Hong Kong nightstop #3

My brother-in-law, David, who was visiting from Guernsey took me to the airport this morning at 0800. Bag-drop at AirAsia was superfast and I had time to visit the new Plaza Premium lounge at Kuching airport.

The lounge turned out to be a disappointment as it was essentially free seating and soft drinks. The wifi was free but also accessible to the public outside by acknowledging their facebook page. All other food and drinks were payable (edit: I mistakenly thought, as they had prices on them for people who use it as a cafe), so I didn’t stay long and went out to the fastfood outlet to get a light meal before boarding for KL.

Luggage at KL was surprisingly slow and I got to my bagdrop for my Hong Kong flight just over 3 hours before departure. That gave me nearly 2 hours at the KL Plaza Premium lounge which had a better offering. I had allowed 4 hours between flights as it was a “self-connect” at my own risk; with the current airport the minimum I’d allow is 2 hours and one has to build in time for possible delays.

I managed to get 3 seats on the flight to Hong Kong which made it very pleasant. The new item on AirAsia’s menu was the mamak mee goreng which I must say is about the best airline meal I’ve ever had. And to cater for coffee snobs, they now have a menu for premium coffees at higher-than-before prices. Surprisingly, the price of tea has come down. The lowly 3-in-1 coffee is still available and described as “if that’s your kind of thing”, which I thought was very snooty.

Upon arrival, I bused down to the Lucky Hostel where Kim was waiting for me (since his early arrival from Auckland).

Overall, it could have been a shorter day with Malaysia Airlines’ direct one-stop service or with a same-booking connection. But my flights were super-cheap and purchased before AirAsia introduced “FlyThru” same-booking connections on the KCH-KUL-HKG route recently.