AirAsia’s highly anticipated eHailing service, known as AirAsia Ride was made available in the Klang Valley last week. In conjunction with National Day, AirAsia is offering a promotion where the first 500 daily users who book a ride during this promotion period will enjoy a RM10 discount off one ride from 30 August to 1 September.
To redeem the free ride, passengers would need to key in the promo code “FREERIDE” under the “Ride” section of the AirAsia Super App. This promotion can only be used by AirAsia Ride passengers in the Klang Valley and is valid for one-time use only.
How is AirAsia Ride different?
AirAsia Ride intends for its drivers to have more freedom in choosing the jobs that they are comfortable with. This means that drivers will be be able to turn down jobs without being penalised for it. Instead, drivers would be rewarded if they complete more jobs as part of an encouragement model.
Passengers will also get to select their driver of choice, and female passengers will be able to select lady drivers. Passengers can also select an “AllStar Ride” where they will be chauffeur driven by AirAsia pilots and cabin crew. Furthermore, AirAsia is only charging a 15% platform fee for its drivers, which is lower compared to other eHailing platforms.
Apart from lower platform fees, it appears that rides are slightly cheaper on AirAsia’s eHailing service compared to its competitors. We noticed that a short trip between KL Sentral to Bangsar Village costs RM9 if you book via Grab while AirAsia Ride is charging RM7.
While AirAsia Ride’s fares are set at an average of RM1 per kilometre minus toll charges, it is unsure if rides become more expensive should the demand increase during peak hours or rainy weather. Before booking a ride, users can set a tip from RM1 to RM20.
AirAsia also said that users may soon be able to book rides using Big points, and can even enjoy free rides during low fare promotions. However, BigPay isn’t integrated into the AirAsia Ride yet, so for now passengers would have to manually enter their BigPay card number.
To reduce the spread of COVID-19, AirAsia only allows fully vaccinated drivers to join its platform. Drivers are also given free self-test kits and are also encouraged to get tested regularly with subsidised kits. To further increase ride safety, drivers are provided with air and hand sanitisers.
Currently, AirAsia Ride has 5,000 registered drivers. It wants to ensure that there is no driver excess and intends to deploy them according to demand. In the next coming months, the ride service will be available in other states such as Kelantan, Penang, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
The AirAsia SuperApp is available to download on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Huawei AppGallery. As the Klang Valley is under Phase 1 of the NRP, eHailing is currently limited to two people per vehicle including the driver. If you would like to join AirAsia Ride as a driver, you can sign up here.
