AirAsia X Takes Off From KL To London

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Something to share from A.Net by Andy Smulders - STN-KUL inaugural flight:

 

http://www.persfoto.com/categories.php?cat_id=498&page=1

 

http://www.persfoto.com/categories.php?cat_id=499

[Cornelis Boersma 0]

I was looking for flightfares from London to KL but found myself a much cheaper flights on MAS, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar and Gulf Air! Then you fly or 744, or 77W, A345/A346 or A388! Then I would know what to choose from! No AirAsia X for me then

[Waiping 12]

I was looking for flightfares from London to KL but found myself a much cheaper flights on MAS, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar and Gulf Air! Then you fly or 744, or 77W, A345/A346 or A388! Then I would know what to choose from! No AirAsia X for me then

 

Guess it's always, always check for second opinion even though the options looks obvious. You'll never know.

 

[Sharil Abdul Rahman 0]

In any situation - its best to check around for prices and timing.

 

Yes they are cheaper - but is it in the middle of the week or the weekend? peak season or non peak season?

Also, time of departure too. And either its a non-stop or with stop over.

 

Lots of factor to check. And AirAsiaX is just one more option to choose from.

 

Isnt that the whole idea of the route anyway?

[H C Chai 4]

I was looking for flightfares from London to KL but found myself a much cheaper flights on MAS, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar and Gulf Air! Then you fly or 744, or 77W, A345/A346 or A388! Then I would know what to choose from! No AirAsia X for me then

 

Its true that AKX fare isn't cheap compare to offers from other airlines (e.g. Qatar £380 return to KUL, Qantas £399 to SIN, RBA £368 to KCH and so on), but they do work out cheaper if you are flying during peak season or just wanting to fly one way. Perhaps they need to come up with another £99 ow offer, their current offer of £190 ow makes them look rather expensive.

Edited March 15, 2009 by H C Chai

[Robert 0]

Its true that AKX fare isn't cheap compare to offers from other airlines (e.g. Qatar £380 return to KUL, Qantas £399 to SIN, RBA £368 to KCH and so on), but they do work out cheaper if you are flying during peak season or just wanting to fly one way. Perhaps they need to come up with another £99 ow offer, their current offer of £190 ow makes them look rather expensive.

 

I agree!

 

I'm going back to the UK for a holiday in May and managed to get a SIN-LHR return with SQ for SGD 2400 for 2 persons. That works out at about RM2800 each.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

The arrival of the inaugural D7 flight from KUL in STN from A.Net.

 

 

My best friend was one of the lucky few to fly on one of the first flight from STN to KUL. His text message to me on 14 March 2008:

 

Last night via airasia x. surprisingly better thn xpected. chose airasia bcoz of 25kg allowance n cheap £200. flight 85% full, so airasia is really eating MAS's kl-lon route.

[Izanee 0]

Tried to book STN-KUL 30/05/09 returning 18/06/09 ....something like that. GBP 630 ...totally NOT impressed. Also looked for somewhere around Raya (sept 20) ... GBP 430.

 

Managed to get SQ A380 from LHR to SIN and then 777 to KUL for GBP485.

 

what the hell. forget about briyani and nasi lemak. i'll take a380 anytime!

[Edwin P K 0]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/mar/...review?page=all

 

My God, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary would have a heart attack if he saw this. I'm standing in the check-in queue for Britain's first long-haul, no-frills flight to Asia, and they are handing out free booze. OK, it's just a comically small glass of whisky (or sweets for teetotallers), and it's purely to mark the launch of AirAsia X's new route from London Stansted to Kuala Lumpur (99 quid one way if you got in early enough) - but still, this is budget travel. We demand to suffer. Thankfully for Tony Fernandes, the businessman behind this new venture, it's the last freebie we see for the next 13 hours.

 

As we budget guinea-pigs join the queue at check-in, horror stories swirl about non-reclining seats and the lack of legroom. There's even a suggestion that if you don't book a meal in advance, you'll just have to starve. I haven't, needless to say, booked a meal in advance.

 

Yet check-in is brisk and efficient: six desks are open to take our bags and allocate us - surely some mistake - preassigned seats. I am struck by the predominantly young-European-backpacker feel of my fellow travellers; Fernandes says he sees much of his business coming from budget travellers using the Malaysian capital as a hub for other destinations.

 

Ryan, a 33-year-old electrician standing behind me in the queue, is moving to Melbourne with his girlfriend to start a new life. "I tried to book as soon as I heard about the £99 deal last November," he says. Sadly he missed out (only about a fifth of travellers, says AirAsia X, will travel for the rock-bottom fare) and had to settle for a - still rather impressive - £171 one-way fare. A tall chap, Ryan admits he is concerned about the legroom.

