report, Spicejet is in talks with a Japanese company to introduce 100 small planes capable of landing on water, fields or any small stretch of land just 300 meters long.

This seems to be an ambitious project for spicejet, that almost removes dependency on airport infrastructure (runways, control tower, terminals, hangers etc) and a major cost component-fee that needs to paid to airport operator for every passenger flown. By having an ability to land anywhere, Spicejet can rapidly expand to smaller towns that have good business potential but no airport.

Above: A representative image, of sea planes in Maldives. More about Kodiak plane on wikipedia

If this dream project gets government approval, then it will revolutionize air travel. Any airline can simply buy couple of fields, create a 300 meter long strip and start flying in. Plus the amphibious plane will have very limited seating- 15-20, so it won’t be hard to fill them up. If spicejet manages monopoly, they can afford to charge a premium. Businessmen and rich people will be happy to pay a few k more, if it can save them several hours of road travel.

But few points to note about Kodiak planes: 

• I doubt if Kodiac planes have instrument rating. This means they can fly during day time only, if weather is clear.
• There will be no cabin pressurization. Flight will be at very low level (10000 ft or lower)
• Don't think there will be toilets on board either, forget food service or anything else
• I believe Kodiak's still need a ground controller to guide them, keep them safe. So Spicejet can't entirely avoid ground infra.
• Too many small planes will crowd our skies and put air traffic controllers in great stress. Hope everyone involved factors this.
• Kodiak is a single engine plane. Should it fail, pilot has very little time to make a crash landing. Anyway such risk is much lower than risk of road accidents, in my opinion

Curious to see how this idea develops. Will the government give speedy approvals, will the test flights be success, how will passengers respond and so on. Let us wait and see. Interesting times ahead

Some sample potential destinations

Wayanad- Wayanad is 300 kms from Bengaluru, 150 from Mysuru, 100 kms from Calicut (nearest airport). If Spicejet can fly people on to Wayanad directly- say Kochi- Wayanad-Bengaluru, lots of tourists will be happy to hop on the flight.

Shivamogga: Shivamogga in Karnataka is gateway to various tourist destinations (such as Agumbe, jog falls) and also a main city. If Spicejet can fly say Mangaluru-Shivamogga-Bengaluru, many customers will prefer it over road travel.

Vellore- Temple town of Vellore is half way between Bengaluru n Chennai. A flight here will get good business. 

There're thousands of such potential destinations in India. Let us see what will be first destination Spicejet will consider...

Are you excited about this prospect of flying where no formal airport exists? Do share your thoughts...

Direct Flight potential destination-Hanoi, Vietnam

If you're CEO of an airline based in India looking to expand, what could be one city you can consider?

In this series, I've already written about Bali  which also has great potential but no direct flights from India.

Next potential destination I can think of is Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam has relatively easy Visa process (details here) for Indians. But due to absence of direct flights, very few Indians visit Vietnam. Reaching Vietnam costs almost twice the flight cost to Thailand, though Vietnam is just a little further from Thailand. At present to reach Vietnam Indians need to take one stop flight via Singapore, or Malayasia or Bangkok. A direct flight can motivate more and more Indians to visit Vietnam. Even if 5% of tourists heading to Bangkok or Singapore or Malaysia decide to visit Vietnam instead, it can keep couple of planes full. From Hanoi tourists can also take short flight to Cambodia, Laos or other adjacent countries.

Top reasons why India based airlines should consider direct flight to Hanoi, Vietnam

1. Untapped potential- not many Indians have visited Vietnam compared to Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore. If given easy flight option many will be happy to visit Vietnam
2. Easy visa process for Indians 
3. Not too far. Within range of A320/B737 from India (B737 has a range of 10000 kms, Delhi to Hanoi is only 5000 kms approx)
4. Codeshare with Vietnam airlines or other carriers to offer easy connectivity to Laos, Taiwan, Cambodia etc from Hanoi
5. Considering volume of passengers visiting South East Asia, making say 2-3% of them fly to Vietnam won't be difficult. Enough to fill few planes
6. Vietnam is cheaper, offers great attractions of tourist interest.
7. Indian carriers may also get Vietnam passengers heading to Europe or Middle East (Hanoi-New Delhi-Amsterdam for example), thus boosting overall load factor.

