Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

I finally had my first experience with connected flights. And it was both fun and brutal at the same time.

I booked a set of flights with AirAsia last November 2023 after my Hawaii plans fell through hard. Singapore to Manila, then Manila to Singapore. December 22, and January 2. Very close to the holidays. I checked flight prices rigorously, and two things became apparent: one, the direct flights were already expensive, and two, the ones that have a layover to countries like Malaysia were around 40% cheaper. And so, the curious tightwad that I am, I immediately booked the cheapest-but-reasonable flights I needed before the airlines jacks up their prices again. I don’t get the economic reasons for the volatility of flight prices on holidays, and maybe someday I will understand but also will never like it all the same.

One pro tip for people using AirAsia: their customer service chatbot, “Bo”, sucks massive ass if you have specific concerns. Find other means for your concerns than their useless chatbot. Google it if you must.

And while I was on it, I decided to make it an experiment if I will like layover flights.

• I booked economy seats. I had booked First Class via Philippine Airlines last year for a taste, and the only big comforts it offered was priority boarding, massive legroom, and fancy drinks and meals. So, tightwad that I am, I decided to “divide” the luxuries I wanted with the ones I deem not.
• I chose flight times on different parts of the day – the December 22 flight will be near midnight and the January 2 flight will be near noon. Just to see which time of day I’d prefer more for future layovers.
• I opted to go for booking specific seats and priority boarding. Both cost extra, but the priority boarding, which I booked out of a lark, saved my ass later.
• I went for carry-on luggage all the way. No checked luggage. Out of fear that my checked luggage might get lost, I opted to just go full carry-on for the whole thing.

And after I booked, I made one soft prep on my part for carry-on luggage.

I had a Malaysia holiday last year for CNY and I went full carry-on then too, as it was just a brief couple of days. But I opted to use a large Under Armour duffle bag and a big American Tourister backpack, and boy it was a bad decision and a half. Imagine lugging more than 10kg of stuff along an airport, some on your hand and some on your back. By the time I got back to Singapore, my back, shoulders and arms were tired. And so, I bought a cheap 20-inch wheeled luggage with a segregated laptop compartment and front-opening hatch where they put in means to put in a portable charger. I festooned the outside with colorful stickers and put a cat sticker over the cheap brand nameplate on front. And this one was a cheap China-made brand – only cost me 45 SGD.

There were reasons I opted for a cheap one: experience, and disguise. If I liked the wheeled carry-on experience, I might buy a proper harder one later when this one eventually breaks a wheel or it cracks. And I won’t feel too bad that much if the cheap luggage gets scuffs and scratches. It’s also a disguise against possible malfeasance, as it looks cheap that pickpockets and scammers might lay off me because I don’t sport a fancy luggage.

And, days flew by after that, and soon so it began.

Dec 22 – Singapore -> Malaysia

This one was a full hour of flight since Malaysia is just above Singapore on the location.

I was early to come to Changi – personal rule I always have is 3-4 hours before the actual flight time. A wide time buffer for any and all things like bladder clearing, eating, and window shopping. So I came to Changi 3 hours early. 30 minutes for the prechecks, an hour and a half for dinner and roaming around the departure area, and an hour allocated for boarding.

The flight, unsurprisingly, was full. So many Malays going home for the holidays and also many Filipinos like me that opted for this extra flight. And so before the flight, the AirAsia staff had some time to ask if some of the big carry-on owners would like a free shift for their luggage to be checked. By default I could not even if I’d like to, as my laptop is in the luggage.

And here was where my opting in to pay for “priority boarding” came into play as a benefit: as I boarded in the first group, I got the free pick on putting my luggage anywhere in the overhead compartments above my seat. No squeezing and no “oh it doesn’t fit” problems. My seat was 22F (window seat, nearer to the “F*ck You” section of the plane), and so the overhead compartments were still empty. I got to put my luggage in fuss-free, no jostling and no rushing. Leisurely time to pull my Nintendo Switch case from my luggage, rezip it, and put in the compartment with no rush. If I didn’t pay for the priority boarding, I would have been on the third batch of boarding, and boy that would’ve sucked. And so I got into my seat, and watched as the people slowly trickled in, and saw the third batch have a difficult time playing Tetris with their luggage to fit in to the overhead compartments and rushing to finish as people are still coming in.

Some started to put some of their smaller bags under their seats, but for a few with bulky hard cases, they finally acquiesced to the crewmembers asking again if they’d like their carry-on to be in checked.

Another pro tip: if you ever plan to buy airport stuff, always pack in a decently-sized canvas bag with you, and pack them souvenirs all in that bag. No paper bags no matter how “sturdy” it looks – saw a couple try to yank their paper bag out of the baggage compartment and it ripped on the handle part. Sucks to be them. And you won’t want to be that person that carried two or three paper bags full of stuff into the plane and ran out of overhead compartment space for them. Canvas bags are more adaptable, and you can tie the handles to secure its contents. Paper bags can’t, unless you got lucky with it and got a paper bag with a fabric handle.

Flight was over in an hour. Passed very quickly for me as I spent an hour grinding away for the JRPG I was playing on the Switch called “Oninaki” from Square Enix. Very nice.

