Following a relaxing road trip to the Cameron Highlands, it was time to continue my travels to Australia to visit my family for the first time in eight years.
Having considered various options for the flight to Melbourne, I settled on Air Asia’s afternoon flight, with a late evening arrival.
I usually don’t mind flying in economy class on daytime flights, but a little research revealed that Air Asia X operates their A330-300 aircraft in a 9-abreast configuration, as opposed to the industry standard 8-abreast.
As this is one of the tightest configurations in the sky and I am not exactly the most compactly built person, this simply wasn’t going to work. Therefore, I decided to upgrade to the Premium Flatbed product.
My flight began at KLIA2, the low-cost terminal of Kuala Lumpur Airport. Air Asia X does not offer lounge access with its premium product, so my travel day started at the Plaza Premium Lounge, which is accessible with Priority Pass. To my surprise and delight, breakfast was still being served at around 11:30am.
Boarding commenced around 40 minutes before the departure time. There was no priority boarding, but this didn’t bother me as I am often among the last to board anyway.
The Air Asia X Premium Flatbed product occupies the first two rows at the front of the aircraft and is arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration. Despite the name, the seats do not in fact recline to a fully flat position. Rather, they are angle-flat seats.
As always in a 2-2-2 arrangement, I chose a seat in the centre pair, which allows direct aisle access for both passengers.
I was allocated seat 2G, but it transpired that one of the pair of seats in front of me, 1D, was designated as inoperative. As a couple had been allocated to these seats, I was asked to switch to 1G in order that they could sit together. Of course, I readily acquiesced as this meant I had extra room and a guaranteed empty seat next to me.
There was no special catering in the premium section, but my ticket included a choice of meal and a soft drink from the buy-on-board menu. I chose one of the chicken and rice dishes.
As unappetising as it looks, it was actually rather tasty and was perfectly adequate after my brunch in the lounge.
A little later in the flight, I was also offered a light snack.
Air Asia X does not offer any WiFi, and I am not a fan of in-flight entertainment, so I semi-reclined my seat into a La-Z-Boy style position and dusted off a book I had been meaning to read for some time.
I also took advantage of the 3-for-2 offer on Tiger beer at 40MYR ($9 or £7) for three cans.
Later in the flight, I decided to try the angle-flat position, more through curiosity than any overwhelming fatigue.
A blanket and pillow were provided.
At first, the position seemed comfortable enough, but I quickly found that it wasn’t conducive to restful sleep, and I only managed to doze fitfully for around an hour.
With a couple of hours of the flight remaining, I realised that with a midnight landing in Melbourne, sleep was going to take priority over a room service dinner.
In order that I could go straight to bed at the airport hotel on arrival, I purchased another one of the chicken and rice concoctions from the on-board menu.
Again, whilst not the most memorable meal I have eaten in the sky, it was perfectly tasty and obviated the need to organise dinner in the middle of the night in Melbourne.
In conclusion, it is difficult to know how to categorise this product. The hard product is a significant step up in comfort from premium economy and aligns with the low end of long-haul business class products. The soft product, however, is firmly in basic economy territory.
However, the main reason I paid for the upgrade was to avoid the tight configuration in economy class, and in that sense it served its purpose.
The catering was basic, but perfectly adequate, and I was more than happy reading my book and drinking my Tiger beer. I also saved around $800 or £600 against a business class ticket on this sector.
In order to assess the product fairly, it is necessary to consider the price point at which it is marketed. I paid $877 (£677) for this one-way sector, which is comparable to the premium economy price on the legacy carriers.
Honestly, the premium economy market is where this product is competing, and is likely to attract a clientele who is looking for a more comfortable experience without paying the often eye-watering prices of business class tickets.
With this in mind, I think this product provided, on balance, a better overall experience than a traditional premium economy product, at a similar price.
Whilst I would not be overly enamoured by the prospect of spending an overnight flight in the angled seats, this flight provided good value for money, and I would be more than happy to repeat the experience on a daytime flight.