How to Move Your Flight to the Intended Date
A huge shoutout to all those who have signed this petition and shared it with your friends and family. Thank you for spreading awareness and speaking out about consumers' rights. Do continue to encourage more people to stand up against this cause by signing the petition.
Just to update everyone that I have succeeded in moving my flight to the intended date. Hence, I would just like to share how I did it, with the hope that it will benefit you as well. This is solely based on my personal experience so I can't guarantee the success rate (I did it on a few tries), but I do think that there's a high chance for you to succeed if you are willing to keep trying. Of course, if you also have similar experiences, please do share in the comments section to help those who are stuck in the same situation.
STEP 1: GET READY
- Check the next available time/available date that you intended to travel and note it down. If there are flights on the same day but at a different time, note down the time. Prepare your justifications if you get to chat with their customer rep.
- Get ready your details, especially your booking number, and screenshot the flight cancelation email (together with the options provided).
STEP 2: USE WHATSAPP
- I prefer to use the web version because I can type faster. Besides, WhatsApp gives you notifications on how many people are waiting before you, so you'll know when your turn is even if you have the tab open in the background, unlike their website. (Link for AirAsia Support's WhatsApp: https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=601135165078
- Type, "My flight was cancelled by AirAsia" then go through the necessary via the AI bot (choosing the option of "Move Flight").
- Enter your booking number, name, date of birth, and email as prompted by the bot.
- Choose if you have/don't have a connecting flight (Y/N)
- Choose the flight that you want to move, and type in the date that you want (from STEP 1: GET READY) following the correct format (DD-MM-YYYY).
- If they say that you can only move your flight from today to 15-12-2021 (or as per your cancellation condition and is not the date you intend to travel), IGNORE IT.
- Just put in the date that you want to travel because our purpose is to speak to a human agent, not the bot. !!This is very important!!
- Keep trying until the bot says this: I'm sorry..the new date you've entered is invalid. I will connect you to my fellow Allstar for assistance.
STEP 3: TALKING TO AN ALLSTAR AGENT
- Congrats on making it this far, you're halfway there already. Now you just need to wait until your turn (be ready to wait for at least 1 hour). Be patient and turn on your notification for WhatsApp, if you have something else to do. Do remember to check back from time to time. Once there are only 10 people before you, get ready your message in the text box as per the format below (EDIT THE PARTS THAT ARE IN ITALICS AND STAY WAITING ONLINE. BUT DO NOT SEND YET):
Hi, I would like to reschedule a canceled flight
*Booking number*
*Full name*
*Email address*
*Phone number*
*Birthday in format DD-MM-YYYY*Flight to change to:
DD-MM-YYYY *Departure destination* - *Arrival destination* at *Insert time*
DD-MM-YYYY *Departure destination* - *Arrival destination* at *Insert time* - For the above, put two if you need to reschedule return flights, one for one-way flights. Do your research on the time and date of travel as mentioned in STEP 1: GET READY.
- Once it's your turn, press enter and send the message IMMEDIATELY. If the Allstar agent missed it, just copy the above text and resend it again. Do not let it idle for 2 minutes or they will close the conversation and you'll have to start all over again.
- The Allstar agent will ask for a screenshot of your flight cancelation together with all the options given for verification purposes. By now you should've already gotten ready the screenshot if you follow from the start (See STEP 1: GET READY). Send them the screenshot as requested.
- They will reply something like this: File sent successfully
Thank you for the verification
As per the email sent, you have 2 options, which are to move before 15dec21 or credit account refund. - From STEP 1: GET READY, you should have your justifications on why you chose that date to fly. Let me give you two examples of what you can reply to the Allstar agent to convince them to help you submit an application to move your flight:
- I saw that there are flights available on the same date, please explain why I can't resume my flight on the same date. Moving my flight before DD-MM-YYYY does not make sense at all. So please help me to submit the application for your management approval.
- A friend of mine has succeeded in moving their flight despite the option to move flight before DD-MM-YYYY, so please help me to submit the application for your management approval as well. (Note: in this case, you can provide them with my booking number for them to check - A3F4QW. They probably don't have enough time to vet through all the cases due to the high number. My experience is that they're asking just to make sure we're not bluffing. After 1-2 minutes of waiting, follow up with them again on the status. Make sure they reply you and submit your application right then because they're probably tired of all these requests also.)
- Be persistent and keep trying until they agree to help you submit. After that, they will ask if you would like to confirm the flight details. Please check the details and reply "confirm."
- Remember to thank the agent. They are also just doing their job, and it's the management that decides everything, not them. So try not to go too hard on them, though I know how frustrating it can get sometimes. They're the one who deals with all the crap from customers yet they probably don't even get paid on time.
STEP 4: SUBMIT A FEEDBACK (LAST STEP AND VERY IMPORTANT)
- Never skip this step. Your feedback is very important because who knows they might actually read it. And we need to let them know how difficult it is to just move a flight.
IF YOU WANT TO GO THE EXTRA MILE: SUBMIT A "COMPLIMENT"
- They will probably skip through the complaints due to the high number of complaints (we all know why), but maybe not a compliment. So the management might just read it. Might. This is purely because I want them to read my feedback and let them know how serious I am about this issue.
- Choose an option to compliment (try to choose the ones that are less common, i.e., baggage, service, others, general Q&A, etc.). The reason why is because there's a higher chance for them to go through your feedback. What to write:
- Thank the customer service agent for handling and submitting your request;
- Tell the management how unfair it is to cancel the flights and give us limited options;
- State your request again earlier and provide your justification (i.e., It doesn't make sense for me to travel during xx-xx-xxxx when I wanted to go back home during xxxx etc.);
- Give them feedback on how difficult and absurd it is just to reschedule a flight when it shouldn't be so; and
- Let them know how serious you are about this matter (you can copy the consumer protection act paragraph in this petition and paste it in your feedback).
With that, I hope that this will help you throughout the entire process of rescheduling your flights. Do continue to spread the awareness so that we can reach out to more people. I do believe that there are more problems that have yet to be addressed, i.e., refund issues and not getting money back, so it'll help if more of you can voice out and share your experiences so I can find a better approach in moving forward.
Thank you for your time, and hopefully, there'll be a positive outcome after this.