Review of Indonesia AirAsia flight from Denpasar to Singapore in Economy

Intro

Following a quick 24 hours in Bali, the next leg of the trip would take me up to Singapore to supposedly meet my mum to fly down to Jakarta (I know it makes no sense since the flight over to Jakarta is just an hour and 10 mins from Bali). This exact leg would be on Air Asia in economy on their A320.

Overall, I would say Air Asia is the best way to get from Denpasar, Bali, to Singapore when on a budget. The seats and service are fine, and on the morning flights, everything seems to run on time.

Routing

How I Booked

There are countless options when flying from Denpasar to Singapore. This time I decided on Air Asia due to the price and the early departure. I ended up paying 89$ a few weeks before departure and an additional 9$ to sit in the first row. For an international flight, this is a fantastic deal! 

Usually, I would have gone with KLM, but seeing as my next flight on Garuda departed at just after midday, I had to settle with Air Asia. If you are looking for a good business class deal from Denpasar to Singapore, KLM fares frequently sit at sub 500$ RT. 

Boarding

Following a spontaneous night in Bali, many, many dinners, and about 2.5 hours of sleep, it was time to head to the airport. The fast-track assistant had already printed my boarding pass for me (amazing), and I was through security/immigration in no time.

There is only one terminal in Denpasar for international departures. 

The morning Air Asia flight tends to board out of the dreaded 6 gates at Denpasar. It's about halfway down the terminal and then downstairs. This meant an even earlier boarding and a bus to get to the A320.

As Denpasar airport is small, it was only a minute or two before we made it to the stairs. Air Asia does a great job at boarding this plane compared to Batik, as they have two stairs in use. 

The Seat/Cabin

It was easy to locate my seat 1F (as it is the first row) for the short 2.5-hour hop over to Singapore. The crew was in a good mood this morning, with smiles and welcoming each and every one of us onboard.

Air Asia is a low-cost carrier, and it shows. Seats are arranged in a 3-3 configuration, with a total of 186 seats packed into an A320. The first five rows have a little bit extra legroom compared to the other rows with a 28 pitch. 

As someone who is about 6'0 on a good day, the legroom was completely fine for the short flight. Luckily, no one was seated next to me.

Pro-tip: the morning flights are less busy, and the evenings are busier on this route.

This time around, I decided not to eat since I was shattered. However, there is usually a menu in the seatback, or you can pre-order a meal beforehand for quite a reasonable price. Usually, I get a chicken teriyaki, which is around 90,000 rupiah (6$). 

Departure

Due to a relatively light cabin load of about 80% (for Asia), we ended up pushing back a couple of minutes early. To make life better, we had a 27 departure, which was much closer to our gate, and pointed our bird towards Singapore.

We ended up being airborne ahead of schedule at 7:17 am local time. Keep in mind that Singapore and Bali are on the same time, but Jakarta is an hour behind.

Arrival

This is a "quick review". There are two reasons for this. Firstly, Air Asia is an LLC, so it's a bit tough to review all of the amenities, etc, since there are virtually none. There is no IFE, no free meals, etc. Secondly, I was a bit tired, so I went to sleep minutes after takeoff and landed 10 minutes before landing.

The one thing that frustrates me about flying with Air Asia, though, is that they won't let you have earbuds in during taxi, takeoff, and landing. Like huh? 

We had a virtually smooth flight and were on final into Singapore by 9:30 am. 5 minutes later, we touched down in Singapore Changi.

Some beautiful views.

Hello again, Singapore Airlines and Changi; it wasn't like I was here just yesterday…

Terminal 4 is by far my least favorite terminal at Changi due to the location. However, this is the terminal that Air Asia uses 😒.

We ended up arriving at our gate 10 minutes ahead of schedule. As fate would have it, I was first off of the plane and bid farewell to the red seats of Air Asia. 

Changi Airport has a shuttle that runs from Terminal 4 to the other main terminals. However, it runs on a schedule of every 15-20 minutes. That means preparing to wait a little bit!

My Garuda flight would be departing from Terminal 3, so I headed on the bus and was there in about 15 minutes after waiting 15 minutes for the bus😒.

Stay tuned for the Garuda report shortly of their A330-300 in Business Class!