Review of Air Asia flight Bangkok Kuala Lumpur in Economy

Airline Air Asia
Flight AK891
Class Economy
Seat 8A
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 02:15
Take-off 07 Aug 15, 08:35
Arrival at 07 Aug 15, 11:50
AK 120 reviews
Rl 777
By 2959
Published on 5th September 2015
Hello and welcome to the third part of my trip to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia! This particular part will cover my flight from Bangkok DMK to Kuala Lumpur.







NOTE:
Some shots are taken with my phone and some are taken with my camera.





Part 1 - ARN-DOH (QR168 Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner A7-BCT) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11209.html
Part 2 - DOH-BKK (QR836 Qatar Airways Airbus A380-861 A7-APB) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11376.html
Part 3 - DMK-KUL (AK891 Air Asia Airbus A320-216 9M-AFI Semangat Harimau Muda livery) You are here
Part 4 - KUL-SIN (SQ107 Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-343 9V-STG) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11564.html
Part 5 - SIN-DOH (QR945 Qatar Airways Airbus A350-941 A7-ALD) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11625.html
Part 6 - DOH-ARN (QR171 Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner A7-BCM) http://flight-report.com/en/report-11693.html


My dad booked a big taxi from the hotel the day before, the taxi was scheduled to depart from the hotel towards DMK at 05:00 AM. We departed from our hotel slightly early at 04:59 AM.


Closing in on Bangkok-Don Mueang.


We arrived at the airport approximately 45 minutes after we left our hotel.
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That bag on the pic belongs to us, we had a total of five bags. Two medium-sized bags and three small-sized bags. Two of the small-sized bags were used as cabin bags (hand luggage).
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FIDS at DMK.
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It wasn't too exciting to fly on an AK 320 after flying onboard a QR 380. But hey, at least I get to try out a new carrier.
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Air Asia international check-in desks.
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It was time to go through immigration after our bags were dropped at the check-in desks.
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We were allowed to queue behind the ASEAN line for some reason, even though we're not members of any ASEAN country. This lead to a rather smooth immigration process, the regular line for foreigners was far more packed.
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Next stop was security. Security was actually quite smooth and we went through with no problems.
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Our flight (AK891) would depart from gate 25 according to this FIDS.
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Duty-free shopping which none of us were interested in.
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Well, it's time for my favourite part and that's spotting! I did a bit of spotting in various areas, some shots are taken from the windows close to our gate and some shots are taken from other areas. The majority of the planes here are Air Asia (Thai Air Asia) planes, which isn't really surprising. They are the largest operator at the airport.


A great-looking Thai Smile A320 with Sharklets, accompanied by a Nok Air B738 in the background.


NokScoot Boeing 777-200ER.


Retired Thai A333, resting at DMK.
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City Airways B734.
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Scoot B789, my first time catching a 789.


R Airlines A321.
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Royal Thai Air Force C130.
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Thai Lion Air 737-900ER.


Thai Air Asia X A333.
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Nok Air B738.
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My ride arriving from Kuala Lumpur!
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Another shot of my ride.


My spotting session at DMK ended after our plane arrived at the gate. I decided to relax at the seating area next to our gate (25) after my spotting session.
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Flight info:

Airline: Air Asia (AK)

Flight number: AK891

STD (Scheduled time of departure): 08:35

ATD (Actual time of departure): 08:44

STA (Scheduled time of arrival): 11:50

ATA (Actual time of arrival): 11:40

Scheduled flight time: 2h 15 minutes

Actual flight time: 1h 56 minutes

Origin: Bangkok-Don Mueang

Destination: Kuala Lumpur

Route: DMK-KUL

Aircraft: Airbus A320-200 (A320-216)

Registration: 9M-AFI




And here's another shot of my ride, docked at the gate.
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Boarding commenced at 08:06, 19 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure.
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The seat pitch wasn't impressive, but it was a low-cost carrier so I didn't expect much more. My knees did touch the seat in front of me a handful amount of times. It seemed like I would have a miserable flight after these first impressions but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would for some reason. The overall seat was actually pretty comfortable, more comfortable than the LH 320 I flew on back in April. The material choices for this AK seat were pretty good and increased the comfort despite the mediocre seat pitch.
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The window was quite dirty, which meant most of my shots through this window won't be of highest quality.
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The load on today's flight was good, probably 80-85%.
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Pushback commenced at 08:28, 7 minutes prior to our scheduled time of departure.
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Pushback was completed at 08:31.
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Malindo Air B738.


My good friend from Germany managed to track my flight once again! Thanks bro!
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Retired Thai A345.
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Takeoff, we departed at 08:44 AM local time.


Some shots from our climbout.


Provided by my friend.


