Reviewing The Airasia Online Booking System Information Technology Essay

Help management to maintain their information for business use

The management team can maintain their customer information for any emergency cases such as flight cancellation or delay due to the weather problem. They can also use the customer information to track on their preferences and travel pattern to keep them updated to a better plan that suits them. Besides that, it gives management the real-time information about the availability of seat on flight so that it will be all sold by not overbooking. The system is able to protect the customers’ privacy such as their personal information.

Enables customer have a better journey planning

The system provides customer a more flexible access mode as they can now make purchases by phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and internet. So, customer can make the reservation in an easier and faster way. They can book their airline ticket not matter when and where they are as long as there are internet asses even if they are at the overseas. They can now easily check for their ticket status by website or mobile phone. The system also reduces the customer effort in rescheduling their trip as it could reduce the searching effort they usually need to take. It can show all the possible itineraries available for the pair of origin to destination cities.

Increase the company sales or revenue

Company can maximise the income as the system help to increase the customer awareness about the various special offers and discount available. It also increases by minimising the number of empty seats available on the flight and maximising the flight capacity utilisation. It can offer a lower price ticket on their website as they could skip the intermediaries such as agency. Besides that, AirAsia who have a competitive advantage than its competitor such as Malaysia Airline System (MAS) or Firefly as the company give a cheaper price for the airline ticket to its customer. Therefore, this system help the company to create a new sales channel that enables them to save the commission need to pay to the agency and at the same time, it increases their profit margin.

The users for the system above are:

Travel Agency

They selling travel related products and services to customers on behalf of suppliers such as flight ticket, accommodation packages and so on. Through using airline system, they will check various flight dates and times, arrange accommodation and then travel agent booking or group booking. Besides that, they will try their best to fit the tourist requirement such as providing meals on air. For travel agent booking, they must join Airasia as an authorized sales agent by having a valid license, also known as the SkyAgent .

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

Businessman

This is a person who involved in the management of a company. Most of the time they travel overseas in order to meet their client. Their major concern is about the transportation cost for flight and they would prefer to pick a business seat which has premium flat bed because it provides maximum comfort and spacious. In addition, they will feel more refresh after long distance travelling. Through charter@airasia.com,They also can carter airline service for the purpose of meeting, convention and for leisure with Boeing 737-300 or Airbus 320.

Student and traveller

They are people who always purchase individually through online booking, group booking or mobile booking. Besides that, they also like to purchase low cost fare flight ticket because most of them are from average family. Therefore they will try to get cheap ticket by keep searching it or wait for the promotion period. In order to get cheap flight ticket, they would choose economy seat which have hot seat and standard seat. For those who want to get the plane first, they are recommended to get hot seat rather than standard seat.

Therefore, each user have different buying pattern such as group booking, individual booking and mobile booking. The differences from group booking and individual booking are the guest will need to pay a non-refundable service fee and deposit per guest. Secondly, the full guest list with identification card number and passport number must be extended to AirAsia one week before departure. For using mobile phone, you can book flight ticket, gets details on flight schedules and check in from anywhere.

Question 2 (a)

Function: Email as the communication tool

Base on the AirAsia airline system, the system have provide emailing function to their customer. E-mail is a system of creating, sending and storing textual data in digital form over a network. It can send and receive messages electronically over a computer network, as between personal computers. In this 21st century, e-mail has become the most preferred tool for communication.

AirAsia uses this function to advertise their promotion and services to their customer. If customer registers as a member of AirAsia, they can get some best perks from the AirAsia. Be a AirAsia member, they can receive their newsletters which make them have the first information about their latest low fares and other fantastic offers. AirAsia advertises this promotion and services to their members through the emailing .Through the email advertising allows AirAsia to grab their customer attention and interest immediately.

Customer of AirAsia can get the lasted news as fast as possible by the email. Email is by far the fastest form of written communication. Customer can first to know more detail with the lasted news or promotion of AirAsia. Email can distribute information quickly to many people for the time it takes to email one person. No other service matches the e-mail in terms of speed.

By the way, emailing is a fast and now the most popular business communication with customers, enabling us to reach an unlimited number of recipients at low cost. AirAsia using this function to delivered instantly, anywhere across the globe. It is because email is leverage. AirAsia are able to send out email messages to literally millions of clients. Recipients are able to receive the message and respond instantly by the email. The messages that send from AirAsia at a cost that is close to zero. They are able to mail a simple message to a few thousand individuals without any payment.

