Originally Posted by Happy

Plan change has caused this. The original plan did not include BKI at all. The time set aside was to visit Myanmar. Unfortunately because of our travel schedules, getting the Myanmar Visa while at home is impossible. Getting Myanmar visas while at Singapore also turns out to be impossible due to the period we will be in SIN is a Thur / Fri before the X'mas week. I am told it would not be possible to get the Visa within the normal few days. The domestic travel in Myanmar also turns out to be a big hassle that does not seem worth it at all if all we want to see is Began.

Soooo, because of that, we scratched Myanmar from our itinerary, leaving us way too many days between SIN and BKK. 8 days to be exact. Between going to Thailand somewhere or going to Malaysia, we chose Malaysia.

Yet, we could not imagine ourselves to spend 8 days in KUL without going elsewhere in Malaysia. We also dont want to go to Penang (the island) where we have been and not care for. This leaves us various Malaysian islands and Borneo to consider. Upon checking out all the possibilities, (including the overwater resorts near Sipidan and Langkawi), we settled for KK as it is about the easiest to get to and seems to be more options for outer islands day trip than say, Kuchin.

Our modified plan now was to take the bus from Singapore to Malacca for a day or 2, then from KUL go to BKI, all for the purpose of finding some places to go so we would only spend 3 days in KUL.

The KUL to BKI and back, are purchased based on that plan. At that time, MH's price was 50% higher than the Air Asia price.

Then here came the biggest surprise of all - the hassle of crossing border between Singapore and Malaysia at JB... Long story short, after looking at all the options from direct bus from Singapore, Shuttle bus to JB then bus from JB to Malacca, or taxi to JB followed by bus to Malacca (so you can stay in the taxi when dealing with both immigrations), all seem too involved and not worth the hassle at all, just to stay a night or 2 at Malacca to kill time before heading to KK.

That is when the SIN-KUL flight booking has come about. We decided to stay at SIN thru Sat, and fly to KUL on Sun the same day we would fly Air Asia to KK.

It is booked with BA Avios on MH shuttle flight. I forgot to check the immigration time at KLIA and thought 3hr 45min for connection even at 2 terminals should still be enough - after all, the 2 terminals are just at each end of the tarmac.... So instead of choosing a flight that would arrive 6 hours before the Air Asia departure, I picked the one that has 3hr 45min instead.

Of course I am quite wrong and underestimate the logistic of this connection - both airlines need to check bag due to the weight limitation - we travel light but still have about 12kg bag each, on an over a month long trip in SE Asia - so must check bags. And the immigration, and the bus / taxi from KLIA to LCCT would take 20 to 30min... Who in the world design such an airport with 2 terminals at each end of the Tarmac without providing a mean for air side transfer?! Both LAX and IAD have air side transfer for terminals at the opposite ends of the Tarmac for example...

Suddenly, the 3hr 45min transit allowance does not seem to have enough safety margin. BTW. the seat assignment automatically generated, was 10B&C.

Should we misconnect, we would most likely buy the next day Air Asia tickets to BKI. Their fares actually came down some from the beginning I started toying with the idea. The return flight fare has gone down A Lot.

Hotels are no problem - they are all booked with points and are cancelable on the day of arrival at local time. There is also a brand new Aloft at KL Sentral that we can always spend a night, not to mention the Hilton and Le Meridien across street. Or worst, we just forfeit the Air Asia tickets and rebook our hotel at KL. All the hotel possibilities we can use, all have award night availability on each night during our period. So I am not worried about this part at all.

Anyway, at the end, the easiest solution is to cancel the original BA Avios booking, forfeit the cash paid (taxes and fees at $27.48 per ticket) and rebook the 2 hours earlier shuttle flight and be done with it. It beats to miss the Air Asia flight and have to buy another ticket (most likely the next day). It actually is cheaper to cancel and rebook as BA program charges $40 change or cancellation fee (for US-based members). It would deduct the $40 from the cash payment portion of the award booking. Since we only paid $27.48 for the taxes and fees, that is all it would be deducted - to 0 refund - cheaper than pay $40 to change the flight. The automatically assigned seats on the rebooked flight is at Row 15. But then now we have 2 extra hours. We should even be able to take the cheapie MYR 2 shuttle bus to LCCT instead of paying MYR 30 for the taxi. lol.



Yes, arrival at KLIA, and later depart from LCCT.

Would never do this again.