SEPANG, Malaysia 8 May 2020 – AirAsia is sweetening its credit account offer by extending validity up to two years (730 days) on top of an unlimited flight change option for passenger impacted by flights bans
AirAsia passengers who have existing flight bookings made on or before 17 April 2020 with a departure date between 23 March and 30 June 2020 can now choose the revised and updated offers.
Unlimited flight change
Change to any new travel date before 31 October 2020 on the same route for an unlimited number of times without any additional cost subject to seat availability;
Credit account
Retain the value of the flight booking in the guest’s AirAsia BIG Member account for future travel with AirAsia to be redeemed within 730 calendar days (two years) from the issuance date. The travel date of the new booking can fall on any date within the published flight schedule on airasia.com.
Eligible guests can refer to the Covid-19 Guide for the step-by-step instructions on how to use the airline’s AI chatbot AVA on support.airasia.com or airasia.com to make their selection immediately on one of the two options.
Guests who have received their Credit Account prior to this announcement can also request for an extension of validity for their unused Credit Account using AVA.
The above guest information is only applicable for direct online bookings made via airasia.com.
For group bookings or those made with travel agents, the airline passes the passenger on to their booking agent for further assistance; a move criticised as being unfair for travel agencies already facing heavy losses and cash flow problems.
The airline admits that its chatbot AVA is overwhelmed by the high volume of requests and this is causing delays in resolving ticket issues for travellers.
Refunds are not mentioned in the airline’s statement, but a refund remains on the table if the flight was cancelled due to external factors such as a travel ban. But the process is lengthy, resulting in delays of up to three months many times without a satisfactory conclusion. The airline’s decision to double the validity of the credit account offer could reduce the queue for financial compensation by offering a more flexible credit offer that may help to rebuild confidence in the airline.