Dec 22 – Malaysia -> Philippines

So we landed on the KLIA2. As I was somewhat familiar with the arrival area already, I walked my way to the designated area for connecting flights. And boy, I am loving my wheeled carry-on luggage. Just rolls along nicely, I can walk faster, no discomfort whatsoever. Marvelous. I might not go back to just bags again.

As I have 3 full hours to spend inside KLIA (2 if the boarding duration is excluded), I headed over to the section where I remembered the McDonald’s and Burger King was, but I didn’t go for fast food. I went for the stall selling Malaysian food, which I remembered last time. Burger King was just my marker. Time for dinner.

And I had their chicken platter, “nasi padang”. Very delicious. I also ordered some dessert, this hot soupy sweet thing with chunks of banana in it.

Man, I could eat a lot more, but I have a four-hour flight later and I don’t want to use the toilet in the plane later for a piss. I made it a personal rule too – I flew in over 30 flights in my lifetime and I have yet to use any plane’s toilet. The longest flight I had was 6 hours, and for that I had to watch my liquid intake and I boarded the plane with an empty bladder.

I also spent an hour going around and buying a few Malaysian souvenirs, like freeze-dried Musang King durian chunks (it’s an acquired taste, and I like it) and coconut cookies. And I squeezed in a few boxes of chocolate to give to my niece. Following my own tip, I whipped out my canvas bag (a special one I bought in the Korea University gift shop) and put all my souvenirs inside.

And then I trooped to the next section where my boarding gate was. And man, the departure boarding gates were all packed like K-pop concert ticket lines. I get that it’s the holidays, but man, the narrow hallways in KLIA2 doesn’t help much. I spent an hour sitting there, charging my Switch so it can have good battery for the long trip.

And the flight was full, almost all Filipino, with a handful of foreigners clearly booked onto an another connecting flight on NAIA. It was a bit comforting to see so many of my countrymen going home for the holidays on the same flight. And even way more comforting is that, as I have priority boarding again and everyone I saw in the boarding gate had at least 2 pieces of hefty-ass luggage with them, I don’t have to worry about my luggage at all.

One of the advantages of having my meals at the airport is that I don’t have to buy the plane meals in the AirAsia flight. The only time I pre-bought plane meals were on 6-hour direct flights from Singapore to Seoul and Osaka. 4-hour flight is manageable from a snacking standpoint. I had my food fill at KLIA, and the airport food was freshly made and not reheated prepped plane food. But for snacking, I have a pack of Fisherman’s Friend lozenges to stave it off. It’s cheap and does the trick of staving off any hunger pangs for an hour.

Another pro tip: bring a durable drinking bottle with you. Come to the airport with it empty, and fill it after you pass the pre-check gates. Most good airports have drinking water sections near the toilets beyond the departure boarding gates, fill it and carry it inside the plane as your drink. Those 1L or 2L bottles should suffice for a long trip.

And so, boarding time came. Funny enough, almost the same thing happened here as it was in Changi. I boarded in the first zone, had my time and a veritable pick of space, I put my luggage in my preferred overhead compartment space, sat on my seat, and watched the rest of the passengers come in and realize the limitations of a fully-booked plane with many passengers having sizable amount of carry-on with them. The fee I paid for priority boarding looked very wise at this point.

I spent the next 4 hours playing more of “Oninaki”. It’s a great game IMO. Grind dungeon, whack boss, max out the support stats, repeat. Story was great too. The game helped to make 4 hours seem like it was 2.

Jan 2 – Philippines -> Malaysia

After New Year, I had to go back to Singapore. So my first leg was a pit stop back to Malaysia. But first, NAIA.

I think I have already vented out my distaste for the state of affairs in NAIA in a previous blog post. But the bulk of that anger was reserved for NAIA 1 and 2. My flight was to start on NAIA 3, the newer terminal. And suffice to say, it was miles and laps better than the other two, but frustratingly suffer some of the same maladies as them.

For one, the terminal’s relatively new. So the walls are still pristine and white, metallic beams are still rust-free, the facilities look modern, air conditioning is very passable, and there are a lot more shopping and dining options serving dishes that can represent the Filipino cuisine in some aspects. The layout of the check-in lanes and path to the immigration section are very in line with most airports. And the pre-check scans there were as quick as KLIA’s.

But the long OFW lines, dodgy functionality of the automated lanes, the unreliability of the moving walkways, the unpleasant state of the toilets, and the disorderly state of affairs outside the arrival and departure gates still leave a bad taste. I like Terminal 3 way better than the other two, but it’s frustrating to see some of the ills of the other two still manifest in the newer one, because I am desperate to love Terminal 3. I mean, Singapore clearly took massive pains to present Changi as a beautiful airport, from arrival to departure. Contrast with NAIA, with horrible road habits of Filipino drivers outside the arrival/departure areas, dodgy pickpockets milling around looking for victims, and people choking the arrival area pathway. The airports kind of reflect the country, and those shit I described ain’t good.

