mella2007
Established Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2007
- Posts
- 1,094
This is the first trip report I have written on AFF so please be kind! I'm also the world's worst photographer so please don't be expecting any works of art with my excellent photographic skills
I take many trips every year, but thought to savour the memories I would write as much down as possible.
After a quick trip to Europe last year for work, I planned this latest trip about 10 months ago to block out the dates for Mr Mella and myself...as being able to get away for a proper holiday is quite rare for me. I used points for some flights and paid for others, and the goal was to experience a few different airlines that had time schedules to suit our plans.
This Trip report will cover the following sectors as well as general destination comments and lounges...and some stories along the way.
MEL to KUL: Air Asia X Premium
KUL to LHR: MH Y
LHR to NCE: BA Club Europe
MXP to JTR: EasyJet Y
JTR to ATH: Aegean J
ATH to AUG: Etihad Y
AUH to HKG: CX J
HKG to KUL: CX J
KUL to MEL: Air Asia X Y
The destinations we visited were Kuala Lumpur, London, Monaco, Italy (Ventimiglia, Torino, Milan), Santorini, Athens and Abu Dhabi/Hong Kong in Transit and also included Mr Mella driving for the 1st time in Europe with a rental car, his love of all things cars (Ferrari Drive, Car Museums).
The hotels we stayed in were as follows
Hilton KL
The Trafalgar Hilton London
Novotel Monte Carlo
Calypso Hotel Ventimiglia
NH Hotel Turin (Old Fiat Factory)
Hilton Milan
Absolute Bliss Santorini
Hilton Athens
Hilton KL (again)
We arrived at MEL airport on a freezing cold day and as I had received the upgrade a few days prior via Optiontown had already checked in online and printed off boarding passes. A short wait at the Air Asia X Counter (no fast track passes available) to give them our bags and we didn't delay and went straight through...and it was lucky we did!
It was a fairly quiet Wednesday and cleared all processes within 1/2 hour, a quick look around Duty Free (rip off) and we made our way to the Gate where they section off Economy and Premium passengers by rope. The Gate Dragon barked at me when I went to go under the rope even when I explained we were flying that class...she let us through but gave me attitude....get a life woman, you work for Air Asia. (or maybe that's why she was grumpy?)
Flight Air Asia X 215
Aircraft: A330
Scheduled time: 9:35am
Actual time: 11:37am
Flight Time: 8h 30m
Stepping onto the plane we had chosen 1A and 1C and was quite pleased with the seat size and the angled seating for the price we paid. Only 6 out of 12 seats in Premium were filled which is surprising considering how many people put in for upgrades with Optiontown.

The FA came over and asked if we wanted our pre brought meals straight away or during the flight. I had purchased two and said later on was fine. We received a bottle of warm water and got ready for push back...or so we thought.
"Ladies and Gentleman this is your Captain...there is a power outage here at the airport and we have been delayed....shouldn't be more than 1/2 hour delay"
Yeah sure....after checking Twitter, the entire airport had gone into a blackout and no flights were able to leave, lines were backed back, check in desks were unavailable...it seems it went out the minute we stepped onto the plane.
As Air Asia has no entertainment offerings, Mr Mella had the laptop and I had the iPad..and thank goodness for in seat power so we were able to keep charged throughout the flight.
After a 2 hour delay we finally left and had a fairly uneventful flight. The FA's barely showed themselves during the flight and seemed to do everything in their power to avoid coming into contact with passengers. The food was absolutely disgusting (Nasi Lemak and Chicken Satay both with those delicious bottles of warm water)....I wouldn't serve it to my dog....so munched on pringles instead.

Arriving in KL 2 hours late into what is best described as the cow shed (the LCCT Terminal), it was around 15 mins from clearing the plane to collecting bags.
The heat was unbearable and I was grumpy we had arrived late (was hoping to hit the markets)....and I was looking everything for that little sign with our name on it from the Hilton. No sign, no driver....looked everywhere, inside, outside, near the taxis, near the buses...nothing. Now I was really grumpy. My cough Global Sim card wasn't working, and Mr Mella wasn't impressed thus far with my so called fantastic organisational skills.
After waiting another 45mins we decided to get a taxi (and that in itself was annoying...find the coupon stand, buy the taxi coupon, give to some guy who was hoping for a tip..no chance busta)...
The taxi driver we had did around 140km on the freeway and made it to the hotel in about 40 mins, which judging by the journey on the way home...was very quick.
Checked in to the Hilton KL and asked for a manager straight away as to why the driver wasn't there (delay or no delay, they should have known the flight arrival time). Very apologetic and nice and offered a complimentary driver for our return trip.
The staff at the Hilton are fantastic, always remember your name, very friendly and helpful.
We were upgraded to a Grand Executive Suite (which we had already booked on the return leg) and it was a very nice room with separate lounge and office area, huge bathroom and the standard comfy Hilton bed.
There would be no shopping for me tonight, as we didn't get there to almost 830pm and the markets close by 10pm, so we ordered room service (delicious and so cheap!) and watched some TV.



