Question about Air Asia...

[nd_eric_77]

Has anyone here bought separate tickets to build an Air Asia itinerary?
I have noticed that booking tickets from Jakarta (CGK) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and then from KUL to Da Nang (DAD) as separate itineraries is considerably cheaper than booking the same flights as just CGK - DAD as a single itinerary. Kiwi.com refers to this as a "travel hack" in the category of self-transfer.
Here is my question: If I were to book such an itinerary and pay for a checked bag, would the ticket counter be able to check my bag all the way from CGK to DAD so that I would not need to retrieve my bags at KUL mid-journey? I am sure they are physically capable of doing this, but do they have a policy that would prevent them from doing so?

 

[Jaime C]

I have bought tickets like this years ago. The luggage was always the problem, in addition Air Asia reschedules/cancels flights quite a bit.

Unless you can bring carryon only luggage, I wouldn’t do it.

 

[snpark]

No they can't and won't.

 

[gemima]

Post covid any budget-type airline (and even the premium ones) I've used seem to change my flight times so I wouldn't risk unlinked flights personally.

 

[centurion]

Has anyone here bought separate tickets to build an Air Asia itinerary?
I have noticed that booking tickets from Jakarta (CGK) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and then from KUL to Da Nang (DAD) as separate itineraries is considerably cheaper than booking the same flights as just CGK - DAD as a single itinerary. Kiwi.com refers to this as a "travel hack" in the category of self-transfer.
Here is my question: If I were to book such an itinerary and pay for a checked bag, would the ticket counter be able to check my bag all the way from CGK to DAD so that I would not need to retrieve my bags at KUL mid-journey? I am sure they are physically capable of doing this, but do they have a policy that would prevent them from doing so?

I did couple of weeks ago, VietJet from Saigon to KL, and from KL to Jakarta,Air Asia. I took the tickets from AirAsia website.

You could check in the baggage till the end destination if the counter officer accepts, however, your baggage allowance on both tickets should be the same.

Several years ago I took a non-connecting flight from Europe to KL and from KL till Jakarta, and my baggage was checked -in for Jakarta from the beggining.

 

[Hawk256]

If you book on the same ticket they are somewhat respsonbile to get you to your destination. If you book seperate legs, they are only responsible for that one leg at a time. According to how much the price differerence is, is it worth dealing with the extra hassles that could happen? Centurion seems to be an expectation as far as checking baggage the whole way. Most of the times, it is not possible or they just don't want to do it.

 

[snpark]

Don't risk it.
Also make sure you leave at least 6-8 hours between the flights these days.
Not uncommon to be in the lounge waiting to board and the plane hasn't even left its last departure.
Then you end up losing both flights
Better to be bored in the airport 4 hours early than running to a flight and your bags miss it.

 

[nd_eric_77]

Well, based on the feedback here, I am leaning towards booking roundtrip on Air Asia without the "self transfer". I would love to use SQ or Vietnam Airlines instead, but aside from being significantly more expensive, their schedules are ridiculous (as in overnight layover either outbound or inbound).

 

[El_Goretto]

There is another hack. Sometimes return flights are cheaper than one-way. So you just no-show to your return flight. Airlines don't like it but some websites like Kiwi actively promote it. That can be useful when you travel from A -> B -> C -> A. If you're doing A -> B -> A then just a return flight is fine.

 

[Hawk256]

There is another hack. Sometimes return flights are cheaper than one-way. So you just no-show to your return flight. Airlines don't like it but some websites like Kiwi actively promote it. That can be useful when you travel from A -> B -> C -> A. If you're doing A -> B -> A then just a return flight is fine.

You may get away with it here but both this and skip lagging (booking from A to B to C when you are only going to B) are getting flagged in the US. More and more people getting caught and having their flights cancelled. The Airlines should focus more on their pricing instead of policing people that find a hack but no way that is going to happen.

 

[El_Goretto]

You may get away with it here but both this and skip lagging (booking from A to B to C when you are only going to B) are getting flagged in the US. More and more people getting caught and having their flights cancelled. The Airlines should focus more on their pricing instead of policing people that find a hack but no way that is going to happen.

Indeed, that's correct. It's a risk vs reward thing. Wasn't that kid banned from flying a major airline for doing just this in the US?

 

[TonyVov]

Don't forget to shop around, I recently bought air asia DPS -BKK , price from air asia website direct was 2x the price of same flight on Traveloka.
I would not suggest the separate itinerary option good chance of higher cost of anything goes wrong.

 

[Hawk256]

Indeed, that's correct. It's a risk vs reward thing. Wasn't that kid banned from flying a major airline for doing just this in the US?

Several have been lately. The one most recently was a kid going from Florida to Charlotte but booked a trip to NY that stopped in Charlotte becasue it was cheaper. If the airlines weren't trying to destory regional carriers, they wouldn't have that pricing problem.

 

[El_Goretto]

Several have been lately. The one most recently was a kid going from Florida to Charlotte but booked a trip to NY that stopped in Charlotte becasue it was cheaper. If the airlines weren't trying to destory regional carriers, they wouldn't have that pricing problem.

Capitalism has really gone completely mad.