I love to travel. However, the increasing prices of air tickets can be a real deterrent. So when AirAsia announced their AirAsia X Amazing Low Fare Promotions, I was immediately on the alert.

Just in case you are wondering what is the difference between the normal AirAsia and AirAsia X , the difference lies in their destinations. Whilst AirAsia covers mainly the nearby countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, AirAsia X is the more premium branch of AirAsia, covering the further destinations including London, Melbourne, Perth, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Booking for the AirAsia X promotion was on 15 November 2011 at 12 noon.

For those who have booked tickets during AirAsia promotions before, you would know that time is of the essence and you have to act Very Very Fast if not all tickets would be gone before you know it, sometimes, within the first hour of launch.

Unfortunately, when the promotion started, I had no access to my computer. Thus I asked Ms Black to help me standby at 12 pm sharp to book my tickets to Taiwan., which Ms Black was happy to assist. Ms Black, being an experienced "booker" (link to her Korea Booking and Phuket Booking Review) was quick to select the dates and complete all the information required for the booking of 2 tickets to Taiwan for me and hubby. However, due to the heavy website traffic, Ms Black kept encountering “error” messages at the payment stage and could not complete the booking transaction = (

Desperate and panicking, I suddenly recalled that AirAsia had a mobile website and I decided to give it a try from my iPhone. The mobile platform was very easy to navigate.

There are 6 steps to complete the booking and at each step, the instructions were very clear and the interface was very user-friendly.

After I had selected the destination (Taiwan in this case) , the different rates, including the promotional rates were clearly displayed for my selection.

Throughout the whole booking process, I did not encounter any of the lagging or error messages that I usually encounter from the main AirAsia website during the peak promotional periods. Once I keyed in my credit card details, I immediately received a booking confirmation number although the payment status was still pending.

When I logged on to my phone again 15 minutes later, the status was updated to payment confirmed. Within the hour, I had received the invoice and confirmation email from AirAsia confirming the itinerary and flight details.

The whole booking process from the mobile platform was a breeze and definitely one of the fastest and smoothest booking that I have experienced for AirAsia promotions. I would definitely recommend the mobile platform for future booking of AirAsia promotions.

So Taiwan, here I come next year! Sure, it seems a long time away, but I guess this is the norm for AirAsia promotions as normally the promotional tickets have to be booked at least half a year in advance if you want to get the very good promotional rates.

The total cost for 2 tickets from KL to Taiwan including all taxes and additional luggage requirements came up to just S$380.00. How often do you come across such a great deal????

* All the above images (except the ones we personally shot) belong to  Airasia  unless specified otherwise.

Website : mobile.airasia.com

Delivery: Immediate confirmation but to get the best promotional rates, tickets normally have to be booked at least 6 months in advance.

Ease of Website: The mobile platform was very easy to navigate and I did not encounter the usual error messages which I often encounter from their normal website bookings.

Price: Cheap if you mange to book during promotions. You can get tickets for 2 pax from KL to Melbourne from S$500, tickets from KL to London for 2 pax from S$750, inclusive of all taxes. That is about ¼ of the normal SIA pricing.

Rating : 6.5 out of 10

I just have to give two THUMBS UP for Forever 21's delivery service, I just received my order within 11 days (inclusive of 4 days of weekends!) !! And I like the way they took the trouble to ensure no damages to the items in the box and made the effort to separate small items from those bigger ones. Have a look at the 20 items (inclusive of 2 repeat items) we have gotten ! Some are Christmas presents for our family members and friends !

Separating the purses and small bags from the rest of the items:

& they look just like what I have seen on the Forever 21 webpage :

Gotten the following Sequined Tote Bags (Black & Silver) for some of my hubby's schooling cousins and if I stuffed some newspaper into the bags, I think they will look just like those photos on the website !

