Like your other readers, I too feel compelled to write in with a cautionary tale regarding the Malaysian budget carrier.

I was initially a strong supporter of AirAsia as it provided a good wake-up call to the current longstanding incumbent. However, in the latter half of 2004, I noted a troubling tendency towards late re-scheduling of booked flights.

The last straw occurred on AK623 (Kota Kinabalu to Senai) on Dec 23 last year. When this flight was booked a few months ago, the flight arrival time was 17:00hrs. Two weeks prior to the departure date, somewhat fortuitously, I discovered (not via AirAsia) that the flight departure time had been changed to 21:05hrs.

Three days prior to departure, I was finally informed by AirAsia that the flight departure time had been changed to 23:45hrs, resulting in the plane's arrival in Senai on Dec 24th at 2am! At that point, I gave up and flew Malaysia Airlines instead.

Similarly, the return flight on Dec 26 (AK622, scheduled departure 18:20hrs) was re-timed to depart at 21:15hrs without notification to customers. Finding out about this re-timing required a suspicious mind and three long telephone calls to the AirAsia information line.

I have received no response to my complaints on these issues from AirAsia. Since December last year, as a matter of principle, I have chosen an alternative carrier for my travels.

I have to say that the re-timing a flight to arrive on the following day at short notice stretches the credibility of an airlines' 'booking' system to breaking point. Why bother booking a flight for a particular hour, or even day, when the passenger has no certainty that the airline will even adhere to the scheduled departure?

I would be tolerant of delays due to unanticipated mechanical breakdowns, but it seems obvious that the current wave of AirAsia flight re-timings are to do with maximising the flight schedules for company profit at the expense of customers. With AirAsia's rigid terms and conditions, their customers, once booked, are at their mercy.

In light of the overwhelming lack of response from the company, what should consumers do? Here are my suggestions:

• Bad publicity forces companies to respond. Especially publically-listed companies.

Please let me emphasise that my feedback is not personal. It reflects my conviction that companies should act responsibly towards customers and staff. Ultimately, a company only exists because of its customers.

As thinking, spending consumers, let us make every effort to convince errant corporations that we, too, have rights.