Air Asia refusing to refund

ken_1969

Hi,
I have a scuba diving holiday booked for May/June this year on a little island in Indonesia called Bunaken. There are no direct flights - the nearest you can get is a place called Manado and then there's a boat transfer.
In order to get to Manado we booked flights with Air Asia - we booked London to Kuala Lumpur, then Kuala Lumpur to Manado, both with Air Asia. This morning I have an e-mail from Air Asia saying the Kuala Lumpur to Manado flight has been cancelled.
I phoned up their call centre and yes, of course, it's in their t's and c's that they can change or cancel any flight at their discretion. They are happy to refund the cost of this flight - which is only a few hundred £, but they are refusing to refund the flight from London to Kuala Lumpur which is over £1,100.
They are citing further t's and c's which go like this:

"[SIZE=-1]AirAsia is strictly a point-to-point carrier and shall not be responsible for any con[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]necting flight arrangement which[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]you may choose to make. Purchase travel insurance to avoid financial hassles should y[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]ou miss your connecting[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]flight."[/SIZE]

Of course we have an annual multi-trip travel insurance policy and for additional safety when booking flights that are this expensive we booked on a Mastercard which I guess offers additional cover.
I guess my question is - are they within their rights to refuse to cancel and refund these flights given that they have cancelled our connecting flights?
Should we just go to our insurance company / Mastercard or should we pursue Air Asia?
This sounds like a license to print money for Air Asia as there would I'm sure be quite a few people taking this route - London - Kuala Lumpur - Manado, and now they have pocketed thousands of pounds without having to honour these flights.

Cityboy_2

Ken

This sounds like one for the experts on the forum at flightmole:http://www.flightmole.com/forum/

BritRael

Lots of good diving locations in the area, couldn't you book another dive site?

spiro

What has happened to you is eactly the same as if yuo have booked throught the likes of Easyjet or Ryanair, they dont offer through tickets. Each leg is a seperate journey.

Voyager2002

Manado is quite an important city, so I'm sure there will be other ways to get there from KL. And did Air Asia offer another flight, or have they stopped serving that route?

In any case, talk to your insurance company.

malkie76

ouch - nasty story

No refund from AirAsia on the KL portion of the trip as they can still provide it to you - as others have pointed out they book under a separate leg journey.

Sadly I think your insurance company will see it the same way, and seeing as you technically and physically can catch the KL portion of the trip then you've no grounds for a refund. Essentially you have changed your mind about flying to KL (albeit through no fault of your own).

How about cutting your losses and just have a holiday in KL ?

ken_1969

BritRael wrote: »

Lots of good diving locations in the area, couldn't you book another dive site?

Already paid a hefty non-refundable deposit - and even if we could switch we'd be really reluctant as we'd set our hearts on this particular location - we had a personal reccommendation and seen great reviews.

ken_1969

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Manado is quite an important city, so I'm sure there will be other ways to get there from KL. And did Air Asia offer another flight, or have they stopped serving that route?

In any case, talk to your insurance company.

Air Asia have completely canned that route - at least between Feb and Oct 2010. They offered no alternative route, and both my wife and I have been searching and found no other airline that specifically serves KL to MDC without going, for example, via Singapore or somewhere else.

richardw

ken_1969 wrote: »

via Singapore or somewhere else.

What's wrong with that then?

Tozer

KL to Singapore is only 50 mins. Then get Silk Air flight to Manado. 4 flights per week.

Tozer

malkie76 wrote: »

How about cutting your losses and just have a holiday in KL ?

KL isn't exactly well known for scuba diving...