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Air Asia Just Put A Million Free Tickets Up For Grabs
Remember when Ryanair threw a hissy fit about bad coverage and "retaliated" by giving away over a million free seats? This new deal from low-cost carrier AsiaAir has going is just like that, rounded down a few thousand seats. Except this the deal opens up a huge vacation window next summer. And it covers over 70 destinations in China, India, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand. And you don't have to fly on Ryanair. All things that we are very, very in favor of, but let's hear what they have to say:
AirAsia’s regional commercial head Kathleen Tan said when the economy was tough, people looked for traveling options that offered them better value for money. 'With no fuel surcharge and administration fee, this deal offers fantastic value to our guests'...she said to complement the free flights, AirAsia’s one-stop travel portal was also offering deals and packages including “free rooms” in more than 180 Asia-Pacific hotels online.
Tags: Malaysia Travel / Air Asia X / Lonely Planet / → All Tags
Malaysia's Diversity Puts It Into Lonely Planet's Top 10 Destinations For 2010
The latest list for 2010 travel trends put out by the Lonely Planet people says something we've been saying for ages: Malaysia is hot.
With budget long-haul carrier Air Asia X turning Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur into a hub that's easy and cheap to get to from pretty much everywhere, we knew it wouldn't be long before people woke up to all the great experiences they can find in Malaysia itself.
Tags: Airplane News / Airline News / Air Asia / Air Asia X / LCCs / Budget Travel / Travel With Children / → All Tags
Baby Born On Air Asia Plane Gets Free Flights For Life
In our next life, we'd like to return as a baby born aboard an Air Asia flight. Talk about lucky—a pregnant woman on a flight between Penang and Kuching on Borneo went into surprise labor while in the air, prompting the plane to try for an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur, but the baby popped out before they could get on the ground.
After the successful delivery, the mother and child were transported to a KL hospital, where they were visited by the higher-ups at Air Asia, who presented them with the rights to free flights for life. Assuming that Air Asia will be around until the kid hits retirement in something like sixty years, he could really make a name for himself traveling around Asia—or beyond, since Air Asia now also flies to both London and is busily signing paperwork to come to both Paris and Los Angeles. Boy oh boy are we jealous of this little boy. The question now is...did he kinda join the mile high club just being born up there?
Related Stories:
· Lifetime free flights for baby born on plane [AFP]
· Talking With Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes About US Plans [Jaunted]
· Air Asia coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: jetalone]
Tags: Air Asia / Air Asia X / LCCs / Budget Travel / Nicolas Sarkozy / New Routes / → All Tags
Sarkozy Approves Air Asia X's Low-Cost Flights To Paris
Go get 'em low-cost carrier Air Asia X is taking another step towards world domination—well, their words were "global expansion"—with the big announcement that they have now received approval to start up cheap long-haul flights from Kuala Lumpur to Paris.
None other than French president Nicolas Sarkozy himself informed Malaysian Prime Minister Razak this week that Air Asia X would be allowed to land at the Orly Airport in Paris. Air Asia X hasn't yet made more details public; we're in the dark on how soon this service will start, and what it will cost, but they launched their Kuala Lumpur to London service earlier this year, and you can grab those flights for around $250 one way.
We figure it's only reasonable to guess that the Paris version won't be too different. These low-cost long-hauls are certainly giving us ideas for some amazing budget around-the-world trips—we might go start loading up our backpacks while Air Asia decides on Paris airfares.
Related Stories:
· Air Asia To Start Paris Flights [AFP]
· Air Asia X Wants to Long-Haul You From New York and California [Jaunted]
· Air Asia X Launches Low-Cost, Long-Haul Service [Jaunted]
[Photo: Deanster1983]
Tags: Jaunted Interviews / Tony Fernandes / Kuala Lumpur Travel / Malaysia Travel / Air Asia X / OAK / Air Asia / LCCs / Airline News / → All Tags
Talking With Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes About US Plans
A Jaunted Exclusive
We've been following the secretive saga behind the Air Asia X plane gone native—meaning it slipped into some Oakland Raiders livery—ever since May when it's tail was spotted getting the new paintjob. We speculated that perhaps this meant one of two things: either the Oakland Raiders football team was chartering an AirAsia plane for their season, or Air Asia was readying for some trans-Pacific routes to the United States.
