Review of Malindo Air flight Senai → Kuala Lumpur in Economy

First flight report.
It was an on Impulse i made to book this flight, back and forth.  This morning I had just finished one of the final papers for my Aerospace engineering diploma. I decided to celebrate by…. doing a quick back and forth flight to KL. Found this really cheap ticket on Trip.com  It cost me SGD 24.30. It was an X class ticket.  

So every plane journey starts with getting to the airport. Coming from Singapore, I took bus 170 to JB terminal. I had hoped to reach JB sentral  slightly earlier to catch the 3 PM airport shuttle [ It is a 45 minute bus ride and bus leaves every hourly.]. Unfortunately, due to a holdup at customs, I only reached the other side of the customs at 3:05 PM. I was thinking "Hey why not take a local bus to Senai township and walk over?" Unfortunately, google maps said otherwise.

So, I took a Grab (Or Uber, whatever you prefer. I still say uber as it rolls of my tongue nicer). It cost me 33 MYR, 4 times the cost of an airport shuttle. However , If we were to break down the cost per kilometer, it only cost 1.10 MYR/KM. Quite acceptable for me. 

Senai Clock Tower. Did I think the 737 was real, Well, Yes. I even thought that it was the old sultan's plane.  SPOILER: Its not. Its Just a model Find out how they made it here !:http://www.president.com.my/Monument_SenaiAirport.php

We reached the terminal at 16:07. I quickly made my way to the check in counter. I checked in earlier that day on my phone but I rather have a physical ticket. Check in was located behind a row of shops and was rather hard to find. I actually made my way to the security clearance area before realizing that that was the final gateway, Not the check in!  The "final gateway" is located between heritage craft and MPT on the map. The map is rather old. So it does not show that the check in area is actually an enclosed room with glass doors, hence my confusion

Some Images Of the check in area

Out of respect for security, I did not take a photo of the final gateway.  I cleared Security at 1619. Standard procedures, like asking if you had laptops and such.  I believe you were allowed to bring liquids over a 100 ml on this flight.  As my boarding time was 1630, I did not take much photos of  the terminal. One pet peeve I had was that my ticket said it was gate 1 ( Ticket printed at 1614)  but the final gate was gate 4. I would understand if i checked in 2 hours early and they had to change the gate, However, it was 45 minutes before the flight, the plane was already at her gate, and no one bothered to update the ticketing system?  

Ticket was printed on flimsy Receipt paper 

The Airport monitors told me that the correct gate. Always check the monitors. I made my way over to the gate quickly as my ticket said to be there by 1630. Growing up and based out of changi, I had the impression of a gate hold room. I was wrong. It was just a long snaking queue to the jet bridge. Boarding was efficient and started at 1630. 

This is a photo of an 9M-AHL. It was running on the same route as us today.  This is my first photo of an airasia plane.

Really like the big windows at JHB. Precious first views of this B737,9M-LNS. It was my first time taking a B737. I mostly take A320's and 330's

Two airlines, Two plane type. Same route.

Yes, gentlemen, a wild silkair has appeared. It was operating under MI8873. I was not very sure did it come from XSP or SIN as the flight maps were incomplete about this. This was supposed to be a circuit flight and took off shortly afterwards. This beauty was put back into revenue service at 8 pm to Cochin as MI468

First time in a B737. The thing that struck me the most was that I was not told by the steward to go to the back aisle or the front one. After all, this was a single aisle plane!

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Straight and level flight achieved 10 minutes after take off. 22000 feet at a heading of 302 degrees

Very decent leg space. I'm 180 cm or 5 foot 9'.

Quite a wide range of entertainment available.  I am not sure if there is a separate option for international flights

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Streaks of rain touching the plane as she slowed. Seating at 18A, You could feel the landing gear deployment.

Seconds before touchdown. 

A very rough touchdown with full deployment of spoilers. This was what made 18A Special. The full glory of  flaps, and spoilers.
The last time i landed in the rain was in 2008, on A united 777. we took 4 missed approaches that day. Was I scared this time? sort of. But hey! The pilot made a full stop landing on the first attempt.
 Did you know the landing gears are meant to take up to 40 G worth of force?  

Taxing off the runway. 
Rain was really terrible that day.  It caused flash floods in KL city.

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First look at the gate. The pilot actually overshot the line and had to be pushed back by abit.

Actual flight route. We made 2 loops around muar and a holding pattern and extended approach near KLIA

Last Look at this bad boy, who would later operate as  OD131 to lahore, departing 56 minutes late.