Vietnam is very pocket friendly country. I did a one week trip in 45000, everything (Flight + hotel + site seeing etc) included. Check details here. Places to visit around Hanoi:

• Halong Bay
• Perfume Pagoda
• Sapa Trek

and many more. Read more Vietnam posts on my main blog here * My experience with Jet Star Pacific * 

Ho Chi Minh city (formerly Saigon) is another potential destination in Vietnam.

This letter from norwegian reward almost made me cry!

Norwegian is a lovely airline in Europe, Scandinavia to be precise. They operate lots of flights,mostly in Northern Europe but few long haul as well- to US and Bangkok. When I was based in Denmark for couple of months back in 2015, I had taken few of their flights for my weekend trips- Copenhagen Bergen, Copenhagen-Helsinki etc. The flights had free WiFi and overall flying experience was great. It was very unfortunate that my Europe assignment ended before I could fly more with them.

Two years down the line, I'm in receipt of below mail, which I felt very touching for the way it is written. It is written as if a lost lover is writing to you, than a business entity. Most airlines simply send a mail stating your loyalty points are about to expire. But the way Norwegian has put it feels very personal, touchy and as if they really really love me. Do give it a read- very very creative.

Unfortunately they don't have much connectivity in India so I am unable to fly with them more. If I plan a Europe trip in future, I will definitely give them some priority over other airlines.

On this excuse, let me share some of my pics of flying with Norwegian

Norwegian has this unique practice of printing photos of various achievers on its tail fin.

 Norwegian Boeing 737, enroute to Bergen from Copenhagen. Read my Bergen travelogue here

 A Norwegian plane on tarmac

 Now boarding...

 Somewhere over Finland

Also read: Comparison of 7 European airlines 

Malindo Air Sale: Cheap tickets for January-April 2018!

If you’re wondering where to go early next year, here’re some cheap options with Malindo Air. Unlike its rivals Air Asia and Scoot, Malindo Air’s base price includes baggage allowance (30 kg for most cases) and meals on board, even WiFi in some cases. So if you have luggage to check in, Malindo might be more economical overall than Airasia/Scoot, whose price might be cheaper in some cases, but after adding baggage and meals, might prove to be more expensive. The comparison between Malindo and other airlines warrants a separate post.

The current sale duration is for travel till end of April 2018, for bookings done before 5th November 2017. January to April is also a good time to visit South East Asia, where Malindo's network is strong. Not very hot, not very cold- it will be ideal climate. Below are some of the good deals I could spot.

#	Destination	Return ticket fare (INR)	Remarks
1	Chennai- Phnom Penh (Cambodia)	15000	Jan 2018
2	Kochi- Hong Kong	23000	April 2018
3	Delhi-Bali	16000	April 2018
4	Chennai Jakartha	13000	April 2018
5	Chennai-Phuket	13500	Jan to April 2018
6	Bali-Trivandrum (One way only)	5400	26 April 2018
7	Chennai-Langkawi	12000	April 2018

Fare includes 20 kg baggage, meals, in-flight entertainment and wifi (select flights only). Seat selection extra.

Points to Note:
1. Malindo website is not as easy as some other airlines to check fares on adjacent dates to find out which combination is cheapest. You can manually try different dates, or make use of websites like MakeMytrip which can give a monthly calendar showing day wise cheapest fare. I’ve listed lowest fare I could spot, from multiple searches. There could be further cheaper tickets if you’re lucky. If not try with multiple date combinations- at leas 5 to 10 till you’re convinced that what you’re seeing is the lowest and is tempting enough to book

2. If you’re not sure if the fare you’re seeing is cheap, use a website like MMT to check normal fare to the destination, some 3 months from now. If the fare you see on Malindo is 40-50% cheaper than a full service airline, then it is a good deal.

3. Malindo operates with Kuala Lumpur (KLIA2) as its hub, similar to Air Asia

4. All prices as seen while preparing this post. Prices change dynamically.

5. I have not yet booked any tickets with Malindo or have flown with them. Information in this post is derived from Malindo Air's official website. I have no commercial interest in your booking.

So what are you waiting for? Plan and book your trip at http://www.malindoair.com/.

Dirt cheap tickets for immediate travel!

Can you travel at short notice? Then some good news for you. For lots of destinations, last minute fares have dropped to very low levels, making them super attractive. The saying "Book Early to save more" is not always true. If demand is low, airlines drop prices last minute. You can now travel for much cheaper, almost rock bottom prices, with only 1 week/10 days advance booking.

