I woke around 0630, way before my alarm at 0800. I had an email from AirAsia confirming that my late May 2019 super-cheap flight from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur had been cancelled due to route withdrawal. I worked through some options and I wasn’t going to be too adversely affected as I have an industry ticket available.
I checked-out at 0815 and was on the bus to KLIA2 around 0830. The ride took around 45 minutes and I was at the airport more than 3h prior to my 1235 flight. The airport was busy today at the screening point. It was good to see AirAsia having staff there hand luggage weights and having dedicated desks for handling those that have been intercepted (desks to tag them, collect payment, and chute down to the luggage area).
As I had oodles of time, I looked for a Plaza Premium lounge which was supposedly available in the domestic area. I walked nearly the whole domestic area (partially for exercise and to kill time), looked high and low. It was nowhere to be found and checking with staff, I settled for a meal at one of the airport cafes instead.
Time went reasonably quickly as I connected to the internet to fine-tune the solution for my flight cancellation for May 2019. Our aircraft arrived exactly 25 minutes before our flight departure and even with a quick turnaround, we left about 7 minutes late for Kuching. I found the flight surprisingly noisy seated in my usual position; it’s quite strange that the noise levels on the same aircraft type and same seat can vary so much … perhaps the age of the plane, the flight duration and weight has a bearing on this.
I was picked up at the airport by my brother and his wife, for a change, rather than using a Grab car. Time with family starts now before I continue my adventure to Nagaland via Singapore and Bangkok.