I recently flew via Firefly for a business/leisure trip. I had to carry several items over for my clients in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately due to my own carelessness I left one package at the Boarding Gate A1 in Penang Airport. I only realized it while in the plane to Subang. Immediately once I arrived, I went straight to the customer office where Lonnie served me. I would like to praise her and her team mates (Azuar and Laila) in Penang for their efficiency on finding the package and sending it to me on the next flight which I retrieve it in good condition from Sri at the Subang Firefly. Lonnie was so reassuring to me throughout the whole process as we were in communication via whatsapp.

I had a terrible and worst experience with Firefly Airline today which is I had purchased the air ticket from KUL-BKI for three person and then after I make the payment I go and check my booking history under Firefly account, I found that the reservation status is shown ''UNCONFIRMED''.
And I saw there is a remark showing there to wait 30 minutes for the ticket confirmation and itinerary will be receive in email, but I've received nothing after 30 minutes.
So that I called to office for checking and your team saying that my final status of my booking is UNCONFIRMED due to the code share flight unable to confirmed by MALAYSIA AIRLINES so that this booking is not valid, and will make the refund to me within 30 to 60 working days.
I was truly mad when I heard this, if the flight is unavailable and unable to confirm then how come you still open your flights at website for us to book like a trap??? Then you locked our money for 2 months only can do the refund??? Is really ridiculous!!!
I'm really disappointed on Firefly Airline with my first terrible purchase experience. Because I pay the money to your airlines and then you said the booking is unable to confirmed this really makes me felt like I'm get cheated.

Bad: filling the plane to capacity with absolutely no distancing between passengers – yes I know the government allows you to do this – but it’s not great in such a small cabin

Worse: Not sterilising or disinfecting the aircraft in any way between flights. This should be a mandatory thing you would have hoped.

Deplorable: Not enforcing passengers to wear face masks at any point during boarding, inflight and disembarking. Within two rows to the front and side of me there were 3 passengers either not wearing masks at all for the duration or doing that dumb thing of wearing them under their chin.

When I asked one of the cabin crew about this, I just got a nervous smile and shrug of the shoulders – that’s it.

Most people would usually take SIN/KUL (the usual route) but Firefly Airlines’ XSP/SZB route has a bunch of advantages:
- close proximity of Subang Airport to KL (there’s even commuter railway now)
- smooth immigration clearance at both airports (fuss-free border control and short walking distance at both SZB & XSP - you can already see the planes at immigration clearance area)
- at XSP you can probably come 30 mins prior to departure and still catch your flight but for SZB you might need more time if you are doing bag drop otherwise 30 mins is possible too
- planes depart shortly after boarding and take off as soon as they reach the runway (provided weather is clear for take off) - my last plane boarding was at 4.30pm and the plane started moving at 4.44pm (scheduled departure was 4.45pm) but due to poor weather the plane was stuck on the runway for a while
- if you are a Singapore resident who stays in Northeast (Hougang-Sengkang-Punggol) or North (Yishun), Seletar Airport is not too far away (less travel time home)

Nevertheless, there are also factors that might not make sense:
- you don’t like turboprop planes (too noisy)
- you actually stay near KLIA or south of it
- you don’t stay near Seletar Airport (though I think the time savings from smoother travel procedures are being offset with the travel time to other parts of Singapore)
- might be quite expensive at times; you might need to book early to have a reasonable fare (some prefer to go to KL in short notice)

Photo: My last flight boarding at Subang Airport in March - was raining super heavily but the staff gave us umbrellas to allow us to walk to the plane.

A number of observations about my experience

Originally booked via Expedia. For some reason I was unable to log onto Firefly website to make amendments from UK, Singapore or Malaysia until 2 days before departure. Expedia couldn’t help. All phone numbers listed were called with no answer. While in Georgetown we went to call in to the Firefly agency office as we were passing. This office has closed. Called the airport office within the hours, no joy. Eventually this was sorted and the website was relatively easy to navigate although the booking of additional baggage was a little confusing. Compared with other airline websites, not the best.

Checked in online. When at the airport we looked for bag drop - nothing. Asked around. Plenty of Malaysian and Air Asia staff but they knew nothing of Firefly procedure. Check in desks 23-25. Two flights checking in, only one desk open, one, poor suffering staff member trying to cope. Late passengers for the earlier flight jumping to the front of single queue.

The fact I had checked in online did not seem to make any difference. A return to old school with issuing of boarding cards and allocated seats and this poor lady working like a Trojan checking bag weights and tagging.

At the boarding gate there were too many people for the space. There seemed to be little organisation. The aircraft boards from the rear. It would be sensible to board the front seats first and work back but this didn’t happen, consequently passengers waiting to pass down the cabin. Arrived at our seats to find them occupied. Those persons had been moved because their seats had been occupied. What muppetry here. In the event of the unthinkable how do they work out who sat where? We were quickly allocated a seat further to the front so no issues but it did leave me wondering about the seat allocation etc.

The aircraft itself 11yrs old (I googled it). Has it ever been cleaned? Dirty tired interior with windows you could barely see out of. I guess these are highly utilised aircrafts but I have similar experience of same aircraft type in Europe and they are looked after much better.

In flight complimentary drink is a cup of apple juice which I guess was fine for a 35 minute island hop.

Overall experience average. I would not hurriedly recommend this airline. Feeling of being run on the cheap in a highly competitive market. Expected more.