AirAsia has one of the most frequent flight departures between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, with AK721 being the last AirAsia flight to Singapore for the day departing at 8.10pm. Since I had only planned to be in KL for just one day, coming up by an overnight bus, this flight timing was just nice for me.
I got on the AeroSky Ventures bus from KL Sentral which I pre-booked for RM8.90 when purchased together with my AirAsia plane ticket.
If you haven’t printed your boarding pass after checking-in online, you can print it from one of these self check-in kiosks.
You should head into the departure area once ready as the queues for immigration and security can be unpredictable.
Do also note that AirAsia is pretty strict with their hand luggage policy of one piece of cabin bag which must not exceed 56cm x 36cm x 23cm and has a maximum weight of 7kg. You will be pulled aside to get your bag “tested” in the frame or on the weighing scale if you might have a bag that’s borderlining or hitting the limit.
However, as I was just travelling with a day backpack, I wasn’t stopped by the AirAsia guy at all.
My flight was departing from Gate P9, so it was a mandatory long walk to the gate at the Satellite Building via the Skybridge.
First, a mandatory walk-through of the be Duty Free shops.
Getting on the first set of travellators. This is an addition to the initial design which only had 1 short stretch (as compared with the length of the entire Skybridge). The pair of travellators here (one on each side of the Skybridge) head in a single direction towards the Satellite Building only.
Getting on the second, middle set of travellators. This is the original single travellator set that klia2 had initially. Thankfully, common sense prevailed that such a long bridge wouldn’t work with just this single set. This middle set of travellators head in both directions.
You can catch a plane taxiing below the Skybridge if you’re lucky.
Getting on the last set of travellators. This is also an addition to the initial design. The pair of travellators here (one on each side of the Skybridge) also head in a single direction towards the Satellite Building only.
That also means that, if you have a flight departing from Pier L, you should factor in additional walking time back to the Main Terminal Building if you want to take a look at the shops over at the Satellite Building.
Another mandatory walk through shops, this time through the Eraman Duty Free.
Once done, you can immediately head down to the gates, or you could walk around this area for dining or lounge options.
Since I have a bit of time before my flight, let’s look at the lounges available here.
The Sama-Sama Express Hotel and The Airport Lounge klia2 is located on the left of the escalators heading down to the gates, and is the most prominent among the three lounges available in this area. However, despite klia2 having more low-cost carriers using the terminal, the lounge here costs RM108 nett per entry, nearly twice that of KLIA’s lounge at just RM55 nett.
The Plaza Premium Lounge is strangely tucked away behind the Wellness Spa, so do keep a lookout for the Wellness Spa sign if you wish to visit the lounge as the Plaza Premium Lounge logo is just on a small sign on the left of the door. A 2-hour lounge use costs RM168.
And last but not least, the AirAsia Premium Red Lounge, tucked away in a little corner on the left near the toilets (maybe MAHB still hates AirAsia idk). If you’re on AirAsia’s Premium Flatbed, this is the lounge you’ll be using. Otherwise, it retails at RM69 if pre-booked or RM79 for walk-ins. However, no matter where I clicked on Manage My Booking, I couldn’t find the link to purchase this lounge visit. Oh well, I bought on-board food for dinner anyway.
Heading down to the gates.
Turn left for Pier P.
Pier P’s shopping area looks like a slightly spacious Low Yat from this angle.
Finally, reaching the security screening for Pier P.
And this is why you should turn up for security screening early.
The queue took me a whopping half an hour to clear thanks to some PRC passengers shouting to cut the queue because their flight is leaving and some other PRC passengers at the front of the queue wouldn’t let them through.
No fault of the passengers at the front of the queue, seriously. Show up early for security screening guys.
After a trek from Gate P1 to P7, I finally got to the first travellator just before Gate P9.
I almost missed the entrance to the gate as all I saw was this board when walking straight along the pier.
The entrance to the gate is just a hole in the wall.
After getting my boarding pass checked, it’s surprisingly straight for boarding as the plane was ready for passengers more than half an hour before departure.
No further boarding pass checks here just before boarding.
That’s a pretty early last call.
Heading onto the plane with no queues in front of me.
Surprisingly being greeted by an AirAsia stewardess over here.
The view of the rather empty plane (for now) from my seat.
The average legroom of 28 inches for standard seats.
Alas, an empty plane was not meant to be for this short yet busy route.
Shortly after the seatbelt signs were switched off, the crew began the meal service. I pre-booked the Chicken Lasagne for dinner as it costed me only RM10 – definitely cheaper than eating before my flight at klia2. And it came with a cup of mineral water, so I didn’t bother filling up an empty water bottle like how I’d usually do for budget flights.
The meal was served piping hot…
… and the Chicken Lasagne definitely looked way more appetizing and also tasted a lot better than Scoot’s tomato soup Beef Lasagne. It was cheesy enough and you could actually see and taste the lasagna sheets. And free side vegetables too (not that I appreciated those though).
Here’s a comparison of Scoot’s soup Lasagne for reference.
SATS, the parent, really needs to learn from their subsidiary Brahim’s SATS Food Services. Tsk tsk.
Arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 4, with the petals trail starting from the aerobridge leading me towards arrival immigration.
Look up and let the petals guide you through.
Descend down the escalators for arrival immigration, or if any, to transfer to another flight.
Hmm, seems that business is bad for DFS?
Buy your wines if you must, but since I’m just on a commute from KL back to Singapore and tired out from the lack of sleep on Transnasional last night, I headed straight on home.
With no bags to collect, I headed straight out.
I decided to get the bus to connect to the Downtown Line instead of backtracking to Terminal 2 on the Free Shuttle Bus to get on the East West Line there, since it might take an equal amount of time to get to Upper Changi MRT Station or to Terminal 2 from here.
Take the lifts up instead of walking the long ramp – it’s nearer to the bus stop and requires significantly less effort too.
Once here, I waited for SBSTransit Service 24 to get me to Upper Changi MRT Station to continue my journey on the Downtown Line. The journey time from Changi Airport Terminal 4 to Upper Changi MRT Station on SBSTransit Service 24 takes 11 minutes.
Overall, AirAsia is a fairly good option to choose for a short hop from KL to Singapore, with a high frequency of 11 pairs of flights daily, affordable meal offerings that are cheaper than klia2 and with the ability to add-on frills and re-choose your seat after check-in should the one automatically assigned not be to your liking. (Though I have to say, their fares can be on the high side at times.)
However, back to MAHB for klia2, I would really hope that I’m departing from Pier L should I be rushing for my flight because the walking time to Pier P including immigration and security screening time is almost the same, if not longer, than the flight time from KL to Singapore.
2 comments