So due to "commercial reasons" (AirAsia removing their KUL to ADL route) my return flight from Seoul to Adelaide on Jan 22nd was cancelled. I was actually happy about this, because they offered a re-route to Melbourne (which I'm fine with) on a later date or refund/credit shell, which allowed me to change my original plan and stay in Korea for longer.
But only after being in Korea for about a week I decided to change my plan so I sent an email to the designated address asking for a re-route to Melbourne with my requested date, sometime in late Feb. They replied, 6 days later, saying they could re-route the flight at my request and asked that I check flight dates/times on the website and reply with the date and route I wished to re-route to. So I did, giving them an exact date and flight. They replied, this time 8 days later, saying they can only re-route cancelled flights affected from Jan 25th onwards (mine was 22nd). Ok, then why did they say they were able to re-route previously? Seems like an excuse, but whatever. In the same email they said I 'may' be able to receive a refund or online credit shell, which is less convenient but also fine, so I requested for that but it's been over 2 weeks since sending the email. I'm not even sure how they can refund or give credit as it was a return ticket and I've already used the first half of the ticket.
I've sent multiple emails to their other customer support address but haven't received a reply from those either. It really feels like they're just ignoring the emails… seriously are they that busy to not reply for over 2 weeks? Anyway I tried calling their customer service hotline but was on hold for over an hour and had to eventually leave.
I'm also aware that a potential refund or credit will take ages to receive because they're so slow, but I'm fine with that because I'm travelling to Japan later this year so I can save it for that. Regardless, I have to return to Australia soon so most likely I'll have to end up purchasing a separate flight ticket.
Do I have any other options? What else can I do to get a response from them?
Do I have any legal standing if they refuse to give refund/credit/re-route or did I make a mistake by not harassing them before taking the initial flight to Korea? In all fairness they gave less than 2 weeks of notice about the flight cancellation… this is all pretty scummy behaviour by them.
Why is AirAsia customer support so terrible?
Two Words - "Budget Airline"