Inaugural LCC Way – Air Asia X to Honolulu on June 28, 2017
Air Asia X is the long-haul arm of Air Asia, which is based in Kuala Lumpur and has mixed success on their goals of bring affordable to medium to long haul flights. It had tried Europe using some second-hand A340s, but this experience was short lived. It had also tried Middle East targeting the labor traffic but D7 seems to have given up on most routes, except Jeddah and Tehran. It has successfully founded its niche on medium haul flights that are too long for its Airbus A320 fleet, such as flights to Australia, New Zealand, North Asia including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. According to its latest report, Air Asia X has given up on these super long-haul flights to Europe and West Coast of USA, or at least for now. Thankfully this Hawaii project came before this latest change of heart. For many observers, this Hawaii flight seems to be a precursor to long-haul flights to at least the US West Coast, but I also wonder how much the advanced booking of these flights also played in this sudden change of heart or the simple high costs on operating to North America especially security costs in the US. While it is not the first long haul transpacific LCC (Jetstar has been flying between Australia and Honolulu for a while, and Jin Air, a low-cost arm of Korean Air, also flies daily between Seoul Incheon and Honolulu using 777s, but then it has some aspect that is more traditional full service.), Air Asia X will truly be new to many American travelers, who are not familiar with low cost travels. I am a bit skeptical on how many Americans can D7 attract, especially its 9-abreast economy seating, and in the end, I have a feeling that it might rely on the backpackers and the young independent travelers in Asia and Japan to fill up these flights, but can they sustain these flights? Of course, I am too weak to consider flying its economy cabin, but its premium flatbed offers a good value proposition for those who cares only about the seats and having a pillow and duvet. I paid $700USD for this one way flight form Kuala Lumpur to Honolulu via Osaka and paid for one extra meal for each sector. While I will be honest that I regret doing this inaugural all the way from KUL to Honolulu, it was still a good flight and given the price, it was nice to at least get some sleep for that price. It is earlier type sliding seats, but at least they are not the first generation one. Air Asia X also does a good job in maintaining these seats. Unfortunately, I felt that Air Asia X has slipped a bit with poorer selection of food, such as the cutting of the “Big” breakfast (and I honestly don’t mind paying extra for better pre-booked food, even a full meal) and the service has slipped a bit. Well, having two Air Asia CEOs on these inaugural flights seem to consume the energy of the F/As (mostly on the first leg) and lessen the experiences of paid guests. Despite the little shortcoming during these inaugural flights, I will hopefully give you a good enough report on these LCC premium adventure. For new Air Asia X passengers especially those based in the USA, I hope I help anwering some of your concerns.
Full album link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...aXHNLInaugural
Booking:
There is one thing that Air Asia does right is its website, which sadly many traditional even full service Asian airlines can’t event do. Booking a flight is easy and you can conveniently add all these baggage options and pre-book your meals, even after purchasing the tickets. It is easy to navigate and use. I played with the meal options a few times and enjoyed this flexibility.
As a Premium Flatbed passenger, I am entitled to 40kg of check-in baggage (more than before), priority check-in, priority baggage handling, Zone 1 boarding, and choice of one free meal.
Check-in:
Well klia2 is more like a shopping mall than an airport and it is honestly a bit too much. Anyway, the airport authority needs to make money so it makes sense for them to make money. I noticed Aerotel will open up a new landside airport hotel soon and it will make a good option for airport hotels, other than the Sama Sama line. I am still waiting for major hotel chain to open up a real airport hotel in KUL.
Premium Flex and Premium Flatbed passengers has a priority counter in Aisle W and you don’t need to do web check-in if you don’t feel like it. You won’t be asked to pay for a fee to get a boarding pass. Unfortunately, airport check-in no longer yields a nice cardboard boarding pass, and I hate these flimsy boarding passes. But then it is a LCC. The wait was somewhat long given only one party was checking in. But the strange thing here in Malaysia is that you see one person checking in and then all the sudden this person’s companions will come out of nowhere. Anyway, after waiting for a while, it was my turn. A supervisor has to check me in because of the newness of this flight but he did not do it right though. They apparently needed to issue two boarding passes – one from KUL to KIX and then one from KIX to HNL. I am not sure why, and maybe it is easier to issue two boarding passes than providing a transit card and more staffs in checking transit passengers. I guess this kind of issue will pop up during the early operating days. My bag was checked through to Honolulu and there was a priority tag.
Immigration line was not busy but was slow – typically Malaysian experience. Then after passing immigration, there was a custom check – not a proper security check. This check is to curtail the illegal drug trade. Please also note that Air Asia is strict with its one piece of hand luggage carry on policy. There were at least four staffs checking bags in the entrance to the restricted area. What is acceptable in the US is definitely unacceptable here, especially some of those big roller board suitcases.
Lounge:
Yes, Air Asia X offers a premium lounge for paid (which I don’t recommend) and for Premium Flex/Flatbed passengers (limited to three hours). The lounge has a nice modern touch and is hip for the young modern travelers, but there is a severe lack of amenities. The bathroom and shower was actually sort of nasty. Food selection is limited to sandwiches, fried noodles, some Malaysian chicken and vegetarian dishes. Drinks are limited to soft drinks but there is a specialty coffee machine. Beer is available for a fee. However, the free WIFI is the best feature here. There is apparently an upper level that I did not check out. I will not recommend anyone paid to get in, but if you receive free admission, it is a nice spot to check emails. The speed is deent enough.
