For our return flight back home to Dublin, after a wonderful two weeks, we originated the main long-haul flights in Singapore, leaving us with the task of getting here first from Kuala Lumpur.

With a reasonable fare and almost perfect timing, even including a margin for delay, Batik Air Business Class was our choice – and we selected the ‘Business Promo’ fare.

Check-in firstly, was an affair, as we bickered with the check-in staff over what I probably should’ve caught – we were over our combined baggage weight by about 5KG, because ‘Business Promo’ has a limit of 30KG, as opposed to 40KG. That makes sense, and I should’ve caught it (and we paid as a result), though it would be lovely if they’d edit their business class landing page to say; ‘with up to 40kg’s’, which is the page I’d used in a hurry as my unfortunate reference.

Nevertheless, the check-in agent was friendly, handed us a hand-written boarding card with the payment total to go and settle, which we promptly did, before issuing us our boarding passes. Lounge access, for what it’s worth, is also not included in ‘Business Promo’, though this bothered me much less because the two lounges I’ve previously known Batik Air to use in KLIA, have been absolutely nothing to get excited about.

Incidentally, we’d wind up with no time for such a pursuit anyway; by the time we sauntered down to the end of KLIA’s G pier and began lining up at security, the gate was abruptly changed instead to the far end of H. Wonderful. So, off we went once again.

Boarding was slightly chaotic, made orderly in any way only because passengers were trickling into the gate area in small groups as they all completed the H to G inter-terminal sprint.

On-board and it was the standard Batik Air 3 rows of recliner-style seats in business class, more than adequate for our short 1 hour hop to Singapore (Oh, we should’ve been so lucky).

Pre-departure beverages were quickly offered, in the form of a glass of bargain orange juice, or water, along with a packet of Bombay mix.

And there we sat for the next 30 minutes, comfortably passing our departure time. I began to realise that one of the great fallacies of my plan to have separate tickets and ‘margin time' between KL and Singapore was the idea that any delay would happen prior to being on the plane itself.

We sat there in the first row, literally baking in the heat – the aircon apparently, and later confirmed by the captain during an address, faulty. Our captain did let us know there were ‘paperwork delays’, by which time we’d also now missed our slot and would have to wait for a new one.

Tempers in the cabin actually began to fray quite quickly – the heat was so stifling that several passengers in economy began coming forward asking to be allowed back into the gate area if the delay would take much longer.

When we were finally ready for pushback, another came forward insisting on using the toilet. Delaying pushback on a plane with faulty aircon in Malaysia’s tropical climate is not to be recommended – and the mood on the plane showed it.

Once airborne, just 57 minutes after our scheduled departure time, things were still looking good based on our forecasted ‘1 hour’ flight time.

We settled in with another round of manufactured orange juice (no alcohol – or really, any attempt at a more exciting drink) and an incredibly stodgy pizza slice, watching the world go by.

Finally, after the forecasted hour, we found ourselves not quite on land – but instead circling off what looked like Batam Island.

Our captain let us know that we’d arrived at the same time as a thunderstorm and all arrivals had been postponed, and that once things were looking better, we were likely to be a priority well into the double digits for landing. Wonderful.

And so we sat, watching my ‘delay margin’ slowly ebb away. The question became less, ‘should we even try to collect our checked luggage?’ and more ‘is it even possible to make the next flight, assuming we abandon our checked bags?’.

We weren’t alone – passengers throughout the plane were getting stressed, evidenced by the rugby scrum for the door that took place at our eventual gate arrival.

Ultimately, we landed just short of 2 hours late, arriving at the gate about 10 minutes afterwards – in sweaty clothes from the lack of aircon, with no real apology, and the final farewell being that the crew couldn’t even tell us what terminal we were at to help find our way. Unreal.

The door area crammed in, and the plane was like a shaken can bursting with passengers – only to discover that Changi had set up an arrivals’ security for our flight. To their staff’s great credit, they visibly and clearly rushed to process the planeload of anxious passengers as quickly as they could, but still – I’d love to know why they do this on inbound KL flights so often.

We were off the plane, just nearly two and a half hours late – with our onward flight due to depart in less than an hour, but check-in now closed (apparently). Would we make it? What would happen? Well, we didn’t realise, but the travel disasters were just beginning for the day…

As for Batik Air, notwithstanding the thunderstorms, it was a delayed, uninspired service in a cabin with faulty aircon between two countries with climates' that can least afford faulty aircon. Hard pass for next time.