AirAsia - reliability and seating

I%26#39;m in two minds whether to save money and fly AirAsia, or just go with MAS KL to Kota Kinabalu. My two main concerns are:

i) making the connecting flight home (due to delays etc) KL-SYD

ii) unreserved seating when travelling with small children (ages 3 and 1.5)

Unreserved seating in oz has always been very civil and orderly - no stampedes when boarding as I%26#39;ve read (on TA forums) happens on AirAsia. Are families with children allowed to board first, as with all other airlines? I can%26#39;t imagine the kids being at all happy about sitting on their own.

Anyone who%26#39;s flown with AirAsia recently got any comments?

AirAsia - reliability and seating

Hi, I fly from JB to Kota Kinabalu by AirAsia on this April. For the morning flight I took, it is very punctual. For the night flight I took to back to JB, I heard that due to the bad weather, the flight is delayed for 1 hour.

Don%26#39;t worry, AirAsia also allowed the familifes with children, elderly (age more than 60?) board first.

AirAsia - reliability and seating

If you have small children, I would suggest you go MAS and have peace of mind. Air Asia do allow families with kids to board first but I found that upon walking along the tarmac to the aircraft, some people behind would have caught up with us and scramble to board. Thus you may not find yourselves seated as desired.

However from this month, Air Asia has another facility called Xpress Boarding in which you pay (I think) RM20 per seat to have assured seats of choice. Apparently, you book that as you make your reservation. I am not sure how that works (yet); so maybe you can tell us if you decide to book Air Asia.

Cheers,

Never had any real problems with punctuality, but if you do a search on TA you%26#39;ll find that many have.

What I found off putting was the shear zest displayed by fellow passengers at boarding time ....... its crazy !

Queue .... no way ! Everyone wants to be the first to board

Take Gasman advice and make alternative arrangements, especially as your travelling with small children.

I travelled for the first time using Air Asia to Langkawi when my first child was 2 years old and pregnant with the second child 2 years ago. Even though families with young children and elderly members are supposed to board first, there isn%26#39;t enough time gap with other %26#39;able bodied%26#39; passengers that they are practically nipping at our heels making a mad dash for the plane that some of them managed to board the plane first. Plus I have heard stories of large families with lots of adult travelling with a lone toddler taking advantage of the priority boarding. Travel with MAS and have some piece of mind and save your breath from the mad dash!

java