Flying on Air Asia from the defunct LCCT to Singapore

Welcome to my Air Asia Trip report!

*Aircraft photos are credited to the respective photographers from Airliners.net

Check out my trip report on Tiger Airways and Singapore's Budget Terminal (Defunct).

Updating this report to improve the content (July 2014). Things have changed quite a bit from 2011 such as a closure of the Budget terminal and the LCCT in Kuala Lumpur so I will give some updates on my trip and add in other information that is relevant to this trip report.

Air Asia is one of my favourite Low-Cost Carriers in Asia, they are usually my number 1 choice to fly to unless I have connecting flights from KLIA which means I had to fly with Jetstar Asia instead.


Carrier: Air Asia
Flight number: 719
Date: 08th October 2011
Routing: KUL-SIN
Seat number: 1A
Aircraft type: A320-232
My 7th ride on this aircraft type and 5th airline to have flown on A320.
1st time on 9M-AHF
Engines: CFMI CFM56-5B6/3
Date delivered: 10th Jan 2008
Configuration: 180Y
Line number: 3353
Registration: 9M-AHF
Flight duration: 50 mins
Scheduled departure time: 1950 hrs
Actual departure time: 1940 hrs (Early)
Scheduled arrival time: 2050
Actual arrival time: 2035 (Early)
FL: 280
Load factor for Y class: 50%
Departure gate: Gate T5
Arrival gate: C11
Departure runway used: 32R
Arrival runway used: 02L

Flight route: KUL-SIN

 Photos of my aircraft

And it is now repainted to the current livery (July 2014)

Introduction

The last time I flew with Air Asia, I was impressed with their service. It was the same AK719 flight. I chose this flight because of the low fare. I wouldn't mind flying back later though. For aircraft enthusiasts, doing a joyride like this is a normal thing, but this might sound strange to you. Most of my friends were asked me to stay for at least a night or two, but then it is the flying experience that attracts me more.

Photos of LCCT

Lots of flies flying around which made me avoid this part of the terminal. 

This tasted horrible! Spicy Laksa (Spicy noodles with clamshell, prawns, and fish)

I abandoned my Laksa and had this instead at Merrybrown.

Somehow I miss the LCCT

Air Asia encourages you to do your own check-in.

The canteen beside the LCCT, it offered quite a number of delicious food.

At the holding area, waiting for my flight to be called.

Another round of snack before my flight back.

Onboard the flight

It was nice to have the express queue, as I managed to skip the long queue and was one of the first few to board the plane. I was a bit disappointed to see the normal colours A320, but at least it was a new registration for me. 

Anyway, once onboard, my seat was probably the fastest and easiest to find, seat 1A, first row, turn to the right. Great legroom space, probably the best seat in this seating configuration of Air Asia's. The only bad thing is you are being watched by the 2 crews on take-off and landing, who can see every action of yours, that means I couldn't take many photos as I like. 

There was 4 crew on this flight. 3 of them didn't look like they wanted to be there, especially the ladies. No smiles or anything. Only the guy who was in charge of the front section respond to my conversation. Shocking service really, but during that time, I was feeling tired, so I didn't bother much. Anyway, I got my pre-ordered Chicken satay, it tasted ok, nothing special about it. Makes me full though, which was good! After finished eating my food, I waved at them to take away my leftover, however, the 3 crews were deep in conversation, hence didn't notice me. I had to call about 3 to 4 times before they responded to me, that was really bad! Nevertheless, they apologized and for the rest of the flight, it was uneventful. 

Bits of turbulence but once again nothing out of the blue. Landing in Changi was surprising because for the past few days it had been cloudy with heavy rain. The landing was early, 02L, and headed to our gate at C11.

               Photos were not allowed at the tarmac, so I had to take this quickly.

Row 1-5 offers the special seat, this time I picked the very first row, 1A. 

What's inside the seat pocket?

The crew may feel awkward facing the passengers.

Legroom space was adequate for me. 

I tried the famous satay on this short flight and it was quite delicious.

Onboard experience: 

The service onboard this flight was shocking, it wasn't like that when I last flew with them. I guess they were tired after a long day of flying, but even so, you have to be professional about it. Almost forgot to mention this, the flight was only 50% full, so I am sure some smiles would be nice instead of giving me that stare look! It seems that these set of crew apart from one of them had forgotten their role on this flight. Would I fly with them again? Why not? A bad flight doesn't mean they are a bad airline, I am sure this was a one-off. Anyway, I would recommend you guys paying extra for this row of seats, the legroom space is better than the other. Not row 2 - row 5, make you sure get row 1.

Conclusion

Low-Cost Carriers bring you one place to another. The start of the LCC invasion has made travelling more affordable for everyone. The premium airlines are probably the ones that are the most unhappy as they are being forced to lower their fare, especially on the non-premium economy, just to fill up the seats. This has caused some sort of inconvenience for them! When Air Asia first started, I reckon some of the airlines didn't treat this airline a thread but today in 2014, they have expanded so quickly that even Malaysia Airlines are having problems competing with this airline on regional and domestic flights. I would definitely recommend this airline for reliability and safety. I heard a few issues on this airline on safety, but it seemed to be a rumour and nothing else.

My rating

On ground facilities: 7/10
LCCT airport experience: 6/10
In-flight service: 3/10
In-flight meal:  6/10
Aircraft condition: 10/10
Cleanliness: 8/10
Punctuality: 10/10
Seat comfort: 9/10
Overall rating: 59/80

Click here for my previous flight trip report

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Charles