The next morning we checked out at 7:30am and walked across the road to KL Central Train Station to check in our luggage directly with MH and catch the Express to KLIA for our flight to London.
No one in the check in line for MH and received our boarding passes and said goodbye to our bags....little did we know this would be the last time we would see our bags for 48 hours....
25 mins on the train to KLIA, a bit of duty free shopping for Mr Mella (who loves to shop) and we boarded on time for the long and very painful Y flight to London.
Next up....London and the missing bags

After a quick trip to Europe last year for work, I planned this latest trip about 10 months ago to block out the dates for Mr Mella and myself...as being able to get away for a proper holiday is quite rare for me. I used points for some flights and paid for others, and the goal was to experience a few different airlines that had time schedules to suit our plans.
This Trip report will cover the following sectors as well as general destination comments and lounges...and some stories along the way.
MEL to KUL: Air Asia X Premium
KUL to LHR: MH Y
LHR to NCE: BA Club Europe
MXP to JTR: EasyJet Y
JTR to ATH: Aegean J
ATH to AUG: Etihad Y
AUH to HKG: CX J
HKG to KUL: CX J
KUL to MEL: Air Asia X Y
The destinations we visited were Kuala Lumpur, London, Monaco, Italy (Ventimiglia, Torino, Milan), Santorini, Athens and Abu Dhabi/Hong Kong in Transit and also included Mr Mella driving for the 1st time in Europe with a rental car, his love of all things cars (Ferrari Drive, Car Museums).
The hotels we stayed in were as follows
Hilton KL
The Trafalgar Hilton London
Novotel Monte Carlo
Calypso Hotel Ventimiglia
NH Hotel Turin (Old Fiat Factory)
Hilton Milan
Absolute Bliss Santorini
Hilton Athens
Hilton KL (again)
We arrived at MEL airport on a freezing cold day and as I had received the upgrade a few days prior via Optiontown had already checked in online and printed off boarding passes. A short wait at the Air Asia X Counter (no fast track passes available) to give them our bags and we didn't delay and went straight through...and it was lucky we did!
It was a fairly quiet Wednesday and cleared all processes within 1/2 hour, a quick look around Duty Free (rip off) and we made our way to the Gate where they section off Economy and Premium passengers by rope. The Gate Dragon barked at me when I went to go under the rope even when I explained we were flying that class...she let us through but gave me attitude....get a life woman, you work for Air Asia. (or maybe that's why she was grumpy?)
Flight Air Asia X 215
Aircraft: A330
Scheduled time: 9:35am
Actual time: 11:37am
Flight Time: 8h 30m
Stepping onto the plane we had chosen 1A and 1C and was quite pleased with the seat size and the angled seating for the price we paid. Only 6 out of 12 seats in Premium were filled which is surprising considering how many people put in for upgrades with Optiontown.

The FA came over and asked if we wanted our pre brought meals straight away or during the flight. I had purchased two and said later on was fine. We received a bottle of warm water and got ready for push back...or so we thought.
"Ladies and Gentleman this is your Captain...there is a power outage here at the airport and we have been delayed....shouldn't be more than 1/2 hour delay"
Yeah sure....after checking Twitter, the entire airport had gone into a blackout and no flights were able to leave, lines were backed back, check in desks were unavailable...it seems it went out the minute we stepped onto the plane.
As Air Asia has no entertainment offerings, Mr Mella had the laptop and I had the iPad..and thank goodness for in seat power so we were able to keep charged throughout the flight.
After a 2 hour delay we finally left and had a fairly uneventful flight. The FA's barely showed themselves during the flight and seemed to do everything in their power to avoid coming into contact with passengers. The food was absolutely disgusting (Nasi Lemak and Chicken Satay both with those delicious bottles of warm water)....I wouldn't serve it to my dog....so munched on pringles instead.

Arriving in KL 2 hours late into what is best described as the cow shed (the LCCT Terminal), it was around 15 mins from clearing the plane to collecting bags.
The heat was unbearable and I was grumpy we had arrived late (was hoping to hit the markets)....and I was looking everything for that little sign with our name on it from the Hilton. No sign, no driver....looked everywhere, inside, outside, near the taxis, near the buses...nothing. Now I was really grumpy. My cough Global Sim card wasn't working, and Mr Mella wasn't impressed thus far with my so called fantastic organisational skills.
After waiting another 45mins we decided to get a taxi (and that in itself was annoying...find the coupon stand, buy the taxi coupon, give to some guy who was hoping for a tip..no chance busta)...
The taxi driver we had did around 140km on the freeway and made it to the hotel in about 40 mins, which judging by the journey on the way home...was very quick.
Checked in to the Hilton KL and asked for a manager straight away as to why the driver wasn't there (delay or no delay, they should have known the flight arrival time). Very apologetic and nice and offered a complimentary driver for our return trip.
The staff at the Hilton are fantastic, always remember your name, very friendly and helpful.
We were upgraded to a Grand Executive Suite (which we had already booked on the return leg) and it was a very nice room with separate lounge and office area, huge bathroom and the standard comfy Hilton bed.
There would be no shopping for me tonight, as we didn't get there to almost 830pm and the markets close by 10pm, so we ordered room service (delicious and so cheap!) and watched some TV.



The next morning we checked out at 7:30am and walked across the road to KL Central Train Station to check in our luggage directly with MH and catch the Express to KLIA for our flight to London.
No one in the check in line for MH and received our boarding passes and said goodbye to our bags....little did we know this would be the last time we would see our bags for 48 hours....
25 mins on the train to KLIA, a bit of duty free shopping for Mr Mella (who loves to shop) and we boarded on time for the long and very painful Y flight to London.
Next up....London and the missing bags