When to take a plane from Johor Senai Airport?

The Era of Budget Flying

With the introduction of budget airlines, Singapore is blessed with being the airport hub for the region and the transit point for ASEAN.  Flying is indeed cheaper compared to 20 years ago.  Malaysia and Thailand are also playing a catch up game but AirAsia, HQ in Malaysia Langkai, provides a superior customer experience and won the top Asia budget airline 10 years in a row since 2009.

Some are abandoning Changi Airport and go Johor's Senai Airport due to the high airport charges.  For a small group of 6-7 travellers, they may drive 50km to Senai Airport and fly for a short vocation and bear the jam in customs.  Is it worth it?  Where are the destinations that may cost cheaper?

Limitations of Discussion

We shall spell out the constraints presented before we move on to the data.  We shall look at the 6 months outlook of the cheapest flight tickets in both Singapore's Changi and Johor's Senai airports.  The data presented is a cross section dated today because we know airlines have a complicated system of determining fluctuating airfare prices.  Different airline companies also have different promotions at various periods.  Therefore, the key words are Cheapest, Changi or Senai, 6 month period and Date of Departure.  We cannot guarantee you may get the same pricing tomorrow or in the week/month in future.

Flying ASEAN

South East Asia consists of 11 countries with 650.5 million people in 2017 (Source: Statista).  Many budget airlines are introduced to get a slice of the market shares and this market is booming since 2010.  So how is Changi compared to Senai if we are taking a flight to the captial city of each country?

Capital Cities of Asean

Note 1: Myanmar's and East Timor's capital have no direct flight so they are omitted in this chart.

We noticed that the average prices is cheaper for Singapore ($148) despite the higher airport taxes than Johor ($236).  But Senai has a cost saving $39 from Johor to KL due to intercity flight as compared to International flight.

Popular ASEAN destinations

The next question is whether there is any cost saving for other popular Asean destinations.

Popular Asean Destinations (Exclude Capital Cities)

The above chart revealed that Senai offers the best deal to fly Alor Setar (RED) while Changi is the better option to fly to Da Nang and Phuket (GREEN).  It makes sense as the chart has many Malaysia destinations.  But the cost savings may not be sufficient to attract passengers to brave the custom jams and the 50km to Senai except for longer destination such as Ipoh and Alor Setar.

Asia Destinations

We are adventurous and Asean is not the limit.  Destinations below 7 hrs flight time is achievable by budget airlines.

Asia Destinations

Singapore, being the airline hub, begins to shine as we reach out to other Asia destinations.  There is huge cost savings flying to Port Moresby, Sapporo, Tokyo and New Delhi as highlighted in GREEN.  Surprisingly, we noticed that Senai offers cheaper flight prices to GuangZhou ($58 savings), Macau, Kochi, Moscow and Seoul.  For group/family travelling to these destinations, Senai may be a good alternative to save costs.

Worldwide Destinations

Let's venture into international airlines.

Worldwide Destinations

Except a small margin to Washington DC, Singapore Changi offers the best price to all other destinations.  The average cost widens from $725 to $1352 so Changi is the default choice for distant destinations.  For Wellington NZ, the saving is nearly $3k!!!

Date of Departure

After an overview of the cheapest airtickets in the coming 6 months, we cannot ignore other details.  Take for instance, the Wellington NZ case:

For Senai, it involves both NZ and Malaysia Airlines with 2 stops on both ways.

It departs on 9 Feb 7:15pm (17h20m with transits at KLIA, KUL and Auckland Airport, AKL) and returns on 15 Feb 7:45pm (21h25m with transits at AKL and KLIA).

For Changi, it involves Qantas Airlines with 1 stop on both ways:

It departs on 25 Mar 7:40pm (14h10m with transits in Sydney Airport, SYD) and returns on 1 Apr 6:45am (15h5m with transits in Sydney Airport, SYD).

