AirAsia

Air Asia Indonesia. QZ8320 23 Mar 2014 CGK-DMK (A320). Website check-in is convenient CGK check-in agents are good and smiling and oblige if you want to change to an Aisle seat. Boarding in CGK is utter chaos and staff are in Go away Go away mode. Again Crew welcoming and point to your seat (the Weekend uniform is extremely untidy it kills the image). Announcements again so fast. Safety demonstrations are very good and clear to the point. Food again looks like it has been recycled 2 or more flights I had pre-booked meal (Satay with Asian Fried rice). Again no information that it contained Shrimp paste (I'm allergic to Seafood). On landing the announcements were so fast. Overall I will fly them again but as I said in my previous comment will bring my own food and water.

Departed Perth to Denpasar return with the family. No delays on either flight. Service was standard budget airline though much better than Ryan or Easyjet. My only complaint is regarding the unbelievably bad quality of the inflight hot meals. I pre ordered them to simply break the boredom for the kids and wish I hadn't bothered. Disgusting and simply inedible.

Air Asia D7316 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing March 12-13. We have flown on airlines throughout the world and have never been on a worse airline in 50 years of flying. Kuala Lumpur airport is awful. When you ask if there are meals provided they say "yes" but don't tell you that you are required to pay extra. If you have cashed in your money because you are flying into another country you are out of luck. We were 6 hours without a coffee water or tea. When we asked for a complimentary coffee the flight attendant said "No we are a low cost airline". They nickel and dime you all the way. When you check in they ask if you would like to check your bag. Then hit you with a $30 charge! However they let all kinds of over-sized bags on the plane so getting to your seat is total chaos. Loading the plane is a joke. It is basically a stampede to the plane out on the tarmac it is a total free for all on the tarmac.

DMK-PHN-DMK - Not much to write about frankly as this is a low-fair airline. Having their base in DMK airport is a strategic move away from the chaotic Suvarnbhumi. Make sure you booked earlier as the ticket will be almost as expensive as the regular cost airline given booking only a couple weeks ahead. Check-in both DMK and PHN is no problem. Though I seem to have problem with mobile online check-in from my last trip.

Pleasant surprise! Even if check-in was somewhat chaotic (in Krabi) the flight experience was nice. Clean plane comfortable seats and nice crew. Will fly them again and the prices are great.

REP-KUL. I must say that fares aren't that much cheaper than full service airlines if you only book a few weeks in advance. There are a lot of additional fees some of which are not avoidable. If you have to change your flight you will get clobbered. Check-in was another problem. Their website says that international check-in opens 3 hours before the flight - not true. The check-in did not open until 2 hours before. Once it did the queue did move at a painfully slow pace. The agent seem to have problems with every person checking in and had to call the supervisor over more than once for every passenger. I'd checked in online but not printed my boarding pass (as I had a mobile one sent to my mobile). This caused a lot of problems and needed the supervisor. Once through security everything was a breeze. Organised boarding great cabin crew clean plane comfortable seats and good food. I'd check to see how much you're actually saving before using Air Asia. If its enough then book it.

Kuala Lumpur to Phuket. Really good value for money. Plane is new. Very punctual. Cabin crew are well trained and nicely dressed. Seat is fine. Food is inexpensive but good quality and you can choose from a quite diversified menu. Boarding and disembarkation was organized very efficiently. Only inconvenience is you had to walk at KUL budget terminal for 10min from gate to plane through a shielded corridor.

Have flown with AA a few times this time RT from CNX to PEN. On the way from CNX to PEN I had to pay for the first checked baggage twice just because I had a transit in Kuala Lumpur. You will never know where they are going to put you in the airplane unless you pay to choose seat.

We flew Air Asia twice during our trip to SE Asia. I found the process of check-in well organized and tolerable. A low cost airline is going to have large crowds to manage and they did a good job. The seats are tight but no worse than more expensive airlines. Ads are tedious but I am sure these keep the cost down. All in all a satisfactory experience. They got us where we wanted to go efficiently and on schedule. Isn't that what a "Now everybody can fly" airline supposed to do?

While at Singapore Changi Airport it took me more than 2.5 hrs to queue just to check in. The AirAsia counters were grossly under staffed with 2 to 3 staff members frantically trying to process up to 4 or 5 flights of passengers. There was not enough staff to manage the queue many passengers were fed up and started queue jumping. Many passengers were late to board the plane not to mention time to shop the DFS stores. My flight to Bali took off an hour late. Worst experience I had with a budget airline.