Experiencing Air Asia...

After a long time, I am back with another review...a review of another low cost international air line - Air Asia.

Our journey was marked during the Christmas break and as usual we did no book our tickets early and had to scramble for tickets. To keep it within my vacation budget, I started looking for cheap air tickets from Sydney to Kolkata and voila !.. there was Air Asia - It was cheaper by 40% from any other full benefit airlines in that route!

Having experienced a similar airline earlier (Scoot Review) I had my apprehensions.

But Air Asia turned out to be a surprise package - the winner for Air Asia was its food - It was delicious and served hot.

Now for some very subjective rating w.r.t. different aspects:

Seats: Comfortable

Service: Good

Price: Affordable

Food: Very good !  this was surprising - considering it was served hot and delicious as well!! - water still doesnot come free :( 

Timeliness: Average- was delayed by an hour in the transit in KL.

I would say that other low cost airlines must take few cues from Air Asia to understand how a low cost airline can feel premium and at the same time can be affordable too.

Scoot - The new affordable carrier from Singapore airlines

Indian aviation story has never been the same after Air Deccan started flying in the Indian Skies. It revolutionized the way we thought of how affordable flying is? After 14 years I had a chance to fly an affordable international carrier names Scoot, owned by the renowned Singapore Airlines.

On occasions I have traveled on Singapore airlines and I found them doing an amazing job. Now, I wondered how an affordable offering from them will look/feel like. I am consciously trying not to use the word "Low cost"!

The basic cost of a ticket for scoot will cover only for your basic seat / Hand-baggage. Rest all comes at an an additional cost i.e. Check-in baggage, better seat selection, Food, beverage, entertainment and water too!

There are couple of seating options in Economy class - Standard, Super and Stretch. There is also a scoot business class. I had chosen the super seats which gave me some good leg room and is a good value for money. Opt for stretch seats only if you don't mind the immovable seat hand-rest in between. (Movable hand-rests becomes handy for family folks like us, who want their kids to lie down on parents lap with their legs stretched !)

Now for sharing with you some pics where you can have an idea of the leg space in a Super seat - good for average height folks. 

 Also, a design flaw - where you could see the ....reading lights switch / assistance call button on the handrest , this was annoying as it used to get switched on and off whenever we used to keep our hands on the hands rest....not sure whose thought was that!

Now for some very subjective rating w.r.t. different aspects:

Seats: Good (super seats - with a bit more leg room)

Service: Average

Price: Affordable

Food: Average

Timeliness: Good

I am sure Scoot will find the sweet spot with a specific traveler segment, but it's important to realize that for long flight duration certain things are bare necessities like water...!