What to Expect for Airline Taxes and Fees

The only unknown caveat of the AirAsia ASEAN pass is that it does not include the applicable airport taxes and fees.  For your budgeting this can be difficult because each airport and country is different.  For example, Signapore was our highest fee with almost $30.  The rest of our flights were an average of $5.  So we paid approximate $50 in airline taxes and fees.  Bringing the grand total of our 7 flights to $210usd.  That’s an average of $30 a flight!!

I won’t break down into too many comparison details, but getting from Thailand to Bali can be a more expensive flight, I easily see them for around $200 one way.  That one flight is the same price of the pass in itself.

The Fine Print:

There is fine print to this deal that you need to be aware of.  It’s not a deal breaker type of fine print.  Here are the main highlights you need to know for the fine print, you can find the rest of the airline FAQ’s for the answers on cancellations, delay’s etc.

– The AirAsia Pass cannot be use to redeem 2 peoples flight.  So you must purchase a pass for each person.  Shucks more travel 🙂

– You must book your flight 14 days in advance.  We suggest booking a little farther in advance if possible, because we did run into some flights that were already full in our scheduling that required us to redo our route.

– Airport fees and taxes are not included and must be paid additionally at the time of your booking.

– You must use all 10 credits within the 30 days.

– If travelling together, with these passes, you are not guaranteed to be sitting together.

– Each route can only be redeemed once.  You cannot use this for back and forth round trips.

– You must be over the age of 12

Our Experience flying to 3 Different Countries, with 7 flights:

We flew from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to Penang (we got this flight for $11 so didn’t book as part of the pass), from Penang to Singapore, Singapore to Bali, Bali to Bangkok, Bangkok to Surat Thani.  We then had a flight pass left over so a couple weeks later we took a trip to Koh Samui.  For $160usd!!

We heard from a lot of friends that flight travel in Asia was pretty affordable.  That is very true.  An average flight is between $50 to $100.  The original flight we were looking at booking was from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur, and the price was $79 each one-way.  So the return was going to be only $10 less than what the whole AirAsia ASEAN pass cost us.  Have you bought it yet?

So you might be thinking, this sounds too good to be true.  Your mind might be escaping you thinking of the most run down airline you can think of.  With one of those crappy airplanes that you are doubtful will even make it off the runway.  Or what type of add-on’s you are going to get gouged with so it equals the same price anyway.  You might be thinking of your friends horror stories about their worst travel experiences.

We have redeemed this pass, and can say we were delightfully surprised!

It looked like all the planes that we took while travelling with AirAsia were almost brand new.  Each one had that new plane smell inside.  The features of the plane were better than what you might have found on full service airlines.  All the seats were a new black leather in a nice brand new interior.  The service was fantastic with smiling attendents.

What about the Extra’s?

You notice you are flying budget in a couple ways, the seats are fairly close together so leg room is tight.  There are no “frills”. Other airlines in Asia, provide a meal and refreshments for your flight no matter how long the flight.  We once received a full meal for a 45 minute flight, barely enough time to finish the meal.  But if you have a 4 hour flight from Singapore to Bali, you can choose to upgrade to have an in-flight meal for $4.  Let’s be serious, you can’t even get a meal for that in the airport!   You can also choose your seat selection for a fee at the time of booking as well.

Being a budget airline like our friends Wow AIr Review all tickets booked through AirAsia do not include checked baggage. When you check in online for your flight, you are required to print your ticket yourself.  If you don’t print your ticket, you are charged a printing fee at the time of checkout.  However, if you print your boarding pass and don’t have a checked baggage, you can save time.  You are able to skip the first check-in line all together and go directly through customs and onto the boarding area.  This can save you a bunch of time so once through customs you can be enjoying a coffee while waiting to board.