After an amazing time exploring Borneo on our rapid whistle-stop 4-day 3-night extravaganza, it was time for our family trip to come to an end, for us to enjoy another week in Kuala Lumpur, while my Mother bravely continued her voyage separately on to Perth. For our return flight to Kuala Lumpur, schedules worked best to take AirAsia AK5195.

We woke up that morning with an immediate problem – the flight had been retimed by 55 minutes. In classic AirAsia fashion, this came with no options and insisted further information was contained in an e-mail, which of course never arrived.

We had few issues with this, but primarily it did mean that my Mum began to run into her ‘buffer time’ to get her luggage, transfer terminals, check-in again with Batik Air for her flight to Perth, clear exit immigration and make it to her gate. It was looking a bit tight – but after we ran through the options, which included taking an earlier flight – she insisted she came to see orangutans, and that’s exactly what she’d see even if it meant having to change the booking to the next morning. But at the same time, we all agreed we’d try to hustle to the original flight. Not so fast, as it would turn out.

Sandakan Airport has nothing worth arriving early for – aside from the fact that security doesn’t let you through until close to boarding time, meaning everyone is contained out front in the check-in area.

The AirAsia self-service kiosks kept erroring out, so we ended up queuing for the lone, solo check-in agent who quickly helped us without any further issue.

Post-security, there was still nothing much to get excited about, with a few shops and a slightly surprising ‘exit immigration’, which seems very odd when travelling from Malaysia to…Malaysia.

Finally, and not a moment too soon, boarding commenced – and I was very keen to make sure everyone, not just ourselves, boarded in the most expeditious manner possible.

All was looking good, and by the time we took our seats towards the rear of the cabin, the plane was mostly full. And then, all came to a screeching halt.

As it seemed, a bag had been loaded on by a passenger no longer travelling, but whom had delegated responsibility of said bag to another family entirely, who were now trying to claim that they were minding it for this non-guest. It was all very bizarre. Crew looking for the bag’s owner, to be met by a family insisting they had promised to mind it for him. Mind someone else’s bag?!

It was as if the family were unaware of airline security protocol, or it had been thrown out the window, or something.

AirAsia, to their credit – although also their obligation, insisted the bag was coming off and between the search for the owner, the standoff over the bag being minded, and then its identification and removal, Mum’s flight to Perth that evening became no more than a concept not grounded in reality.

As the family conceded the bag was coming off, I was going through Batik Air’s manage booking process, to move it to the following morning and pay for the change.

Finally, over an hour and a half later than our originally booked time, we set off – a reminder, once again, to always approach journeys with two separate tickets on separate airlines with a high degree of caution, plenty of buffer time, and a Plan B.

While AirAsia doesn’t offer any form of in-flight entertainment other than staring at each other and trying to maximise the time you take to enjoy any pre-ordered food, we were kept entertained weighing up the likelihood of making up time en-route.

Ultimately, we arrived still an hour and a half late and truthfully, lost even more time on the long trek from what was a very distant gate at KLIA2 to the baggage claim area, where our bags were close to the end of the delivery.

Would my Mother have made it to Batik Air’s check-in on-time? Possibly with a bit more sprinting – we arrived to KLIA1 with about 3 minutes to spare, but also needing to swap belongings and collect luggage from storage.

With maybe a little more dashing and better luck with the baggage carousel, it could’ve been 20 minutes and that probably would’ve been enough time. Although I didn’t hear any complaints about the change fee the next morning when she enjoyed Batik Air’s business class on the 5-hour jaunt down to Perth after a night in the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur.

Ultimately, this was a very typical AirAsia flight – time changes to suit themselves, minimal communication bar the essential, and a fine, but delayed no-frills experience. What let us down was the oddness around the baggage and its mystery owner. As I say, I rarely book ‘risky’ itineraries and this was a perfect example of why – but again, it’s just so important to add buffer time, and plan for that still messing up.

Just wait until I tell you about our own Batik Air to Etihad experience just a week later…