Wanted to get this Teddy bear bag as a surprise for Ms Chocolate

but was only left a last piece and my colleague ordered it before me : (

I am soooo disappointed, especially after seeing the actual bag coz

this is the type of tote bag that Ms Chocolate will definitely like !!

Aren't the ribbon and the pearl necklace cute ???

And we bought our colleague a SEXY Birthday present !

& my colleague got this nice shirt for her boyfriend ! Soooo SWEET ! 

 

And I bought these two bags for myself. Nice ???

The pictures of the actual bags:

And of course, we would not miss out showing off our apparels to you !!!

We each bought one piece of this working dress for only US$13.50 !!

Isn't it CHEAP ?? Too pretty and cheap, so both of us cannot resist buying it !

Must make sure we both don't wear it at the same time to work ! Haha !

I bought this top but I am not going to wear it as a top but as a dress with tights !!

And I bought this unique top . The actual top's color (red) isn't that bright as the one I saw on the website but I still think it is worth it !

The metal strap is really very very unique and special ! But quite heavy too !! hahha

My colleague bought the following apparels. I made her take some pictures
 and  let her show off here : P

I love her jacket! Money well spent ! Quality is good and

I think it will keep her warm in the office.

And guess how much it is ? It is only US$16.50 !!!! What a good bargain she got !!

And she also gotten herself a figure flattering nice knotted waist pencil skirt

And lastly, I bought a Tshirt for hubby's friend ! haha .. something which I think he would like :P

* All the above images (except the ones we personally shot) belong to  Forever 21  unless specified otherwise.

Are you envious of me now ? Hahaha ... start your Forever 21 shopping now and share with me your experiences too !!

Updated on 6th Dec 2010

My hubby's good friend is a loyal customer of Aussiebum. He shared with me his experience of buying from Aussiebum. He has been buying his briefs from this online shop all this while and is always 100% satisfied. He told me that Aussiebum has been offering free shipping worldwide since two years ago and even if the customer orders only one brief, Aussiebum would make an effort to deliver it to your house in a nice packaging. He also told me that he couldn't find any other brands that could offer briefs that are so comfortable , with style and fitting.

For the benefits of our male readers, I tested out buying a brief from Aussiebum. They do provide a wider range of briefs of different designs, different colours and many different interesting themes ! Have a look here !

The website itself also provides an information size chart when you need help in choosing a suitable size.

* All the above images belong to Aussiebum unless specified otherwise.

The price is slightly on the high side at SG$17.60. However, I feel that it makes a good gift , especially for girlfriends or wives who want to give a sweet surprise to their loved ones. Or it might makes a cute surprise for the guys to surprise the girls ! Haha!

After checkout, the website will bring you to a payment page whereby you will only need to enter the credit card details. You will receive a confirmation in the last page with an email sent to you . I am now excitedly waiting for the order to arrive as I am always curious about the packaging of online retail brands' delivery! Wonder whether there is any differences between female and male retail brands ?

Order Date:  19th November 2010
Shipped Out Date: 22nd November 2010 (3days to process and send out)
Received Date: 4th December 2010 (around 2 weeks to receive my order)

I received the order via a normal envelope in the letterbox. I think I should have received the order earlier but they seemed to have written my postal code wrongly. That could explain the delay, else I think it should take around 1 week for me to receive the package. Let me share with you the pictures of the package:

What I like about Australian brands is that they place emphasis on putting in brochures/catalogues to promote their products and they have nice packaging for their apparels:

Since I bought a "Saturaday" brief, they even put a sticker to remind me to collect all seven days. Interesting, isn't it? For hygiene purposes, they also packed the brief in a nice , good quality transparent bag.

Another interesting discovery - they even inserted a cute card to CONGRATULATE you for being one of the first who have bought their new designs - telling you that you are one of the first people in the world who owns this brief design !

And the best of all, is that the brief looks exactly as the one we seen in the picture !

Website : http://www.aussiebum.com/

Delivery /Cost: Free worldwide !!

