By: JESSEY CHERIAN GEORGE, Puchong, Selangor

HOW hard can it be to apply for anything online these days?

Some applications, for example, Hasil online, are surprisingly easy. The online booking experience with Air-Asia was also pleasant.

Now try applying for the Enrich frequent flyer program-me by our national carrier, Malaysia Airlines.

The site is easy to find and the fields that you are required to fill out are standard.

But now comes the challenge: clicking the submit button.

Go ahead, try it. You will be whisked off to a dull page notifying you that the page cannot be found.

So you try another web browser instead, rationalising that the earlier one did not fulfil the software parameters.

You hit the same submit button. Guess what? You're at the same dead end.

At this point, you have invested too much time and do not want to put that to waste.

So you call the 1-300 number and wait while the repetitive message keeps your hopes alive that some human is about to solve your problem. A voice tells you to try again in a few minutes. And so I kept on trying.

That was about a month ago.

Not having learnt my cyber lesson, I tried again. This time, I was not amused. So I called the 1-300 number again.

After 12 minutes of waiting, I gave up on Enrich.

I do not know what it takes for a customer to become a member of Enrich or for someone to fix the problem.

I am sure both tasks are no more difficult than ironing a shirt.