I am writing this letter to bring the attention of malaysiakini readers to AirAsia's unethical operating procedures.

An Internet booking was made for a return flight for two passengers to Johor Baru for the morning of Feb 17. A sum of RM256.74 was deducted by AirAsia's real-time system from my credit card for this fare.

However, on the evening of Feb 15, I was notified that this flight had been cancelled due to "technicalities" (unsure of what this means). Although AirAsia offered me alternative dates and times, I had to reject these as I had to attend a business meeting in Singapore on Feb 17.

When I requested for a refund, the response from AirAsia was that a refund could only be effected within 30 days. In spite being inconvenienced by the flight cancellation, Air Asia had the audacity to "drag its feet" when it came to the refund. This is a word of caution to all travellers contemplating flying AirAsia.

I am relying on malaysiakini to publish this letter of complaint as no other mainstream newspaper will undertake to publish it due to the fear of offending a powerful advertising client.