Air Asia X is the long-haul arm of Air Asia, which is based in Kuala Lumpur and has mixed success on their goals of bring affordable to medium to long haul flights. It had tried Europe using some second-hand A340s, but this experience was short lived. It had also tried Middle East targeting the labor traffic but D7 seems to have given up on most routes, except Jeddah and Tehran. It has successfully founded its niche on medium haul flights that are too long for its Airbus A320 fleet, such as flights to Australia, New Zealand, North Asia including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. According to its latest report, Air Asia X has given up on these super long-haul flights to Europe and West Coast of USA, or at least for now. Thankfully this Hawaii project came before this latest change of heart. For many observers, this Hawaii flight seems to be a precursor to long-haul flights to at least the US West Coast, but I also wonder how much the advanced booking of these flights also played in this sudden change of heart or the simple high costs on operating to North America especially security costs in the US. While it is not the first long haul transpacific LCC (Jetstar has been flying between Australia and Honolulu for a while, and Jin Air, a low-cost arm of Korean Air, also flies daily between Seoul Incheon and Honolulu using 777s, but then it has some aspect that is more traditional full service.), Air Asia X will truly be new to many American travelers, who are not familiar with low cost travels. I am a bit skeptical on how many Americans can D7 attract, especially its 9-abreast economy seating, and in the end, I have a feeling that it might rely on the backpackers and the young independent travelers in Asia and Japan to fill up these flights, but can they sustain these flights? Of course, I am too weak to consider flying its economy cabin, but its premium flatbed offers a good value proposition for those who cares only about the seats and having a pillow and duvet. I paid $700USD for this one way flight form Kuala Lumpur to Honolulu via Osaka and paid for one extra meal for each sector. While I will be honest that I regret doing this inaugural all the way from KUL to Honolulu, it was still a good flight and given the price, it was nice to at least get some sleep for that price. It is earlier type sliding seats, but at least they are not the first generation one. Air Asia X also does a good job in maintaining these seats. Unfortunately, I felt that Air Asia X has slipped a bit with poorer selection of food, such as the cutting of the “Big” breakfast (and I honestly don’t mind paying extra for better pre-booked food, even a full meal) and the service has slipped a bit. Well, having two Air Asia CEOs on these inaugural flights seem to consume the energy of the F/As (mostly on the first leg) and lessen the experiences of paid guests. Despite the little shortcoming during these inaugural flights, I will hopefully give you a good enough report on these LCC premium adventure. For new Air Asia X passengers especially those based in the USA, I hope I help anwering some of your concerns.
Full album link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...aXHNLInaugural
Booking:
There is one thing that Air Asia does right is its website, which sadly many traditional even full service Asian airlines can’t event do. Booking a flight is easy and you can conveniently add all these baggage options and pre-book your meals, even after purchasing the tickets. It is easy to navigate and use. I played with the meal options a few times and enjoyed this flexibility.
As a Premium Flatbed passenger, I am entitled to 40kg of check-in baggage (more than before), priority check-in, priority baggage handling, Zone 1 boarding, and choice of one free meal.
Check-in:
Well klia2 is more like a shopping mall than an airport and it is honestly a bit too much. Anyway, the airport authority needs to make money so it makes sense for them to make money. I noticed Aerotel will open up a new landside airport hotel soon and it will make a good option for airport hotels, other than the Sama Sama line. I am still waiting for major hotel chain to open up a real airport hotel in KUL.
Premium Flex and Premium Flatbed passengers has a priority counter in Aisle W and you don’t need to do web check-in if you don’t feel like it. You won’t be asked to pay for a fee to get a boarding pass. Unfortunately, airport check-in no longer yields a nice cardboard boarding pass, and I hate these flimsy boarding passes. But then it is a LCC. The wait was somewhat long given only one party was checking in. But the strange thing here in Malaysia is that you see one person checking in and then all the sudden this person’s companions will come out of nowhere. Anyway, after waiting for a while, it was my turn. A supervisor has to check me in because of the newness of this flight but he did not do it right though. They apparently needed to issue two boarding passes – one from KUL to KIX and then one from KIX to HNL. I am not sure why, and maybe it is easier to issue two boarding passes than providing a transit card and more staffs in checking transit passengers. I guess this kind of issue will pop up during the early operating days. My bag was checked through to Honolulu and there was a priority tag.
Immigration line was not busy but was slow – typically Malaysian experience. Then after passing immigration, there was a custom check – not a proper security check. This check is to curtail the illegal drug trade. Please also note that Air Asia is strict with its one piece of hand luggage carry on policy. There were at least four staffs checking bags in the entrance to the restricted area. What is acceptable in the US is definitely unacceptable here, especially some of those big roller board suitcases.
Lounge:
Yes, Air Asia X offers a premium lounge for paid (which I don’t recommend) and for Premium Flex/Flatbed passengers (limited to three hours). The lounge has a nice modern touch and is hip for the young modern travelers, but there is a severe lack of amenities. The bathroom and shower was actually sort of nasty. Food selection is limited to sandwiches, fried noodles, some Malaysian chicken and vegetarian dishes. Drinks are limited to soft drinks but there is a specialty coffee machine. Beer is available for a fee. However, the free WIFI is the best feature here. There is apparently an upper level that I did not check out. I will not recommend anyone paid to get in, but if you receive free admission, it is a nice spot to check emails. The speed is deent enough.
Comment