Besides that, AirAsia using this emailing function in their customer service department. AirAsia have provide the 24 hour online service to their customer, especially is customer service department. When customers have some question or problem related with the AirAsia flight or their booking, it is able for them to ask by using the emailing function. Customer Service of AirAsia also have provide some simple question and answer which is divide into 5 main category. It is easy for customer to search and find out their answer. If customer can’t find what they want, they can contact the customer service of AirAsia through the email instantly.

Through the emailing function of AirAsia provided, customer are able to update their information .Trough the function of emailing, it is possible to send automated e-mails using special programs. Hence, AirAsia able to send automated e-mails to their customer or member monthly or when have some special promotion. Email advertising that send by AirAsia can keeping their customer up to date with their promotion. Customer can refreshes their information and also able to know more detail and promotion that provide by AirAsia through the email.

By the way, it is also easy for customer to do reference when customer needs to check back or reply their mail. There is a provision in the mailing system to attach the previous mails as references. This function can refresh the recipient’s knowledge, it also able for customer to reference back the important information. For the example like date for flight, their booking receipt number and some of the important data.

Question 2 (b)

Improvement on email function

For my opinion, AirAsia need to make some improvement for their emailing function. Although emailing has brought a lot of advantages to their customer, however it also includes some disadvantages. AirAsia have to make some improvement for this function to make their service much better.

Email is emotional responses. Some emails cause upset or anger. A reply in the heat of the moment can’t be retracted. Through the emailing, people easy misunderstanding with the message. Hence, AirAsia can provide a video call system to their customer. Through the video call function, people easy to get the message or information. Cases of misunderstanding of customer will be decrease.

With this video call function, customer service department of AirAsia are easy to get the message from their customer. They can easy get the message about the problem that customer facing, and reply their customer instantly. In the other hand, AirAsia can provide this video call function without any payment to their customer. Free video calling are able to attract more people to use this function. This function enables them to talk face -to-face with live video for free.

Besides that, AirAsia also can create a system for car rental to customers. Some of the customer of AirAsia may need a vehicle as their transport, especially is visitor. Some of the visitor will rent a car as their transport. Hence, it was functionable if AirAsia have provided this car rental system for their customers. The client can book the car rental service from AirAsia. It was possible booking the flight ticket with car rental in AirAsia.

It is very easy to booking a car rental through online. Customer just need to state about the pick-up and drop-off location, pick-up and drop-off date and car type. It was simple and easy to customer to book a car rental. With this function, visitor is able to save a lot of time and money to find the transport or vehicles. All of this suggestion can make AirAsia airline system better and complete.

Question 2 (a)

Function: Hotel booking, provide destination guide and book for tour activity.

AirAsia has cooperated with many hotels around Asia Country allow traveler to made hotel booking on the AirAsia website. There are many users of this system such as individual traveler, corporate booking, travel agent booking or government booking. This system makes traveler more convenience because they can straightaway to book for the hotel accommodation after they book a flight in the same systems.

Besides that, this system also provides users to make a comparison either in price, hotel rating or facility provided with other hotel booking website. AirAsia also provide traveler to search for better saving hotel accommodation as AirAsia having AirAsiaGo promotion such as mystery hotel and is lowest price guarantee.

Mystery hotel is means that traveler pay 3-star rates hotel for accommodate at 5-star hotel but with terms and condition that is the hotel name will not be revealed but hints will be provided, such as the location, facilities found at the Mystery Hotel.

Lowest price guarantee is to guarantee to customers that booking hotels with airasiago.com is definitely cheaper price compared to elsewhere online. AirAsia can achieved this by refund the price difference to those customers that able to find lower hotel rates on any other website as compared to the booking made at airasiago.com (same time period and same hotel booking) and is subject to terms & conditions. Customers just need to send email to airasiagoguarantee@airasia.com to claim for the price different.

To book a hotel accommodation with AirAsia, customers can visit the AirAsia.com home page (http://www.airasia.com/my/en/home.html) in 6 easy steps as shown below.

Step 1

Search

Browse for the hotel accommodation by select your vacation city or region.

Then, fill in the check-in and check-out date, select number of rooms that you want to book, select number of guest (adult or children) and stated the currency for the payment purpose.

After you have key in all this information, now you can click the search and there will be process your requirement.

Step 2

Select

Now, the systems will be shown out the all hotels that meet the customer’s requirement.

Customers can sort this hotel name view in either price or star rating.

So, customers are required to click on the book now at the hotel slide that they choose.

Then, customers also required to choose the Room type Features.

Step 3

Options

After that, customers also can add any additional activities to their itinerary such as airport transfer, our package and so on.

Then, customers need to confirm their itinerary and simply click continue to the next process.