 

There is a smattering of older travellers. Middle-aged Phillipe, from France, has gone the whole budget hog by first taking the coach from France to London for this flight, for which he forked out a still reasonable €260 (£240).

 

As we prepare to board, a young woman tells her friend on the phone that the plane is a 10-year-old Air Canada Airbus A340-300, leased for one year to AirAsia X to test the viability of the route. Intrigued at this inside knowledge, I quiz her. Zoe turns out to be a 35-year-old social worker for Barnado's who is heading off for a three-week trip around Asia. She did manage to nab one of the coveted £99 tickets - £200 for the return trip - but claims it was a lucky accident of timing. Her informant about our plane is Benny from the Netherlands, a self-confessed airline nerd who ferreted out the information about this flight on some obscure airline-nerd website. He says he booked because Air Canada seats have a good reputation among the air-geek fraternity. A breath of hope amid the mounting dread?

 

Joanna, 22, and Veronica, 21, from Copenhagen, have two slightly eccentrically paired concerns. "We're worried the plane will crash, and the seats will be too small," says Joanna. Not an issue shared by 24-year-old Norhaizi, who is heading home to Malaysia after four years studying accountancy. "My mum tipped me off about it," she says. "She said Airbuses are better than Boeings."

 

Thirtysomething honeymoon couple Alpa and Kamles, meanwhile, have been told that they will be upgraded for the flight as a wedding present. What does that mean, exactly?

 

"Bigger seats, I think," says Kamles.

Leg room on budget flight with AirAsia X Room to stretch out - better than some airlines. Photograph: Maxton Walker

 

Finally we board, and I'm in for a shock. The legroom is not just OK, it feels rather generous. There are eight seats across the cabin, with two aisles running between the pairs of window seats and a central island of four. Even though the seats are reportedly 15.8in wide, rather than the standard 16in, and the pitch between the rows of seats (the distance between one point on a seat and the identical point on the seat in front) is 30in compared with the usual 32, it doesn't feel a problem. And yes, contrary to rumour, the seats even recline. Quite a bit.

 

Sitting next to me are a trio of Spaniards, Carlos, Pedro and Katia, who are planning to bum around Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for a few months. They are also impressed. "The backs of the seats are low," says Katia. "And the stewardesses are sexy," says Carlos. "Write that down." But he would like a seat-back DVD player.

Air hostess on budget flight with AirAsia X Stylish stewardesses. Photograph: Maxton Walker

 

Perhaps what Carlos means is that the cabin crew don't exude a budget feel: the stewardesses are dressed in sharp red outfits, the stewards in black with red trim. And they don't seem particularly harassed by their backpacker charges; when I press my call button, I get a pretty swift response every time.

 

However, I turn down the offer of a £7 comfort kit (blanket, inflatable pillow and eye-cover). This is a budget flight, after all. On the way to the toilet (no charge), I bump into Zoe who, though she has been billeted in a double seat (the flight is only about 90% full), finds herself, to her horror, right next to the toilets.

 

I also come across Ryan the electrician, who is sitting next to an exit door with no seat in front of him and an obscene amount of legroom. He sheepishly admits he forked out "about 20 quid extra" for the seat after looking at a plan of the plane online. And he acquired a free comfort kit from somewhere! Uber-nerd Benny, meanwhile, is a bit disappointed that he has to wait a couple of hours after take-off to get a (£1) bottle of water.

 

Before dinner, I sneak up to "XL" class, as it's known, right at the front of the plane, to check on the upgraded honeymooners Alpa and Kamles, who are already tucking into their food (there's a choice of Malaysian or European). It has, at first glance, the feel of a first-class lounge. The seats are gigantic and go virtually flat; and the couple look justifiably pleased with their small coup. Until they learn that an upgrade doesn't absolve them from paying for stuff just like the rest of us - which leads one to wonder quite what the point of the first-class budget option is.

Meal on budget flight with AirAsia X In-flight dinner for £6 (lager optional). Photograph: Maxton Walker

 

I have to fork out £6 for dinner - a small portion of chicken and potatoes plus a can of lager. Thankfully, the rumours about having to book food in advance are nonsense - although, oddly, the booze is rather discreetly tucked away deep in the trolley. I actually have to ask if they have any.

 

The Spaniards (high culinary standards) are horrified by the dinner. "It wasn't hot enough, there was no taste, no bread and I have to cut my chicken with a spoon because there wasn't a knife," says Carlos. "And 250ml of wine costs €5. And there's no dessert. And the bottled water isn't even cold."

 

A trifle harsh, perhaps, but the portions are meagre. An hour after dinner, Pedro cracks and forks out another few euros for a Malaysian pot noodle. Then it's time for the in-flight entertainment - £6. Rather than seat-back screens, the crew hand out portable media players with preloaded films - a decent selection including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire. There are some takers, but not as many as I would expect.

