AirAsia KCH-KUL Trip Report/Review- A Change in Schedule

It's been quite a while since I've done a trip report. The last one I did was when I flew with Firefly on the Kuching-KL route around 5 years back, give or take a few years, I can't recall. Hence I decided to do a proper one today.
The opportunity for a vacation to Singapore with my besties finally came true. Keep in mind that we are 21, all students and are not the type of people with the financial capacity to go on trips together outside Kuching all the time. So this was really something we were looking forward to, a dream come true of sorts.

The plan was for two of my companions to meet at KLIA2 since they were both in KL together and I would fly over to meet them there before taking the next morning flight down to Singapore. I could've gone direct to Singapore from Kuching since AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines Berhad offered several flights daily KCH-SIN and back but the idea of travelling together seemed so much nicer.

My original flight was supposed to be AK5215 to Kuala Lumpur which was supposed to depart at 7.10pm. However just as I was about to leave home for the airport I got a text message and an email from AirAsia informing me of my flight retime. Which was retimed to a shocking 11.35pm. Having resigned myself to this fate and the worst delay of all delays I've ever experienced, I proceeded to the airport, hoping by luck that I'm able to get on an earlier flight. I am normally the type who loves staying in airports but this time I had a schedule and my friends were waiting so I was quite bummed by the retime. However it did give me ample time to explore the airport and to take a look at some of the renovation progress being carried out at the airport.

But luckily, as I was about to enter the immigration area, I was referred to the check-in counters and was put on an earlier flight. My new flight was AK5219 which is scheduled to depart at 10.20pm. Alright, still over 2 hours to go. Time to go jalan-jalan.

Kuching International Airport gates R, 1-4 have notoriously being known to be suffocatingly crowded and there's just not enough space for everybody so a small expansion project was underway.

Expansion outside view (landside)

Expansion outside view (landside) 2

Gate 3 was closed off and not used and it seems like new flooring has been installed

I walked quite a lot around the airport since there wasn't much to do and I didn't like sitting around too much. And I also experimented with some long exposure shots. The Xperia Z2 camera is capable of producing such shots but only if you use certain camera apps. I used Camera FV-5 which allowed me to set the exposure time but with a maximum 60 seconds.

AirAsia aircraft taxiing past

9M-AQN operating flight AK5412 arriving from Johor.

9M-AFG, the Banana plane which will operate my flight to Kuala Lumpur arriving as AK5218 from Lumpur. From now onwards I'll call it The Reverse Flash Aircraft because of this picture.

My gate was changed from Gate 1 to Gate 4 and boarding commenced at 10.10pm although it was scheduled for 9.40pm. I forgot to ask the crew the reason for delay.

Banana! The aircraft is over 9 years old. Still a reliable workhorse.

The beautiful CFM-56B engines powering all of AirAsia's A320 fleet.

A shot from this angle is a must heheh

Sister ship 9M-AHS over at Gate 2

My seat was 19F as I requested a window seat from the counter agent. He originally gave me a hot seat on row 5 but for me, a window seat is like an Asian's rice. And he was also kind enough to give me a seat where I had half a row to myself! The other 2 seats beside me were unoccupied. Until later.

Thanks so much kind counter agent! Sorry didn't get your name though.

Pushback commenced at 10.28pm and since AirAsia have introduced their new revamped in-flight menu programme called Santan, I decided to check it out.

Can't wait to see what AirAsia has to offer. I have to say the menu design looks much better than what was offered previously. They have done away with the trademark red and white colors and have chosen something a little more tempting and visually pleasing.

The last time I was on an AirAsia flight, Uncle Chin's Chicken Rice was only RM9.90!! And count the chicken slices in the picture, there are 5 slices. #typicalchinese

One does not order just desserts from a low cost carrier's in-flight menu. Especially with such steep prices. Butter cake at RM6 I can probably live with but cookies for 8 bucks?? No way.

Maggi noodles at RM5 and Shin Ramyeon at RM8. What the heck? Plus a laughable RM6 for a packet of nuts. I feel sorry for the cabin crew for having to collect such amount of money for the items they are selling onboard. It's not their fault.

I can definitely see much more variety in the dishes selection. However the most noticeable thing is the price. Gone are the RM9.90 and RM11.90 affair. Now meals cost at least RM4 more at the very least. However you do get them for a few ringgit cheaper if you pre-book them online. And seriously a KitKat bar with a cookie bar for RM7? I feel assaulted.