Check the examples and screenshots below: 

#	Origin	Destination	Travel Date	Airline	One way fare	Remarks
1	Doha (Qatar)	Kochi (India)	26 October	Air India Express	7900 INR
2	Chennai	Sharjah	31 October	Spicejet	6300 INR
3	Mangalore	Dubai	26 October	Air India Express	5400 INR
4	Chennai	Paris	29 October	Jet Airways	13000 INR	+ 17k for, return (30k total)
5	Chennai	Hanoi (Vietnam)	28, 32 October/1st Nov	Air Asia	7600 INR
6	New Delhi	Paris	28 October	Jet Airways	15500 INR
7	Chennai	Male (Maldives)	1st Nov	Spicejet	6230 INR
8	Chennai	Singapore	1st Nov	Scoot	4000 INR
9	Mumbai	Nairobi Kenya	3rd Nov	Saudia	13000 INR
10	Chennai	Doha	7th Nov	Indigo	7500 INR
11	Chennai	Abu Dhabi	3rd Nov	Srilankan	7200 INR

Further, Rohit Tripathi has provided following low fares he has spotted

1. Chennai- Kuala Lumpur, 7^th -13^th feb, Rs 6000 return
2. Chennai- Jakartha 10^th Nov to 14^th Nov: Rs 10700 return
3. Chennai - Bangkok 22^nd to 26^th March : INR 9200 return
4. Kochi- Kuala Lumpur:  15^th to 18^th Nov: 5200 INR return
5. Chennai-Bali 20^th to 27^th Nov: 15000 INR return

There's no magic formula to find the cheapest origin and destination- you need to keep trying for multiple destinations and dates till you land on jackpot.

These low fares are most probably due to empty seats- not many people seem to be traveling this Deepavali season compared to last year- may be they have less disposable cash due to GST, inflation. May be people are avoiding unnecessary travel due to flood like situation in many cities. May be those settled abroad are not making a trip to home this season. Not very sure, but the result is evident. Airlines have resorted to deep discounts on select dates and destinations where the flight is almost empty. If you notice these are departures in next few weeks. If you can pack your bag and fly, this is the time.

Chennai-Singapore Scoot- INR 4000

Doha-Kochi on Air India Express, INR 7900 

Mangalore - Dubai- 5400 INR, Air India Express

If you notice carefully, only on 31^st October the fare is dirt cheap. On all other days it is higher. You should be lucky to spot this kind of fares. Also return flight will be tricky- you should be flexible to fly back on whatever dates it is cheap

Chennai-Paris, Jet Airways Direct flight- 13000 INR
Thanks to Karthik Murali for bringing this to my attention this morning

 Mangalore-Dubai Spicejet INR 6000
 Chennai-Male (Maldives)- Rs 6221

Chennai- Hanoi- Air Asia, Rs 7600

Further, if you notice, Make My Trip ad has got just a bit more informative- they are showing on which date the advertised fares are available. This is brilliant as we can instantly verify and book. Good job. May be they listened to my rant in an earlier post.

Points to note:
1. Visa requirements: Visa to some of the countries cost several thousand rupees and few days of processing time. Ensure that you've factored visa cost and processing time before booking

2. Return tickets: Above fares are one way. Return should be available at similar fares, but you should be flexible to try multiple dates or different airlines.

3. Convenience fee: Factor a few hundred rupees extra per person as convenience fee- may vary by website/airline.

4. Recommend booking directly on airline websites for better handling of any issues/changes post confirmation

5. Some low cost airline fares may not include check in bag, meals and such add on services.

All fares as seen on airline/makemytrip website at the time of composing this post. Prices may change over time. Let me know if you booked any tickets after seeing this post.

Air Asia now flies to Sihanoukville in Cambodia

Air Asia has started flights to its 3rd destination in Cambodia, Sihanoukville.

So far, Air Asia was flying to 2 cities in Cambodia- Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Now a 3rd destination has been introduced. Sihanoukville. The announcement had happened earlier this year [source] but flights have started only recently.

