Hello and welcome to my first trip report! After years and years of reading TRs on FT and Airliners, I decided to contribute something of my own. As this my first time, I'd appreciate any feedback.

I must apologize for the truly crappy quality of the photos (having used a generic point-and-shoot); for future trips, it will be a spanking new Canon DSLR.

I must also mention that I had taken this trip way back in June and it was nothing but laziness that has resulted in this report in December.


Introduction:

Sometime in February, I decided that it was time to go on a holiday as back then, it had been over a year and a half (!) since I took a trip abroad. The last time was in June 2011 to Hong Kong. My father and sister decided to join me, and as they didn't want to go on a long trip (due to work), we decided to go to Thailand. While planning the trip, I didn't want my holiday to start and end in Thailand, so I suggested that we add a short trip to either Cambodia or Vietnam as I was extremely interested in visiting both countries. After much discussion, we decided on Vietnam and picked Saigon as it would not be costly if we were to fly from Bangkok (we decided to leave Hanoi to a longer standalone Vietnam trip which would require more days). As a result, we had to cut down the Thailand part to just Bangkok but I wasn't complaining.

Booking:

My father decided to pay and in order to keep costs short (his words, not mine), we decided to fly AirAsia (on a boring A320) from Madras, India (where I currently live) as it was much cheaper than Thai Airways. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to earn some miles on Star Alliance but after traveling on TG's outdated A333 with old seats and no personal IFE, I didn't really mind flying low cost for a 3h30 flight.

For the flight from Bangkok to Saigon, there were the options of AirAsia, VietJet, Vietnam Airlines, Thai and fifth freedom routes on Turkish Air and Lufthansa. I was interested in the last two as I had never got a chance to fly either (!) and an FF route. Plus, I could earn some miles along the way. I thought of combining the two so that I could try LH's 744 as well as TK's A343 but in a bit of odd luck, LH had a great sale which forced me to book them. Combining the two was quite expensive as it turned out. Anyway, it was coach but still, I get to fly a 744!

Since AirAsia flies from Don Muang and Lufthansa from Suvarnabhumi, this required us to switch airports. But does it really matter?!

So this was our final itinerary:

MAA-DMK on Thai AirAsia
BKK-SGN on Lufthansa with two nights in Saigon
SGN-BKK on Lufthansa with three nights in Bangkok
DMK-MAA on Thai AirAsia

Flight 1:

Airline: Thai AirAsia
Flight: FD 2654
Gate: 06
Sector: Chennai International Airport (MAA) - Bangkok Don Muang Airport (DMK)
Equipment: Airbus A320-200
Cabin: Economy
Seat: 21D (moved to 21F)
Boarding Time: 2130 (revised to 2120)
Scheduled Timings: 2215 - 0310
Actual Timings: 2155 - 0245

We left home at 7 and reached the international terminal at MAA at 7.45. There was a decent line at the AirAsia counter which was at a slightly dodgy side of the check in hall (by hall, I mean a large room and the ‘fancy’ airlines EK, SQ, AI got the nicer side with proper ceilings et al). We didn’t have to wait long, maybe 10 minutes, and soon we were checking in. The process did take some time as we had not paid for check in baggage (we had booked the flights using Expedia’s flight+hotel option. Hey, it was a pretty good deal!). The check in crew were fantastic and despite the baggage hiccup, they handled everything properly and efficiently. They also booked the baggage option for our return flight so that we wouldn’t have such problems again. Once everything was over, we were given our supermarket recei- I mean, our boarding passes. Yes, even in India, where the domestic LCCs issue boarding passes on cardboard, AirAsia were firmly sticking to their cost-cutting BPs. I have to admit, I’m very fascinated by them and I quite like the way the supermarket receipts look



After check-in, we went through the usual immigration and security (which took forever) and had dinner at the crappy airport restaurant. After dinner, it was a 5 minute wait at the gate and boarding was announced. Since there were only 5 passengers waiting at the gate area, we were able to board the aircraft early.

Walking to the airbridge:



My seat 21D (sorry for the bad quality):


View of the seat and sharklet:


I was originally in 21D, an aisle seat but when my seat partners arrived, I asked if I could switch to the window. Thankfully, they agreed and just before taxi, they discovered that some of the HOT seats were available (which you had to pay for) and moved there when the FAs weren't looking.

After moving to 21F:





A glimpse of the new terminal:


Taxiing:







Cabin during taxi


A Blue Dart 757


Takeoff:






Customary knee shot


Seat-back





A little bit about my seat: I know most people complain about AirAsia seats but despite being an Indian girl of higher than average height, I found the seats perfectly comfortable for the nearly 3 hour flight. Maybe it was because I had three seats to myself. My father hated the flight and vowed to never fly low cost international again.