Having abandoned London as a route many, many moons ago, AirAsia X is set to return from June, flying from London Gatwick to Kuala Lumpur, with a short stop in Bahrain en-route.

As someone who lived in Malaysia for nearly 8 years, I was intrigued to see the return of this route, which always seemed to struggle against the pretty good all-inclusive fares from Etihad, Emirates, and Qatar Airways. And of course, British Airways wasn’t flying to and from Kuala Lumpur last time they tried this route.

I’ve also had more than my fair share of AirAsia and AirAsia X experiences over the years, including another 1-stop AirAsia X route, KL to Honolulu via Osaka – so I thought I’d give a personal overview of what the experiences on AirAsia X from London to Kuala Lumpur will likely be like, in both Premium Flatbed, and regular economy.

I’m leaving aside (for the most part) my own long-winded justifications on why I don’t think this route will still be that successful, at least for this post, but suffice to say I’m not gone on it – and a simple fare search for mid-July, for me at least, revealed an average fare of around $1900USD return for the Premium Flatbed product. Premium Flatbed is AirAsia X's lie-flat ‘premium' product; think business class seats, economy class meals, and somewhere in the middle in terms of airport and in-flight experience.

While it’s not a bad cabin product, it is not a replacement for a full business class with all the niceties, and yet a few hundred dollars more would get you exactly that. For me, the gap is even more subtle when I factor in the added cost, inconvenience and potential misconnect of having to get to and from Gatwick from Dublin in the first place. Starting a long-haul journey with a risky, separate unconnected itinerary on Ryanair hardly sets the tone for a relaxing journey.

Looking at AirAsia’s website (which is still lethargically slow, cluttered with popups and asks, now branded as ‘Move’ whatever that means, feels like they couldn’t decide what they wanted users to do first, and should be an affront to every Designer & Product Manager), we see that flights kick-off on 26th June, leaving KL at 10pm every evening, and arriving in London variously at 07:05, 07:20, 07:25 or 07:30 depending on the day (talk about confusing). Mercifully, the return from London is a bit more straight-forward, leaving at 10:25am every morning, and arriving in Kuala Lumpur at 09:55am the following morning, much more consistently.

The flights to and from KL both stop in Bahrain for periods ranging from 1 hour 25 minutes, up to two hours. This is a very similar technical stop to that which I encountered from Kuala Lumpur to Honolulu, where we stopped similarly in Osaka. In that case, and I would expect this will be similar, the plane remained the same, but the crew changed, and some passengers left us, and some joined.

Probably the biggest inconvenience with this, at least in terms of Osaka, was that all of us continuing on had to disembark and reclear security, just to re-board the same aircraft again.

Premium Flatbed is sold within the flight booking page, just before seat selection and along with the other ‘value’ packs on offer, and comes with a meal each flight, 40KG of luggage, dedicated check-in counter and an angled flat seat up front in the first two rows. There is also lounge access in Kuala Lumpur, although London is not listed at this time.

In terms of seat selection for the Premium Flatbed cabin with AirAsia X, I’d strongly recommend Row 2. Row 1 is a bulkhead seat, but with no clear storage space, and far closer to the galley. Admittedly, Row 2 is right in front of the economy cabin, but that particular cabin is sold as a ‘Quiet Zone’, so my experience has taught me that noise isn’t really a concern.

The Premium Flatbed cabin is divided in two rows of 6 seats, broken up 2-2-2. Window seats by and large are probably the best choice here, both in terms of privacy and not being disturbed; aisle seats on the other hand, with the exception of the two centre seats (D & G), are at the mercy of being climbed over by the window-seat passengers throughout the flight whenever they want to stretch the legs or use the facilities.

Business class, this experience is definitely not – there is no pre-departure beverage service or warm towels of any sort, and in fact even the single meal provided on-board per flight (you’ll get one from London to Bahrain, and another from Bahrain to Kuala Lumpur), in my experience, was quite meager (I ended up buying another), and the included water was a small bottle, 350ml, rather than something full size that might comfortably last you throughout the flight. Again, I ended up buying another water on each flight too. Entertainment is likely scarce too – previously tablets were handed out for use, although the website doesn't make clear if this still on offer, and there is almost certainly no wifi.

In terms of the actual seat, and the cabin, I was more than able to get a solid sleep. The seat reminds me of the increasingly-vanishing elderly Emirates angled-flat seat, where the surface is completely flat, but you can expect to slowly slide down the chair as the night wears on.

Needless to say, no mattress pad will be provided, but expect a pillow and blanket to be dispensed after boarding – and certainly be collected with great enthusiasm long before landing. There’ll be no souvenirs for home!

It is worth keeping in mind, in my experience, that AirAsia’s home, KLIA2 (or KLIA Terminal 2 as it’s now ambitiously known as, presumably in an effort to reduce the low-cost perception everyone had with the previous branding), is one of two main terminals at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and is definitely the more low-cost, less-frills experience. Think much longer walking distances, a shopping mall needlessly cluttering the walkway between the actual terminal and the public transport, and quite often in my experience, longer security and immigration waits compared to the main ‘legacy carrier’ terminal at KLIA Terminal 1.

Overall, this is probably the one aspect of the new AirAsia X flights from London to Kuala Lumpur I could see myself trying out at some point – while the seats are comfy, and do make for a good rest, just remember the whole experience is not a substitute for the usual business class bells & whistles.

If the alternative at that price range was premium economy elsewhere, I wouldn’t think twice – anything more, and it’d definitely be worth shopping around and mustering up a few hundred more for the real deal!

What do you think – does the AirAsia X Premium Flatbed experience from London to KL appeal?

Next time, I’ll cover what AirAsia X economy experience will be like for those going long-haul low-cost from London!