Leaving my hometown

Leaving my hometown

Having witnessed (but not personally endured) horror queues for domestic bag drop at airports a couple of times in recent weeks, I arrived at Kuching International Airport a little under 3h before my 1420 departure to Kuala Lumpur where I would self-connect to Singapore and then Christchurch.

The AirAsia bagdrop area had no queues and staff were helpful with the DIY process with the kiosks.  The kiosks are now contactless.  It is compulsory to do a web or app check-in and scan the resulting barcode at the kiosk.  The kiosk spits out a boarding pass and a bagtag if one has luggage allowance.  To get a second bagtag, one simply scans the barcode again.

Unfortunately, the bagdrop isn’t contactless and one is required to handle a handheld scanner and touch a screen.

With fewer than normal flights, access to airside was closed and I had to wait less than an hour to go through.  I had a pie and strong tea before boarding my flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Risky self-connect

The flight went smoothly. The only thing unusual was the change from “Ladies and gentlemen” to “Dear guests”. I can’t believe gender-neutral language has made it to Malaysia.

I felt a sense of relief when I landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.  I had a 4h25 min self-connect from AirAsia at Terminal 2 to Singapore Airlines at Terminal 1.  While AirAsia has an amazing on-time record, recent weather disruptions gave me cold feet.

The reason I had a risky self-connect was because Singapore Airlines sells tickets from Kuching to New Zealand at around MYR5000 (with an infrequent 3x weekly connection).  Similar price out of Singapore but charged in SGD.  However, the price from Kuala Lumpur is about MYR3000 perhaps because there’s perceived competition there.  I saved MYR2000 by taking a domestic flight to Kuala Lumpur, priced at around, MYR300.

Landing at 1605, I was at the KLIA Ekspres station at 1635 for the 1700 train to Terminal 1.  I wasn’t quite sure if the free inter-terminal shuttle was running currently and didn’t want to waste any time.

Today, I was lucky that everything ran like clockwork.  I arrived at Singapore Airlines’ check-in queue about 15 mins before it opened at 1730 for the 2030 flight.  I took the internet check-in queue which was slower than the standard queue.

Even though I was third in line, it took about 20 mins because everyone seemed to have some issues with documents eg. PCR test, vaccination, visa etc.

I went through immigration around 1800 and used the relatively new Sama-Sama Express lounge.  The shower was good except that the wall-mounted soap dispenser had ran out.  The meals were good and the fresh juices delicious.  It is more a good intimate dining room with a few lounge seats rather than a proper lounge.

Flying the MAX

The Singapore Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore left about 10 mins earlier than the schedule time of 2030, operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8.  Perhaps that’s why the lady at the boarding gate said to me “Have a safe flight”.

As a first timer on this aircraft type, I had an urge to remind this plane “Keep your chin up”.  This infamous plane has engines that were mounted in a position that tended to point the nose up.  So Boeing added a computer feature (with just one single sensor) to help push the nose back down.

Two planes came tumbling down, killing 346 people and the aircraft type was grounded for almost two years.  While the problems have now been fixed, I still can’t forget how design fundamentals were seemingly ignored.

Perhaps the better advice is to tell this plane “Keep your chin parallel to the ground”. Like what they say in deportment classes, so one doesn’t look too snobbish.

Singapore Airlines has cleverly called the aircraft a Boeing 737-8, dropping the “MAX”.  A rose by any other name!  But they have provided plenty of information on their website to allay concerns that passengers may have.

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Anyway, the flight was rather full with a big group of people connecting to the subcontinent plus the typical Malaysian Chinese going to Australia and many other worldwide destinations.  Seated by the engine, it seemed very close to the fuselage compared to similar narrow-body jets.

For a new aircraft, it didn’t seem any quieter than an old A320.  In fact, the ventilation noise had more roar than an old A320.  But it was definitely nicer than a B737-800.

The five crew members worked quickly to serve coffee, tea, pre-packaged apple juice or water on the short flight.  They interacted very nicely with the passengers whereas last year, the crew disappeared after handing out only bottles of water.

Soon, it was time to land in Singapore.  As with the departure announcement, passengers were asked to draw up the window shades for landing but those in exit rows were asked to open them.  That’s because the shades open downwards in the exit rows instead of upwards.  Why not just ask all passengers to open their window shades?

Transit in Singapore

I was meant to have 2h exactly till my flight to Christchurch.  With my early arrival from Kuala Lumpur at Singapore, I had a little more than that.

I had plenty of time to walk around the A zone of Terminal 3 where I was seemingly confined to.  Last year, I was confined to an even smaller area.

Upon enquiry, it appeared I can go further to the shopping area which was absolutely no-go last year.  I only had to be given a wrist-band.  This seemed to serve very little purpose as I was still allowed to mingle with other people and enter some shops and eateries.  Many were still closed.

I made it to the B zone before returning to go through security into the gate area for my flight.  I wasn’t too concerned that there wasn’t a boarding call as I had guessed from the seat map that there were about 20 passengers only.  But at about 30 mins before the 2330 departure, an announcement came saying that there would be a brief delay while an engineering issue was investigated.  A further update would be given in 10 mins.

After 10 mins, I received a WhatsApp message and also an in-app alert for a new gate.  I asked the staff at the gate.  They hadn’t been notified of a new gate or aircraft and asked for us to wait around rather than move to the new gate, in case there was a further update.

Staff confirmed our new gate a little later but told us not to rush to the gate as security will need time to set the gate up for opening.  At the new gate, our replacement A350-900 taxied in.  Cargo and catering had to be shifted from the previous aircraft.

It’s good that this flight is experiencing the delay.  Not my first flight with AirAsia which would have jeopardised my self-connection.