 

I buy another couple of bottles of water - two more quid - and doze fitfully, thanks to an overhead light that won't dim properly (are they trying to force me to buy the comfort pack?). Then it's breakfast - a quiche that, unsurprisingly, goes down badly with the Spaniards - and we're in Kuala Lumpur ahead of schedule, to be greeted by a throng of Malaysian women in traditional dress and a bevy of photographers snapping away at the bottom of the plane steps.

 

There is even some traditional live music on the way to baggage collection, and passport control is a breeze. I know this is the inaugural flight - but the full rock-star treatment? This doesn't happen with Ryanair.

 

Even so, electrician Ryan was disappointed with the price and quality of the food, but overall reckoned the flight was great value. Zoe was still rankled by the toilet thing, but had to confess that, overall, she'd been pleasantly surprised. Even Benny, a man who knows his airlines, appeared to have been won over. And the Spaniards? Well, they were still hung up on the food ... although plenty of other passengers just brought their own.

 

So did it feel like a budget flight? No. There was none of that cloying claustrophobia that can leave you gasping for air on a bad short-haul. Even after 13 hours in a relatively crowded part of the plane, I felt pretty relaxed. If passengers really do have less legroom than on standard long-haul flights, it is a convincing illusion to the contrary.

 

And am I dreading the return flight on Sunday? Well, only because 13-hour flights are always pretty grim. Would I recommend it? I have only flown long-haul to Asia once before (Lufthansa to Tokyo) and, for my money, this was a better experience. But everything did go very smoothly, perhaps because it was the inaugural flight.

 

If AirAsia X can keep it up, it is on to something. However, given that the average customer is spending much more than £99, is it really a budget airline at heart? Well, judging by honeymooning Alpa's experience, yes. "We didn't have a pen to fill in our immigration form," she says. "They sold us one for a quid." Now that would give Michael O'Leary's heart a warm glow.

[Naim 6]

Business good? My turn is 12 May '09.

 

===

 

April 21, 2009 15:05 PM

 

AirAsia X To Increase Stansted-KL Service

 

 

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- AirAsia X will increase the frequency of its Stansted-Kuala Lumpur (KL) flights to a daily service from July 1, less than four months after its maiden flight in March.

 

Its chief executive officer, Azran Osman-Rani, said the increase was due to unprecedented demand from business travellers and students.

 

"The British and European travellers using AirAsia X's service to KL, use the airline's route network to travel throughout South-East Asia to other destinations like Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand," he said in a statement here today.

 

To mark the occasion, AirAsia X is also offering one-way fare from RM499 exclusively through online booking from Apr 21-23, 2009 for the travel period beginning July 3, 2009 to Jan 31, 2010.

 

-- BERNAMA

 

http://bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=405660

Edited April 21, 2009 by Naim

[flee 5]

Yes, checked last night and the return fare (no luggage or meals) is around RM 1,300+ if you can get RM 499 in both directions.

[Naim 6]

Yes, checked last night and the return fare (no luggage or meals) is around RM 1,300+ if you can get RM 499 in both directions.

 

Interesting, when I booked last Nov (for the May '09 trip), the breakdown was:

 

KUL-STN (in MYR)

Fare: 499

Surcharges/fees/taxes: 67

Meals: 38

Checked baggage: 20

Advance seat: 25

 

STN-KUL (in GBP)

Fare: 41

Surcharges/fees/taxes: 58

Meals: 7

Checked baggage: 4

Advance seat: 5

 

 

[flee 5]

British Air Passenger Duty go up every year with effect from 2009. I think it will go up until it reaches around £200! I can't remember exactly.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelne...l-airports.html

 

 

[BC Tam 2]

So, the second 340 due to arrive soon then ?

[KK Lee 5]

Was on D7 flight to and from STN last week, both outbound and return were almost full. The legroom, 8 abreast and reclining seats on the leased A340 is better than D7’s A333. As I didn’t pre-booked meal, choice onboard was limited Won’t hesitate to take D7 to STN again, saved the money for Modern British food

 

[flee 5]

I just had a look at their flight timings and it does not appear to be as connection friendly at Stansted as the current schedule is - most flights arriving close to midnight. Flights arriving at LCCT are slightly earlier, but maybe D7 wants connecting pax to stay a night at Tune Hotel!

Edited April 21, 2009 by flee

[Naim 6]

I just had a look at their flight timings and it does not appear to be as connection friendly at Stansted as the current schedule is - most flights arriving close to midnight.

...

 

Our flight on 12/05 arrives STN 0800h, which works fine, since we are catching an easyJet plane to AMS in the afternoon.

