What does ALL-IN FARE Really Mean

It depends on who you ask. If you ask an accountant a dollar added to another is equal to $2. But if you ask a marketer a $9.90 merchandise is actually $10.00.

Take the following case and you will understand why the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ACCC, filed a lawsuit against Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia. ACCC accused AirAsia of failing to disclose the full price of fares on its website.

So, I did the following:

• Landed on AirAsia's website
• Clicked the first promo that appear on the homepage
• Entered flight details according to the promo T&Cs
• Presented with total fare

Very attractive, all-in fare starts from RM199.00 although not many seats are priced this low.

Simple, and the offer is looking good! Almost all year around.

To be fair to customers, All-in fare should read as "FROM RM257.50". For obvious reason the airline did not disclose the higher fare when flying back from Tokyo. Interestingly for Gold Coast-KUL-Gold Coast  routes, both fares are displayed prominently.

At least that is my first impression of a return tickets to from KUL-Tokyo-KUL: RM199 x 2

Clearly, RM199.00 is not the all-in fare. Finding out what's the airport fees and taxes in Haneda, Tokyo should not be the customer's, it's the airline duty to disclose them. In this case, only the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo is correct as per advertised.

I have nothing against AirAsia, in fact eversince this budget carrier started its operations my family has been using its services for leisure travelings, except for routes it has not covered yet. Malaysia Airlines for me is mainly for formal company trips.

The above may not be an exact copy of what happened in the carrier's adverts for it's Australia website but the idea is still the same. The airline's advertisements always get me sceptical as most of the time the final total fare would be much higher than what is written as big prints in their commercials.

We may not have a law specifying "Businesses that choose to advertise a part of the price of a particular product or service must also prominently specify a single total price", but as a responsible business entity this is the right thing to do. Consumers should not be faced with surprises after making online bookings and are ready to make payment.

Lahad Datu Tower of Heaven

Image from Daily Express

Literally translated (but contextually correct), tower of heaven means Menara Kayangan in Malay. If you read Malay literatures, stories and folklores you will find numerous mention of the word 'kayangan' in reference to something supernatural that is coming from above.

No magic about this tower though.

But putting definition into perspective, starting March this year, people will be able to fulfill their dream of going up to kayangan when Menara Kayangan Lahad Datu is opened to the general public. You will not be able to go to heaven climbing it but you will get to enjoy magnificent  bird eye view of Lahad Datu and Darvel Bay in particular, at 33m above the ground.

That's about 11-storey building high and considering it's built on top of Mount. Silam, it is not hard to imagine the beautiful panoramic view one can expect to see from the top floor.

You may have been planning to visit Tabin and Danum Valley all this while but with the new development, you now have more reasons to make that trip to Lahad Datu. I have not been to these places before but if the timing is right, Danum Valley is high in my list for upcoming venture - primarily because I love taking pictures but also because I love nature so much.

You will not get the view from as high as at 86th floor, Petronas Twin Towers but this will definitely give you a totally different experience. You are surrounded by forest on one side and a picturesque sea on another.

What's in store in and around this RM1.8 million tower is  the 2-kilometre nature trail leading to the summit of Mount. Silam, complete with interpretation centre. What this means is that you walk along the trail, take pictures (a lot of them) and get all the information and references about what you have captured at the tower later. For plants and animals you you don't get to see along the way, you still get to see them and educate yourself  through the reading materials made available by Forestry Department.

Scheduled to open in two months time, let's hope fellow bloggers from Lahad Datu will make early coverage of this new tourist attraction.

Note: I have included in this post the article by Daily Express as they tend to archive their articles after sometime, meaning not-reachable to the public for free.

You have your own Domain. Now What?

When I started blogging a couple of years ago, I remember that I wanted to design my own website and decided to buy few books on website design. It was quite simple really considering the many web design softwares available in the market. So, I reverse-learn from the many templates available in the Internet. After a couple of weeks I decided I would better start writing/blogging using the free hosted Bloggers or Wordpress, and thought that I could transfer my contents to the 'permanent' website later on.

My blog content have grown to what it is today and I decided to take the next step - buy a domain. My contents are now hosted on a paid web-hosting company for $10 (about RM33.00) a year.

What should I do next? I was browsing Arlington web design the other day and suddenly the urge is back to design my own site. I could download a shareware software for a start, but it'll take quite a lot of my time writing the codes. I have a day job and I could end up less productive as a result. So, I may consider getting help from professional if the price is right.

I'm wondering if other bloggers have experience with other web designers - costs, support services and ease of use. If yes, kindly share so that we could all benefit from them.