AirAsia vs MAS??

(ini edisi memberontak selepas final presentation terpaksa dipostpone kepada esok sebab my SV took a leave today.In other words, he completely forgot that I will have my final presentation today.Takpe, he owes me full marks for that.)

Since I traveled by airplane quite frequently in these eight months of internship( about 6-7 returned flights in 8 months), I would like to compare the two most popular airline companies in Malaysia (as if our country had other than those two :P).Well scope of comparison is within domestic flights only, particularly KL-Penang-KL and vice versa, Economy Class (Ye ni for MAS, since Air Asia takde class class). If any of you who will be traveling at the same frequency of mine in the future, of course domestically (yang international flight kita cerita lain kali tau.Domestic sahaje!), then I think you might find this info as a helping hand. And also I warned you guys, this is personal view and may differ from others, and also may differ in certain circumstances. Thus, feel free to voice out your views for the improvement of our airline companies, in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2007(now I sounded like a Visit Malaysia ambassador or something. Just ignore me).

Air Asia
-cheap, I even got a RM1.99 ticket for returned flights, of course you must include airport tax of RM35.00 so it sums to RM36.99, thus for returned flights it costs RM73.98- still very cheap! But I just managed to get this rate for once only
- very easy to view the schedules, browse and buy (online!)
-for normal time, the tickets are quite standard, around RM200-RM300 for returned flights. Whereas as you know, the quicker you buy, the lesser the ticket costs.
-there are three flights to Penang daily, in the morning, afternoon and night.
-approximate journey is around 50 minutes, but including boarding, take off and everything, you might as well consume up to 70 minutes until you reach the LCC terminal building!
- no complimentary drinks served
-no outside food and drinks allowed (but I always smuggled a mineral water every now and then and frequently spotted by the stewardess, thus I conclude that a mineral water should be okay)
- always delayed/retimed. My worse experience is a delayed on Friday night flight. Suppose I board at 10.20 pm, but it delayed until 12.40 am (just imagine the old folks and small kids!), resulted in me arriving home (my house is 40 minutes from LCCT) at 3.00 am.
-The flight steward and stewardess are less friendly and seldom smile, they always wear the expressionless look on their faces, even when they greet the passengers. My guess is they probably just tired have to stroll the food and merchandise trolleys back and forth in every flights, and the trolleys looked heavy, though.
-Air Asia flights are usually full, most probably because the tickets are cheap.
-this is personal, but I really HATE the stewardesses wearing tight mini skirt with black pantyhose. They attract too much unwanted attention and unsuitable as they always walk back and forth the plane aisle. Why don’t they wear long skirts instead??
-anyway, most of my journey Penang-KL-Penang/vice versa were by AirAsia, so I guess a good deal of ticket price really means something to an average traveler like me ( in other words, I'm not a daughter of any Tan Sri or Datuk, and I'm not traveling for business purposes.Saya hanyalah seorang intern yang homesick.Hehe)

MAS
-the ticket is of course more expensive, and normally people have to buy tickets at their counter. But now they have the e-ticket system, thus it is equally easy as buying tickets from AirAsia, anyway sometimes they do offer lower rates, so be alert to catch those.
-the steward and stewardess are much friendlier (and good looking too.You see, in saying good looking I didn’t mean they are all pretty and handsome and gorgeous, but their sweet smile, soft spoken, kind attention when you need something and all, that makes them good looking)
-you get complimentary drinks and a pack of salted peanuts, just for a 40 minutes journey
-when I say 40 minutes, this is a true first hand experience. I don't know how the pilot did it, even initially when they greeted the passengers on board, they stated that the flight will take 50 minutes to Penang..and I conclude everything to a speculation (within myself) : MAS airplanes are faster than AirAsia's??
-MAS flights are not usually fullhouse, e.g during my recent MAS flight, most of the three- seats-in-a row rows are occupied with only one person each row. Less crowd, I suppose.
-the flight always on time.Always.Last time I boarded like 20 minutes before departure, and I must rush all my way to B11 (terminal domestik paling jauh!!!!!)to see the terminal was already deserted and I was among the last passengers to board into the plane.Kalau naik AirAsia and you're late for like 15 mins before departure, what you can see is just a long line of queue even though the plane hasn't arrive yet.At first I found this quite bizarre, but since AirAsia provides free seating policy you just have to struggle your way to your favorite seat.
-there are a lot of MAS flights to Penang daily, and the last time I saw the departing schedule, there were more than three flights in one night.Bagus…jangan tak balik modal sudah, since most of the flights tak penuh pun.
-since boarding by a MAS plane means you have to depart from KLIA, there is always a massive crowd in the surau especially during Maghrib prayer, so it is quite inconvenient. I hope KLIA will make a bigger surau or add more especially at the departure level (Level 5).
-KLIA is more crowded than LCCT, thus you might feel quite uneasy.
-since you board from KLIA, you must pay the higher car parking fee compared to LCCT.
-the walk to the terminal is quite far too, especially in my case (Penang, 8.30 pm flight from KLIA, B11 terminal.Argh!! Rasa seperti mahu pengsan sebab jauh.Dah la dah lambat masa tu).
-as a conclusion, MAS airplane is highly recommended for those who need to arrive on time, and untuk yang sangat mementingkan layanan mesra daripada petugas penerbangan anda.

OK enough babble on comparing those two.I think I'd made a good job in not biasing to one side ( am I??) , because both actually had a fair share of pros and cons. And to others, who had their own views, feel free to share or even criticize. (^_^)