AirAsia SUCKS BIG time

It happened to me before and it is happening again for this weekend, YES, I am talking about the ‘so-called’ re-timing of flights schedule so fondly practiced by AirAsia. When I booked my return KUL(09.50 for Jun 30)/CGK (18.10 for Jun 27) tickets in February 2008, I was so glad that at the time of booking, the timing was just perfect, after work, go to the airport, catch the flight and be home in KL before 12 midnight.

Then the big time shit came via 2 SMSs from AirAsia. The first SMS was on Jun 22 stating that the flight on Jun 30 departing from KL was retimed to 14.50. The second SMS came on Jun 25 for yet again another retimed flight from 18.10 to 20.15 departing from Jakarta on Jun 27. Can you believe this big time shit, on a single paid and confirmed ticket for a return trip both being retimed?

Of course, both messages came with the standard line “SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED THANK YOU’. Hell ya! It’s damn inconvenient! The deal for the passenger is shitty. When you want to change your flight, you are slapped with a fee and the cost difference of the flight and if you missed the flight, then it is considered burned.

Obviously, I don’t bother to read their terms and conditions when I bought the tickets and I guess I would not be bothered reading it now. And since I have already paid for my all my tickets, the last one being in August, I guess I will have to sulk it up all in my own stride.

However, one thing for sure is that I won’t be making any bookings on AirAsia for my future travel as they can just change the flight schedule at their whims and fancies. This is just not on.

Now, everybody can be screwed!

I suppose this should be the new brand tagline that best describe what AirAsia is all about. Very relevant, compelling and truthful to the brand promise.

How Green is Green? – Property in Indonesia

Have you ever wondered how true are the claims by the various property developers that their properties are green as claimed in their ads? Or, is it just because they plant a few trees here and there and hence it’s green? Or better still, get their in-house graphic designers or ad agencies to ‘touch-up’ on the images with more trees and using green color fonts for their headline and there you have it, it’s green. Hmm… I wonder!

From what I gather, all the talk of going green amongst the property developer started feverishly after the UNFCCC talk in Bali back in Dec 2007 on climate change.

So I wonder on. Is there any property developer in Indonesia taking up this initiative of building really green homes? How much will it cost to build such a home? Can a single green home stand alone or it need to be built in clusters? Will there be any takers for such a green home? Is there a standards set by the authorities to classify such a home? What about harvesting the wind and sun energy in a hybrid home system? And the question goes on and on.

So far, I failed to find any information pertaining to green homes in Indonesia. The nearest would be in Singapore followed by Australia and New Zealand. Even so, it is not widespread. Nevertheless, there are a lot more information and green initiatives in the US.

At the end of the day, I suppose it will be more of a business decision to make more profit than to go about in building green homes. Unless and of course, if there is demand for such green homes selling at a reasonable price.

Is there any property developer out there that can build really green homes in Indonesia?

“My strategic proposal to this effect has now been adopted by my client and it is with the hope that the proposal is taken in full and not just on a meet me halfway tune” David Ho