my review of Air Asia
Mar 2, 2019, 2:52 am
#16
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SYD | HGH
Programs: CX DM, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton DM, Marriott Plat
Posts: 2,121
In my experience, not one LCC would allow re-seating onboard, and even with some full service carrier, it is up to the pax to ask other pax if they wanted to swap seats. There must be a reason why the seats were assigned at check in desk. It is the same as if you complaint about you can't bring your own food onboard an LCC. I don't like it however it if the rule and it has been told to pax even before your purchase your ticket. And there is nothing wrong with them doing it.
Mar 8, 2019, 10:13 pm
#17
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,595
This time we tried AirAsia's Premium Flex product: https://readyjetroam.com/2019/03/07/...ll-chiang-mai/
TL;DR: For about 1000 Baht one-way pp we got every add-on perk that AirAsia offers. Some like dedicated Premium Flex check-in and access to Hot Seats were great. Others, like Xpress baggage were a hard fail.
But for $30 it was worth it for us...
TL;DR: For about 1000 Baht one-way pp we got every add-on perk that AirAsia offers. Some like dedicated Premium Flex check-in and access to Hot Seats were great. Others, like Xpress baggage were a hard fail.
But for $30 it was worth it for us...
Mar 15, 2019, 11:28 pm
#18
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 383
Air Asia advertises that they have a very strict policy for Carry-On Bags. 7 Kg max. I am wondering what happens if you show up at the airport with a Carry-On that is over 7 Kg? My wife and I are purposely not bringing luggage as we really don't need it for a 4 day trip. We can fit our stuff in two Carry-Ons. If they weigh the Carry-Ons and they are over the limit what do they do? Charge you extra or make you put the bag in the checked luggage? If so, how much do they charge?
Mar 15, 2019, 11:51 pm
#19
Join Date: Nov 2018
Programs: Enrich
Posts: 449
It depends, sometimes they do not ask you to weight your hand carry before entering the controlled area, sometimes they do. if it exceed by 1kg they might still let it go. Else, ig dimension or weight exceeds, you had to check your baggage.
This is for klia2 portion, for oversea hub, they might check your baggage weight at check in counter
This is for klia2 portion, for oversea hub, they might check your baggage weight at check in counter
Mar 16, 2019, 4:55 am
#20
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,595
Air Asia advertises that they have a very strict policy for Carry-On Bags. 7 Kg max. I am wondering what happens if you show up at the airport with a Carry-On that is over 7 Kg? My wife and I are purposely not bringing luggage as we really don't need it for a 4 day trip. We can fit our stuff in two Carry-Ons. If they weigh the Carry-Ons and they are over the limit what do they do? Charge you extra or make you put the bag in the checked luggage? If so, how much do they charge?
Then at security there was another scale where larger carry-ones were being weighed again (presumably in case pax tried to sneak one without showing it at check in desk).
In KUL our small backpacks were not weiged in during doc check at counter and we saw no scales at security.
If you bag is overweight they make you check it and you have to pay for that privilege.
When we flew Chiang Mai to Hanoi with all or stuff (laptop backpacks and small 8.5 kg ‘carryon’ bags) we just sucked it up and checked them. Then again we had priority flex tickets so checked bag was included along with a hot seat and a meal.
Last edited by kokonutz; Mar 16, 2019 at 5:13 am
Mar 16, 2019, 7:00 am
#21
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: London
Programs: Many. Too many. I came here to cut them down. I failed.
Posts: 2,999
In 20 gazillion flights or so, Air Asia have been the airline that have most proactively checked my carry on.
Easyjet have been the rudest, but Air Asia the most consistent.
Easyjet have been the rudest, but Air Asia the most consistent.
Mar 17, 2019, 7:18 pm
#22
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: EVA Air , * G, QR Privilege Club S
Posts: 5,178
Normally they are OK. You get what you pay for. But I also had a terrible experience with Air Asia Philippines. They sold tickets on a flight that they knew was not going to operate on time. MNL was closed for repairs on certain times of the day and there were NOTAMs issued on that I later found out. Yet Air Asia sold tickets on that flight knowing that they airport was closed and there would be huge delays of at least 6 hours. I lost a night because of that and a flight that was supposed to land just around midnight landed the next morning around 8 am.
Apr 2, 2019, 7:42 am
#24
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 383
My wife and I just flew Air Asia from Bangkok (Dom Mueang) to Penang and back. Did not check any luggage just had Carry-Ons. Did pay for assigned seats. Printed our Boarding Passes myself, both going and returning. Got to the airports and simply went through Immigration and Security. Then right to the gates. Nobody checked the weight or size of our Carry-Ons. And, we were able to use the Boarding Passes that I printed myself. Not necessary to use the Kiosks for check in if you already have printed Boarding Passes although the Air Asia website seems to indicate that you need to check in at the kiosks regardless. Two good uneventful flights with no delays.
May 10, 2019, 2:15 am
#25
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,595
My wife and I just flew Air Asia from Bangkok (Dom Mueang) to Penang and back. Did not check any luggage just had Carry-Ons. Did pay for assigned seats. Printed our Boarding Passes myself, both going and returning. Got to the airports and simply went through Immigration and Security. Then right to the gates. Nobody checked the weight or size of our Carry-Ons. And, we were able to use the Boarding Passes that I printed myself. Not necessary to use the Kiosks for check in if you already have printed Boarding Passes although the Air Asia website seems to indicate that you need to check in at the kiosks regardless. Two good uneventful flights with no delays.
