'Jebakan Betmen' Maskapai Murah/ Budget Airlines 'traps'

"Terbang Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur mulai Rp 99.000”. Pernah lihat iklan promo maskapai penerbangan yang murahnya ‘se-seksi’ ini? Benarkah tiket budget airlines/maskapai murah memang benar-benar miring harganya?

Tulisan ini berisi cerita saat suami dan saya menggunakan maskapai murah untuk terbang dari Indonesia ke Newcastle, Inggris beberapa tahun yang silam.

Salah satu syarat mengurus visa adalah adanya itinerary tiket yang hanya bisa dikeluarkan oleh maskapai penerbangan besar dengan hanya mem-bookingnya saja. Saat itu kami booking tiket di maskapai Emirates dengan harga tiket 19 juta untuk 2 orang, berangkat dari Jakarta. Melihat harga tiket yang relatif mahal, kami mencari alternatif lain yaitu mencoba menggunakan maskapai murah Air Asia. Rutenya memang ruwet: Banda Aceh-Kuala Lumpur-London. Di Kuala Lumpur, kami harus menginap 1 malam. Lalu sesampainya di London, kami harus beli tiket maskapai lokal. Karena tidak punya kartu kredit, kami tidak bisa membeli tiket rute London-Newcastle secara online. Jadi gambling saja, berharap semoga masih ada kursi kosong karena kami harus sampai Newcastle sore hari, ada jemputan gratis dari kampus suami.

Saat membeli tiket Air Asia, ternyata harga dasar tiket itu memang harus ditambah berbagai biaya seperti biaya admin dan asuransi. Lalu ada pertanyaan apakah perlu makan dan selimut. Saya tadinya berpikir karena rute penerbangannya jauh akan mendapatkan fasilitas makan dan dipinjami selimut, tapi ternyata harus bayar. Akhirnya kami membeli tiket Banda Aceh-Kuala Lumpur seharga sekitar 2 juta. Sedangkan Kuala Lumpur-London sekitar 10 juta, termasuk makan serta selimut. Oh ya, kami juga membayar ekstra bagasi karena barang bawaan yang banyak.

Perjalanan dari Banda Aceh ke Kuala Lumpur tidak ada masalah yang berarti karena rutenya pendek. Saat terbang menuju London, beberapa keluhan mulai timbul. Pertama, saat check in tidak ada lagi tempat duduk supaya kami bisa bersebelahan. Alhasil kami duduk terpisah sangat jauh. Kami tidak tahu kalau seharusnya kami memilih kursi di mana akan duduk (pick a seat), tapi harus dengan membayar tentunya, supaya bisa bersebelahan. Keluhan kedua adalah tempat duduk saya yang berada di tengah, membuat saya repot dan tidak nyaman dengan penumpang di kiri kanan saya karena saya harus sering ke toilet untuk buang air kecil karena saat itu saya sedang hamil. Lalu tempat duduk yang kecil dan space untuk kaki yang sempit terasa sangat tidak nyaman untuk penerbangan yang memakan waktu kurang lebih 13 jam.

Lalu saat saya menunjukkan boarding pass untuk meminta makanan, pramugara berkata kalau tiket saya tidak termasuk makan. Wah, ajaib sekali padahal saat check in petugasnya mengkonfirmasi kalau tiket saya termasuk makan dan selimut. Ternyata lain di darat, lain di udara. Akhirnya saya mengalah dan mengeluarkan uang untuk membeli makanan beberapa kali selama perjalanan. Selimutpun harus bayar lagi. Hal lainnya adalah maskapai murah ini tidak menyediakan layanan hiburan gratis. Jika ingin menonton atau mendengarkan musik harus menghubungi pramugari dan tentu saja akan dikenakan biaya (lagi). Begitulah, perjalanan di udara saat itu terasa sangat lama, membosankan dan sangat melelahkan. Badan rasanya kaku tidak bisa bergerak karena sempitnya tempat duduk. Satu-satunya kesempatan saya melakukan stretching adalah saat saya berjalan ke kamar kecil.

Setelah belasan jam berada di udara, pesawatpun sampai di London. Perlu diketahui bahwa pesawat murah umumnya tidak mendarat di bandara utama. Untuk tujuan London, pesawat Air Asia tidak mendarat di Heathrow, tapi di bandara Stansted. Hal ini dikarenakan mendarat di bandara utama memerlukan biaya landing fee yang mahal.