After the plane flew to Oakland for a grand unveiling last week, we had to get to the bottom of the deal. Is Air Asia coming to the United States or what? So we dialed up the Air Asia CEO and mogul Tony Fernandes for a quick rundown of the low-cost carrier's North American plans.
And here's what he said...
Tags: Air Asia X / OAK / Oakland Raiders / Low Cost Carriers / Airline News / → All Tags
Air Asia X To Debut Raiders Plane In California Today
Despite the return of professional football, we did not have a good weekend. Our favorite team blew it, and apparently fantasy football is not our forte. There’s always next weekend, so we’ll get over it, and for now we’ll focus our football attention towards Air Asia X and their snazzy Oakland Raiders plane. Seeing a big airplane in NFL livery is pretty cool, especially since we’re still secretly hoping that the low cost carrier will announce a plan to serve the US.
We saw the new plane sticking its tail out from the hangar over the summer, but today it’s flying into Oakland to celebrate the start of the season. After all, the Raiders are playing tonight, so the timing is perfect. However, if you head to the team’s website, you’ll see that tonight’s game is being promoted side by side with ads for Hawaiian Airlines. Maybe team officials didn’t get the memo that another airline has honored them with a custom plane.
Tags: Airline News / Air Asia X / Oakland Raiders / → All Tags
Air Asia X's Oakland Raiders Plane Will Make Its Debut on September 14
Thanks to a lead from a tipster a few months back we heard that Air Asia X was readying one of its planes with an Oakland Raiders logo which led us to think that the no-frills airline would be starting service at OAK soon. But it turned out that it's just a sponsorship.
We got an official release from the Air Asia X folk about the Raiders plane, an Airbus A340 which will be called "Xcellence" as nod to the team's motto "Commitment to Excellence." While the plane will be flown into Oakland on September 14 for the Oakland Raider's kick-off game (for Monday Night Football), there are no plans in place yet for U.S. Air Asia service.
Still, Air Asia will be hosting a 1,000 FREE SEATS online contest in which students will be chosen at random for the opportunity to win free tickets to a Raiders home game. You can visit AirAsia.com or Raiders.com for more info on the contest.
In the meantime, if Air Asia does start U.S. service soon we have a feeling that they wouldn't mind kicking it off in Oakland first.
Related Stories:
· The Oakland Raiders' Air Asia X Plane is Just a 'Commitment to Excellence' [Jaunted]
· Are The Oakland Raiders Getting an A340 Jet Or Just An Air Asia Route? [Jaunted]
[Photo: Andrew/Airliners.Net]
Tags: Air Asia X / Oakland Raiders / A340 / Ads / → All Tags
The Oakland Raiders' Air Asia X Plane is Just a 'Commitment to Excellence'
Remember the other day when we wondered if the Oakland Raiders would be getting a new jet or possibly a new route from Air Asia X? Well, an Examiner story says that the Raiders have put the logo on an Air Asia X plane only as a way to "enhance their brand globally." And in that spirit, the plane will be called The Commitment to Excellence.
Yup, a team that finished 5-11 in the NFL is trying to get new international fans by tricking out an Air Asia X A340. The Examiner writes:
What makes this combination most unusual is that not only is Air Asia X not the carrier that the Raiders use for their away games, they don't even serve the United States, nor do they have plans to do so in the immediate future. They serve Malaysia, London, and Australia. [Raiders CEO Amy] Trask does expect that "Commitment to Excellence" will be flown in to Oakland for at least one game day.
And apparently, the logo on the tailfin is just the beginning. Raider Nation will be present throughout the plane in the form of pictures of Raiderettes, Raider scenes, Raider Jerseys and Raider logos in other areas. (The lavs, maybe?) The Raiders CEO also referred to Air Asia X as a "bodacious airline" but said the new deal would not conflict with the team's long-time partner Hawaiian Airlines. Whatever the deal, let's hope the Raiders can improve their record this year or at least show some commitment to excellence.
