Friday, April 07, 2006

LCCT Terminal and Bangkok night sky on video

I took Air Asia during my flight to Bangkok last week. It was my first time at the LCCT
terminal. The terminal is meant for no frills airline such as Air Asia. I was looking forward to it. I was actually contemplating whether should I take the bus directly from Sentral which cost RM9 or shall I take the express rail instead which needs a connecting bus to LCCT. Finally I decided to take the express rail from sentral.

It was the usual 28 minutes journey from KL Sentral to KLIA. When I walk out from the train, I still have no idea where and how to go the bus terminal that will take me to LCCT. Instead of taking the lift, I took the escalator that where I saw this sign at the second floor.

Lucky me, so I just turn left and then I reach another sign near the stairs.

After going down the escalator, I reach the bus terminal; I headed straight to platform 8 which is actually on the right. You do not need to buy any ticket, its on sale on the bus itself. Here is a picture of the bus. From the picture you could see the console that prints out the ticket. The cost is Rm1.50 one way to LCCT.

The complain I have its that it has a waiting time of around 15 minutes and the ride itself also takes 15 minutes, in total its around 30 minutes which is longer than the ride from Sentral to KLIA.

Below is the entrance to the LCCT. On the left is our favourite restaurant McDonald and on the right is Asian Kitchen which serves typical Malaysia cuisine like nasi lemak, fried mee hoon, noodles and etc.

Inside the terminal.

An interesting banner on LCCT, just under the arrival and departure board.

The entrance to immigration.

Inside the waiting area cum gate, there are only 3 shops, one a coffee bean look alike called Cafe espresso, a small duty free shop and one health shoppe. I guess low cost means everything will be at a smaller scale, even the shop. I believe a lot of us do not mind if the shop is smaller in size as long as the services provided is accordance to the price. I have no complain with the services provided, I sat at the café for almost 45 minutes.

However I do have one complain. It’s the attitude of the staff that checks me in. Although we are at a Low Cost terminal but services should not suffer, there is no smile, just him rudely punching in the keyboard with such might it as though he is throwing a tantrum. And there is no mention of where should I go, just he circling the boarding time for himself to see and “thud” my passport and the boarding pass was dropped on the top of table with such might that I thought I murdered his parents and he was the judge. If Mr Fernandez, if you are reading this, ask them to buck up or Air Asia will be in the red in a very near future.

I believe when you walk out from the waiting area, you will immediately complain if you are the type of passengers (like me) who actually took Air Asia (buying tickets in 2 weeks time frame) to save Rm150 as oppose to taking MAS. As once pass the gate, if you are lucky, your plane could be just a 5 minutes walk, if you are not then it will be slightly below 10 minutes of dragging your luggage and some sweating.

A shot of the plane, while walking....

And bangkok night sky while I am landing on video.

10 comments:

PhotoCrazy said...

I think Air Asia will survive with those staffs. Cheap ticket make us human forget about the lowsy service. All we can do is ignore. And enjoy the additional money save.

c o n s u e l a said...

cool pictures!

I must try Air Asia when I'm back in KL next for my travel destinations :) They have some pretty good rates ehhh?

hope you're feeling better and having a great weekend so far! :)

btw, you've been tagged! *sweet innocent laugh*

Selba said...

Aaaahhh... so this is LCCT, heard about it...

SooHK said...

Photocrazy, I think there are some who will change airlines, I saw a few mat salleh complains to the ground crew about it. As I believe they are middle range businessman who lugs around luggages. As the funny thing is that although the plane is just parked opposite the gate, you will still need make a big round as I guess there are some kind of regulations.

Consuela, now feeling a bit better, will do you tagged, I believe its one challenging tag....

Selba, you will use it right? soon?

Anonymous said...

how nice lcct klia managed to open 3 days ahead of singapore's

Selba said...

I probably will be in KL soon, so when I arrive in KL, I better take the express rail? Can you teach me how to get to the city? Heard that if take cab from the airport to the city is very expensive, more than Rm 100? Thinking to stay in the bintang area.