Step 4

Travelers Detail

Customers are required to fill in the contact information.

Step 5

Payment

Customers can choose for the payment method either credit card or debit card and make the payment.

Step 6

Confirmation

Once the payment is processed, the hotel accommodation itinerary will be shown and send to your email address

Besides that, AirAsia also has cooperated with travel agent to allow travel agent to publish their tour package on AirAsia website. This system has beneficial for those individual that had book flight and hotel accommodation on the AirAsia website to browse for the tour package available and book for their prefer tour package. So, traveler no needs to find other travel agency to book for the travel package. Hence, this will reduce cost such as communication to travel agency and time to confirm the booking as this system can instant confirm on website.

Next, AirAsia also got provide destination guide to users for vacation purpose. This is beneficial to those who going to plan for vacation but no idea for the vacation place, then they can search for this systems on AirAsia website. This system will show all the interesting and famous place for vacation around the Asia Country. For example, is Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland at Hong Kong, gold coast at Australia and so on. This systems is easy to use, traveler just need to click on destination guide under the travel info, then just click the destination place that their wan t to know more. User also can choose for detailed information on dining, sightseeing, culture, art & theater, nature & eco, shopping of the country. This will help travelers that plan for vacation to decide and choose their prefer vacation place.

AirAsia also provides a system that allows users to search for the event calendar so that they can plan to go to the event activity. This system also quite easy for the user as it just clicks on the event calendar under the travel info. This system is beneficial to those travelers who want to go for some of the special event activity such as Macau Food Festival, Halloween Hong Kong Treats, Hong Kong Sinfonietta Accompanies Hong Kong Ballet in The Nutcracker, Christmas in the Tropics, Walkerhill Show ‘Legend of Flower’ and so on because travelers can check for the time this activity happen on AirAsia website.

Question 2 (b)

Add new cruises booking

One of the services or functions that can be add to the current AirAsia website systems to provide cruises booking for users. Future users of this system might include individual, couple, family or group booking, corporate booking, travel agent booking or government booking. Couple may like to have a honeymoon cruise trip or having a memorable cruise wedding. Besides that, cruises is also one of the choice for family, friends or company trip as there have a lot of activities ranging from snorkelling and biking to sauna and spa treatments. This service would increase sales to AirAsia because this cruise package is in very high demand.

So, AirAsia should implement this service into the current system website so that users can book for the cruise package. The way of booking this cruise package system is almost same as the hotel booking systems.

Besides that, this system also can provide some theme for user to select such as family cruises, luxury cruises, holiday cruise, week end cruise and so on. User can book this theme cruise by click on the Cruise them promotion. If user is more likely to choose the destination and time by themselves, they can search by following steps.

First, user need to search for their prefer cruise destination and the duration time for the cruise. Then, user is required to fill in the departure month and date. Anyway, the systems would ask users how flexible are they for the departure date such as expand their search to include days before and after their preferred departure date because it is unlike flights, cruises don’t depart every day from every port. Next, user also need to select their prefer cruise line and cruise ship. Lastly, user required to select the cruise departure port and stated the currency for the payment purpose. Now, user can click search.

Second, the systems will process all the information and shown out all the available cruise. User can sort this cruise view in either price or ship rating. Now, user need to choose their prefer cruise and click on the select button at the cruise slide that they choose.

Third, user can search for the availability of the entertainment or activity on the cruise ship such as Bars, Clubs & Lounges, Casino & Gambling, Spa, Sports & Fitness, Shops, Leisure, Enrichment, Kids & Families and so on. This can help user to planning for this activity on the cruise. User also can view the cruise Itinerary at here such as time of arrive or departure at which place. Besides that, user also can look for the availability and the price for the dinning. After the user has know all about the cruise information and confirm for this cruise package then they can click continue for further process.

Now, user need to select the number of passengers (Adults or children). User also required to choose their dinning preferences either personal choice dining or second dining. Then, user need to select the table size either medium , small or large. Lastly, user must enter their contact information.

Then, user need to specify what type of stateroom category that wants to book such as Suite, Balcony Stateroom, Oceanview Stateroom and Interior Stateroom.

Fifth, user need to key in all detailed information. User are required to check the billing information and the contact information. Now, user needs to pay for this cruise package either in debit or credit card.

This system can generate more sales for the AirAsia and get more users to use the AirAsia website to plan and book for vacation.