Not only Changi offers a saving of nearly $3k, it is also has less hours of travel and less transit points.  Those who are staying in Johor may find it cheaper to come to Singapore and travel to Wellington instead.

*Note that the dates of departure are different because we are only considering lowest pricing in the next 6 months over date of departure.

Conclusions

We are lucky that Changi provides cheaper tickets to worldwide destinations.  However, Senai is able to fly cheaper to some cities within Malaysia.  For non-Malaysia cities, Senai may not be a good option considering the time travel and the potential jam at customs.  In the worst scenario, early morning flight may require a stay in the nearby Senai hotels which will erode the savings in airfares.  Well, it is also a horrible idea to carry 20kg of luggage on the return trip.  What say you?

In-Depth: How to select your dream smartphone within your budget?

Guide of selection your dream smartphone

Participate in the guide at the end of this page and find out what you really need.  Read on...

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Are Reviews and Recommendations Good?

There are many reviews on how to select a smartphone in various websites and we wonder yself if there is a need to write this post.  Some are keen on getting the latest iPhone 6 plus because it is the latest hip thing to get.  Some are unwilling to pay extra for a better smartphone and let the customer service representative decide for them for a free phone. Many of them have little knowledge of the smartphones they are buying and willing to try something new.  The customer representative at the counter will likely to introduce some smartphone which they have the most stocks or can give them the most commissions.  Because the customers have no clue of what deals they are getting.  All are zero cost smartphones with different brand names.

These customers do not research.  Even if they research for a smartphone, more often than not, these websites are only promoting the latest phones to attract eyeballs and provide limited models of phones which are sold in the region or country.  With the emergence of XiaoMi as the 3rd largest player in the world market, USA and Europe seldom include XiaoMi or other China phones in their reviews due to standard compatibility and phone availability.

On the other hand, blame not the reviews as customers are blindly following the mainstream.  The recent saga in Sim Lim Square of a Vietnamese factory operator willing to spend 4.5 times his monthly salaries to buy a iPhone 6 for his girlfriend proved that people are willing to pay.  We have seen clueless customers being persuaded to get Nokia phones when they sign up for 2 years contract based on counter recommendation on durability.  When complications arise, the losers are always the customers.  So, we hope this guide can provide an unbiased and fair evaluation of your needs and more importantly, within your budget and means.

Hold your horses, cowboy! We shall not insist that you should buy our ideal smartphone simply because your needs are different from ours.  We simply show you the direction of where you should  go.

Be Honest With Yourself

Let's begin with some basic questions and make sure you pen them down for reference later...

1. Do you really need a smartphone? Why? Write your needs down.
2. What is your budget for a smartphone?
3. Do you have an Operating System (OS) in mind?
4. Do you care about the aesthetic of the smartphone? 
5. Do you have a manufacturer or brand in mind?

These questions primarily dictate what your smartphone should be.  For instance in Question (5), if you have already decided to get iOS, you can only choose from Apple phones.  Instead of getting the latest iPhone, you can based on your budget and consider a second hand phone such as iPhone 4S or iPhone 5S which are significantly cheaper than iPhone 6.  No one can stop you from selling both your kidneys to buy iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 but you may have no kidney to sell for iPhone 8 which may launched in 5 years' time.

Know Your Current Plan

Ask yourself:

1. Are you currently on prepaid or postpaid plan?
2. Do you have a bundle program with your carrier (or telco)?

If you are on a bundle postpaid plan, you are likely to enjoy some discounts for all your products and services.  It is better to stick to your current plan so you can continue to enjoy such discounts unless there is better offer from other carrier.

The X Factors

There are many features in the next generation smartphone.  For each feature, there is a price premium to pay because they are unique selling points to every manufacturers.  How about selecting 5 top features which you badly wanted and compare against those phones in the market.  If they met all the top 5 criteria, your next smartphone is confirmed.  Else, you may have to look at the open market or overseas for your dream phone.

Guide of selection your dream smartphone

Participate in the guide below and know more about what you really need in your next smartphone.  Good luck and have fun!