Tips: Traveling to Kota Kinabalu via Air Asia and DMIA Clark Airport

I've only been to Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) once. It was just last March when I went to Australia. Before, we went with my friend using his driver. This time, I need to guide my driver to go to DMIA. Problem is, I already forgot how to go there. My GPS pointed us to use the Angeles exit but i'm pretty sure that we used another exit before. (Tip: Want a faster way to DMIA? Use Dau exit.)

Don't use Angeles exit if you can. City traffic is bad and they blocked several roads when we passed there making our travel time longer than expected. Upon reaching the airport, we did the usual procedures and lined up for baggage drop off.

Please read the next paragraph if you are flying Air Asia

Air Asia is a low cost carrier airline. Don't expect prime services with special freebies and you'll be okay. Air Asia allows you to do web check-in* 7 days before your flight (not all flights - please read this). If you do this, you will save more time in the airport. A disadvantage though is that you can't choose the seats that you want, unlike when doing counter check-ins where you can request for seats without paying extra. On the other hand, an advantage is that you can choose the seat that you want for a small fee if you check-in online. Red colored seats costs 450 pesos and normal seats costs 90 pesos. Why choose a seat? Because if not, seats will be assigned randomly and you and your family/ friends won't be seated together.

*Some countries charge for counter check-in fee of 10 RM so better do mobile or web check-in

Back to lining up in the baggage drop off counter. It was supposed to be convenient but this lady in front of me was complaining like Chris Lao! She kept on saying that she wasn't informed™ that there's no free baggage allowance! She went on and on arguing with the Air Asia airline staff and telling her that Air Asia scams people by offering low fares and charging huge excess baggage fees. Her baggage was 25kg and for the first 15kg, you will be charged 750 pesos if you didn't buy any pre-booked baggage allowance. Every excess kilo is 600 pesos! Do the math. They went on for like 20 minutes and thanks to that, the "should be" convenient process turned out to be stressful for all the passengers lining up. Oh, and by the way, she was the first in line. (Read this if you want to pre-purchase baggage allowance)

Tip: prebook everything you need. Saves money, time and hassle you may cause to others.

After going through immigration, you'll pass through another bag check for your hand carry items and after that, a final check by the airlines. You'll need to present your passport and boarding pass for that. After? You're in the pre-departure area. There's a couple of food shops inside and a lot of seats. At the far right end, there are a couple of chairs and tables. The rest are just plastic waiting chairs. There's a television with a bad reception to keep you "entertained" and some shops that sells random stuff.

Food and Drinks in DMIA
Cheapest bottled water costs 30 pesos. Iced tea in bottle costs around 40 pesos and Gatorade costs 55 pesos. Jamaican Patties cost 55 pesos while siomai and siopao from Henlin will take cost you around 70 to 80 pesos.

Free wifi in DMIA
The free wifi in DMIA is just up to the check in counters. Inside the pre-departure area, I wasnt able to get any wifi signal.

Kota Kinabalu terminal 2 - low cost carrier terminal
After a less than 2hours, we landed at BKI's terminal 2. Upon disembarking the plane, you'll be walking  on the tarmac like how you embarked the plane in Clark -- using stairs. It's a low cost airline, what do you expect, right? (Umbrellas are provided in case it rains, at least in Kota Kinabalu. Not sure in Clark.)

Airport was organized and clean. It doesn't look crowded and there were several counters open so it was a breeze going through it. Before going out, all your luggages will go through another bag scanner. Make sure to declare everything that needs to be declared.

After exiting the last X-ray inspection, my pre-arranged trasnfer service was already waiting for us. I just changed some Malaysian ringgit in the airport and bought a Xpac* sim card as recommended by the lady selling the sim card. The Xpac sim card costs 10 RM and I bought 20 RM worth of prepaid load so I can subscribe to the 1-week unlimited Internet (1 week unlimited internet = RM 18). Xpac is under the Celcom network.


Buying a prepaid Sim Card in Malaysia

Before you get the sim card, you need to sign a form to register the sim card to you. Fill up fields like address, passport number, full name, age etc. Otherwise, you're simcard won't get activated. A few minutes after doing that, you'll receive a text saying that the specific simcard is activated and is registered under your name. To activate it, you need to call the number as listed in the screen. After you call, the voice activated machine will tell you that you are now registered.

Loading credits is similar to how you load a smart (network) call card in Manila. Just type the number to call followed by the call card pin and press the call button. Subscribing to the 1-week broadband is even easier! Just go to the sim menu and select for the services that you want.

Tip: *Don't ever buy the Xpac simcard! Wrong recommendation! I wasn't able to use it and my load was eaten up the next morning! I was duped!

Cheftonio

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