For buying a ticket online via most methods (incl debit MasterCard/Visa), Air Asia charges a processing fee of around US$5.
I'm looking at an itinerary with two legs that they won't sell as a single ticket, so I'd have to pay the fee twice, adding around 10% to my ticket price; I'd like to avoid this if possible.
Can I avoid the Air Asia payment processing fee by buying my ticket in person, for example at Penang or Singapore airport?
While AirAsia's fees vary from market to market, it appears that most if not all routes will impose a "Booking Service Fee" that "applies to all bookings made via Call Centre, Sales Office, Airport Sales Counters, ATSC operated directly or licensed to operate under AirAsia brand." This fee looks to be higher than the processing fee, so paying it really isn't going to improve your situation.
It looks like there may be some payment methods that avoid the processing fee in certain markets only, such as eNETS in Singapore, an AirAsia BIG Visa, or debit via PayPal, but those methods may have fees or poor exchange rates of their own.
Like you I had to book four air asia flights for the next part of our trip and had the same problem.
In the end I booked them through traveloka, they offer credit card payment without the extra fee. On one of the flights the actual cost of the flight was cheaper than when direct with air asia too.
Edit: In the end one of the flights was cheaper with expedia than traveloka. I guess you have to check each one individually.
