Sunday, July 26, 2009

Gmail sign up required phone activation

As this is a new blog setup, so I am planning to register for a email account to receive any feedback or comment send by visitor to be posted on the blog. The first preference come to my mind is Gmail as I have been using that quite often and familiar with it.

So, I start my Gmail registration and at the final stage, I was asked to enter the phone no for activation. I think the phone number shouldn't be involved in this case as it is for private use and we do not wish to share this personal information with Google as it might invade our privacy. On the other, I do understand Gmail wish to combat with the spammer in other case but it shouldn't take our private phone number as a measure to activate the new Gmail account.

At the end, I have changed my mind and use YAHOO mail then. I have registered myself yourowncomment@yahoo.com to be used by this blog. If you have any comment, please feel free to share with us. Cheers.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Candidate Performance for Astro Star Quest 2009

Astro has just organized a singing competition lately. The Astro Star Quest 2009 information can be found on http://www.astro.com.my/asq. I have been following their update and performance on the Final Show.

I am none of their support team as I am just judging solely on their performance for the Final Show. I wish to comment on the TOP 3 candidate performance, YOKE, MIN and KAH Fai. It has been a very brilliant and stable performance for both MIN and YOKE during the show. Kah Fai in the other has a very good tone and I do like to listen when he sings the cantonese song. I believe his tone and sound quality can compete with any Hong Kong Professional Singer.

But during the competition especially in the Duetting Round. It is so obvious that Kah Fai has a really unacceptable performance and it is so obvious to all the audience. Moreover, Kah Fai has a practice and opportunity to sing with Vincy before starting of. It is a very big mistake and shouldn't be make during the competition. I think YOKE and MIN should be the winner for this Duetting Round but it is so surprise YOKE has been defeated and only manage to get Third Price. I really question on the judgement made by the professional musician. Until today, I still think it is unfair to eliminate YOKE in that way as she has been perform really good.

At the final round, I think Kah Fai performance is very good. The way he sing is very natural and he can control the stage and the audience. I think he should be able to get the first place and who knows, MIN has been awarded for the first price. Will it due to the Duetting Round which pull down Kah Fai overall point. I hope the judge is not feeling guilty of the previous round result and giving MIN for the first price in order to reduce the remark or comment by its audience.

I think every year the result of ASQ will be debated by the audience and previously was due the the SMS result which will affected the overall result. I think ASQ should be more professional in making the judgement and comment accordingly to the Final Show performance. It should be a very fair result as all the Malaysian Audience is watching.

You have your own comment. Please feel free to comment.

My experience with AirAsia lately

AirAsia (http://www.airasia.com) has been awarded as a most innovative airline and promoting cheap air ticket for consumer to fly with them. I have been a frequent flyer with them as well.

Form my experience with them, they have been delaying flight from every now and then. It is acceptable for some people as they are providing cheap air ticket but I do think the quality of service shouldn't be compromised.

I have a really bad experience with them lately. I have booked an air ticket travel to Penang on 17/07/2009 a year ago due to its promotion. I do normally book earlier in order to get the cheap ticket(as usual). It is stated in my ticket that the departure time is 1450. During the one year period, the AirAsia management has done a lot of changes including changing the departure time maybe due to its load factor or marketing strategy, they never inform me about the changes.

So I ended up reaching the LCCT airport very early and could just waiting at there. As you know in LCCT, there is not much seat available and too many people are waiting to board the flight. After a couple of hours waiting, I walk to the LCCT lobby with the hope that my flight is ready for check-in but it is not listed there. I could not wait and straight away get to the service counter to check on the flight status.

I have been informed that the departure time should be 1525 but not the 1450 as listed on my itinenary. It say it would been listed soon on the department main board. So what I could do is to wait again and get a lunch while waiting. I think something not right and it would get delay again, hope that I am wrong. After taken my lunch, as I aspected, it has been reshedule to 1630 for departure. As a frequent flyer of airasia, I do know that they have another flight on 1630. So I think they are merging the 2 flight into one without taking consideration of its passenger. What we do get is just a sorry statement for the flight delay.

This is really time wasting due to the delaying of flight and it will delay the visitor schedule as well. Even fast gowing and inovative organization claimed by Airasia still cannot practice the on time policy and improve the service quality. And I do think they need to be more sincere and care about the customer needs and not just looking on the cost factor. I think all of us are willing to pay 20% more just to make sure our need is being taken care of.

Again, the service quality shouldn't be compromise and I think it should really spend effort and time to improve this. The new call center established by Airasia lately still without any improvement. I have try to call in to confirm on the flight status but I just could not get the right selection. All the selection has just been voice prompt and tell you to check on Airasia.com. It is just a useless support call center without any help provided.

I personally think that Airasia has been very helping to materialize some of our dream like
1) Everyone can fly due to its affortable price.
2) Creating a lot of job opportunity for Malaysia and overall growth for Malaysia.
3) Promoting Malaysia as a Global Hub for transportation.
4) And etc

But I think they could do more in term of
1) The one time policy and follow up with the customer. It is all right if airasia changes the flight schedule but they should inform the customer in advance. As a lot of the customer is buying ticket in advance for at least 1/2 year, they should be informed if they is a change.
2) I think that the delay and reschedule is unfair for customer. For an example, if we have 2 flight selection on 11am(Rm100) and 2pm(RM50). Due to our time constraint, we might choose the 11am flight and pay extra in order to catch the appointment. But due to some unforesee circumstances, they might delay until 2pm, so the fare which we are paying for is actually wasted and they are not compensating our lost.
3) With the new improved call center, more personnel should be recruit as it takes you forever to call in.
4) The new seating policy isn't properly plan before implementation. It is understood that airasia is trying to make money on the hot seat but at least they should make sure all the companion should be arrange to sit together rather being seperated. we are not asking for any special seat but at least should have the flexibity of seating in a group. I have a few experience and see the family member and couple has been seperated in seating. I hope this will not happen at least for myself.

Please feel free to comment or share your flight experience with us.