DESPITE candid social media comments by customers who insist for a cash refund and not travel vouchers, AirAsia X (AAX) still went ahead and submitted a debt restructuring scheme for approval to the High Court.

AAX never once said it will refund customers. Its only public response was by AirAsia Bhd group CEO – now Capital A Bhd – who pleaded for affected customers to understand and requested them to agree to convert the amount owed into credit for future use.

The company, under its scheme, classified its affected customers as creditors and proposed to pay them only RM0.0005 for every RM1 owed.

The High Court did not direct AAX to classify customers as creditors or pay them the above-mentioned amount. It was the airline that did, and the airline that submitted the debt restructuring scheme for approval.

It is entirely at the discretion of the company to decide on the terms of the scheme. The fact that it classified customers as creditors and proposed to pay only RM0.0005 for every RM1 owed shows that this is the only amount it is prepared to pay – over a period of time – to passengers.

The AAX CEO said: “Under the terms of the scheme of arrangement that was sanctioned by the High Court further to our recent debt restructuring, we are legally restricted from making any cash refunds to our guests.”

He also said the travel vouchers will be valid for five years.

But, he added, AAX will pay 10% of the ticket value in the form of cash – e.g. a RM1,000 ticket will receive RM100 cash – that will be deposited into the affected customer’s bank account by March 2023.

However, the company should pay only 0.5% of the amount owed in the court-approved scheme. But the CEO said AAX will pay 10% of the ticket value in the form of cash?

The public is now confused.

Customers have more power than ever in the Internet-driven world of today.

If they have a positive customer experience, they will share it with family, friends and connections, which in turn will lead to potential new business – all at zero cost.

Not happy about the experience? Stop doing business with Capital A entities.

The Capital A CEO recently announced that the group may seek US listings for its low-cost carrier AirAsia and its Super App.

The app contains all the personal details of passengers who flew with or used the services within the group. Without these details, the app is just a limited-value platform.

Under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012, a data subject can object/opt-out from the database collected by a data user and withdraw their consent. Section 8.5 states:

Right to object/opt-out

A data subject has the following rights to object/opt-out:

Right to withdraw consent

A data subject can withdraw consent for the processing of his or her personal data at any time by way of written notice.

Section 9 states the possible penalties should a data user commit non-compliance.

If passengers who are still holding out hope for a cash refund withdraw their consent and request for their personal details to be deleted from the Super App database, it may help in their quest for fairer treatment. – June 19, 2022.

* FLK reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.