Key details about the new air Asia flight to Sihanoukville: 

• Destination: Sihanoukville, Cambodia
• Airport Code: KOS
• Connecting from: Kuala Lumpur (KLIA2, Malaysia)
• Timing: Departure from KUL: 1215 hours, Arrive 1300 hours
• Aircraft type: A320
• Frequency: 4 times a week (Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday)
• Cheapest fare I've seen: Chennai- Sihanoukville return fare at around 12000 INR

How you can make use of this new flight?
Instead of booking a return ticket from say your city to Siem Reap, you can book oneway ticket to Siem Reap, explore Angkor Wat and other temples in the city, then take a bus to Phnom Penh, spend a few days there, take a bus to Sihanoukville, spend a few days there and return from Sihanoukville. Or the other way round.

While both Siem Ream and Phnom Penh are inland towns, Sihanoukville is a beach town, so those in the group not very keen on temples can have some fun here. Lots of beaches close by.

Fly closer to Hampi-Vidhyanagar from Hyd- Trujet

Hampi is a UNESCO world heritage site and a must visit destination in Karnataka. Hampi offers an upclose experience with past history of Vijayanagara kingdom, the grandeur, the culture whatever is left of it. Dozens of temples, hundreds of giant rocks and stones tell a tale that amuses every visitor. Musical pillars, systematic market places, great stone art partially destroyed by invaders etc are fairly unique to Hampi. Hampi Utsav that happens every year is a visual treat to the eye where history comes alive.

However, visiting Hampi so far meant 6 hours road journey from Bengaluru, the nearest practical airport. (Hubli is another nearby airport but connectivity there is poor). The distance and time taken was a limiting factor to many who had only 2-3 day of free time and couldn’t afford to spend half of it just to reach the destination n back.

Not anymore- now there’s a better option. Trujet is flying to Vidhyanagar airport, just 40 kms from Hampi.  Trujet is connecting Vidhyanagar from Hyderabad, with one early morning flight every day.

Points to note:

• The Vidhyanagar airport and trujet flight do not seem to be available on most travel portals like MMT etc. You have to check directly on Truejet’s website for schedule, fares n booking tickets to Vidhyanagar (Hampi)
• Even Trujet is not offering a through flight- like you can’t book Chennai-Vidhyanagar via Hyderabad. If you’re flying from a city other than Hyderabad, you’ve to book your city to Hyderabad separately and Hyd to Vidhyanagar separately
• Ticket price seems to be reasonable at around Rs 2000 in most cases, one way per person, inclusive of Rs 2000 convenience fee- (lot cheaper than taking a taxi from say BLR or HYD), except last minute seats that may get two times expensive

Trujet's recent Chennai-Mysuru flight is deemed a success during Dasara season. Hope it sustains during off peak season.

For Luxury stay in Hampi, you can check out the palace themed Evolve Back Hampi resort. Details here n here.

For Hampi site seeing/exploration, check the TBTrail * Raya trail * 

MakeMyTrip's misleading ad campaigns! Beware

I've been observing that MakeMyTrip is wasting its money on useless advertisements. Many of the ads are either misleading or purposeless. Whoever is managing the marketing spend is either careless or has some hidden agenda.

Let us take a look at some of the examples:
1. Click baits with unrealistic fares: Chennai- Auckland for Rs 1324- really?
I saw below ad multiple times- showing insanely low fares, so that user clicks on the ad and goes to the website.

It is impossible for any airline to fly you to Auckland for Rs 1324, even after assuming this is one way fare n taxes extra etc. The cheapest one way ticket to Auckland from Chennai would cost around 10 times more- INR 11000 to 12000, during an Air Asia sale, if you manage to get the dates n fare right. So what exactly MakeMyTrip is hoping to achieve by this ad? Once landing there there's no way of knowing for which date the shown fare is applicable. Most users will abandon after couple of attempts. May be MMT hopes of the 100 people who click the ad, at least 5 to 10 will forget the amount they saw in the ad and book at whatever real fare shown to them.

Above: Another click bait, spotted on 23rd October- Doha- Kochi 1084 Rs only!

2. Promoting Airline sale even after the sale has ended
Vistara sale ended yesterday (13th October) but MMT is still advertising it today (14th October). May be they are careless, may be they just want some traffic. But if you want to avoid wasting your ad money, you should sync your promos with airline sales. Next day onwards advertise something else. Else customers think they will get low fare, but when they try to book they will never see a low fare.

3. Promo codes that don't work
MMT advertises massive discounts for the destinations you might have simply searched on google, hoping that you'll book your flight with them. But their advertising is often far from reality.

