In Reply to: air asia posted by jim on Thursday, 23. July 2009 at 14:50 Bali Time:
I paid $A164.00 all up for the flight between Coolangatta and KL and a further $A54.18 all up for the trip between KL and Bali making a total of $A218.18.
I turned up at the Air Asia Check In Counter in Coolangatta 80 minutes before the scheduled departure time and was given a boarding pass like a supermarket docket. After waiting for security to open, I checked out the selection of goods available from the Duty Free Shop which was quite poor. The cheapest spirits were $A25.
As I was flying during daylight, I chose to pay an additional $A7.00 for an Advance Seat Request Fee to have a window seat. Paying this fee is now unnecessary, as Air Asia now allocates seats at Check In to those passengers who did not pay the fee when booking over the Internet. Thus, one of the traditions of Air Asia, the Great Malaysian Foot Race, where passengers sprint to the plane to find a seat has come to an end. Some of the Malaysian passengers had small wheeled trolley bags that they managed to lift into the overhead lockers. The FAs did not seem to mind.
The plane was a fairly new Airbus A330-300. There was enough legroom for my 178 cm height, though the width of the economy seats would not suit obese passengers. There was no free entertainment, though for an additional 30 Ringgits you can use the video in the headrest in front of you. The video has not been properly set up and none of the passengers bothered with it. During the flight, the FAs pushed trolleys along the aisles selling food, drinks, Air Asia caps etc. They still maintain one Air Asia tradition of walking up and down the aisles three times with clickers in their hands trying to count the passengers. They dealt only in Ringgit. If you offer them Australian currency, they will exchange it using the rate of $A1 = 2 Ringgits, whereas at that time, money changers were offering $A1 = 2.4 Ringgits. Change was only given in Ringgits.
We flew over Darwin and West Timor before arriving at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in KL at 2.55 pm. There are no airbridges at the LCCT, so we had to walk down the steps and across the tarmac. There is no transit lounge, so we had to go through Malaysian Immigration and Customs. There is no visa fee when you arrive in KL and your departure tax is already included in your Air Asia ticket price when leaving KL.
I grabbed a free trolley for my luggage and bought a litre of Gordons Gin in KL Duty Free in Arrivals for 48 Ringgits. Next, I took a long walk to Departures which involves leaving the LCCT and going back in again. Before you pass into the Departures area, there are various fast food restaurants. Above the entrance to the Departures area is the Departures Board where I worked out the location of my Air Asia Checkin Gate for my flight to Bali. Because of the liquids policy, I had to put my duty free alcohol in my checked in luggage. You can now purchase checked in luggage when you book.
I took another walk through Malaysian Immigration to leave the country. From there, I went to the Air Asia Departure Gate and waited. The atmosphere was like a train station with rows of seats facing a series of locked glass doors. Eventually, the Air Asia fellow opened one of the glass doors and we walked across the tarmac to the steps of the plane.
The plane to Bali was a new Airbus A320 belonging to Air Asia Indonesia and all the staff were Indonesian. Being an Indonesian aircraft, all transactions were in rupiah.
After the plane took off, I was served a pre-purchased meal of sandwiches for $A1.67. Air Asia Indonesia is not a full service airline, there is no entertainment ie screens in the headrests or drop down screens.
Except for sandwiches, the food is poor quality Asian food.
The seats recline about 2 inches and the width of the seat would not suit obese passengers. Legroom was fine for me and I am 5' 10".
The plane landed in Denpasar at 10.00 pm.