Hi,

I will be transiting thru KL in early September and will have a wait of almost 12 hours for my connecting flight.

This will be my first time in KL airport. I am an Indian citizen, not sure if I will be able to leave the airport. Any suggestions for how I can spend my time at the airport?

I am not very keen on checking into the Transit hotel and staying cooped up for the day. Is it worthwhile to shell out (I think) 80 Ringitt to get entry to the Malaysian Airline/Singapore Airlines business class lounge? Is the lounge in KL similar to the KrisFlyer lounge in Changi?

Is KL airport anything like Changi? I have gone thru Changi many times and spending a few hours there (free city tour, shopping, eating, internet browsing, showering etc) is quite easy.

Thanks!

If you are not tired and you are allowed out, then I suggest you take the express train into the city and see some sights. There are some impressive buildings like the Petronas Twin Towers. It'll cost about MYR$70 to get to the central station and then a bit more to get to the CBD.
KLIA is pleasant enough but 12 hours is a long stretch if you don't wish to catch up on your sleep.

Wow, that’s an awful layover. Good news is as follows:

The Malaysian Airlines lounge is actually quite nice, IMO. It is larger and brighter and more spread out than the SQ lounge in Singapore Changi, IMO. Not a bad place to spend some time if you have too. A goodly number of internet terminals (right near the front door, behind the entry desk). Not sure if they have showers, you should check on this, if they do, that alone IMO would be worth the 80 Ringitt.

I have never seen nearly as crowded as Changi can get, it always seems sort of spookily empty, which is kind of nice, esp for the MAS lounge which never seems jammed like the Changi lounges can be.

Right near the lounge there is a Starbucks, and downstairs is a decent bookstore. There are many other fast-food type outlets in the airport and a good bit of shopping if that is your thing. Not as extensive as Singapore, but the airport isn’t as big, so you won’t be walking as far either from gate to lounge, etc. Not sure that they have the free wireless areas like Changi does, my guess is that there are some.

The only reason the transit airport may be worthwhile is to get some actual sleep in a bed and if they have a pool area. Don’t know how it compares price wise to any of the lounges either. But to get some sleep it may be worth something.

Don’t know about the Immigration and whether you would need a visa to enter Malaysia for the few hours.

You can't pay to use the MAS nor SIA lounge. You can use the lounge if you're flying biz or FC or are at a certain tier of FF membership. MAS allows you to redeem points for Lounge access. The lounges which you may be thinking of are not the airline lounges but the commercial lounges like Premier or Plaza.

Cilla_Tey: you are correct, I was referring to the "Plaza Premium Lounge" (http://www.plaza-ppl.com/kl_en/index.php). I had the impression that passengers of SQ and MA used the same lounge. The lounge which I used in Changi was the SQ lounge, I flew business class those times. I will be flying economy when passing thru KLIA.

Does anyone else have first hand experience of the Plaza Premium lounge in KLIA ?