emcampbe

Hoping one can help me with experience on AirAsia. Personally, I try to avoid the ULCCs - I have tended to see the upfront prices + add-ons like baggage, seats, etc.. usually be not much less than full service carriers, when all is said and done. But trying to get from CNX-HHQ (Hua Hin), and somehow, AirAsia flies this - as far as I can tell the only flight into HHQ at all, and considering it because it avoids flying to BKK, then having to do a ~3 hours from there. Flight isn't even that cheap - at least on the day we need to go - roughly about the same as TG into BKK. But convenience a big factor here...especially since we're traveling with our 8 and 5 yo daughters, so avoiding a 3 hour drive to HHQ (plus to a lesser extent, the additional cost of transportation to Hua Hin), tips the scales to the flight that will get us right there.

So the questions I have:
- my understanding is our bag allowance should be combined - so if we buy 20kg of luggage each (or more likely the 'value pack' or whatever that is), we should have 80 kg total, regardless of how this is divided (assuming it doesn't go over AirAsia max. bag specs). For example, if we have 4 bags, 2 that are 23kg, the other 2 are 16kg, we should not need to pay for extra. Is this correct?
- Is the standard carry-on allowance (7kg) enforced by weight - and can there be more than one bag that add up to the limit, or is that limited to a single bag (either roller board or backpack). Seeing some threads on places like Reddit that seem to suggest they do tend to check pretty aggressively at KUL, but mostly not at other stations, but don't know if that is dated. Also have heard that a laptop bag can be brought on in addition to the stated allowance. Assuming we're not bringing large bags - we might have a standard carry on size bag, and then backpack and laptop, is luggage likely to be weighed at a station like CNX? Understand that if it is weighed, they are probably pretty strict on charging for any little thing above 7kg exactly. Any idea how much more this is to book at the airport vs. at time of buying the ticket (for the record, the charge for an extra 7kg carry on at booking seems to be ~$13 USD
- Any idea, should we need to add extra checked luggage, if there is a price difference to do in advance, but after ticketing, vs. at time of purchasing ticket. Also, how much more to do at the airport vs. at least 4 hours in advance?
- In looking at seats, I assume the price difference for 'hot seats' vs. the rows just behind that vs. the rows at the back of the flight are just based on how close/far they are from the front of the plane, correct? Or are there seat pitch differences, for example, rows 1 - X have extra legroom compared to those in the very back.
- Any other 'gotcha's' I should look out for?

Appreciate any advice.

aimango

My experience recently regarding the baggage prices - I was a bit paranoid after reading FT folks paying $100 per bag at the gate, so paid for 1 20kg of luggage across our 2-person booking. I knew I could get 1 of the rolling luggage to be pretty close to 7kg. Most LCC don't bother weighing the smaller bag in my experience, unless it looks really heavy (e.g. avoid wearing belt straps because that just indicates you have something pretty heavy in there), but you will usually get bit on your rolling luggage. For the price, we paid 406kIDR (~27USD) on the app after check-in which seemed to be consistently that price even if it was 1 week vs. 5 hours before the flight. I'm guessing it's a lot cheaper at booking, but we never buy that early. I'm not sure what would happen if you bought <4 hours before departure. If you already know you're overweight, probably best to just buy in advance for that piece of mind, and plus the staff will be nicer at check-in because they saw you already did your homework and paid ahead. For us, they ended up only weighing the 1 bag that we paid to check in. After that, the combined 14kg seems reasonable for the amount of stuff we were carrying (or maybe the staff didn't care since we already paid for 1 bag at that point).

For seats on your specific flight, it's probably not worth buying the seat because it's such a short flight. The auto-assigned seating seemed to start at Row 18 since that's what we ended up with when checking in right when check-in opened, and seeing the pattern up until a few hours before the flight. These LCCs do tend to assign 2pax groups to window+middle, and I personally prefer aisle seat so I usually end up purchasing seat assignments.

Rows 2-5 are considered hot seats on your standard A330 since they're front row, but the pitch is the exact same. We bought them for our recent flight since it was almost 3 hours and we have a higher chance to get a row to ourselves (2 people spread across 3 seats) Row 1 is obviously more legroom since it's bulkhead, but I personally prefer having the option to store in-front of the seats.

emcampbe

One more question: Do AirAsia ever drop fares closer to travel date, or does it typically only stay stable or climb?

were pretty set on 7/28 for our CNX-HHQ flight, but as of now, showing about 2.5X as high as some other dates, and can’t find any other date where it’s this high. With ad ons, it’s as much as TG to BKK. 2 days later, for example, it’s less than half as much, and we could maybe do next day instead, but this route does not fly daily.

Seat map, for whatever it’s worth, showing just a small handful of seats occupied, though I suspect that might not mean much as guessing most AirAsia pax don’t pay to select in advance and take what they get at checkin.

Davvidd

They do not bring the prices down. Yes a lot of passengers do accept whatever is given to them but I always try to get the emergency row seats. Because obviously the leg space is a lot more and you get to board first.

emcampbe

Thanks. Kind of what I figured. Definitely not what I am used to with full-service carriers here in the US, where, at least a few weeks prior to travel, there are good chances the fare could go either way, depending on load.