SooHK said...

Chian, I believe, its more like a "tactical" decisions...as "malaysia boleh"..

Selba, if you are taking air asia, this means you are landing at LCCT so best choice is to take the cab however if you are alone and its late (i.e pass 7 pm) then takes the transit bus to KLIA and then takes the express rail..however this takes a lot of time.....Taking cab directly to the city from LCCT will cost around Rm60 to Rm70 if you are going to bukit bintang area.

Selba said...

I'm taking Emirates, so that means I will be landing at KLIA, right? It will be around 4 pm... so what's your advise? should I take a cab or just use the LRT to the city?

SooHK said...

Selba, yeap it should be in KLIA...arrive around at 4pm better to take cab straight as spare the headache of reaching your destination in 3 trips...LCCT-KLIA-KL Sentral-Destination.

Anonymous said...

LCCT taxi service cohort with touts

Whatever you do, do not take the LCCT taxi services! Even in your most desperate moments. The following is a summary of their absolutely degrading, demeaning (for Malaysians) and high handed services.

My flight arrived from Bali (AK 905) on 8th February 2008 @ 10.30pm. There are two passengers (including myself) and 1 large baggage with 4 other smaller bags. Upon queuing up for about half an hour, I was informed that there are no more tickets for budget or (mini van) category taxi's. They offered premier taxi's that cost RM77.30 to the Subang area. The lady at the counter asked me which area I was residing and I informed her it was in the Subang area near Hyatt hotel. She recorded this in the receipt which I still have. Below are more detailed accounts of the whole episode:

1. Walked aimlessly to the domestic counter from the taxi counter which is about 100 meters away. Not a very convenient location.
2. Found the premier taxi's by accident since there were no signs to direct us there. Went up to the taxi driver of a black Hyundai bearing registration number WAQ 5372 and handed the ticket to the driver.
3. Loading of luggage into the trunk of the taxi was done by me with the driver just looking on instead of lifting a finger to help
4. The driver sped to the destination as I think he wanted to return to the airport to get the after midnight 50% extra on picking up more passengers. The luggage in the trunk was thrown around including fragile items that were purchased.
5. Upon arrival near the destination, the driver insisted to drop us off at Hyatt hotel instead of our house which is in Puncak Nusa Kelana Condo. This is when the extortion begins.
6. From the underpass where he was about to make his decision it was 500 meters to Hyatt and 800 meters to our home. The driver started asking for more money and extorting us threatening not to drop us off at the destination, slowing down the taxi and mentioning that the amount usually charged is RM77 not RM71. He failed to realise that I had paid RM77!
7. I bit my lip and allowed him to drive to our home where I opened the trunk myself and unloaded the baggage with the taxi driver looking on.
8. I then gave the driver a tongue lashing as he was no longer in control of the situation. He challenged me to make a report and took down the condo details. He asked the guards at the condo for my name and unit number and threatened to send "people" over. He said that the amount for this area is usually RM99 which was firstly not communicated to me when I got the ticket and if he had issues he should deal with the company not with the passengers. For another 200 meters the cost is RM20? If that is the case, it is approximately 180KM from my condo to LCTT so using the same costing of RM10 for 100 meters the total taxi cost should be RM18,000! Perhaps the drivers should also consider education at least if not for themselves, for their children; otherwise they would end up with the same mathematical and other mental deficiencies.

The company (at the ONLY counter just after arrival immigration services) monopolises the entire airport area. Because of this monopoly they feel they can operate in any fashion that they desire. This is a farce and giving Malaysia a very bad reputation for tourists especially of being hit by touts as soon as they enter our country! It’s not enough that the tourists are manipulated but the Malaysian's themselves are conned in the same way! LCCT is either just turning a blind eye to this or working hand in hand with these operators as they have done nothing despite numerous posts and complaints. Syabas LCCT...another job well done! Malaysia boleh!

I can be contacted on drsurajmenon.my@gmail.com for verification of authenticity of this posting.

U Khao Yai Resort at Khao Yai, Thailand

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