In Reply to: Long time posted by nessbali on Monday, 22. June 2009 at 06:28 Bali Time:
I flew from the Gold Coast to Bali via KL in January this year. The trip was fine.
At the Gold Coast Airport, Air Asia now allocates seats at Check In to those passengers who did not pay the seat allocation 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, but 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 also no visa fee when you arrive in KL and your departure tax is already included in your Air Asia ticket price when leaving KL.
There is 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 you can work out the location of the Air Asia Checkin Gate for your flight to Bali. You can now purchase more checked in luggage when you book the KL to Bali flight. Previously, Air Asia only allowed 15 kg of free checked in luggage on this flight.
You have to go through Malaysian Immigration to leave the country. From there, you go to the Air Asia Departure Gate and wait. 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 flight to Bali left at 7.00 pm.
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.
We arrived in Bali at 10.00 pm.