Pro tip for anyone with an outbound flight from NAIA Terminal 3 and don’t have prepared water bottles: you’ll 100% be better off buying bottled water after the precheck scans. It’s a bit pricey but it’s safer and better than gambling with the safety of the “free” water near the boarding gates. Personal tip: try the Fruitas bottled coconut water. It’s fresh and tasty.

I was pleasantly suprised to encounter a souvenir stall selling legitimate provincial snacks that you’d normally only see in long-haul provincial bus stops. The other souvenir stalls sell sanitized snacks – in resealable pouches, pretty packaging, and boxes. The legit ones came in sealed see-through plastic bags, stamped names in a small paper sheet inside the bag, and look extremely homemade. The stall owner explained that they ship their stuff directly from Pampanga, which made sense as some of these were usually found in bus stops on the way to Pampanga. To show my gratitude for the unexpected set of treats I might have never found, I blew more than 1000PHP on just the snacks I dearly liked as a kid. 3 packs of the espasol, 2 each of the nougat bars that came with edible rice wrapper and 2 of the macapuno candy pack that came in a dozen.

I had my brunch at the Tapa King branch there. But I was sorely disappointed at the quality of the meal. I know the good stuff well, as there was a quiet Tapa King branch near my former workplace at Makati which served beef tapa that was slightly soft and flavorful to chew, with hot fried rice that tasted freshly cooked and seasoned just right. At the airport, I was served chewy beef tapa that was close to beef jerky, and slightly bland fried rice that was clumpy and wasn’t hot to my expectation – a sign they used fresh cooked rice instead of old cooked rice. A sad plate of food to show to the world. This is the Tapa King you show to foreigners? F*ck me.

I didn’t want to leave my tastebuds disappointed, so I had a Jamaican-style spicy beef patty that was at least tasty and hot as advertised.

And in another set of circumstances that make my priority boarding purchase look even more wiser, this flight’s also full. I only had one carry-on luggage, but with my unplanned purchase, I now had 2. No problem.

Flight was also long and slightly uncomfortable (it was noon so sunlight came up the windows and the economy airconditioning only helps by a few degrees). But with me still playing the same JRPG, 4 hours seemed like 2, except that I felt drowsy at times after the meals I ate at NAIA started to trigger my siesta sleepiness.

Jan 2 – Malaysia -> Singapore

As with earlier, I was familiar with KLIA2, so I left the plane and made my way towards the food hall section with the Burger King stall.

And I ate another meal at the same Malaysian food stall for early dinner. If you’re in Malaysia, even briefly, you should at least try their cuisine. It’s delicious.

And like last time, I bought some snacks that I could only get in Malaysia, even if was a bit pricey.

Flight went smoothly. One hour airtime, and I was out of Changi within 30 minutes. I didn’t even think about that hour, I just played games with my Switch. Leave plane, go thru automated gates, find the nearest door for ride-hailing access. If anything, that reasonable quickness is something I like very much with Changi. But secret trick – submit your health declaration ahead of time. Whenever you land in Singapore, go to the toilet, connect to the WiFi, submit health declaration. Easy peasy.

So… what did I learn about layovers?

1. It’s a nice way to “visit” a country without going outside the airport. I got to eat authentic Malaysian food and buy Malaysian souvenirs, in Malaysia, without needing to go thru immigration checks. I might use layovers to “visit” countries I would otherwise have to plunk serious cash to actually stay in.

2. It’s exhausting for the unconditioned and unprepared. I admit, I’m not a health nut. Got some fatty dough in my abs. But spending 5 hours in the air, plus how many hours more inside an airport was exhausting. After I arrived in Singapore, all I did after arriving home was take a warm shower and then sleep right away. No unpacking and no unwinding. Even when I arrived in the Philippines, I immediately went to bed after some small greetings with my dad. But I suspect the exhaustion would’ve increased double if I didn’t opt for a wheeled carry-on luggage and used bags instead.

3. It’s a cheaper option. If you were pressed for time and have a month’s gap between booking and traveling, layover flights can chop some considerable amount off your flight.

And with that… some more tips.

1. Look for layovers with minimum 2 hours if you are looking to leisurely “tour” the airport departure amenities and unwind a bit after the flight.

2. Only carry what you know you can carry comfortably as carry-on. I’ve seen some tourists fly out of Changi with big bags and look like rich dorks with no servants – they’re not used to manual labor.

3. Only buy alcohol/wine on your last layover stop, not at the first stop (if your layover involves more than 2 stops).

4. Most airports are already cashless, so don’t bother with money changers unless you fancy a massage chair that only accepts local cash/coins. Have your Mastercards and Visas ready and funded.

5. Dress decently for comfort, not style. Airports are not fashion walkways. I came in a comfortable sweat-wicking shirt, Adidas jogging pants, and easy-to-remove-and-slip-on running shoes paired with odor-resistant socks.

6. Big-capacity powerbanks are your friend. Do not trust USB “charging” ports at any airport.

All in all, I liked my first layover experience. But I won’t be in a hurry to repeat it – I still prefer direct flights. But if I can see a country on the way that I’d like to “visit” but I don’t want to stay, I’d at least consider doing a layover.

And food. I’d love to sample some new tastes.