Little Tricks In Flying AirAsia

I moved to Sibu about a year-and-a-half ago and I think I can fairly and safely say that I am quite experienced in AirAsia Sibu-KL flights (that is a short 2-hour flight, if any one of you is wondering). Here are a few little tricks I've learned in surviving a short 2-hour AirAsia flight. Bear in mind, I've accumulated these experiences with my almost-frequent, almost-monthly trip back to KL from Sibu. I may be inaccurate or wrong but I can 99% assure you that these are all based on my personal experience so far.

• Buy your ticket during promotion period. AirAsia basically have 3-4 HUGE promotion periods each year. HUGE promotion as in 0 fare aka you-only-pay-for-airport-and-GST-taxes-which-are-cheap-enough. Once in a blue moon, AirAsia will have some fantastic sales such as the recent RM3 base fare promotion to celebrate certain things such as 300 million passengers. That said, grab this chance by registering as a member on AirAsia website and grab a Big Prepaid Mastercard (if I'm not mistaken it has this RM10-fee-but-refundable-once-you-topup). Why? Coz AirAsia usually send an email (yup, subscribe too) a day or a few days earlier informing you about an upcoming promotions and that is the perfect opportunity to grab a few flights for next-to-nothing. Plan your flights well and you can grab seats that are cheaper than your regular bus tickets.
• Get AirAsia Mastercard and use it extensively. Use it to buy your flight tickets, to pay your electric and water bills, to pay for your petrol, food etc. Get points. Those points are valuable as you can exchange them for an almost-free flight (again, you just have to pay for the taxes). I've gotten a few return flight tickets (Sibu-KL) for RM20. Can you imagine that? Return 2-hour flights for RM20? I collected my points from my online shopping, paying my utilities and petrol using my AirAsia Mastercard. One thing I have to point out though, AirAsia has this super shitty rule that if you are not using your card within 30-day of your last use, they will charge you shitty RM2.50. So, make sure to use it at least once a month. It won't be a problem if you use it on petrol (as I do).
• If you are an AirAsia frequent flyer, like me, get AirAsia ezpay card. Why do you need 2 different cards from AirAsia? Well, AirAsia Mastercard allows you to collect points which translates to almost-free flights while AirAsia ezpay allows you to get AirAsia flight without paying that bothersome payment fee. Yes, AirAsia collects payment fee aka you-pay-through-your-nose-for-every-little-thing-including-paying-for-your-own-freaking-flight. Imagine you have to pay an extra (the cheapest) RM4 for each flight every time you want to get one. So, by getting AirAsia ezpay card, you can wiggle out from paying any payment fee. That said, it also has the same shitty rule of RM2.50 fee for non-use of 30 days. Beware.
• Check-in free online and check-in fast. Check-in 14 days prior to get a decent mid-way seat. If you check-in exactly 14 days before your flight, you will definitely get a row 16 seat. That is mid-way through the aircraft and that is decent enough for a free seat. Too far back is too annoying since you have to wait for people to slowly board out during arrival. I hate that. And there is a HUGE chance that you may not have a place to put your luggage in the overhead compartment since AirAsia passengers usually have tonnes of hand luggage.
• To my next point. Line up early. Get into the flight early and place your luggage in the front overhead compartment (aka the overhead compartment for those paid seats in front) if you don't have much valuables in your hand luggage. Why? So that you can cruise easy when you disembark since your hefty luggage is in the front area and you can just grab it once you are nearing the front exit. Remember this, in a very full AirAsia flight, overhead compartment is a commodity that everyone fights for. Each person usually have at LEAST one luggage and a few will have 2-3 with super HUGE luggage. If you board in late, you will have to fight for a space for your luggage. I know, we are supposed to have only one standard hand luggage but hey, people are rule-breakers and AirAsia mostly ignore that rule for local flights so....Yeah.
• Buy everything online. AirAsia prices are much cheaper online. So, get your meals, check-in luggage, bus etc online on AirAsia site. Get it early. AirAsia is all about early.
• Lastly, this is a so-far-unsuccessful thing for me, but so-far-quite-successful-for-my-friends. Check-in at 12am at the day of your flight (provided it is at least 4 hours before your flight coz any later than that, you may not even check-in in the first place). This way, there is a chance that you will get the front seats. Front seats=Faster boarding and disembarking. A reminder though, so far, I've not been successful in this. For checking in at 12am the day of my flight, I always get the back seat aka seat in the row 26 or 27. So, it is a myth for me. However, a lot of my friends seem successful in getting great seats from doing this.

So. Good luck. It's all about planning well and doing things early. Early bird gets the worms and all that.