We booked for a short holiday in Thailand for the family, coinciding with the Hari Raya holidays. As usual, the kids are all pumped up and inpatient to reach to the destination. For me, I had some work to do in Bangkok before we can really start the holidays.
Before, I relate what is going on here, I must say that I have supported Air Asia since its inception. I have the greatest respect for Dato Sri Tony Fernandes and in my many flights, I have met him twice on the plane and on both occasions, he went round the whole plane and wished everyone. I still fly Air Asia about twice monthly and in most occasion, I am quite satisfied.
Also on many occasions, I have been impressed with very prompt and efficient service especially on a holiday to Krabi where we almost missed the flight except for a really good staff.
However, I have noticed that service may be going down a little recently and this is probably due to the expansion and one can never have endless stream of good staff although we try our best most of the time.
We were booked on flight FD3572 on Friday, 18 September departing at 10.40am. I am not sure whether it was an omen but the counter staff was "not interested to work" and seemed forced to come to work....Raya blues maybe? Again the same with the immigration officer (most of the time, they are very polite and efficient).
The flight was slightly delayed about 30 minutes. Then when we were about to taxi off, the pilot decided to head back to the terminal. I thought, well, it will be delayed again. Before we reach the terminal, there was a big bang and it felt like we crashed into something.
We could not see anything from the plane but Air Asia and airport staff started to congregate around the plane and a number of them pointed to the wheel. A lot of people on the place speculated that we fell into a drain.
View from our plane window.
We waited for sometime before they sent in buses to bring us back to the terminal. When we were going into the bus, we could see that the plane's tyres were burst and the wheel axle broke. I must thank the pilot for not flying off and we could have been in big trouble if it broke while taking off or landing at high speed. I dread to think of the consequences. maybe, a little delay is not too bad.
Getting off the plane.
A closer look at the problem. Many people but only few actually working. A Malaysian dilemma?
At the terminal, it was getting chaotic as most flights were full and a number of flights were delayed. It must have been a really busy day for Air Asia.
We waited for about an hour (no announcement given) before I noticed some passengers were talking to ground staff. I went over and found out that passengers with children will be given priority for the next flights. Seats are also limited as most flights are almost full. Luckily, I decided to check or we would have still been waiting in the terminal.
We were moved to flight AK742 leaving at 1.40pm. We could not get to seat together but it is understandable. They got us 4 seats together (out of five) which is not bad.
During this time, I must comment the senior man in charge for his cool and composure. He was trying hard to please the number of pasengers starting to get angry because the original flight was not cancelled and therefore, most had to just wait for the official announcement. I think Air Asia should act faster on this.
However, the flight again got delayed as the plane from Kota Bahru was delayed. We managed to get on and leave around 2.30 pm.
As we were moved to this flight, our pre-booked meal could not be served. However, the staff gave us our meal (minus the drink as they had none left).
When we arrived in Bangkok, our worst fears came true....our baggage did not arrive. The staff in Bangkok could not tell us when. The others from our flight had the same problem too. They told us, it should come on the next flight. So, we left to the hotel. However, we did not get any call from them and when we called at at night, they told us, it will only arrive the next morning but not sure when.
We had to quickly purchase what we needed including milk for our daughter. Luckily, it was quite easy in Bangkok for us.
At last the baggage arrived at our hotel around 10am the next day. It was surely an eventful day for all of us. However, not that bad to spoil our holiday.
Until the next time, cheers.
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