Above: Talented AirAsia X cabin crew welcoming us on board with ukelele and singing. Celebrating the new Honolulu route? Fresh and chirpy despite having worked OOL-AKL and sat through a 3.5h turnaround.
A friend Nathan dropped Kim and I off at the airport a little over 3 hours before the 1930 departure to Gold Coast and Kuala Lumpur. This is my goodbye to winter 2017 and hello to some of the world’s best diving from Semporna, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Check-in wasn’t officially open and the queue was long. Fortunately, we were in Flatbed Class which was unofficially open.
Auckland Airport is continuously improving (because they never invested properly ahead of the requirements). Security had been moved to a more spacious location. Good attempt but yet another piecemeal improvement.With so much time, I decided to utilise my free entry into the Emperor Lounge. I wasn’t hungry and thought it would be wise to save it for another time (since it is a once a year entry). But with 2h45 till departure, it wouldn’t be a bad time to use it.
Time past quickly and I had to meet up with Kim to board. Because there was a special queue for Flatbed and Flexi passengers, we boarded early. We even had an airbridge today! A crew member strumming a ukulele and singing at the door was the best boarding welcome I’ve ever had on any flight!
Door closed on the dot at 19:29 and we pushed back immediately. Dinner was served 10 minutes after airborne; within minutes of the seat belt signs being turned off. Both the Ayam Percik with Nasi Minyak and the Chicken Satay were truly awesome (not a word I use lightly).