A Day of Rest

Alhamdulillah, we arrived at KLIA just after 1am, took the van with all the luggages and the boys from there, and arrives about 45 minutes later. There were hardly anyone on MEX Expressway at that hour.

Both of the boys were already asleep when we reached home, and they were snoring when we got them changed. They were clearly tired although they were wide awake at the airport on touchdown.

Puan Anita was still traumatised by the whole experience and was thankful that we changed plane rather than taking the original one.

Since the van charge from KLIA back home was expensive, with the midnight surcharges - ending up more costly than the flight ticket! - I decided to tweet @MAS and Tony Fernandes about it. Oh the power of the Internet! I got a reply within 10 minutes and this morning, had emailed them the details of the flight and scanned the limo voucher.

Well done @MAS for responding so promptly and I'm now hoping that they would hold true to the reply and my complains and claim would be attended to, not just some lip service ..... I will blog about the details once the conversation had ended.

I'm at my Bangsar apartment this morning for some repairs, and later would be in clinic for a quick afternoon session. Would be on call tomorrow, and could do with getting my feet up between now and then.

The boys were also absent from school today, and they were clearly tired. so, planning for a day of rest!

A Delay

I was due to fly off to KL, taking off jut before 8pm. While taxiing, the right rear landing gear went onto the grass. We felt a jolt and sudden veering to right.

After about 45 minutes of delay, the plane was evacuated and retimed for after midnight. No injuries, and the boys did not freak out, although there were a lot of question for me to answer to the boys.

We have about 3 hours before take-off. Need to sort out dinner for everyone.

That Explained It

While having breakfast earlier, I noticed a few good-looking ladies dressed up in their Sunday best, at 8.30am on a Wednesday Morning. I thought it must be a conference or something going on at at the hotel. Then I saw another group in tight kebaya and another in black dresses. If that was for a conference, then I wondered why I wasn't invited?

It turned out that there was a series of interview for MAS cabin crew going on at the hotel. That explained it ..... But, how much emphasis would they put on the actual interview?

The Journey Home

A 12 hour flight used to be a doodle when I was a student. Now it was becoming a drag. I guess I was starting to show my age actually. But this flight being MAS were amongst the best as far as economy class was concerned. For business, take one of the Middle Eastern carriers, but with the drawback would be having to transit on the way rather than a direct one. And transit could be a pain.

The flight coming and out this time around was a bit too rocky for my liking, especially across the Andaman Sea. But the in flight service was good as usual, and I managed to catch some movies, a luxury really. On the flight back, I slept for about four hours, as it would be late afternoon at landing, and I didn't want to be wide awake tonight.

I also noticed that this being the flagship MAS flight - MH001 - the crew were also rather senior, but definitely offered great service. Experience counts I was sure. The flight landed on time, but as usual, it took nearly 45 minutes for my luggage to clear through. I didn't have a choice but to check in from the amount of shopping I did.

Unfortunately I had to work tomorrow. Now with unpacking done and the children in bed, I was chatting with Anita about the trip. She wished that she could come along. And so did I. Maybe in the next couple of years, as it would not be cheap to bring the two boys along. When I showed the photos from my trip last weekend, both of them were excited. So much so that Irfan actually slept in one of the T shirt I brought home for him.

Air Asia it was

I have to confess that the recent day hop to Kota Bharu was my first on Air Asia. I have been hearing mixed experience from those who have been on one before. Air Asia was efficient, straight to the point and basically you pay for what you get.

I was not sure how to categorise my recent experience. On the whole, it was not bad. However, flying off from the LCCT have one drawback however. Traveling to the terminal from KL was a pain as I usually take the KLIA Express from Sentral. There were bus service from Sentral but being buses, I can't assume that it would be as efficient as the 27 minutes travel time you get from the train service. You would also enjoy the convenience of being able to check in your luggages from the Sentral Air Terminal. And since I was able to travel on Business often, there were no such service on Air Asia - disclaimer, I do not pay for my travels usually. Cost was never an issue. The reason for taking Air Asia on that occasion was the timing of the flights. But due to the hold-up which I would mention later, I could have used MAS instead and still reach my house at about the and time.

I decided to drive to LCCT rather than call for a cab and parked at e public space just in front of the terminal. I was only charged RM 27 fees for parking from 7am to 6pm. Open car park though, so your car would bee losers to the elements. The roofed space was located a furthers walk back and I was on a rush then. The terminal would also take you an extra 20 minutes travel from the KLIA main terminal - I almost missed my flight that morning since it took longer than I expected to get to the LCCT.

Landed in the rain, and finally allowed out of the cabin after 30 minutesThe second issue was the fact that we could not disembark or board in heavy rain. According to the crew, opening the cabin door was the main problem as the rain will get into the cabin and make the floors wet. Practical excuse I thought. It would cost the airline tons of money to leave the jet idle on the tarmac, so I was sure they were not making it up.

So the bottom line, would I take Air Asia for traveling with my precious brats? Definitely no. They would go berserk at the terminal. But traveling on short hops like I did last time, I would definitely do it again but if the schedule was tight and I couldn't afford a delay, then definitely I would have prefer MAS.