Service : to be updated

Quality: to be updated

Rating : 8 out of 10

Last updated: 22nd Dec 2010

Woww ... my good friend who is a regular customer of ASOS  dropped me an email yesterday telling me that ASOS is providing free delivery worldwide for a limited period ! I thought she was kidding me... Well, I went to the website and was really surprised to see this banner on the website:

I hurriedly browse through the website. As I had previous bad experiences with the quality of the clothes at ASOS, I decided not to look at any clothes . The same good friend provided me a good tip that as long as I do not buy their house brand, the quality will be good! I went straight to Women > Outlet/ Clearance Brands to check out whether I could get any bargains ! I only needed to convert whatever I need to buy from UK pounds to SG dollars for this shopping experience! I do not need to add the shipment cost to whatever I wish to buy ! How often do you get an opportunity like this ?

Within 5 minutes, I chose this beautiful Fiorelli Lizzie bag, which was now selling for only £9.00. The original price was £15.00. I used to buy this brand when I was in Australia, but I didn't remember seeing this brand in Singapore.  Is this bag nice ? I bought the cream one as the pink one was out of stock. Immediately after I put this bag in the basket, the item appeared as out of stock.

For ASOS , once you have placed the item in your basket, the item would be reserved solely for you for 2 hours. If we do not "checkout" within 2 hours , the item would be available for other customers to choose. However, deep in my mind, I wasn't sure whether ASOS  would provide free delivery for just one item. I wasn't interested in other items, and thought that this was sufficient for me since I had already spent quite an amount at Forever 21. I continued to proceed to check out and was pleasantly surprised that ASOS really did not charged me for any delivery cost for just one bag to Singapore !!

For now, I just have to wait patiently for my this bag! I received an email telling me that my bag would be "Delivered on or before Monday 06 December 2010" ! Yippy !

Order Date: 19th Nov 2010 (Singapore Time - 1PM)
Packed Date: 19th Nov 2010 (Singapore Time - 11 PM)
Shipped Date: 19th Nov 2010 (Singapore Time - 11 PM)

Arrival Date: 2nd Dec 2010 (Singapore Time - 1230 PM)

Added on 2nd Dec 2010 >  I received my package today ! I am pretty impressed with the packaging and delivery this round ! The only part which I am disappointed is the color - cream. It appears to be rather dull. It isn't as bright as what I have seen in the picture earlier. However, I still love Fiorelli bags and is very happy to have gotten it at a bargain. So  I won't complain much ! Got to clarify with all the readers. The quality of ASOS stuff really depends on the brand.

After I placed this order, I excitedly shared the news with my hubby's good friend who has been telling me to help him place some orders online as he hasn't got any time to go shopping for new clothes. I excitedly shopped for him and by night time, we ordered two French Connection tops for him. One French Connection Polo T and one French Connection T-shirt. Aren't they lovely ?

* All the above images belong to ASOS unless specified otherwise.

And the best thing is they aren't expensive !! They cost around SG$30 each !!!! I got these two pieces of clothings under Clearance sale as well with no delivery charges !!! 

Order Date: 19th Nov 2010 (Singapore Time - 10 PM)
Packed Date: 20th Nov 2010 (Singapore Time - 8 AM)
Shipped Date: 20th Nov 2010 (Singapore Time - 8 AM)

Arrival Date: 21st Dec 2010 (Singapore Time - 4 PM)

Added on 21st Dec 2010: After waiting for more than a month, my friend's order finally arrived ! The FCUK tops look exactly like what we saw online ! Yippy ! Improved my opinion of ASOS despite the delay. Have a look at the clothings:

I wanted to place another order for my hubby after receiving the tops, but ASOS has stopped offering free worldwide delivery : ( That is so disappointing ! Thought the promo would last till Xmas...

If you are interested in reading my other ASOS posts, please refer to the following entries:

My ASOS order is finally here !

ASOS