When you think of AirAsia and eWallet, you would probably think about BigPay which offers a physical prepaid card and it also supports DuitNow QR. Today, the AirAsia SuperApp has introduced Pocket, a new closed-loop eWallet platform that aims to provide seamless in-app payment for AirAsia products and services.
The AirAsia Pocket sits within the AirAsia app and it is shown as another “eWallet” in addition to BigPay on the home screen. By default, all AirAsia users can activate the Wallet instantly with a RM500 wallet size. You can increase it to RM4,999 by completing the e-KYC (electronic know your customer) process which requires you to scan a copy of your IC and take a selfie of yourself.
Unlike BigPay, AirAsia Pocket only accepts reload via online banking (FPX) and you have the option to pay by scanning a QR code or transfer funds to other AirAsia Pocket users. At the moment, it’s only available within Malaysia and they have plans to roll out Pocket to Thailand by Q4 2022, Singapore by Q2 2023 and the Philippines by Q4 2023.
The Pocket eWallet features are developed by Fass Payment Solutions Sdn Bhd (Fasspay), a white-label eWallet provider which has also obtained approval from Bank Negara Malaysia.
Use of AirAsia Pocket is extremely limited
Since this is a closed-loop eWallet, its usage is limited to selected AirAsia products and services. If you wish to use it to book flight tickets, it is only available as an option for AirAsia (AK) flights. When we try to book a return ticket on AirAsia X from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo Haneda, you won’t find AirAsia Pocket as an option.
AirAsia Pocket is also available on AirAsia Ride which is now the 3rd option in addition to Cash and card payments. Other AirAsia services such as AirAsia Xpress, AirAsia Food and AirAsia Super+ currently don’t support Pocket at the time of writing.
A major gripe which we have is there’s no option for you to top up the Pocket balance directly on the checkout page. This can be an inconvenience if you have insufficient balance as you would have to go out to the AirAsia Pocket to reload and then return back to the specific AirAsia app section to rebook your flight or service. As a result, you’ll have to go back and forth to find out how much exactly the air ticket cost, reload Pocket and then search for the same flight again while hoping that the ticket price remains unchanged.
Since Pocket doesn’t support non-AirAsia merchants or DuitNow QR at the moment, there’s very little motivation for users to top up more than what they need to pay for AirAsia products and services. The only listed supported on-ground merchant is AirAsia’s Santan branches. In its current form, Pocket seems to be redundant as their very own BigPay currently supports a global network of merchants as well as local eWallet platforms thanks to DuitNow QR.
Benefits of using AirAsia Pocket
AirAsia has announced several promos for Pocket. Apart from earning AirAsia points, users can enjoy extra 10% off all AirAsia flight bookings and 10x AirAsia points with every AirAsia Food order during the weekends. As mentioned earlier, AirAsia Food doesn’t seem to support Pocket at the moment.
For more info, you can check out AirAsia Pocket’s website.
