AirAsia

I did six flights with AirAsia Indonesia and AirAsiaX from Sydney KL Makassar Denpasar Makassar KL Sydney. I found the airline to be exactly up to my expectations. It's a budget no frills low airfare airline. I'm not too tall 1.8m and not too fat 73 kgs so it was fine for me. The food was good and if I didn't want any extras I didn't have to pay for them. It was about half the fare on Jetstar/Qantas. Neither of which went to my main destination of Makassar.

5/8/13 BKK-KUL FD2913 11/8/13 TGG-KUL AK6229. 12/8/13 KUL-Lombok AK1408. 24/8/13 DPS-BKK FD2977. I have recently flown several times on Air Asia. The planes have been immaculate the staff very helpful and they have an amazing turn around time and have always been on time. I was thoroughly impressed by the service and feel the budget airlines in Europe could learn a lot from them! We paid extra for a hot seat and were very comfortable with plenty of leg space. The price of this was cheap and I believe worth it. Baggage came through really quickly too. Only thing is no inflight entertainment at all but I was happy to use my iPad.

Flew 4 times back in May 2013 as they are no doubt the major low-cost airline in Asia. One is DMK-PHN and another one is DMK-HKT. Both are returned flight. Good move by Thai AirAsia for choosing DMK as their hub - less hassle and easy to get to. Check-in was easy and it is how you talk with the check-in staff in order to get seat you want/close to your partner/friend. I flew with my fiancé so we did manage to get the seat we want by just talking your way through. Aircraft is a new A319 which was a complete step-up from their old B737 a couple years ago I flew with them. Nothing fancy about cabin crew as we did not use their service at all (not buying any food). I would definitely fly them again - just because of their competitive price compared to other airline such as Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways.

DMK-SGN. First ever flight on the Air Asia group and I was greatly surprised. DMK is great with Air Asia international check in very easy. Plane was new clean and on-time. Crew were relaxed and friendly. The hot seat exit row is money well spent - did not bother with food on such a short leg. I would definitely recommend this airline and will readily use them again.

March 9 2013. DMK-KUL AK1941. March 12 2013 KUL-DMK FD2916. You cannot expect much from a low cost airline but Air Asia certainly hits the bottom when they not only charge a 12 USD supplement for their "Red Seats" where you have more knee space (although the difference is nominal) but they also charge a supplement for the other seats as if you could fly standing. But what revolted me most is that you have to pay extra charges for the use of a wheelchair (3 USD per use amounting to 12 USD for a round trip) to make money from handicapped people is a novelty.

SUB-KUL-HKT-CNX-KUL-SUB. SUB-KUL flight was pushed an hour early to 5.40am due to airport being overcrowded on Eidl Fitr holiday which was somewhat understandable. Having printed our boarding passes we still had to line up at the check in counter to pay airport tax. Once we arrived in KL we were ushered through the flight transfer area where staff informed us of our next departure gate and we had a pleasant 3 hour transit at the LCCT. Flights to and within Thailand were pleasant and punctual. Evening flight from Phuket to Chiang Mai they ran out of food by the time the crew got to our seats so we had instant noodles instead. In Chiang Mai we had to line up at the check in counter again to get a stamp in order to pass through the security check. We were rudely denied entry into the flight transfer area in KL on the way back to Surabaya because "the flights were booked under different booking codes". Note that there is no way to book AK and QZ flights under single purchase on the airline website and when we inquired the staff she mumbled something about "not paying a transfer fee" and us getting past the transfer hall last week was not meant to be part of procedure. We took our case to an immigration officer who accompanied us back to the transfer staff but turns out the immigration had to comply to airline policies. Begrudgingly we lined up at the long immigration lines to have our passports stamped entered the departure hall and lined up at the immigration again to find out that our flight was delayed 30 minutes. I am not going to fly Air Asia again unless I have no other choice.

Air Asia Japan: I got an excellent deal around 10000 yen return to Sappor half the price of ANA and JAL. One way ticket with absolutely no frills. Aircraft smelling new cabin crew quite nice seat pitch very tight but bearable for a short flight something to expect for a LCC. I was extremely surprised by their "boarding" gate and waiting area: it was some space taken from a warehouse and a tent from where passengers are bussed to the airplane. Although I know it's a LCC it it's not what I expected for a major international airport! Arrival and Departure at Sapporo was at a "deluxe" gate with a boarding bridge and normal waiting room next to ANA gates.Otherwise it was OK and good price/quality. But do not expect anything luxurious from them!

Pekanbaru to Bandung and vice versa. During the flight there was nothing too special. Special services for passengers with red carpet service in Pekanbaru - nothing. Should correspond to their advertising - red carpet passenger will be allowed to board the plane first but red carpet passengers in Pekanbaru were mixed with ordinary passengers during boarding. In fact there were regular passengers before me on my first flight.

FD 2976/2977 Bangkok -–Denpasar return. A very disappointing experience. Checked in online and only had to drop our bag spent over an hour at the counter waiting for staff to reconcile their problem. Good that they are using Don Muang Airport otherwise the long immigration line would worsen the experience unorganized boarding and people in hot seats ended up among the last to board. Things get slightly better on the aircraft. Emergency exit “ hot seat” pretty comfortable with no other passengers next to me and I end up taking all 3 seats for myself. Pre- ordered breakfast (Pancake) is delicious great punctuality. Other than that things are pretty horrible and chaotic. Pre-ordered food on the return flight inedible rice stale meat overcooked and obviously is re-heated more than once. Drinks sold on board are lukewarm Flight attendants try to be overly friendly. Hot seat when the plane is full became unbearable for such long flight. Will avoid in the future.

PER-KUL-DMK. Booked ticket 3 months earlier received reminder/confirmation email 4 days before departure 2 days before departure another email showing different times by 5 hours - no explanation just confirmation of flights but with different departure/arrival times. Arrival at DMK (Bangkok) would have had us there 1 hour after our connecting flight had left. No option but to go 1 day earlier and stay in hotel. Chaotic check-in at DMK under staffed 1 hour just waiting to check-in not good enough especially when it's a premium ticket they claim dedicated check-in for premium but no such counter exists. At the end of it all total cost was more than $100 more each than original quote on find flights result page.