Five cents to Bangkok? The airfare certainly seemed incredible. But budget airline AirAsia’s highly visible placements and advertisement around Phnom Penh, offered the pennies-only fare for travel to the Thai capital between Jan 4 and June 30, 2007.
But on Oct 5, attempts to book a Jan 5 one-way flight via AirAsia’s Web site returned a fare of $56, a markup of 1,120 times the promotional price.
Since October 2005, AirAsia has advertised fares from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and other regional cities, often for as little as $5 or $10 each way, and often far below the actual cost to travelers when, as the airline’s small print states, “airport taxes, surcharges and fees” are calculated.
“At AirAsia, we implement a variable fare structure which encourages guests to book early to enjoy the lowest fare possible and when these seats are taken up, guests will take advantage of our next lowest fare,” wrote Janet Leow, an AirAsia spokeswoman in Kuala Lumpur, in an e-mail.
“This explains why when you try to book the ticket, you may not get the $0.05 fare but the next available seat,” she wrote.
Cambodian Tourism Minister Lay Prohas said he had not seen the ads and had not received any complaints about them.
“We know that generally speaking AirAsia is cheaper,” he said, before declining to comment further.
Bretton Sciaroni, chair of the International Business Club in Cambodia, said that, while often higher than advertised, AirAsia’s prices were still lower than their competitors.
One-way airfares for Jan 5 flights to Bangkok on Thai Airways and Vietnam Airlines ranged from $242 to $320.
“A lot of these ads are either asterisks or…they don’t include taxes or there’s other charges they pass on,” Sciaroni said.
Though the fares turn out pricier than expected, Sciaroni noted: “For airline tickets, I don’t think that anybody would consider that there’s a real victim here.”
