Kuala Lumpur-Sydney. Had flown with AirAsia for an extensive trip around Asia and was quite happy with them until the return leg of the flight. Food was quite good and reasonable prices and service was ok. Unfortunately at checkin they decided to not allow more than 1 carry on item each and were very rude and unprofessional about it too, even though we had been flying with the same luggage the entire trip and had 30kgs each of checkin luggage with about 20 unused, the bags were full so we couldnt repack the stuff. They were unreasonable as my mother I was travelling with wasnt even allowed to hold her purse or handbag onboard and that had to be packed, along with some medication which they didn’t allow onboard! We also had a few items we were carrying in our hand luggage bags that were old and purchased in Asia and didn’t pack them in the checkin luggage due to the airlines policy of not being responsible for any luggage damaged or lost which they insisted had to be put as the checked in baggage. It was a very stressful situation as both me and fellow passenger I was travelling with have medical and anxiety issues which can be made worse when flying. Was flying home earlier to get medical treatment but the airline made the situation worse by nitpicking about luggage. I know rules are rules but they were quite petty. After standing around for over an hour they found a box for us which was nice but could have done that straight away and would have made it much easier and less stressful.
We finally were allowed to board and had to walk all the way to the plane which is quite far on the tarmac and outdoors. When we boarded most of the luggage compartments were empty or half full so 1 extra bag would have been fine if they had allowed us to bring medication and other important items onboard. On arrival in Sydney the items were damaged that were put in the box they provided and they provided no compensation as its not their policy.
Also on the flight during takeoff the toilet doors sprung open abruptly and cleaning fluids in bottles came rolling down the cabin floor which freaked lots of passengers out, it was qute unprofessional. We also noticed that the hot seats they sell were extra but in the exit rows, they keep the tray tables down for the duration of flight and takeoff and landing when they should be up at all times as it could hinder passengers exit in an emergency, this was quite worrying.
Other than those issues and the last flight I was quite impressed with the airline for a budget one, its one that adds lots of extra charges on booking and the terminal is quite bad in KL and lots of walking to and from planes but if you want a cheap flight and can risk things going wrong its an ok airline. Feedback ive heard from others and personal experience suggests they are good when everything goes to plan but anything that goes wrong or a bit different is when you have a less pleasant experience with them
