Leaving Kuching
Today we fly from Kuching to Chiang Rai. It was booked as an AirAsia Fly –Thru connection via Kuala Lumpur as KCH-KUL-CEI very cheaply. But the new route KUL-CEI was suspended soon after it was introduced so they re-accommodated us via Bangkok Don Mueang , KCH-KUL-DMK-CEI. It added about five hours to the journey with the extra transit and flying but I wasn’t upset as we had gotten a good deal. The alternative of a full refund didn’t appeal.
At 0645 trying to order a Grab car from the apartment to the airport took several attempts. We finally secured a ride at 0700 getting us to Kuching airport at 0720 for the 0930 flight.
Being Saturday morning, it was quiet in the check-in area. Our modified booking didn’t seem to like any of the self-service options for check-in, namely web, app or kiosk. There was only one party ahead of us at the manual check-in counter but they took a while; only the tricky cases get handled manually nowadays.
As I had suspected, our flight disruption had been re-accommodated without the Fly-Thru connection in place (possibly because it wasn’t a route they sell as a Fly-Thru); it was showing as three separate flights in one booking and staff had no discretion in through-checking the bag. We would have to get our boarding passes and Kim’s bag checked in again in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
It took us 30 mins before we were airside for a quick breakfast at the lounge before boarding about 50 mins prior to the flight. It was typical AirAsia with the incoming flight being early and trying to get the next flight out early, in this case 10 mins early. Sitting in row 8 of the A320neo, right by the engine, it was eerily smooth and quiet on take-off.
Transit at Kuala Lumpur
At KLIA2’s check-in area, again, there was only one person ahead of us but it took about 20 minutes. The young lady had to check with her supervisor if Kim needed a visa for Thailand! Our transit time of 2h55 (plus a little due to early incoming flight) went quickly with that slow check-in and an hour in the lounge.
At 1h15 prior to our 1415 departure we headed airside. The queue was long for manual immigration but I was able to self-process. It was a long wait for him so I headed to the crowded cramped L-gates. He turned up a little before our gate was shifted to the adjacent one and open for boarding.
The second A320neo was also quiet seated at the trailing edge of the wing. But there was very annoying hydraulic whining during taxi. I made use of the airline’s wifi-entertainment for the first time. The content was ideally suited to people like me with short attention span; most were around 5 min in length but there were a few longer programmes.
Transit at Bangkok
Arriving at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport at 1530 (due to one hour time difference), the queue for immigration was long and reached the 45 min sign posted along the queue. Kim decided that he would need the toilet and saw that there was another immigration area nearby with few people.
Despite only a handful of people in front, the queue was slow with biometric capture. I’d hate to think about our experience if we hadn’t found these counters and stayed in the original queue.
Landside, we walked through the internal connection to Terminal 2 for our domestic connection to Chiang Rai. AirAsia does have a International to Domestic Fly-Thru facility which we weren’t able to use today but I didn’t see the signage at all.
At check-in, we had to seek manual assistance again. It was about 3h40 before our 2005 flight and the bag-drop machines wouldn’t take Kim’s bag. But Kim explained the hassles we had been subjected to today so they manually accepted the bag.
We were airside again within 1h of landing, going through domestic security (with LAG restrictions) and going to one of the two lounges airside. The Coral lounge allowed 3h max stay while its neighbour only 2h. That would take us to 1930, which was 35 min before our flight.
Our Thai AirAsia flight was meant to be about 15 mins late but ended up leaving on time at 2005. After a disjointed day, we landed at Chiang Rai airport at 2115.
Finally in Chiang Rai
It was a short Grab ride to the Baan Jaru B&B which turned out to be a great choice for our 4 night stay. It was clean, spacious, central and relaxing. The manager (son of the family I guess) had a bit of common interest with Kim in cars. He tunes cars electronically by plugging them in to his laptop. Eg. a pickup truck may be modified to have stronger axles to carry heavy loads and he would then up the power output with his electronic tweaks.