AlwaysWoW alone at home - and relating wife's odysee with AirAsia

I have something pretty important on on Sunday while my sister-in-law is marrying the same day.

So wife and son is off to the North - avoiding possible watercuts in Kuala Lumpur (http://alwayswow.blogspot.com/2004/10/lets-get-smelly-700000-consumers-to.html) - while I am sitting here, alone, typing away and blog one more entry.

They flew with AirAsia and the flight was supposed to take off at 6.30 PM. She called me shortly before 4.00 PM that AirAsia SMS-ed her saying, the flight is delayed by one hour - now scheduled t0 7.30PM.

Which is fine and great service. Nevertheless - the taxi came at 4.30 PM, so with all the goodwill she had to leave. A taxi driver picked her up that my office is using very often. So I am not worried.

She called me at 7.30 PM - the time of the postponed takeoff, saying that the plane is delayed again. Being my wife she made some noise (I mean this in a friendly manner), got up and checked with the attendant about the reason for the delay. After some hesitation, she was told that their original flight was rescheduled to fly to Kota Kinabalu. Now, they would have to wait for another plane to arrive from Kota Kinabalu, since there was no flight crew. The attendant said he didn't know when the plane from KK would arrive, and after she asked, how come that he wouldn't know, said, in one hour time. Another passenger told her, after she conveyed the story, that this was wrong - a plane from KK takes two hours to reach KL.

So of course, all the delays made sense. She was told through the SMS that the plane was delayed one hour - 6.30 to 7.30. The flight attendant didn't tell that the real delay would be two hours (!!!!!).

At 8.00 PM, the plane's departure scheduled for 8.15 PM, however, since the cabin crew's arrival was only at 8.20 PM, final departure was at 8.30. However, the cabin crew was very friendly.

Passengers were hungry, thirsty and annoyed. The staff offered drinks to the passenger - but the supply ran out after 10 passengers were served. Great. There were kids that were bored, and probably thirsty. In between and while waiting the flight attendant announced that the passengers shouldn't worry anymore, the plane had just arrived and see, here it is.

Nobody laughed and people grumbled. Not very funny. Try to smile when you are angry, and been treated like you've paid nothing for the flight. Hey - I am serious. Being a no-frills airline is one thing, customer service another. Other countries can do both - look at Southwest Airlines - people LOVE the airline for their service and punctuality.

Tony Fernandes, AirAsia's CEO, was not around. He likes to greet people when they are happy, but to jump in when people are angry is another thing - Remember my "Thank You" entry earlier this week? This is another thing that is important - stand up as a leader, when something goes wrong. Admit your mistake.

Well, I am sitting here and blog. But I "try" to enjoy the "bad times". Listen to music that I normally don't listen to. My wife doesn't like all my stuff. Like the Clash, Sex Pistols, AC/DC. Old music, heavy music. Music to play loud. My neighbours probably wish already that the weekend would be over already. I am rocking along. Singing loud. Screaming along. Hopping about. I think that this is okay.

Now - sorry - I have to call my wife. She just landed, send me an SMS about her ordeal