Jaipur to Phuket ticket price itself is not likely to cross 20000 in most cases, how can one get 20000 off? Even after assuming "This is UPTO 20000 off, may be we will get discount but less than 20000", the codes they advertise doesn't work on the website most of the time. Either it is lack of coordination between sales and booking teams, or an outright act of deception. If there're secret terms (like this code is applicable only if you're booking for 40000 or more, it should be communicated clearly)

4. Hotel Price mismatch

Fellow blogger Arti (who blogs at http://www.myyatradiary.com/) has shared below screenshot, which shows room price doubling in next screen. This hints that practice may not be limited to airfares alone. But this one though is right inside the website, not in an ad.

I made couple of tweets to MakeMytrip highlighting these blunders, but never got a response. Those handling twitter accounts are probably junior staff/outsourced agency staff not qualified/authorized to respond to above situation.

If these were one off incidents I would have ignored. But over past 1 year, I've seen this happening again n again. Either they're not testing the ads enough or simply don't care. I have noticed many such instances, but didn't take screenshot all the time.

The risks of misleading ads:

A misleading ad may make customer click on the ad and visit the website, but it can't make him/her complete a transaction (Booking). Customers are not fools- if they don't see the advertised benefits they will simply close the tab.

Lost trust. Now I don't trust MMT ads in its face value. Have to be on caution and cross check if they really mean what they're advertising or in most cases, simply ignore the ad as I know it is probably fake and not worth my time.

Inter-Department politics at MMT? 

I don't know why big folks at Make My Trip can't be more careful about the ads they release or the money they spend. May be it could be inter-department politics. Let us say there's a marketing team whose mandate is to generate leads. They have a set marketing budget (huge sum), have to spend it and generate traffic for the website. Their success is measured on the number of clicks generated, not necessarily on number of bookings created. This means that marketing team somehow needs to get visitors to click on the ad and make them visit the makemytrip.com website. There after they don't care. By advertising cheap fares, discounts etc people will click on the ad and visit the site, marketing team's objective is met. They can claim they generated several lakh leads. It is another story that most of those leads don't covert because customers do realize that they've been tricked- whatever is advertised they are not able to really take advantage of.

This is not good for MMT or any other website. Of course flight ticket sale is a tough job- margins are low, so much competition and many prefer to book directly with airlines. New drama needed every now n then to grab attention. But deception will work only short term. Once customers realize that they're being tricked, in long run they will ignore the brand and both traffic and sales will nosedive.

I suggest Make My Trip correct its ways, pullout misleading ads/take corrective measures.

Vistara Sale- Premium Economy may be cheaper than Economy

Vistara is not known to launch frequent sale of tickets. But right now they are running a sale, claiming all in ticket prices from Rs 1149 onwards. I spent some time on their site to find out more about it.

I couldn't figure out between which sectors the seats are being sold for Rs 1149- I tried all short distance flights- Ahmedabad-Delhi, Delhi Amritsar etc. Delhi-Chandigrah is where their advertised fare matches (Rs 1200) and Delhi Amritsar fare was next closest to the advertised fare- Rs 1300 for Economy Super Saver. Vistara has a very limited network so the sale is not useful to most of us, unless you're living in or planningg to visit some of the metros Vistara flies into.

However one interesting thing I noted is that in many cases, Premium economy fare was cheaper than Economy fare in some instances. So if you're checking Vistara fares, do keep an eye on the below.

And Economy Saver is expensive than Premium Economy Saver in most cases. You might as well pickup a premium economy seat if the price difference is not huge.

The sale is for 3 days only. So hurry.

Airline website: https://www.airvistara.com/

AirAsia's new Freedom Loyalty Program- Good, Bad and Ugly part

Air Asia has rolled out a new loyalty program, called  the Freedom Flyer Program in which AirAsia customers are categorized under 4 buckets- Red (default/entry level category), Gold, Platinum and Black.

According to the airline, this is a more improved version of earlier existing loyalty program. The qualifier is purely the number of flights taken- more the flights you take more closer you’re to next category and different category gets you different quantum of loyalty points on your spends, which can be redeemed later for any free flights or other things. The membership lasts entire lifetime (same in all airlines), points earned have a validity of about 3 years and the category is revised every year (the number of flights required to quality are every year, not all time).