Another shot of the legroom. Unfortunately the passenger in front of me decided to recline his seat which even further reduced my legroom. A good amount of the passengers were asleep, I would join the sleeping passengers in a few moments.
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The tray table.
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The BOB menu.
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Some of the meals.
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Air Asia travel 3Sixty magazine.
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Safety card of this A320.
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Route map.
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My sister decided to purchase one of these boxes with chicken burgers. She told me to try one of them but the burger didn't have much taste IMO. My sister liked it though. I didn't buy anything from the BOB menu, I don't think most of the options were worth the price.
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I bought my first Air Asia X plane onboard an Air Asia plane. This A330-300 would accompany my other 110+ models at home. Another important thing to point out, the flight attendants on this flight were very professional, friendly and attentive. A great crew overall.
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I took a nap after I bought that A333, the nap lasted for an hour.
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I woke up an hour later to this view.
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Duty-free magazine.
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We began our descent into Kuala Lumpur International Airport shortly after I woke up.


Landing on runway 15.


Taxiing to our gate.
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Tigerair A320.
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Malindo Air B738.


Thank you Air Asia for a rather nice flight.
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Even more Air Asia action…..


Immigration was quite efficient here, we cleared it very quickly.
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Me and my dad got the bags while my mom and my sister went to freshen up in one of the bathrooms.


Our family later went to one of the taxi counters to book a taxi to our hotel in KL.


Driving out of KLIA2 onboard an airport taxi.


My father intentionally asked the driver if there were many Bangladeshis here in Kuala Lumpur. The driver told us that there were indeed a lot of Bangladeshis here, he also told us we'd see them everywhere.


Approaching KL.
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The drive from KLIA2 to Kuala Lumpur took approximately one hour. I think that's it for this report, I hope you enjoyed reading it. Thank you for taking your time to read it :).
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TOURISM BONUS:

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Driving to Genting Highlands.




























See more

Verdict

Air Asia

7.0/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Buy-on-board menu7.0

Bangkok - DMK

7.2/10
Efficiency7.5
Access7.5
Services6.5
Cleanliness7.5

Kuala Lumpur - KUL

8.4/10
Efficiency9.0
Access7.5
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Conclusion

Summary is as follow:

Cabin comfort - Mediocre seat pitch, but the material choices for the seat made it bearable.

Crew - Very friendly and attentive crew with many smiles.

BOB - Offerings weren't bad, but nothing I would buy.

Entertainment - Wing view, that was the only entertainment on this flight which wasn't a bad thing.

On-time performance - Departed 9 minutes late but landed 10 minutes early, nothing to complain about here.

Related

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 145613 by
    eminere™ 271 Comments
    Loved the spotting pics. How cool is the spiral effect on the picture of the C130's propellers!
  • Comment 145670 by
    martin1405 36 Comments
    Very nice FR!

    The spotting pics at DMK are so nice and the NokScoot Boeing 777-200ER looks so funny. KLIA2 is a nice modern terminal. Really like it!
    Hope you had great days in Kuala Lumpur. The tourism bonus pics are so beautiful!

    Can't wait to read your coming FRs! :)



    • Comment 324327 by
      Rl 777 AUTHOR 802 Comments
      Thank you for your nice comment :).

      Thank you! I'm glad you liked them. KLIA2 felt pretty spacious and was very clean, it was a nice experience going through it.

      Thank you so much! I had a great experience in KL/Malaysia. I'm happy you liked them :).

  • Comment 145828 by
    NGO85 SILVER 1963 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR with us! I think this is my first DMK report I've read.

    Great spotting session at DMK, a nice variety of SE Asian LCCs. The Nok livery creeps me out. I spotted the Big Yella Fella in HKG (it's report won't show up for a while probably). Thai Smile is a new carrier for me, must be a new TG project.

    It's always nice to fly a special livery. The cabin looks to be pretty rough around the edges and not the most generous of seat pitches, but at the end of the day, LCCs are functional carriers to get you from A to B as cheap as possible. I don't really know enough about AK to know their reputation, but I'm glad you had a smiling crew.

    I like the presentation of the food in the BOB menu, somehow I doubt it will be served on a banana leaf...

    Your D7 A333 used to do KUL-NGO a couple of days a week, but then they axed the service earlier this year.

    Nice shots of the city from the Petronas Towers.

    See you for the next one!
    • Comment 324494 by
      Rl 777 AUTHOR 802 Comments
      Thank you for your nice comment :).

      Thank you! Thai Smile commenced operations back in July 2012 as a subsidiary of TG.

      It indeed is! Yeah, the cabin comfort wasn't the best but pretty acceptable considering I flew with an LCC. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the crew of AK, I usually read FRs concerning the airline I'm about to fly on but forgot to do that this time. The great crew was a nice touch!

      I was also slightly skeptical about that part.

      Yep, heard of that before. They operated 4 weekly flights to NGO from KUL IIRC.

      Thank you :).

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