Flying to Macau - Air Asia and LCCT

6 Jun 10

Auntie YC came back from her business trip to Macau in Jan 10. She stayed in The Venetian Macao. She was telling us her trip to Macau, her stay in The Venetian Macao and recommended us to have a holiday in Macao without kids.

Hubby browsed thru Air Asia flights to Macau and the air fare to Macau is so much cheaper if we book 6 months ahead of travelling date. The flight and airport tax only cost us RM446. We added in luggage, meals and advance seat booking and paid additional RM114 for all of them. The total return air tickets for both of us is RM560 for travel in Jul 10.

In Apr 10, Air Asia notified Hubby that both the flights that we have booked to/from Macau had been cancelled and ask us to change to other dates. There would be only 2 flights to Macau in a day. We were allowed to choose any dates, even to earlier dates. We decided to change our travel dates to Jun 10 as its school holiday and its easier for us to make arrangement for our parents to take care of the kids. It is also our wedding anniversary. We chose the 6.30 am flight and returning at 9 pm flight. Air Asia also upgraded our luggage from 20 kg to 30 kg and added in meals for our return flight complimentary.

As its 6.30am flight, we need to be at the airport at 4.30am, leave house for LCCT at 3.30am and wake up by 3.00am (if we sleep). We knew we would be tired by the time we reach Macau. I decided to use the Air Asia web self check-in so that we only need to arrive at the airport by 5.45am and can sleep for additional 1 hour.

Both the taxi trips to and from airports will attract midnight charges and would cost us almost RM300 for both trips. We need to explore other options for trip to LCCT.

While we were in KL Sentral for the kids train trip to Segamat, we found out that KLIA transit will only cost RM12.50 per person per trip. The monorail will depart from KL Sentral and stop at Selak Tinggi for change to bus shuttle to LCCT. The fare is inclusive of the bus shuttle. However, the last train is at 12 midnight and first train is at 5am. As such, this option is out for us.

There's Skybus / Aerobus from KL Sentral to LCCT that only cost RM14 per person for 2 ways. However, we still need to take a cab or drive and park our car for 3 days in KL Sentral. Car park is expensive in KL Sentral and we cant save much travelling time to LCCT due to bus waiting time.

We decided to drive to LCCT. There are open car park in front of the LCCT terminal at RM36.50 per day or RM2.50 per hour. There's also car park in Tune Hotel at RM20 per day or RM2 per hour. The distance from Tune Hotel to LCCT airport is 7 minutes walk.

The night before our flight to Macau, Hubby and I agreed that we should sleep by 10pm in order to wake up early ... but I could not sleep. At the end, I took a flu pill and only manage to sleep at 1am. We woke up at 4am, had a cup of coffee, left home at 4.37am and reached LCCT at 5.30am. Hubby dropped me at the airport while he went to park the car.

Despite it was an early morning, the airport was pack with people. Must be the school holiday. As we've earlier self check-in via Air Asia website and printed out the boarding pass, I went straight to Baggage Drop Counter at Gate R3 to drop our checked luggage. I checked in one luggage which weigh 7.7kg and decided to hand carry the other luggage (5.2kg). Within 10 minutes, we were ready for boarding.

The Airbus 320 to Macau. As we had to carry luggage and walk up the stair case to the plane, I would recommend to check in all luggage.

Breakfast was served at 7.30am. We had nasi briyani (RM8 with small mineral water) and sandwich (RM6). We didn't expect to have the appetite for breakfast at such early morning but we were wrong. We were hungry! The meals did not come with any hot drink. We added Krispy Kreme Combo Set (2 doughnuts + 1 hot drink) at RM9 and a bottle of mineral water (RM3). I would recommend to pre-book meals and drink during flight reservation as crew members will serve those that have pre-book meals before selling them in-flight. It is also slightly cheaper.

Lastly, I would also recommend to bring shawl, travel blanket or jacket along as it was cold in the flight and Air Asia charge for blanket.

The cost of our travelling (petrol, toll and parking) to and from LCCT is less than RM100.