My sister and I have been talking about making a trip to Kota Bharu to see some old family friends of ours. Especially with the much advertised unbelievably low fares offered by Air Asia, there’s every reason for us to take the trip. Thus far, I had no experience travelling on Air Asia and hearsay from some friends was that their cheap fare was just a gimmick because in actual fact they weren’t really available. Anyway, let me personally try it out.

For convenience, I decided to do the booking online. My initial login to their website was pretty fast. I keyed in the destination and dates of travel. It then provided me a list of available flights and the fares. The fares are lower for mid week travel and goes up for peak travel time. So it varies based on supply and demand factor. Since we are flexible in our schedule, I was able to take advantage of the lowest available fare. After clicking the necessary boxes, it then displayed the total round trip fares plus the chargeable airport taxes. The total price for 2 pax came to only RM183.96. I paid with credit card. Once approved, it churned out a confirmation slip with complete details on flight, payment, passenger and a booking number. The next day, AirAsia followed up with an email to me with advice to print out the particulars to be presented at time of check-in at the airport plus terms and conditions of travelling on AirAsia, such as hand-carry and check-in luggage.

On the departure date, we presented the booking slip to the check-in counter and were given a “boarding pass” which was like the supermarket receipt. Of course we found this quite amusing compared with the normal boarding pass. The flight was right on schedule. Their inlight crew were just the pilot (of course we need him!) and two stewards/stewardesses. Everything was strictly no frills – no water, no flight magazine, etc. But at least the seats were the standard economy seats though without tissue flap for the headrest. Since it was just a short flight – only 45 minutes we didn’t feel any different from other airlines. More important, we had a smooth flight, was punctual and there was no hassle. Our return flight was just as good.

Hope AirAsia will keep up the good work as they expand their coverage providing affordable air travel to more and more people. First impression is crucial but the challenge is to maintain the standards.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2004 at 5:23 pm and is filed under General.