my $9.90 airfare to phuket

well, okay..with taxes and all..the final price got to be $90 eventually for return fare..but that isnt a bad price either.



that trip to phuket last week, we went there by harimau airways, making that our first trip by a local budget carrier..not the first budget airline trip coz we had taken virginair and airasia before. but both of these were really short ones not lasting more than an hour...so those didnt really count..let me now however recount my 1/1/2 hr trip to phoookett

we booked it around early july. yupz, quite early coz they had a promo rate then (oooh, but we met shafi and sham onflight and they had booked their flight since march!)..it also helps that you have like-minded friends. dor alerted me on it, so we booked ours shortly after she booked hers.

a few things about it being budget..to save cost, they have no customer service number..actually they do have a phone service. but it's one way, meaning they can contact you but if you try to connect to the same number again it wont connect.

i learnt so when on the day of departure, there was a delay due to technical faults! and i kept missing calls from a particular no..which was unconnectable when i tried calling back. they eventually got me but i got to know of the delay first through dor.

so first thing there was the delay. 2 hours of it. but it was fine with us coz we had things to catch up here.

the plane we got onto was airbusA320. i have travelled in small planes, the smallest was a pratt&whitney (the ones you can see the propeller blades), and let me just say i dont like small planes. any turbulence, and or changes in altitude are visibly felt, even the slightest. particularly somehow when they are landing, its always kind of weird. i remembered one gliding for ever so long and another one kind of did sharp turns of altitude. makes me edgy.

this lil plane we took last week sets new grounds for me on travel in a small plane..when it was taking off, it made the loudest ever whirring sound.geez..dor was looking at me across the aisle and going something like "what the f****!" coz it was really loud, and not anything we had ever heard before and we thought the plane was just going to crash. but the stewardess were cool (not showing peculiar behaviour like the MAS ones that felt to their knees and started praying on that sydney flight) so we pretended to be cool as well..the noise went on for a very long time until after it was a few minutes after cruising.

the rest of the trip was fine for me, but not really for phyz, his 6 feet frame felt kind of squashed in the very compact seating arrangement. they packed the seats to the max, the seats were very close.

and the menu was also cute. they dont serve food but you can order from the menu. it was cute because it was just a piece of typed word document and xeroed and reused..hahaha kind of reminds us of the photocopied lists and notes in schools.


we just had to order snacks and drinks inflight. coz it was boring, with no entertainment..hahah and see what my friends were doing...




the hols would start when we land in phuket, not while airborne..so they were catching up on some work there!



have to say, so was i!

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in conclusion, the flight was alright except for the unnerving whirring. the compact sardine packing seating was fine given that it was only around 1 1/2 hr flight. i would however if i can pay a bit more to be in a more comfortable flight for anything longer than that.

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we enjoyed the trip very much.

at $90 for airfare, that's at least 50% savings for our airfare.
we also got a really good deal at a fantastic place in phuket at 75% off published rates.

like what some people say, it's not how much you spend, it's how much you save ;)