I was booked on an AirAsia flight to Bangkok last week. The military coup in Bangkok and the directives from the Malaysian government advising Malaysians not to go to Bangkok put me in a spot.

Discretion being the better part of valour, I decided to follow our government's advice and called off the trip. The flight to Bangkok was not cancelled and I thought, 'That's it, I am going to lose my ticket'. .

I then decided to call AirAsia on their 'Help Line'. I must admit that I waited a good four minutes before I was attended to. I explained my predicament to the AirAsia staff and she told me to give her my confirmation booking number and my contact number.

The conversation hardly lasted less than a minute and I was told that someone would contact me.

When I put down the phone, I told myself, 'That's it, this is Malaysia, I am not going to go to some consumer tribunal to recover my RM700 return ticket'. I was prepared to lose the money and consoles myself by thinking that if had I gone to Bangkok and got caught in a crossfire, it would be the most stupid decision I would have made in my life.

But lo and behold! About 20 minutes later, I received a call from a staff from AirAsia. She immediately sorted out my problem by giving me a shelf credit for three months in light of the situation in Bangkok.

I was, of course, pleasantly surprised not only by the fact that I can still use my ticket, but also that a low-cost carrier like AirAsia has not forgotten about the 'small people' like me.

I would like to declare that I am in no way connected to AirAsia or to any of its staff.