We flew AirAsia from Singapore T4 to Penang a few weeks ago in Premium Flex for $100 US and, once again, it was easy, comfortable and efficient. AirAsia Premium Flex has become our go-to product for hopping around southeast Asia! https://readyjetroam.com/2019/05/10/...ore-to-penang/
May 17, 2019, 9:32 am
#26
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,595
Well, we did it again. I am pretty sure we have now reviewed AirAsia flights more than any travel bloggers ever! https://readyjetroam.com/2019/05/17/...o-bangkok-dmk/
tl:dr: PEN to DMK. We had exit row this time because row 1 was taken when we booked. Had the Basil Chicken rather than Uncle Chen's chicken and much preferred it. Another cheap, smooth and efficient experience in AirAsia Premium Flex!
Sadly this was our last flight before we transition to Europe for a while. If only AirAsia flew TXL-SOF!!!!!
Edited to add:
We just added an entire section to our website about AirAsia. Here is a synopsis:
AirAsia Hot Seats and AirAsia Premium Flex
We found AirAsia to be a cheap and convenient way to get around southeast Asia.
And we found that buying Hot Seats or their Premium Flex bundle adds a level of affordable luxury to the experience.
AirAsia Hot Seats are bulkhead row 1 and exit rows 12 and 14 (there is no 13) have extra leg-room. The rest of the Hot Seats appear to have very little difference in terms of leg-room from the rest of the cabin.
Row 1 is the best Hot Seat because you can get on and off the plane quickly and you can't have bags at your feet in the exit rows anyway.
AirAsia Premium Flex is basically a bundle of all of the premium add-ons that AirAsia offers including hot seats, xpress baggage, etc.
We think they are worth the price!
We also bundled all 5 of our AirAsia reviews into that page.
https://readyjetroam.com/category/af...-premium-flex/
Hope this helps!
Disclosure: that link leads to an article that I wrote on a website in which I have a financial interest.
tl:dr: PEN to DMK. We had exit row this time because row 1 was taken when we booked. Had the Basil Chicken rather than Uncle Chen's chicken and much preferred it. Another cheap, smooth and efficient experience in AirAsia Premium Flex!
Sadly this was our last flight before we transition to Europe for a while. If only AirAsia flew TXL-SOF!!!!!
Edited to add:
We just added an entire section to our website about AirAsia. Here is a synopsis:
AirAsia Hot Seats and AirAsia Premium Flex
We found AirAsia to be a cheap and convenient way to get around southeast Asia.
And we found that buying Hot Seats or their Premium Flex bundle adds a level of affordable luxury to the experience.
AirAsia Hot Seats are bulkhead row 1 and exit rows 12 and 14 (there is no 13) have extra leg-room. The rest of the Hot Seats appear to have very little difference in terms of leg-room from the rest of the cabin.
Row 1 is the best Hot Seat because you can get on and off the plane quickly and you can't have bags at your feet in the exit rows anyway.
AirAsia Premium Flex is basically a bundle of all of the premium add-ons that AirAsia offers including hot seats, xpress baggage, etc.
We think they are worth the price!
We also bundled all 5 of our AirAsia reviews into that page.
https://readyjetroam.com/category/af...-premium-flex/
Hope this helps!
Disclosure: that link leads to an article that I wrote on a website in which I have a financial interest.
Last edited by kokonutz; Aug 12, 2019 at 2:36 am
Sep 24, 2019, 4:09 pm
#27
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 112
Actually for the price, can't complain. Though the highlight of the flight was the meal, which was surprisingly good. They only cost like $2. I think it's an economical way to island hopping around indonesia.
Sep 29, 2019, 10:39 pm
#28
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: CGK, BDO, MXP
Programs: QR Gold, WY Gold, TK Elite, EY Silver,
Posts: 461
I recently flown Air Asia again after different years and in general I can say I found their service OK for the price, but unfortunately to me I'm based in BDO, despite they have at least 3 daily connections to KUL very few of them offer fly through option to other regional destinations despite the schedules would be totally doable.
I found the transit in KLIA2 without fly through to be quite miserable as even without checked bags, you have to clear immigration twice and safety checks once, one hour 15 minutes for clearing immigration to enter Malaysia on a supposed normal Monday morning, then turnaround at check in again, need to issue a paper boarding pass as eboarding pass issues by app is no suitable and then "only" 30 minutes for security checks and clear again immigration to exit, I was pissed off.
Luckily I had 3 hours layover thus no problem in catching the connection to SGN, but sorry not again. I then decided for the following trip to take VN direct flight from Jakarta, despite the train trip between BDO and Jakarta to avoid traffic issues I found the whole experience to be much better than with Air Asia and total cost the same.
I found the transit in KLIA2 without fly through to be quite miserable as even without checked bags, you have to clear immigration twice and safety checks once, one hour 15 minutes for clearing immigration to enter Malaysia on a supposed normal Monday morning, then turnaround at check in again, need to issue a paper boarding pass as eboarding pass issues by app is no suitable and then "only" 30 minutes for security checks and clear again immigration to exit, I was pissed off.
Luckily I had 3 hours layover thus no problem in catching the connection to SGN, but sorry not again. I then decided for the following trip to take VN direct flight from Jakarta, despite the train trip between BDO and Jakarta to avoid traffic issues I found the whole experience to be much better than with Air Asia and total cost the same.
Dec 17, 2019, 8:11 am
#30
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in LIMA, PERU
Posts: 58,595