Netizen pokes fun at air travellers who misread AirAsia’s past midnight (01:15) departure time

 

AN understandable mistake or pure ignorance?

This was what netizens were debating when X (formerly Twitter) user @saya_cj chided another netizen’s post regarding a missed flight.

The latter had claimed his sibling, a university student, along with scores of other travellers were left stranded in Sandakan post-Raya after missing their flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Reason?

They had misunderstood the stated departure time by not realising that it was in 24-hour mode (also known as the railway/military time system).

Hence the departure time of 01:15 (sans the am/pm denominations) was in the early hours of the morning – not a lunchtime take-off as many seemingly assumed.

The original poster lamented that a ticket worth in excess of RM500 was wasted, noting that the fare for the same journey had since doubled.

He laid the blame squarely at the door of the airline for not clearly denoting the departure time with the necessary am/pm prefixes, stating that not everyone was conversant with the military time system.

Sharing the post, @saya_cj laid into original poster by stating that he could not comprehend the ignorance of the affected air passengers when the military time system is universally applied for air travel.

He further pointed out that it was inexcusable for a varsity student to not know how to correctly read the departure time on their ticket. Hene, blaming AirAsia for their own shortcomings was unbecoming, according to @saya_cj.

The post by @saya_cj has unsurprisingly generated a lot of feedback with 1.6 million views at the time of writing. This is what some had to comment on the subject.

One netizen very pointedly asked which airline printed the departure times following the 12-hour system, accusing the stranded travellers as being cossetted in their own comfort zones.

While some accused the stranded travellers of being cut off from civilisation.

One netizen’s comment was heavy with sarcasm saying AirAsia has been using the military time system since its inception.

Some highlighted their own ignorance by agreeing with the original poster.

Others found it amusing that the original poster sought to shift the blame to the airline instead of owning up to their own mistake.

Quite a few sympathised with the stranded travellers, saying flights after midnight were uncommon.

More than one also questioned the manner in which the departure time was indicated.

While the majority of comments seem to indicate that majority of netizens believed the fault was the misguided travellers, perhaps the airlines may want to make concessions for this. After all, a passenger on the flight confirmed there were many empty seats, highlighting that many others were also similarly mistaken.

What do you think? Is it basic common knowledge or an understandable mistake? Should airlines find a way to indicate that the times are in the 24-hour system to avoid such incidences?

FocusM thinks there is an opportunity for airlines to engage in some (humorous) public relations. Over to you Tan Sri Tony Fernandes… – Focus Malaysia