Question 2 (a)

Functions: Payment methods, 1-Click Card and multi currency pricing system

From the system that we have chosen, I would like to discuss about the payment function that are available for AirAsia booking system. Every traveller who purchases their ticket from the website or mobile phone is requiring making the payment prior their purchase. After they have entered their guest information and the additional service that they needed, they are require to choose which payment option and method they would like to use. The payment options are VISA, Master Card or American Express and they can use credit card or debit card, e-gift voucher and direct debit to pay it. Let look at them one by one to see how to use this method to make payment.

For the credit or debit card payment, it is the same as the normal way of payment that we use to pay for things that we purchase online. The travellers are required to choose the type of card that they would like to use to make their payment. Then enter their card details on the screen and billing address. They must ensure that the information is the same with the credit or debit card information. Before click on the word “Pay” to make the payment, they must double check whether the final amount and guest name are correct. After that, be patient to wait for around 45 second for the system to process the transaction. When it is successful, their travel itinerary will automatically appear for them to print and it is also email to them.

Direct Debit is another method where the travellers can choose to make their payment. First, they must click on the “Direct Debit” tab and choose their preferred Bank for payment. There are Maybank, Public Bank. CIMB Clicks, AmOnline and BankRakyat. After selecting the bank that they would like to use, there will be pop-up windows on their preferred bank. They are required to login to their bank account in order to process the payment. To perform the transaction, they must select the account and confirm the payment details by clicking “Next”. Verify the account by key in their Identification Code (IC) or Passport Number and click “Confirm” to precede the transaction. Before log out from the page, they must print their payment details for future reference. Once all this is done, the travel itinerary will be display.

Traveller can also pay using the E-Gift Voucher (EGV). They can get the EGV by purchasing it online or get it as a gift from AirAsia. They can use it by key in the E-Gift Voucher Number and password. If they have more than one voucher, click on “+” to add the next voucher by key in the number and password. When there are any remaining balances after deduction from the voucher, they need to pay it using credit or debit card. So they must click on the “Credit / Debit Card” tab to proceed. Then they must do the same process as the credit or debit card payment explained in the second paragraph. After all the payment, the travel itinerary will appear for print.

In additional, there are this new features added to bring convenience to travellers who always purchase flight ticket using the credit or debit card. This is called 1-Click Card. It will change the way they can complete their payment as previous. Now, they do not need to fumble and rush to key in their card details. Before they are able to use this 1-Click Card, they must add their favourite cards into the list on their account. How can they do so? They must login their account in AirAsia.com and go the “My Profile”. Then move the mouse to “My 1-Click Card” and select “Add/Delete details”. They are required to add on their card details for all the mandatory fields and save it. However, they can only add a maximum of 3 cards in this feature. So whenever they need to book any ticket online no matter through web or mobile, they can just click on the card they want to use for purchase without key in the details.

Besides that, AirAsa has currently cooperated with The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to provide a multi-currency pricing system to it online system. These systems enable the travellers can immediately get the actual price that they are paying according to their country currency. This could enhance the company online sales by eliminate the uncertainty of exchange rates fluctuation. For now, the currencies available for online sales are US dollar, Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, pound, and Australian dollar.

Question 2 (b)

Improvement on the payment system

There are many customer complaints that they face problems when they are making payment for their flight ticket. When they have finish entering all their card details and click “Pay”, some of them may even get a page stated that “our site is experiencing high traffic, please try again later” after they key in the payment details especially during promotion period, facing an error or connection problem. Some may also face problem when they tends to make payments for two different routes flight. For example, there are these customers who plan to help his friends to purchase the flight ticket using his account. For the current system, he can only make the booking by finish the first booking before book for the second flight. But there are these chances where he has successfully paid for the first ticket and when he purchase for the second ticket, he now face an error that state that the payment was unsuccessful.

Therefore, as an improvement, I would like suggest to AirAsia that they should upgrading its payment system that enables the customer to book two different route tickets with just one payment with his credit or debit card.

How to do so? First, AirAsia should meet with the bank officer that that they have relation on the system and those IT management team to discuss on how to apply this function to the current booking system. After all the discussion, they must design the system to apply. They can put an extra box in the booking section where they can tick on whether they are purchasing more than one ticket. If they tick it, they will be shown with two columns for them to enter the destination and date they are going. After entering it, they will be shown with two fare prices for the different route tickets and they are required to choose. Then they have to enter two type of information. One is for the first trip guest information then another for the second trip as they may be different guest.

After all the booking details, they come to the page where they need to make the payments. Now the system must be able to sum up the total price for both of the ticket purchase and the additional charges on other services. Then the customers choose on the payment method that they wanted to use and click “Pay”. So they are now able to make two ticket purchases with just one time of payment. For the bank site, they must enable the customer to make their payment online although it might be a huge sum. Their customer service centre can also call the customer and confirm on their purchases. With this planning and designing, they must test on this system to see which one is more workable or not on the current system before implementing. It must also be user friendly for the customers to use.

