AirAsia has one of the most frequent flight departures between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Not wanting to take another bus ride back to Singapore on the same day I came up by bus, I opted to fly back instead.
From the SkyBus drop-off point which I pre-booked my ticket on, it was a walk through gateway@klia2 before I got to the main terminal building.
Printing my boarding pass at the Self Check-In Kiosk.
Immigration was surprisingly clear on a Saturday evening.
Upon checking my boarding pass at the gate, the staff informed me that my 7.45pm flight would be delayed by 15 minutes. Okay, no big deal I guess.
Inside the gate hold room, it’s obvious that there isn’t enough seats for everyone even for a small A320 aircraft. And because the entrance to the gate hold room is just beside the exit door to the aerobridge, the standing passengers like me had to move in to the rear to allow other passengers to board.
Is this a bus or an Airbus?
Boarding commenced at 8pm, 15 minutes after the original time of departure. So it isn’t a 15-minute delay after all.
Another WiFi-enabled plane. Too bad I doubt I’ll be using the free entertainment this time though.
And because I didn’t want to pre-book my seat, AirAsia has kindly assigned me the middle seat in the row as usual. 🙄
Inside the very full plane, which took off at 8.19pm instead. 34 minutes off schedule.
And of all people, the person beside me decided to be the most chatty person in the world, talking to me in a one-way conversation for 90% of the time about literally everything under the sun like how he had to pack his meal in order to rush for the supposedly-delayed-and-now-slightly-delayed flight, how KL Hokkien Mee is the best thing in the world and how the world is changing thanks to lithium-ion batteries.
I did pre-book my on-board Ashok’s Butter Masala Chicken Biryani meal inclusive of the Est Cola for only RM10 though, which is actually cheaper than eating at klia2 before the flight.
Oh, and chatty guy asked me “What is Masala?”, thinking that Masala is the main dish, but I just pointed the word Biryani out to him.
The chicken and vegetable curries were a little saltier than the usual Singapore ones, but every Briyani I’ve had in Malaysia so far are salty, so I guess this is normal? And if it’s already salty in flight it’s probably even saltier if I ate this on the ground. But nevertheless, still worth the RM10 for sure.
Chatty guy proceeded to tell me how bad carbonated drinks are. He’s now known as Chatty Annoying old (CHAO) guy.
Never been happier to get off a plane. Perhaps if I had pre-booked my preferred seat earlier, I wouldn’t have ended up beside CHAO, but then again, you can only choose your seat and not your neighbours.
How I wish AirAsia had a Pick-Your-Non-Annoying-Neighbour option.
Airasia run on time in the morning but over the day tend to run late.