This isn’t the first time I am flying on a budget airline. In fact, I have flown with Jetstar and AirAsia within the past 2 years and was actually pleased with what I went through. Despite the negative feedback on Tiger Airways, they were chosen to fly me to Kuala Lumpur for my short getaway and I was left terribly disappointed.
By fox2mike
The flight I was on; TR 462 was supposed to open for boarding at 2025 hrs. It didn’t happened and it was not till 2100 hrs before they finally announced that it was going to be delayed till 2230 hrs due to late arrivals at 2 previous destinations. Just when we were already queuing up to board too.
Why weren’t we informed hours in advanced when it was certain that the aircraft was not able to depart on time or at least the moment we checked in? As a result, not only did we have to rush to make it in time for the flight, 1.5 hours was also spent aimlessly waiting.
Just when you thought this was a one off incident, think again. Another delay was encountered when we were about to leave Kuala Lumpur for Singapore.
The status of the gate was ‘open’. What is being shown on the LCD was the exact opposite. It was closed and no one was in sight to handle the boarding. We were queuing at an empty counter. I don’t know which is worse. This or the fact that there wasn’t a single Tiger Airways aircraft.
An announcement was then made that passengers of an AirAsia flight were to board through the gate we were supposedly queuing at. We gave way to them and made our way to the chairs to continue our wait.
After quite a while, the aircraft finally arrived and in slightly under 20 minutes, it was done refueling and at last we were able to board. The pace at which everything was done when we boarded was so quick that it was not the least assuring.
The situation was very poorly handled on both occasions and I have my mind set on not flying with Tiger Airways again. One bad experience was enough to dampen my holiday mood and my impression of the airlines. They have just lost a customer in me and probably several others too.
22 year old fitness enthusiast currently pursuing a Bachelor in Computer Science at the University of Adelaide and aspiring to become a Web Developer in the near future. 
Wah.. tiger service is nt so good.. always flight delay. airasia best and jetstar. cheaper choice is airasia. Tiger charges $10 for 15kg check in while airasia charges $2.50 for 15kg check in baggage. So, which one more economicial .. AIRASIA lah!:)
So, fly with airasia then next time. and i relaly have nice trip with them though i took 737-300 for 3 times, 1 time was surprised by boeing 330 which was newest. So, really excited to fly with them again . Flight always puntual for airasia and sometimes, fly earlier than scheduled!:)
(I like advertising for them sia!) haha.
Jetstar and AirAsia were considerably more expensive than Tiger. Regarding the baggage allowance, it didn’t really matter as I wasn’t carrying anything more than 7kg.
Earlier than scheduled? If they are supposed to depart at 1730hrs, you mean they take off earlier than that?
i think this might be due to the fact that these planes do turnaround trips? meaning they fly back n forth. once they reach KL, they fly back to singapore again, and once they reach singapore, they fly KL again, or other destination, depending on how many scheduled KL flights there are for the day.
some times there may be maintenance issues, technical problems, back in Singapore, which caused the flight out of Singapore to have been delayed.
sometimes it might be due to late takeoff cos the runway is very jammed? i’m not an expert at this, but there is a possibility? and from what i understand, when such things happen, budget airlines take a backseat compared to regular airlines, i think, because they probably pay lower taxes at the airport or something. it’s all part and parcel of a budget airline…
hence, the flight from KL to Singapore would have been delayed due to the late arrival of the flight from Singapore to KL.
and once they reach, of course they have to refuel and take time to check the aircraft and ensure that it is safe to go up in the air again. i don’t think this is something that any airline should compromise on, just for the sake of taking off on time so the passengers won’t complain.
in all honesty, it’s not very uncommon for budget airlines to depart late. actually airasia doesn’t have that great a track record at punctuality either. the only one i’ve flown which mostly takes off and lands on time is JetStar / ValuAir. somehow, they manage. *shrugs*
so i really think ur blog post is a little unfair. i don’t think tiger airways is that bad, because i’ve heard good things about them from other people, (hendri being one of them), and it’s probably just unlucky that u and ur party experienced some problems both legs of the journey.