I did end up booking at the price I had been seeing, and sure enough, as soon as I booked the tickets, looked again and the prices had gone up ~350THB/person. So glad I didn't wait too long.

Jaimito Cartero

I haven’t flown Air Asia since Covid. Historically the best deals are during their big sales. Some routes include a certain amount of luggage.

I very rarely pay for meals, luggage or seats far in advance. Once I know for sure that we will fly, a week in advance, I might buy meals, and extra luggage if I’m sure we’ll need it. I’m fairly disabled, so they generally give me different seats, even if I have paid/booked for other ones.

Davvidd

yes once they jacked up the price as I was already online and buying my ticket. That said their meals are fairly good compared to a LLC. Most of my flights with them are International and for 4 hours I book an exit row aisle seat and it is worth to me. The leg space is the only difference to the other seats as they say priority boarding but if they put you on a bus all together it makes no difference at all.

dmf_singapore

Like you, I try to avoid low cost carriers like AirAsia, but sometimes it's the only option for a direct flight.

I've found a lot of variability with enforcement of baggage rules. There have been times when my carry on has been weighed at check in. Sometimes I see them doing it at one check in desk but not at another one. They will almost certainly charge you if you're over the checked baggage allowance by more than 1kg (you may be ok if it's 20.9). The baggage rules are specific: "If you have purchased two (2) pieces, 1 bag weighs 25 kg and the other is 15 kg. You will need to remove the extra 5 kg from the 25kg bag and add into your baggage that weighs 15 kg, so that each bag weighs 20 kg." It is cheaper to buy excess baggage when you are booking your flights.

Interestingly, if you have no checked bag you can get your boarding pass on the app then go straight to the gate. They never seem to check carry on bag weight at CNX at the gate, but they regularly do at the check in desk.

emcampbe

Alright, a new hiccup…

flight is tomorrow, and got a ‘reschedule notice’. Not a huge deal - 1.5 hour delay. It specifically describes that our flight was ‘rescheduled’ and lists the original and ‘revised’ departure information, as well as options we have (for changing, taking a credit or refund).

basically, unless the ‘reschedule’ cascades into serious delays, we’re going to stay where we are. But wanted to ask about check in (really, bag check) times. T+Cs say we need to have this complete 45 minutes before ‘scheduled departure’ - does this mean 45 minutes prior to new time or original? I’ll be checking in online, but I do have bags. From my perspective, since it was ‘rescheduled’, it should mean the new time, but if AirAsia thinks differently, I want to make sure I can check in and get where I need to go. Original plan was to check in about 90 minutes prior. Do I still need to do this, or is checking in 90 minutes new time ok. Do not want to wait at airport for much longer. My other concern is that AirAsia could walk back the delay and leave at the original time again, with little notification - does that ever happen?

Davvidd

Please do not wait for the new departure time unless it is a long delay. An hour before the departure is recommended as they would close the flight at 45 and please bear in mind that sometimes AirAsia uses the same counters for multiple flights so the queue to drop your bags could be fairly long too.

emcampbe

I guess ‘long’ is probably subjective.

For me, personally, not a huge deal to pass 90 extra minutes at the airport if I’m traveling alone. Its much bigger nuisance though since we have a 5 and 8 year old with us. Not that we can’t…but definitely not in the spectrum of ideal.

If more details help, this would be domestic flight departing CNX (Chiang Mai). Original departure time was 14:15, ‘rescheduled’ departure is 15:45. We were planning to arrive about 90 minutes prior to departure.

Davvidd

Thank you. Yes CNX is not the place to spend a lot of time. If you have an email from them then obviously that's the time to depart. I am presuming that you do not have a connection to make as well?

Thai-Kiwi

The cut-off for check-in relates to the revised departure time. This is standard with every carrier I have ever flown with.

Travelling with kids (done that, and throughout Asia), you really need to ‘roll with the punches, especially if you choose to save money and fly on a LCC and the attendant greater chance of delays and long lines.

I’d prefer to have flown PG or TG/WE where there is a lounge and (generally) good on-time performance - all aimed at reducing stress for my wife and kids. We have also found Nok Air to have been a kind of LCC+. Maybe that is because we fly to visit family so going to non-tourist locations UBP, UTH, SNO.

Davvidd

NOK is LCC and so is ThaiSmile. I fly FD a lot as sometimes it is the only option available especially on the international flights on some routes. They are fairly strict on the seats as paid hot seats but I have found out that they let me move to another hot seat as I normally pay for the exit row and it is more than the other hot seats. I do not like to sit on the first row because I feel the seats are slightly uncomfortable due to the fixed armrests.

Thai-Kiwi

We each make our judgements . I place the ‘pecking order’ for Thai domestic carriers as follows:

TG (THAI International) Full service, but not operating at present
PG (Bangkok Airways) Boutique, a lounge for all pax
WE (THAI Smile) LCC+ IMHO. THAI subsidiary, about to be absorbed back into TG. Some benefits for THAI and LG group status holder pax)
DD (Nok Air). LCC, great network. Supported by THAI.
FD (Thai AirAsia). LCC, great network.
SL (Thai Lion Air). LCC. Never flown
VZ (Thai VietJet). LCC. Never flown