Related Stories:
· Are The Oakland Raiders Getting an A340 Jet Or Just An Air Asia Route? [Jaunted]
[Photo: Andrew/Airliners.Net]
Tags: Airline Rumors / Air Asia X / New Routes / OAK / KUL / Oakland Raiders / A340 / → All Tags
Are The Oakland Raiders Getting an A340 Jet Or Just An Air Asia Route?
A while back we heard some rumors that Air Asia X, a low-cost long-haul carrier would be opening up a new route out of the U.S. Back then we heard:
Azran Osman Rani (CEO of AirAsia X) has been talking to JFK and 2 California airports regarding launching long haul service from KL. There's nothing definitive lined up, but the time-frame would be in about a year.
This weekend, we were tipped off about a thread over at Airliners.net where a member noticed this plane adorned with an Oakland Raiders logo peeking out of an SIA hanger at the Changi Airport in Singapore. There's a lot of speculation going on in the comments of this thread, ranging from the Raiders owner Al Davis forking out money for a new team jet to the rumor we like the most--Air Asia X is going to start an Oakland service soon.
Tags: Air Asia X / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / Asia Travel / Australia Travel / Long Haul Flights / → All Tags
Air Asia X Defies Economic Dramas to Fly You 'Round the World
The corridors at Air Asia X are obviously ringing with the words "What economic crisis?" – just a month or so into their cheap London to Kuala Lumpur service, the greedily-expanding long-haul LCC says demand for the flights is so high that they're going to go daily starting in July.
We can't be surprised that everyone wants to jump on this route when there are ticket prices as low as £149 ($220) to get you from London to Malaysia, with plenty of possibilities to grab another even cheaper ticket to get to other parts of Asia or even Australia. If you add a V Australia flight up to Los Angeles you've practically got a budget airline round-the-world fare and that's exciting stuff.
Don't forget we've heard stories about Air Asia X itself getting in on the US market with budget long-hauls from Kuala Lumpur to NY and CA, too. Perhaps these ultra-cheap flights will really take off (pardon the pun) while we're all being Scrooges and Air Asia X's arrogance will turn out to be just the right attitude – they'll own the air.
Related Stories:
· Air Asia X To Launch Daily Stansted-Kuala Lumpur Services [Peanuts]
· Air Asia X Launches Low-Cost, Long-Haul Service [Jaunted]
· Air Asia X Wants to Long-Haul You From New York and California [Jaunted]
[Photo: mysticalangel]
Tags: Airline Rumors / Air Asia X / New Routes / Gossip / Kuala Lumpur Travel / → All Tags
Air Asia X Wants to Long-Haul You From New York and California
Update: Just heard from our tipster, the plan is to have the flights be direct to KL from Cali and JFK.
We love airline rumors! It's been a long time since we had something juicy to talk about. So let's get gossiping.
A tipster says that Air Asia X is looking to possibly expand its routes to Kuala Lumpur and they have their eyes set on the United States.
Azran Osman Rani (CEO of AirAsia X) has been talking to JFK and 2 California airports regarding launching long haul service from KL. There's nothing definitive lined up, but the time-frame would be in about a year.
Now, we're working on tracking down when this would be an alliance between Air Asia and another airline, or if Air Asia would man the flight(s) the whole way. But if you've got any more inside scoop, we'd love to hear it. Similarly, would you fly Air Asia X from the states to KL on their no-frills planes? Let us know.
Related Stories:
· Inside The No-Frills, Long-Haul Flight on Air Asia X [Jaunted]
Tags: First-Person Flight Reviews / Air Asia X / LCCs / Air Asia / Travel Videos / → All Tags
Inside The No-Frills, Long-Haul Flight on Air Asia X
As regular Ryanair self-abusers know, the world’s first long-haul, "no frills" flight is not a concept that particularly fills us with longing. But Air Asia X’s launch sent prices from London to the Far East plummeting when booking opened last November, so we were intrigued. But would people really put up with no frills on a 13 hour flight? We turned reluctant guinea pig to find out.
A quick admission to start with. We were originally told that this was the inaugural flight to KL. Except when we got to the Air Asia launch party the night before, we realised it wasn’t – the first flight was taking off as we listened to The Saturdays. However, with the glitches we experienced on day two, we’re kind of glad we didn’t catch the first one.
