Singapore influencer claims AirAsia asked her to pay $780 so her son could get on same flight

Travelling with a child is already stressful enough but not when one has to deal with mixed messages from the airline counter crew. 

Content creator and mother-of-one Tina Amir posted a series of TikTok videos this week sharing her unpleasant experience while trying to check into their AirAsia flight. 

In the first video, Tina said she had booked her flight to Bali in August when her boy was still 23 months old — which meant that he was allowed to sit on the lap of an accompanying adult.  

She was supposed to take the 1.40pm flight to Bali on Monday (Sept 12), and return to Singapore on Thursday.

On Monday, she said that the AirAsia staff at the counter told her she did not need an extra seat even though her son was already 24 months old, having turned two on August 17.

According to AirAsia's website, a child's age on the date of departure will determine if the child is eligible for an infant fee – the airline considers any child under the age of two years to be an infant. 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@tinadestruit/video/7142805533462957314?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1[/embed]

All was going well until Tina realised that her passport had less than six months' validity. 

"The AirAsia staff told me to head to ICA to try and get an extension slip for my passport, and that they could transfer me to a 5pm flight instead," she told AsiaOne. 

She quickly headed straight for ICA and upon returning to the airport with the extension slip, she said she was then told that there was a miscommunication – "there [was] no 5pm flight" and the next flight to Bali was at 10.50pm. 

Exasperated, she agreed to be put on that flight and said that she was told to pay another $169, which included an infant fee and a processing fee. 

Thinking that everything had been settled, Tina returned to the airport at 7pm later to check in, only to encounter more problems. 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@tinadestruit/video/7142821041511894274?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en[/embed]

This time, she said that the AirAsia staff told her they had "overlooked" the fact that her son was no longer an infant and required his own seat.

What's more, in order for her to get her son onto the same flight, she had to pay a whopping $778. Tina did not explain if this was for an adult or a child fare. 

A check on AirAsia's website showed that a return flight to Bali from Singapore is about $600 for an adult. 

"I was literally in tears at the counter," recalled Tina in her video. 

After a lot of "to and fro" with the counter staff, Tina told AsiaOne that her son was able to secure a seat on the same flight — after she paid an additional charge of $311, on top of the $169 she paid earlier.  

She also showed AsiaOne a copy of her final travel itinerary, which showed that her son was booked as an infant. 

Tina told AsiaOne that the airline had emailed her offering her a $50 credit for her next flight, a gesture which she thought was "quite ridiculous".

A TikTok video posted yesterday showed her finally on holiday in Bali.

AirAsia has yet to respond to AsiaOne's queries.

Tina's video received several comments from netizens who felt that Tina shouldn't have to pay for the airline staff's mistakes. 

"How is their staff's mistake yours? Makes me so mad," remarked one netizen. 

In June this year, a family traveling to Malaysia and Indonesia with AirAsia said they had to pay over 30.48 million Vietnamese dong (S$1,800) just to check in four bags. 

Rocio Ocampo made a TikTok documenting his family's experience with the budget airline, explaining that they had racked up the exorbitant fee all because they had checked in their luggage at Hanoi Airport, instead of pre-paying for them online. 

"It's like if a little kid put up a lemonade stand and charged us $100 per lemonade," commented Ocampo's son, Knox. 

ALSO READ: Passengers stuck inside plane 'for almost 30 minutes' without electricity and air-conditioning at Changi Airport

claudiatan@asiaone.com