So with this new function, the customers can now book ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and ticket from Melbourne to Taipei with one payment with their credit or debit card. It is now easier and time saving for the customer as they can save their time to purchase it two times. It is also reduce the chances for them to get the error problem.

Question 2(a)

Functions: Skybus, Skyvan, advertising, Help and Info

Airasia creates airline system to provide useful and convenient for the users. Through the website, we know that Airasia provides a variety of services including skybus, skyvan and advertising. Skybus is a transport that offer low cost price in addition to quality service. Besides that, point to point shuttle service is provided from KL Sentral or One Utama to low cost carrier terminal and vice versa. There are 40 seater air conditioned coaches and also provides adequate space. The time taken from One Utama or KL Sentral to LCC-T is estimated at 1 hour 15 minutes and the ticket charged for KL Sentral is RM9 and One Utama is RM15.

Skyvan provides door-to-door van service that will get you to the city such as LCCT, Genting Highlands, Port Dickson, Cameron Highlands, Melaka and so on. It is available from 9am to 9pm.But if u gets a ride between 6 am to 9am and 9pm to 11 pm, you will be surcharged rm20 per van. You will also be charge extra 30 percentage of total cost if it is in the middle of the night. At the same times, the prices are charged in different way which depends on sharing or charter.

Advertising is also available on airline system. We learnt that there are few companies that have collaborated with skybus such as Airasia, Maxis and Digi. There are three types of advertisement for allowing companies to advertise including bus painting advertisement, on board advertisement and websites advertisement.

The airline system also added few tabs at website including schedule, photo gallery, newsroom and help and info. As we know skybus schedule, it operates daily throughout the year, including public holidays. During peak-season, bus ran at a 15 minutes interval and 30 minutes interval off peak. Therefore, it is convenience for us to get ride straight away and no time is wasted.

One of the tabs of Airasia is photo gallery at airline system. We could have a look at various type of Lcct opening, new buses1, new buses 2, skyvan and award. Besides that we could at least figure out the image of the skybus and skyvan from the front view and back view. The photos also prove the awards they have received.

In order to let many users know about the latest event, Airasia will updated the advertisement on the home page. For example, they provide bus services to Sepang circuit from 8 April to 10 April 2011.The airline system also provide the detail of skybus schedule and price ticket.

Furthermore, airline system also provides newsroom. It has posted lots of articles about skybus from newspaper such as news trait times, star metro and the edge Malaysia. It can enhance people knowledge and increase the reliability of Malaysia.

Moreover, Help and Info is provided by Airasia. For enquires and customer services, user can contact them by reaching+6(016)-2176950 from 9 am to 10p.m.Another choice is sending a letter or email to them. In addition, it also provides FAQ and term and condition. In order to improve the service, t hey also created online feedback on online system so that people will give more opinion and Airasia appreciates the compliment from the users by posting them on the wall to share it with everyone.

From the above information, users can compare among the airline services (Airasia, Mas airline and firefly )which are more convenient for them. For example, they may find out that Malaysia airline do not provide low cost transport such as skybus. For people who are of average family, they are not willing to spend on expensive transportation fee. Due t o economic crisis, most of people try to do research for the cost and make a budget for themselves. To determine whether is it worth or not, they may want information about flight ticket and transport fee charged by airline and also include the time taken from airport to their destination

Most of the users using the airline system are travel agency, businessman, traveler and employees. They interact directly with the system. Travel agency helps their customer to book their flight ticket or prepurchases the ticket and then offers attractive package to their customer. Whereas, businessman is a person who is a workaholic and need to fly around the worlds in order to meet their client. As for traveler, they would like to travel overseas when they are free. Therefore, they are end users who interact with system directly. Besides that, employee manages the system by replying generic question or providing further information to their customers.

In order to purchase tickets, first and foremost, you must select your departing and arriving cities. Select number of guest (adult or children) and stated the currency for the payment purpose. After you have key in all this information, now you can click the search and there will be process your requirement. Next, you will need to select flight schedule which will be displayed with fare and travel time. The following steps are user must key in their contact detail and personal detail. After that, you will be asked whether pre-purchase ticket or not. If you choose to pre-purchase, you will need to choose your destination (One Utama/ KL Sentral). Finally, you made the payment by using credit card or debit card.

Airasia also provide information about bus service to Melbourne: foreign country Skybus information center of Melbourne airport provides a combined Metcard-Skybus ticket that is avail