The scheme looked great. Being a regular Air Asia flyer, I hoped to gain something extra from this program and make my future flights more pleasurable/beneficial. From the number of flights I have taken so far, I already qualify at Platinum level, just one level short of top most “Black” category. (I’ve traveled to Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam in past 12 months with Air Asia, total of 26 flights so far in an year). So did the gold/platinum status help me much? So far, NO. Read my analysis of this new Air Asia Freedom flyer loyalty program, to understand the good, bad and ugly part of it.

The good part:

• More flights you take, higher will be your category. You can feel good for yourself that you’re Gold Customer or Platinum Customer.
• More points per spending: Guests in Gold/Platinum/Black category earn more points compared to lower category members, for the same amount spent. 
• Free flights: If you do couple of long haul flights or several short distance flights, you might get enough points to redeem a free flight to a nearby destination (destinations within 60 mins from KL, say Singapore, Phuket etc)

The Not so good part

Besides the prospect of earning more points (and subsequently you can redeem better), being a Gold/Platinum/Black member means nothing. In most airlines, let us say Singapore Airlines, if you’ve Krisflyer Gold card you get lounge access, priority boarding, higher chance of upgrade to business class etc (It is a different story that you will need truck loads of money to get to Gold level with SQ). But with AirAsia, being a premium member doesn’t entitle you to any privilege what so ever. No priority, no upgrade to hot seat, no nothing. You still have to pay for every single thing. One or two benefits that doesn't cost the airline much- like say Priority boarding or hot seat upgrade etc could have significantly boosted customer experience for those who hold higher category memberships like Platinum/Black.

No physical card. Almost all airlines send a physical loyalty card by email. Even for basic membership level, as soon as they sign up. But with Air Asia there’s no option to give your address and request that your loyalty card be sent by post. There’s only a soft copy option, which you can probably print at your own expense. Also note that membership points are shown on the card- which is NOT a practice with other airlines as points keep changing. AirAsia has only soft copy display and no intention of printing, so they don’t have to worry about changing numbers.

The ugly part:

The most disappointing aspect of this new loyalty membership scheme seems to be discontinuation of loyalty points for tickets booked during Promo sale. Earlier this year I traveled to Philippines and Japan with Air Asia, both tickets booked an year earlier during promo sales. I did get some points (Very less points- can’t even buy a meal with those points- that is separate point) for these ultra low fare promo seats I had booked. But after the roll-out of their new Red/Gold/Platinum/Black membership program, AirAsia has decided to offer ZERO loyalty points for tickets booked during a sale (Promo fares). What this means is even if I am eligible for 5.5X loyalty points as a platinum member, I will get total of ZERO points since the promo fares on which I booked my cheap tickets are not entitled for any loyalty points. If you notice below, I had accrued about 4000+ points so far before this new Freedom Loyalty Program came into effect. After that, I have taken 8 flights, but got zero points, as all the flights were booked on Promo fares. Didn't get any point for pre-booked meals spending also. If not more points (like 3X, 5X), whatever points were on offer before this new program could have been retained for promo fares.

Above: After the new Freedom Flyer Loyalty program rolled out, I got zero points for 8 of my flights, as all were booked under Promo fair
Below: Earlier I got some points, though they were also booked under promo sales

So while rolling out the new loyalty scheme, AirAsia has silently withdrawn an existing benefit (of getting loyalty points even on Promo fare tickets). This has been confirmed with above screenshot and also by couple of tweets from AirAsia Big’s official account.

(When I spoke to Air Asia customer care, they said I can use "Claim your points" option on the website- there was no such option, I am waiting to check how email support replies)

However AirAsia's press release/media reports on the launch of this new Freedom flyer program never mentioned this fact that promo fares get zero points. There's very little benefit from my Platinum/Black membership if I get no extra benefits (like priority check in/lounge access/upgrade) and no loyalty points (as I usually book only on Promo fares). Now I get points only if I book regular tickets, which are usually priced more than promo fares.

I won’t say the whole scheme is stupid/useless because something is better than nothing- most budget airlines do not even have proper loyalty programs. Hopefully AirAsia will consider giving some practical benefits to Platinum/Black customers. I am not angry/upset either. As long as they can take me to new destinations at super cheap fares, I will be happy to patron AirAsia, irrespective of the loyalty program/status.

What do you think of this new loyalty program? Looks exciting?

Other Air Asia posts: 10 steps guide to prepare for Air Asia Big Sale * Air Asia MyCorporate *