As long as you don't think you're paying for customer service, food, entertainment, luggage transport or comfort, you'll get what you paid for!
We flew Perth to London with Air Asia, and while we paid a little less overall that the next price up, the standard on all of the above were so low we wouldn't do it again. Biggest problems were seat width (the tightest I'd ever flown with, even for short haul) which meant my partners shoulders crowded into my seat by a quarter of it's width, and the entertainment - you pay separately for hand held units for each leg, and the unit had a total of 7 films, 3 of which we'd seen before, and this was meant to entertain us over 40 hours of flight time, as the selection only changed every 2 months, and so we had the same ones on the way back 5 weeks later. Oh, but it wasn't 40 hours, because we weren't given the units until over 5 hours into the long leg on the way there. I didn't notice when we got them on the way back, because we'd seen all the movies by then anyway
The meals were also disappointing, you pay extra for these, and choose between vegetarian, western and asian option for each meal. I chose asian for each one, and got exactly the same mildly unappetizing dish of nasi goreng for 3 out of the 4 meals we had in each direction.
When we transferred at KL from one flight to the next, and hour and a half of the transfer time was taken up standing in queue just inside the airport doors from the runway, waiting to be checked off a list. No toilets, no availability of food or water, nowhere to sit. This was an Air Asia formality, not a KL airport process.
Once we'd paid for hold baggage for each leg, for the entertainment for each leg, and for meals for each leg, the savings were not worth the discomforts. If you're flying shorthaul (within Asia, or possible even a single leg from Australia to Asia, it MIGHT be worth it. For you. We just won't use them again.
I flew Air Asia going from Singapore to Denpasar. They were no different to our budget airlines really. Smaller planes, no meals or baggage included so it really is a case of you get what you pay for. I personally probably wouldn't fly with them on a long flight but I've decided I won't fly virgin or jet star for a long flight either just due to wanting a bit of extra space if I'm stuck in a plane for hours.
My brother flew from the Gold Coast / KL / London with Air Asia and said while it was your typical budget airline, he had no complaints.
We saved over $1500 by flying from Brisbane to Honolulu with Air Australia just before they went bust, and they were fine - no frills and basic but totally fine.
I think as long as you're not expecting 5 star treatment, you can't beat the budget airlines.
We travelled air asia from Perth - Kuala Lumpur - Paris and paid extra for the seats that fold out to beds on the longest legs of the journey. We paid al up the same as for Singapore airlines or any other comparable ones seeing that we had to pay for those fold out beds. Don't think it was worth it.. The fold out beds were very hard, but you had more room and more possibility to change position. And less people were cramped into the area. Also the meals were included in these. The food wasn't that good, but I find that in general with airlines. I think the good thing about not getting free food and drinks is that people are using the toilets less and they were way cleaner than on any other flights I've been on... The big bummer was that if you had to wait for a connection flight (on the way back we had to wait 12 hours) you get your suitcase and have to lug it around, unless you pay for a locker. On the way back we were so exhausted, but we did manage to go into KL and fell half asleep on the tour bus going through town... (it took 2 hours and we didn't even get off once...) I'm flying KLM this time and found a really good ticket 600 dollars cheaper....
Thanks. I can get/use my FF points for the next cheapest fare and not connect so I might give Air Asia a miss. A holiday is meant to be relaxing after all
Air Asia
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