OH! WHAT A RIDE! Made a trip back to Penang on 5th March, 2011 on 'Aeroline' coach service. ETD was 8.00 a.m. but had to change buses due 'air-con' malfunction. Good thing the operators realized it before the start of the journey. Observed that there were at least nine foreigners, four mainland Chinese and five Australians on board. The change was necessary considering the trip was going to take 4 hours and 30 minutes and the weather was hot and humid! I liked "Aeroline' because I can see that they have been making the effort to project themselves as having Airline service standards in
almost every aspect of their service. Using a
bold tagline such as '
The Convenient Way To FLY' is certainly committing themselves to delivering services that is nothing less than excellent! I also admire their support for our Tourism Industry by having their announcements made in English so everybody can understand but............sad to say the standards of announcements delivery in terms of content and grammar is mediocre! The announcer apologized for the inconvenience caused owing to the transfer from one bus to another by using words like 'sorry for the
distress' and '
priority for senior citizens!' These terms are too '
serious' for a simple case that involved no immediate risk or danger involving life or property..........as such there is no need to alarm the passengers. The foreigners were indeed confused and were
asking the locals as to exactly what had happened! Probably, somebody could have thought there was a 'bomb' on board. The journey was smooth, the Attendant did her job well but I guess it was not her fault if there were a few
strands of hair stuck to the ear-pads/foams of the headphones! The other thing that I realized was
nobody was watching the movie because the screen was simply
not visible!(The seat backs were too high to see the screen.)
The return-journey was a little 'dramatic'. The scheduled time of departure was 6.00 p.m. in the
evening but forwarded to 5.00 p.m. The reason given was the 6.00 p.m. coach had 'broken' down and I had to take the 5.00 p.m. coach. I had to cut short my meeting and hurried to the Terminal at 4.30 p.m.(They informed me at 4.25 p.m.) Fortunately, the major part of my planned DAY-TRIP had been fulfilled. One of the passengers told me that when she made her booking, she was told beforehand there would be no 6.00 p.m. departure that day but I was still booked for it. I observed that there were less than eight passengers in the coach and could not help drawing the conclusion that they had actually cancelled the 6.00 p.m. departure owing to light load-factor! I believe I was the only 6.00 p.m. passenger and was being transferred to the 5.00 p.m. departure coach. I wondered; 'Is this practice right?..........legally?
I am glad AEROLINE existed to provide a decent, safe and comfortable means of transportation for commuters like us who need to travel to Penang (back and forth), from time to time. The service they provide is courteous, enthusiastic and friendly and I would never hesitate to recommend to anybody with travel needs to use AEROLINE! All the minor short-comings are not insurmountable..............announcements need practice and a standard text with
flexible inserts. The policy on schedule changes need to take into consideration passengers needs and priorities! Last minute changes are disruptive and stressful and can mean losses!