For my case, I am sure it did turnaround trips. I do understand that being budget airlines, Tiger Airways do not exactly share the same privileges as the regular ones.
When they do a late arrival at an airport, it should already known that subsequent flights would be delayed. Furthermore, prior to my flight to KL, there were already 2 delays. Surely, we would know of the delay a couple of hours in advance?
Knowing about the delay when we do a check in definitely beats knowing about it when we are queuing to board the aircraft.
The funny thing is that on my return trip, I saw the aircraft arrive, there was hardly time for them to do usual maintenance routines, they just loaded the luggage and did a refuel. As mentioned in my post, everything was done so fast that I didn’t feel the least bit assured.
I have already experienced first hand flying with Tiger Airways, and unfortunately, it ended up in a bad experience.
Tiger airways is the worst budget air ever, I swear I won’t take and book any flights again with them and I will publize this bad attitude of their team.
I have to wait for more than 30 minutes (min.) to get an operator to call me.
My friend jotted down all the timings and how long it took her to get one operator.
just now, the call center lady and did not want to listen. I asked her to stop talking and listened to me and she hung up the phone.
how can they act like that?
No web e-mail and no customer service number to call.
I think they know the service is bad, that is why they do not dare to put such service in place.
also, if they were able to predict hours beforehand that they’ll be departing late, honestly, how far in advance do u think they could have predicted this? the flight from KL to Singapore lasts all of 30 minutes, excluding about 20mins time taken to board, leave the gate, and get on to the runway to prepare for takeoff.
ok, so they cld’ve informed u maybe 1.5hrs in advance. and u wld have been at the airport already.
and they gave way to airasia because airasia’s craft was ready for boarding first. that makes sense, instead of forcing airasia passengers to wait also, while awaiting tiger airways’ craft to be ready…
To be fair, most budget airlines only have very few airplanes in their fleet… Tiger has 10, ValuAir/JetStar has 7, and AirAsia has 61 serving AirAsia alone (not including Thai/Indonesia AirAsia).
This means if even one plane is taken out of service, the schedules of other planes have to be rearranged to fit it. And when one plane is late due to problems like what Daph said, the delay will cascade through to the following flights in the day.
Still I understand your frustration of not knowing about the delay till that late.
Maybe if you fly on the earlier flights in the day (like me, my flight was at 7 am), you will have a less chance of such problem happening, since they have the entire night to prepare for the flight.
BTW you were using the KLIA LCCT to depart to Singapore right? Did you have to walk up to your airplane before boarding? I didn’t manage to use LCCT on the way back as I departed from Subang airport instead.
@Sy Yuan: You must have meant the Airbus A330 right? Wow, you must be really lucky! It’s one of the nicest planes out there (in my opinion), and it’s supposed to serve AirAsia X, the long-haul division of AirAsia.
Even if there are delays, it is the airlines’ duty to inform passengers who have booked for the flights that there would be a delay.
Point noted, for budget airlines (if I am ever taking one again), I shall get a flight in the wee hours of the morning.
I was using KLIA LCCT and we had to walk up to the aircraft. Do you walk up to your aircraft at Subang airport?
Yup, had to walk up to the aircraft at Subang. They didn’t even have a single aerobridge; it is such a small airport.
Oh, and if you have the time, take a look at this: http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/03/the-worst-airli.php . It’s not just budget airlines that provide really bad service.
It took me quite a while to read through the entire experience but I have never heard anything like that. Absolutely ridiculous!
I have just flown with Tiger and I have to say they have the worst service ever. The staff are probably all underpaid as they look like they hate their jobs and us the passengers.
My flight was delayed by a whooping 7 hours! Add that with rude ground crew who threatened to call the police on a crowd who just wanted to know the exact departure time. This is the first and last time I will fly with this airline.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience Mindy. I hope you did bought your insurance because you can claim back some money for more than 6 hours of delayed flight (usually).
Calling the police for some clarification is downright ridiculous. This just adds more (-) points to their declining reputation.