[flee 5]

Yes that is the current schedule - my bro just took a D7 flight last night and it arrived about 23 mins early this morning, at 7.37 am. He connected to EasyJet flight for Belfast at 11.55 am and that flight arrived 3 mins early too. Not bad for long haul LCC connections!

 

The timetable changes in July - full details here: http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/pressRel...f1c670-35a66810

Edited April 21, 2009 by flee

[Waiping 12]

Most LCC tends to arrive at destination quite late at night due to cheaper landing fee, no?

[flee 5]

Most LCC tends to arrive at destination quite late at night due to cheaper landing fee, no?

Well most connecting flights in STN end by 1.00 am. If you arrive at 22-23:00, you will probably have to wait till 05-06:00 before making your connection.

 

[Tom/PER 0]

I just booked PER-KUL-PER on D7 then onto PEN rtn last night.

 

Paid $421 (roughly RM1010.40) per person PER-KUL-PER although the outbound leg is in the XL seating but by the time 20kgs of baggage and a Malaysian meal was factored in it work out at $1026 (RM2462.40) for the both of us to travel in July.

 

And the flight KUL-PEN-KUL was a promo fare of RM9 per sector each = RM36 but by the time baggage and meals are again factored in it came to RM416!! MH for the both of us was RM380 rtn, but after flying them on 2 previous trips I wanted to give Air Asia a bash and their flight timings on the domestic flight suited our needs better.

 

My observations is the fare might look cheaper on face value but it pays to do some research into the total cost of the ticket once everything is added on.

 

I don't understand how come a LCC can be more expensive than a legacy carrier such as MH on the same domestic route.

 

Also with regards to their STN flight going daily I was always under the assumption it was going to be once they received their second A340....PR hype.

 

Tom/PER

[H C Chai 4]

I don't understand how come a LCC can be more expensive than a legacy carrier such as MH on the same domestic route.

 

I guess this happens everywhere. I am planning a trip to Spain this Christmas, at the moment the cheapest option for me to fly from London to Madrid is with British Airways ex-LCY. Same in Australia where Qantas could be cheaper than Virgin Blue on some routes.

 

And MH's fare for London-KL (May & June departures) is also cheaper than AKX's Stansted-KL.

Edited April 22, 2009 by H C Chai

[Waiping 12]

I just booked PER-KUL-PER on D7 then onto PEN rtn last night.

 

Paid $421 (roughly RM1010.40) per person PER-KUL-PER although the outbound leg is in the XL seating but by the time 20kgs of baggage and a Malaysian meal was factored in it work out at $1026 (RM2462.40) for the both of us to travel in July.

 

And the flight KUL-PEN-KUL was a promo fare of RM9 per sector each = RM36 but by the time baggage and meals are again factored in it came to RM416!! MH for the both of us was RM380 rtn, but after flying them on 2 previous trips I wanted to give Air Asia a bash and their flight timings on the domestic flight suited our needs better.

 

My observations is the fare might look cheaper on face value but it pays to do some research into the total cost of the ticket once everything is added on.

 

I don't understand how come a LCC can be more expensive than a legacy carrier such as MH on the same domestic route.

 

Also with regards to their STN flight going daily I was always under the assumption it was going to be once they received their second A340....PR hype.

 

Tom/PER

 

I take it as you want to try the crampy seats on the D7 Airbus.

 

Anyway, the last time I checked the best option I would have was to fly BKI - SIN - PER on Jetstar return. All in was RM100 cheaper. Nothing much but just a thought.

[Tom/PER 0]

I take it as you want to try the crampy seats on the D7 Airbus.

 

Anyway, the last time I checked the best option I would have was to fly BKI - SIN - PER on Jetstar return. All in was RM100 cheaper. Nothing much but just a thought.

 

Nah I appreciate your comments...but I just wanted to try D7 for myself and for the flight timings suited us better than MH and I'd rather fly a D7 A333 then a MH A333.

 

I'll do a trip report and give my honest opinion of how I find Air Asia.

 

 

[flee 5]

I did the D7 flight to Gold Coast (OOL) in March and on standard seats, it is not a very comfortable experience even though I travelled on their new A333s (XXB out and XXA returning to KUL). The seats are narrow and legroom is not quite enough for a medium haul flight. So if you are more than 1.75m tall, do consider paying extra for a better seat or XL seat. I am glad that their A343 is still using the old AC seats and legroom is good too, even for someone who is tall.

 

I am not sure why you had to pay more than MH for the domestic flight. I have compared fares a number of times and AK is usually cheaper unless you have upsized your luggage a fair bit. Even Firefly costs more than AK sometimes. I guess that on those particular dates, MH might have special fares left...

Edited April 22, 2009 by flee