KUALA LUMPUR – Tuaran MP Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau is seeing red with low-cost airline AirAsia, accusing them of arbitrarily adjusting their flight schedule.
Expressing his frustration on X (formerly Twitter), Tangau revealed that this dissatisfaction arose when his daughter’s flight, originally scheduled for tomorrow morning, was unexpectedly rescheduled to an earlier time later this afternoon – about 12 hours early.
The frustration of the United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) honorary president intensified when his efforts to alter the flight time were seemingly ignored by artificial intelligence (AI), presumably during a phone interaction.
“This AirAsia delays or moves forward flights arbitrarily. My child’s confirmed flight to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning was pushed forward earlier this afternoon. Awesome, AirAsia!” he said in an X thread at 7.04pm.
“AirAsia pushed it by 12 hours, a whole other day! When (we) want to negotiate (the timing), only AI is speaking!
“If we don’t follow its orders, our ticket would be burnt. What kind of rule is this?
“Imagine if my daughter was somewhere in the interior this afternoon. She would have missed her flight! (sic).”
Other netizens echoed his frustration, adding that they have faced such issues for a long time.
“That is what the people have been facing all this while, but the company is immune to any action,” X user @anasmyibrahim lamented.
“(If we) want to boycott, there isn’t much other flight choices available. We have to come to terms with it, because we know neither the government nor opposition can solve this issue that has been ongoing,” the same user added.
In the meantime, some netizens suggested that a lawmaker should step in, emphasising that the airline’s timing has taken a turn for the worse.
“We need an MP voice to address this issue. AirAsia has worsened with its delays, paying no mind (to our concerns),” user @ams1610 commented.
“(It is) normal for AirAsia, (it has) no competitors. There is a reason why people from Johor Baru (JB) at 7am have to be in Penang by 9am, and have to return to JB by 5pm. (Do you) think people are taking flights (only) for tourism?” user @sauffie_84 said.
– November 19, 2023