While I was reading the new inflight menu and flipping through the inflight magazine, we were on our way to the runway. Exited apron via taxiway H to join the main taxiway A for a A1 intersection departure on runway 25. Pusback to takeoff roll took 10 minutes.

Exiting the apron via H, joining A

Takeoff roll commenced at 10.38pm. The haze all over the city was quite apparent.

On the Kuching Radar One departure with a slight right turn right after airborne for heading 258 over VKG VOR.

Takeoff video can be found here.

Found something interesting. Was hoping for a chance to try dining here but unfortunately didn't.

Since it's been well over 3 hours since I had dinner, I was starving from all the walking and waiting back at KIA. So I purchased a meal of chicken rice, a dish which I have been craving a lot. Does anyone know where I can get in-flight meals outside the aircraft in Kuching? Hit me up ya!
A combo of chicken rice plus a drink of choice was RM18. The chicken rice alone was RM14. I seriously need to start pre-booking meals in the future.

I feel the way meals are given to pax on AK flights to be rather 'naked'. I would prefer MAB's lunchbox approach rather than this. Passengers may risk dropping or spilling food items because the foil box is hot. Even if it is wrapped with a makeshift sleeve of tissues there's always the risk of something going wrong. 

The chilli sauce given with the meal. It has a sweet tangy taste but less on the sour side. Definitely something different from your normal chicken rice chilli sauce.

One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five. I am happy. As soon as I lifted the hot foil lid, the aroma of the rice and roasted chicken wafted through the row and I began salivating. And I am also salivating as I am writing this,

I never thought chicken skin would look this sexy.

Chilli sauce game going strong

With my cup of ice lemon tea.

Overall for the meal I would give:
Presentation: 3/5

Presentation was okay. I got my 5 chicken slices as advertised. Two small slices at chilli provided the color contrast but that was it. 

Taste: 4.5/5

It was quite delicious and I would always recommend someone I know travelling with AirAsia to try this dish. Glad my recommendation still stands strong after all these years. The chicken was nice and soft with no bones and the rice was flavorful and aromatic. The chilli sauce just brought the whole meal together very nicely.

Overall package and value: 3/5

As I am fully aware that AirAsia is a low-cost carrier, the fact that you have to pay quite a lot for almost everything was expected. However I did not expect such a dramatic price hike.

With my meal finished, all that was left was to find something to do to pass the time over the South China Sea. The inflight magazine, Travel ThreeSixty offered a lot of articles and an informative section written by Captain Lim, who has a book out called Life In The Skies. Recommended for those who wish to know more about flying and is a pretty good read to allay fears of flying. 

As I was seated in seat F, a lady came over to seat D for some shut-eye. She was with a group of travelers visiting Kuching for a pilgrimage up Mount Singai, a popular destination for Catholics. Instead of listening to music, I opted to eavesdrop on the many interesting stories and opinions of the two Indian aunties and one Chinese uncle behind me. Cabin service I found to be a tad slow especially when it came to clearing up disposables from passengers.

Throughout the flight I noticed a female flight attendant hovering around one of the seats in the front. She spent almost the entire flight talking to the passenger there. And she was also joined by the flight's captain who sat next to the passenger until descent. Perhaps it was a passenger who was afraid of flying or a young passenger travelling alone. It's always good to see that the crew actually cares about their passengers and would offer up their time to soothe you and talk to you. And for those wondering about the captain, there is no need to worry. AirAsia's SOP calls for a minimum of 2 persons in the flight deck at all times one of them being a flight deck crew operating the aircraft. So if one of the pilots exit the flight deck, a flight attendant has to take his/her place in the cockpit. This is to prevent any unwanted incident by the pilot left alone in the cockpit such as what happened to GermanWings flight 9525 and as a precautionary measure in case one of the pilots are incapacitated while the other is out of the cockpit. 

Soon we were descending into KLIA2 on what I presume was the MENIK1B arrival for runway 15. The descent was pretty choppy due to thunderstorms in the area as well as the haze affecting visibility. We had a solid touch down at 12.10am midnight, 5 minutes behind schedule but as the saying goes, 'biar lambat asal selamat.' Vacated via Y6 and taxied to gate J12 for disembarkation.

KL coming into view

The aircraft's yellow body reflected by the landing lights

On taxiway Z

First time passing under the bridge at night. Quite beautiful.

All in all, I arrived in KL safely albeit hours behind schedule. I am thankful to the crew for bringing us safely and twas another good flight with AirAsia. The trip report for the next sector KUL-SIN will be coming soon :)

Thanks for reading :)