Jakarta back and forth flight No 2

After arriving on the Monday, I was kept busy until Wednesday evening. Once done with judging at 4.30pm, rushed back to the room to change and at 5.30pm left for the airport. The last flight to KUL was a Lionair flight that departs at 9pm. Lionair is not an airline that I would want to travel with but I was afraid Jakarta traffic would make it too tight to catch the MAS or KLM flights that depart around an hour earlier. Luck will have that it only took about 30 minutes to reach the airport.

The only counter for Lionair flight JT286 had a long and I mean long line that snaked across the check-in hall. Luckily, I had arranged assistance and I got to jump the queue and most importantly get a window seat at row 31 on the Lionair 737-900. Immigration was also a breeze as I was whisked pass through the diplomatic counter.

 Boarding was called 15 minutes to departure time and everyone was on board the rather warm B737-900 that looked very worn out. Dirty carpet and seats, plus broken armrests greeted the passengers besides the lovely and friendly FA's

Seat 31A is the best seat on the plane as it is located at the exit. The huge leg room is worth fighting for!

The FA was kind enough to take my photo but note the armrest

Fantastic legroom for 31A

Armrest coming apart

While we waited in the hot cabin, departure time came and went, as the FA and ground crew kept walking up and down the aisle doing headcount after headcount.

About 20 minutes behind schedule we finally push back and a live safety demo is done. After take off the crew zoom pass with the buy-on-board cart so fast that I didn't get to stop them. Once again no menu available. Finally after about 20 minutes the reach my row only to say they have sold out all the drinks! I was dying for a drink!

The full cabin on this flight to KUL

After a bumpy flight we landed in KUL 35 minutes behind schedule but out flight was not going to end yet. Once at our gate, the captain comes over the PA saying that a Ground Power Unit is needed before the engine could be shut down and so we were to remain seated. So the APU or Auxiliary Power Unit on board wasn't working which explained why the cabin were so hot while on ground in Jakarta.

So we sat for another 30 minutes before we were finally allowed to disembark. I don't home till 2.30am. Lionair.........once again I learnt to avoid at all cost!