Just got back from the London trip I mentioned near the start of this thread. I had no problem at all with Air Asia. Seats were fine (although I'm not especially tall or long-legged) and I didn't find anything much different to flying with Jetstar, which I've done a number of times now without problem as well. They did switch planes for one flight to one with a different seat layout, which resulted in seat reallocation, but we got pretty close to where we'd already booked on the original plane so I'm not complaining.
Can't say the food was great, and of course you have to pay extra for it the same as with Jetstar, but I'm not looking for gourmet cuisine on a cut-price flight. We only pre-ordered one meal per flight (Malaysian cuisine), so what we did was nosh up large somewhere shortly before boarding the flight and save the meal until near the end. Taking a few sandwiches or something would have done the job as well (despite them saying somewhere that you can't eat your own food on board, it didn't seem to stop anybody, and I never heard the staff say anything about it).
Right near the KL LCC terminal (where Air Asia go from) there's quite a big noshery that's open late (our flight to London was at 1am and it was still open a couple of hours before that). They even have the airport departure and arrival screens on display there. You can stuff yourself there (with McDonalds - or was it KFC? - if you don't like Malaysian food) and even buy sandwiches to go. It's much cheaper than buying food at the airport itself.
They also announce how strict they are now with only allowing one piece of cabin baggage per person to a maximum of 7kg. Well I saw a few people carrying on two or three pieces, and my one piece weighed about 10kg (my wife has a mini-scale for weighing luggage) and no one said a word or wanted to check it (of course I can't vouch that it will always be that way).
So I can't really fault Air Asia, especially not for the promo prices we got. Other much-more-expensive flights give you more bells and whistles, like free food, drinks, and entertainment, but give me the cheaper price and I'll organise my own. I can't wait for them to start flying from Sydney (we had to Jetstar to the Gold Coast to connect).
Regarding the 2-for-1 to Japan with Jetstar: my wife and I got that deal last year (or was it two years ago now?). Our combined returned airfares were about 30% cheaper than what I paid for my first trip to Japan years ago (just me then).
For the last few years I've only flown Jetstar and now Air Asia, except for a few trips to NZ to visit my parents where connections with Air NZ are much easier to organise (I have to fly Air NZ internally). So far no complaints.
GP
Can you please confirm that none of the arms fold up? My plan is to get a whole middle row. On other airlines I just lift up the arms and lie down.
