There has been some discussion as to whether we should whine about AirAsia's dismal service or not.

I think the amount of negative letters regarding AirAsia is not only helpful, but necessary, considering some of the horror stories that have emerged. I do not see this as whining, but a necessary voicing these matters in public.

I suggest anyone who has a complaint to voice it in as many media as possible and why not copy it to the CEO of AirAsia? Don't we have some sort of consumer protection agency that looks into such matters?

Regardless of pricing, there must be no excuse for lousy service. Where is our national pride? If we condone the mentality that consumers can be abused because they are paying bargain prices, then it is a sad state of affairs indeed.

It is a rather cynical attitude that must be stopped at all levels. After all, what is cheap to one person may not be so to another. On the whole, this AirAsia fiasco shows up the attitude of our country and the kind of mentality we possess.

For example, if I went to the roadside to eat a bowl of noodles costing RM1.50 cents, do I expect to be abused and spat at because I eat cheaply? Tell that to the Thais, who offer such warm and friendly service for a few bahts worth of business. At the most rundown coffeeshops there, there is always a jug of drinking water at every table for customers to drink from, free of charge.

AirAsia probably believes that its customers are cheap and desperate. How else do you explain a business where one doesn't even bother with customer service or satisfaction? Are we expected to pay a premium for these things? Has our business environment sunken so low?

If you think we do have to pay a premium for reasonable service then think again - for even when you do, you may not get it. Take the most misnamed business in Malaysia, the Nice luxury bus service from the KL old train station.

Their bus fares are below twice in proportion to its service standards. Its staff are superficially polite or most don't even bother to pretend with their true colours showing when there is a problem.

Like when they issued me a ticket for the wrong time, and later told me it was 'my problem'. Or when they failed to inform me of the arrival of the bus, even when they explicitly instructed me to wait at the lounge and that 'we will call you' but telling me after I had missed the bus that it was 'my fault'.

Or how they persuaded my parents to upgrade to the double-decker bus with toilets but on all three separate occasions, the toilets have been mysteriously 'out of order'.

As for AirAsia, my suspicions were confirmed when I first tried to buy a ticket. As there were numerous classes of tickets (AP, UP, whatever) for each fare type without distinction, I called their hotline to ask for an explanation.

The first call centre attendant explained that different fare types entailed different airport taxes. Though he couldn't tell me exactly what airport tax was for what category, I let it be.

When I finally decided on which flight I wanted, I called one more time just to be sure. This time the attendant told me that there was no difference in airport taxes for the different fare classes.

Her explanation was instead that some fares did not allow last-minute cancellations. As far as I could read from the terms, none of the fares tolerated last-minute cancellations without penalty anyway.

Alarm bells rang in my head and I decided to take the bus instead.