Jam menunjukkan angka 11 tengah malam saat pesawat menyentuh landasan pacu bandara. Tadinya kami khawatir bandaranya sangat sepi dan kami tidak memiliki teman untuk menunggu pagi hari tiba. Ternyata suasananya tidak terlalu sepi, cukup banyak yang tidur-tiduran menunggu penerbangan berikutnya di pagi hari, termasuk kami.

Kami memilih meneruskan perjalanan ke Newcastle memakai maskapai murah EasyJet. Maskapai ini cukup terkenal di Eropa. Konter maskapai murah EasyJet buka jam 4 pagi dan kami beruntung masih ada kursi kosong. Harga tiket beserta biaya ekstra bagasi kurang lebih 3 juta. Saat memasuki pesawat, kami terkejut mendapati pesawat yang terisi tak sampai setengahnya, membuat kami diperbolehkan duduk di mana saja sesuka hati. Setelah terbang selama kurang dari 1,5 jam akhirnya sampailah kami di kota Newcastle dengan selamat meskipun badan rasanya remuk.

Baiklah, mari kita berhitung. Harga tiket Air Asia sekitar 15 juta, belum termasuk biaya lain lain yang harus kami keluarkan seperti membeli makanan dan minuman saat di pesawat dan biaya lain saat di Kuala Lumpur, seperti biaya hotel, naik bus saat keliling kota , naik monorail, airport tax, makan, dsb. Jika ditotal semuanya sekitar 16,5 juta. Memang secara nominal lebih murah. Tapi kami harus membayar selisihnya dengan ketidaknyamanan dan rute yang ribet.

Berkaca dari pengalaman itulah makanya waktu pulang ke Indonesia (sendirian), saya memilih terbang dengan Emirates Airlines. Sangat puas karena disediakan makanan yang enak, berbagai macam minuman yang bisa kita minta berkali-kali, dan pelayanan yang ramah. Rutenyapun tidak ruwet, dari Newcastle ke Jakarta, transit di Dubai. Saya bisa memilih kursi secara online dan beruntung, saya mendapat kursi paling depan yang space untuk kaki sangat lapang, nyaman sekali untuk saya yang hamil 8 bulan saat itu. Dan yang paling penting adalah saat sampai di Jakarta, saya masih merasa sehat dan segar, siap untuk melanjutkan perjalanan ke Solo menggunakan kereta api.

Jadi kesimpulannya adalah, harga tiket maskapai murah memang murah kalau kita bepergian dengan tidak membawa apa-apa/travel light sebab bagasi yang melebihi 7kg (kalau tidak salah) akan dikenakan biaya tambahan. Syarat lainnya adalah jika kita tidak memerlukan apa-apa, maksudnya tidak ingin membeli makanan, pinjam selimut, menikmati hiburan, mau duduk di mana saja, dsb. Dan satu lagi, jika rute perjalanan yang jauh, tidak usah mendambakan yang namanya kenyamanan. Jadi saat membeli tiket, kita harus benar-benar teliti agar tidak seperti membeli kucing dalam karung.

Oh ya, ada yang menarik saat transit di Dubai. Di bandara ini saya melihat banyak sekali TKI yang juga sedang transit dari penerbangan kota-kota di Timur Tengah. Mereka hendak meneruskan perjalanan ke Jakarta. Pesawat yang saya tumpangi dari Dubai juga didominasi oleh penumpang TKI/TKW. Nah, seorang TKW yang duduk di sebelah saya mengajak saya ngobrol dengan mengajukan pertanyaan pertama
'Sudah berapa lama kerja jadi TKW di Timur Tengah?' Dan sayapun tertawa kecut dalam hati .

Terima kasih sudah membaca tulisan saya. Saya sangat menghargai upvote sahabat semua.

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"Fly Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur from IDR 99.000". Have you ever seen such cheap airline ticket advertisement? Is it true that the price budget airlines offer is that cheap?

In this post, I will write about the experience my husband and I had when using cheap airlines to fly from Indonesia to Newcastle, England a few years ago.

