Phuket Thailand - Air Asia giving away 2,000,000 free tickets

stevem · #1 09-12-2005, 07:06

See there web site

http://www.airasia.com/site/en/home.jsp

Sirgezza · #2 09-12-2005, 19:51

That is an awful lot of flights they will have to cancel

dizbuster · #3 09-12-2005, 20:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by gez

That is an awful lot of flights they will have to cancel

LOL !! I was wondering what the catch was

Sirgezza · #4 09-12-2005, 21:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizbuster

LOL !! I was wondering what the catch was

Oh yeah, and if it is not cancelled they will make their money on the excess luggage (15kgs) charges.

Coyotee · #5 09-12-2005, 21:41

Actually it is to celebrate their 4th.anniversary. Got a free ticket to bangkok (free ticket only apply for one way trip) and pay the return for my trip in April. Great deal...saved about 2000 baht. Morever Airasia had just received its first new Airbus 320 yesterday and it is the first of 100 Airbus they had ordered. Airasia is expanding in a big way.

Note: deal is only over internet booking and covers from feb to October 2006..see website.

Malaysian

stevem · #6 10-12-2005, 06:44

The A320 is selling like hot cakes at the moment, considering that it is a 20 year old airframe and technology. The reason is that Airbus are selling them at about 50% the price of a New Generation (NG) 737

Tanglegrip · #7 10-12-2005, 09:12

Looks like Air Asia is taking a page out of Ryanair's business plan, and that's no surprise.

Gez is partially right about the excess baggage charges. Other revenue streams are hotel, car, and insurance commissions, credit card surcharges, inflight sales and probably the best - change fees on your free ticket.

The low cost airlines may often get a cut from increases to airport car park business and retail sales in the airport. Ryanair's known to bargain very hard with independent airports for very low landing fees and commissions for increased traffic through the airport.

Good luck to Air Asia, if this works for them they will keep doing it any if you plan well you can fly very cheap! Wish we had that here.

midnightsun1 · #8 10-12-2005, 12:50

been on the air asia web site now for 15 minutes.... how do u book or look for these free tickets?

Tanglegrip · #9 11-12-2005, 09:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by midnightsun1

been on the air asia web site now for 15 minutes.... how do u book or look for these free tickets?

Use the Buy Now box to select your origin, destination, one-way, return and your desired dates. Hit the Search now and the results will show you what is available. Taking a quick look at Bangkok - Phuket there are 3 flights with free flights (P fare) on 20 Feb 2006. You may want to search one way and keep a list of what is available and then try to book it as a return, or just book two one ways.

Don't forget that for a "free" ticket you will have to pay airport tax, insurance surcharge, administration fee, Value added tax, and fuel surcharge. On a one way Bangkok - Phuket this is 481 bht.

I checked the other fares and all of the above taxes and fees also apply so its not like you're getting ripped off. I've worked in the airline industry for 32 years and with the possible exception of the administration fee everything else is pretty standard. Fuel surcharges do range from airline to airline and route to route so 300.00 bht may or may not be appropriate - depends on what other airlines in the area are charging.

TANSTAAFL!

midnightsun1 · #10 11-12-2005, 11:32

a quick calculation.... not to be exact... but if you divide the number of free seats by the number of days... you are looking at over 7000 free tickets each day.... ?????????????

Tanglegrip · #11 13-12-2005, 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by midnightsun1

a quick calculation.... not to be exact... but if you divide the number of free seats by the number of days... you are looking at over 7000 free tickets each day.... ?????????????

Actually just over 8,130 per day. Based on 148 seats for the 737-300 in high density seating this works out to 55 flights with every seat free (27 return, direct non-stop flights).

But it depends on how they count the seats.

Take a one stop flight AAA-BBB-CCC. If they have a "free" seat available from AAA-BBB-CCC they can count this as one seat AAA-BBB, another seat BBB-CCC, and if they want to a third seat AAA-CCC. One seat or three?

As I work in airline marketing I would bet that they are counting this as at least two, if not three seats. And part of the goal is to get you to book their airline, not the other guy. 2,000,000 free seats sure gets you interested!

Don't forget that many of these seats will be on the less desirable flight times where the seats are usually empty anyways. Better for Air Asia to at least get a fuel surcharge and administration fee that nothing.

Even Ryanair the king of the low cost carriers is only running at an 84% load factor for the last 12 months.

Don't forget that for a low cost carrier a high percentage of their revenue comes from other areas such as inflight snack, drinks, excess baggage, change fees, insurance, hotel & car rental commissions, etc.

TANSTAAFL!

Lord_Farquard · #12 27-12-2005, 11:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by hantarish1010

Can you please tell me what the excess baggage charges are from BKK to Phuket?
Is it for only carry-on luggage or is there a weight limitation for stowed gear too?
Dave

6.3 Free Baggage Allowance
You may transport free of charge checked Baggage up to a maximum weight of 15 kg subject to the conditions and limitations contained in our Terms & Conditions.

one carry on also

fotonut · #13 28-12-2005, 14:06

I got "free" tickets bkk-phuket for June, let's hope they remember!