[shannon31]

Hi all, bit of a general question here. I am looking at traveling to Singapore and Malaysia later in the year, just looking at air fares at the moment. Both Scoot and Air Asia have some ridiculously cheap air fares, most of them at half of what I would pay with an all inclusive airline.
I know we will have to pay extra for food, luggage, but just interested to hear if anyone had used these airlines when flying with kids, and how did you find them ?

My children will be 3 and 10 when we go, we always take lots of snacks, sticker books, etc anyway. We also have an iPad and 2 DS consoles as well to keep us occupied.



Thanks for your help.

[i-candi]

I've flown Scoot to Singapore, very happy with service and leg room for low cost carrier. I'd do it again. I didn't have kids with me as I went with my bestie, my kids would have no problem but they are older & can occupy themselves.

Part of trip was on Tiger & I'd never fly with them for anything over an hour. It was very squishy!

Both scoot & tiger (Phuket) didn't care that my bags were over my allowance !!!!

[mrsjane]

I have used both airlines before, air asia is okie but scoot is better bcos of their in flight service, as they are under the same company that is related to Singapore Airlines which is known for being one of the best airlines in the world.

So my bet would be to go with scoot, tiger airways is so far reliable, no major hiccups but maybe i was lucky as I have had friends who had their flights cancelled and failed to get their money back. So it really depends. I wasn't charged for additional baggage either but I was over by 3kg anyway.

For budget airlines, you really have to be careful with all these frills that they do not include in their cheap prices, like travel insurance , flight cancellation claims and all.

If you are into saving more for your trip, try websites like Wego Australia Travel that scan all the fares for you and consolidates them in one page so you can take your pick of the best times and dates to travel to maximise your stay and also you could get great hotel deals at the same time. saves you time and money.

[nlman]

I've flown with Air Asia a number of times and Scoot once. I like Air Asia much better.

Air asia's customer service is much better and accomodation in Malaysia is much, much cheaper than Singapore. You will probably need to consider the cost of accomodation as neither airline do many connecting flights and you need to leave lots and lots of time for connections. Check the time of connecting flights before you book!

In terms of the flights themselves I found customer service on both to be quite good. Do order your food beforehand as they often run out on the day.

[TheSmithFamily]

We love airasia. We have flown with them with children for the last five years ( around 12 flights) into Kl and onward to places like Vietnam,Cambodia, Thailand.

As long as you are not expecting all the frills it's great. Flight staff have always been brilliant with us as a family including my son who uses a wheelchair.

We base ourselves in KL too as far cheaper than Singapore and I like the cultural diversity there.
You can also get a train from KL sentral to Singapore as a different option to flying although flights from KL to Singapore are very reasonable.
Train much cheaper from KL as our of Singapore it's charged at almost double.

Good point above about connections, we have stayed at Tune hotel a few times at the airport as some destinations may only have one connection a day.

Cheers Bron

[i-candi]

I have to agree Malaysia is such a nicer place to visit Although I wouldn't say no to going back to Singapore !!!!

[Escapin]

Mum and Dad have flown Air Asia a number of times. They have had really great experiences every time. Yes, you have to take everything, but you know that, so you just have to be organised.

[smultron]

We are family of 5 and flew Air Asia to Malaysia (KL then on to Langkawi) last September school hols. Prices were unbeatable ($400 return per person and I spoke to others who got even cheaper airfares!)
we did pay extra to book meals onboard which were tasty, cheap and ok but not necessary. (I saw some families bring out huge tupperware type containers with loads of food throughout entire journey- it was like an ongoing picnic!)

Also paid for a DS console one way for each child and a tablet another way for each child. The seats were quite small with less room than larger airlines and I did miss the onboard entertainment to kill a few hours watching a movie but it was bearable and not very different to some other much more expensive airlines.

On the flight to Malaysia, I found it soooo cold- I was absolutely freezing and there are no blankets- you have to pay for an amenities kit which wasn't expensive but I ended up borrowing DH's jacket and it was ok. I just thought it was extra stuff to lug around later- pillow etc. Even with all the extras- luggage, meals, entertainment, we still saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars. We would definitely fly with them again simply because of value for money.

BTW, we'd never been to Malaysia before- have been to Hong Kong, Singapore and spent lots of time in Thailand BUT we loved Malaysia and will def go back- it was easy to travel around, super cheap and great value for money and we weren't hassled in same way we are in Thailand every time we bought anything or tried to arrange a taxi etc.



This post has been edited by smultron: 18/01/2013, 09:30 AM

[sarahs_three]

I've not had a good experience so far with air Asia and yet to leave.There are 7 of us travelingThree adults, three children one with autism, one with autism and haemophilia and one with haemophilia. And one inf.Unless I pay to select our seats at a cost of $180 all up, They cannot gaurentee that we can sit together. It's not a matter of not wanting to fork out the money, it's more of the fact I don't think it's veryNice to do that to two family's trying to have a holiday. If the children didnt have medical needs I'd love forThem to sit next to some other adult and spare me the 11hrs.I get that it's a budget airline but being understanding wouldn't go astray!

[Anemonefish]

I've flown with Air Asia a few times and haven't had a bad experience yet. They usually give people with children priority boarding, so I have never paid to select seats and we've always been among the first on the flight and have had our pick of seats. Just one piece of advice - if you fly domestic out of KL, do allow lots of time as it can be quite busy and chaotic.