Applying for a visa required a ticket itinerary which was only be issued by major airlines by simply booking it. At that time, we booked a ticket at the Emirates airline worth 19 million rupiahs for 2 people, departing from Jakarta. Seeing the expensive price, we were looking for another alternative, trying to use AirAsia. The route was somewhat complicated: Banda Aceh-Kuala Lumpur-London. In Kuala Lumpur, we had to stay 1 night. Then when we got to London, we had to buy local airline tickets. Since we did not have a credit card, we could not buy London-Newcastle tickets online. So we just prayed that there were still empty seats because we had to get to Newcastle in the afternoon. There was a free pickup from my husband's campus.

Air Asia’s basic fare had to be added other fees such as admin fees and insurance. Then there was a question of whether we need meals and blanket. I thought that long route flights provide such facilities, but I was wrong. We had to pay extra. Finally we bought Banda Aceh-Kuala Lumpur ticket for about 2 million rupiahs. While Kuala Lumpur-London was about 10 million rupiahs, including meals and blankets. Also, we had to pay excess luggage.

There was no problem with the flight from Banda Aceh to Kuala Lumpur because the route was short. But when flying to London, I had several issues. First, when checking in there was no more seating so we could sit next to each other. As a result, we sat very far apart. We did not know that we should have picked a seat to be able to sit next to each other (but this ‘pick a seat’ facility was not free). My second issue was I was sitting in the middle which I found it hard to get out of the row to go to the toilet (I was pregnant at that time). Then the small seating and narrow space made me uncomfortable for such long flight which took approximately 13 hours.

When I showed the boarding pass to ask for food, the steward said that my ticket did not include meals. Wow, it was very strange because the check in officer confirmed that my ticket included meals and blankets. In the end, I had to buy meals and drinks. Another thing was that low-cost airlines do not provide free entertainment services. If you want to watch or listen to music, you must contact the flight attendant and of course you will be charged (again). So, my journey at that time was long, boring and very tiring. I felt very stiff all over my body. My only chance to do stretching was when I walked into the restroom.

After hours in the air, the plane arrived in London. Keep in mind that normally, cheap aircrafts do not land at major airports. In London, Air Asia did not land at Heathrow, but at Stansted airport. This is because the landing fee at the main airport is costly.

It was 11 midnight when the plane touched the airport runway. At first we were worried that the airport would be very quiet and we had no friends to wait for the next morning. Apparently it was not that quiet. I saw many people were sleeping while waiting for the next flight in the morning.

We chose to travel to Newcastle on EasyJet's cheap airline. This airline is quite famous in Europe. EasyJet's airline counter opened at 4 am and we're lucky there were still empty seats. Ticket plus extra baggage fees cost approximately 3 million rupiahs. Upon entering the plane, we were surprised to find a half-filled plane, allowing us to sit wherever we liked. After flying for less than 1.5 hours we finally arrived in Newcastle safely even though I felt completely exhausted.

All right, let's do a calculation. Air Asia ticket price was around 15 million rupiahs, not including other costs we had to pay such as buying food and drinks while on board and other costs while in Kuala Lumpur, such as hotel fee, bus ride while traveling around town, monorail ride, airport tax, meals, etc. The total was about 16.5 million rupiahs. This amount is indeed cheaper than that of major airlines. But we had to pay the difference with the inconvenience and complicated route.

Learning from this experience, I came back to Indonesia (alone) using Emirates Airlines. I was very satisfied because it provided good food, a variety of drinks that I could ask many times, and friendly service. The route was convenient too, flying from Newcastle to Jakarta, with one stop in Dubai. I was able to choose my seat online and luckily, I got the front seat with very spacious room for my legs. It was very comfortable for me who was 8 months pregnant at the time. And the most important thing was I still felt fresh and healthy when arriving in Jakarta, ready to continue my trip to Solo by train.

So the conclusion is, budget airline ticket is indeed cheap if we travel travel light because baggage exceeding 7kg (if not mistaken) will be charged extra. Another requirement is if we do not need anything, meaning do not want to buy food, borrow blankets, enjoy entertainment, willing to sit anywhere, and so on. The last thing is, if the route is long, do not expect comfort. So when buying tickets, we have to be really careful, paying attention to details.

There was something interesting when I stopped in Dubai. At this airport, I saw a lot of Indonesian migrant workers who would continue their journey to Jakarta. The plane that I was on to from Dubai was also dominated by Indonesian migrant workers. A migrant worker sitting next to me started a conversation with me by asking 'How long have you been working as a migrant worker in Middle East?'. In my heart, I laughed wryly.

Thank you very much for reading my post. I do appreciate your upvotes.