[Joe Frampton]

02/08/10 Air Asia X D7 2008 KUL-STN 0900/1600 A340-313X Rego 9M-XAB

After our restful night at the Tune Hotel, we were back at the KUL LCCT early for our flight to London Stansted. We’d already checked in online, but we still had to ask for directions to the bag drop queue. The busy & chaotic KUL LCCT represents one of the major differences between low cost and legacy carriers with their smooth & seamless connections at Singapore & Hong Kong, etc. You just need a sense of adventure about you! Boarding was slightly late for some reason, and we ended up leaving about ½ hour after the scheduled time. Flight time was about 12 ½ hours – up Malaysia, overhead Penang, Thailand, very cloudy conditions all the way across the Bay of Bengal, India, overhead New Delhi, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Caspian Sea, Georgia, Black Sea, Eastern Europe and finally across the English Channel with a few turns above very dry looking English countryside into Stansted. I’m sure previous Qantas flights have taken a more northerly route, and this flight was all in daylight although there wasn’t much to look at along the way. Flight level was 38,000ft most of the way. Our hotseats on this flight were 16A & 16B – in the 3-3-3 configuration the “A” seats are pretty snug against the cabin wall, but the legroom was excellent again. We had 2 Malaysian meals on this sector – Pak Nasser’s Nasi Lemak & Bukhara Chicken Biryani about 3 hours out of London. Pre-booking the hot meals for this flight was pretty essential if you wanted something substantial, as they had no extras for sale and had run out of sandwiches & Pringles by halfway to London. Some passengers resorted to the pot noodles for something to eat! We had 2 airbridges connected at Stansted, arriving into Gate 6 which required a short (& crappy) train ride to the main terminal building. We stayed at the Hilton London Stansted, and had a pub meal in the countryside nearby – nice.

03/08/10 Ryanair FR 205 STN-DUB 0810/0925 B737-8AS(WL) Rego EI-EFW

Stansted is a fairly organised British Airport, really, after the low ceilings and sticky carpets of Heathrow. You walk past the calm check-in areas for Air Berlin, Germanwings, EasyJet, then you hear the sounds of the woeful bunfight that is the Ryanair check-in area, with staff screaming for flights leaving soon, people trying to sneak into the lines, and some poor Italian guy trying to check an extra case, which would cost literally hundreds of pounds. You just feel lucky if you’re in the line that keeps moving. And this is JUST the bagdrop queue, as you’ve already checked-in at home, or face massive extra fees again. Ryanair is truly the epitome & market leader of low cost flying, promising you a horrible experience that may or may not be a bargain, dependent on how early you booked and whether you’re checking in luggage or not. Apart from that, the plane loaded and took off quickly, the usual flogging of soggy sandwiches & scratch cards and into Dublin with the bugle sounds of “another on-time Ryanair flight”. Flight time was less than 1 hour – it’s like a bus ride really. Came into Ireland on my Aussie Passport with no questions at all.

11/08/10 Ryanair FR 206 DUB-STN 0810/0925 B737-8AS(WL) Rego EI-EKO

Another quick Ryanair flight from Dublin back to Stansted – about 55 mins flight time, short, sweet and not much to report. Stansted has a good express train service to Liverpool St in London, although at about £26 return, it’s not particularly cheap. Add the 1 day travelcard for tube & buses into that, and it becomes about £36. Yikes.

More pics to be added shortly...