Malaysia Airlines A330-300 Economy Class Review (Kuala Lumpur-Melbourne)

Malaysia Airlines flies from Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur, with convenient onward connections available to cities across Asia, as well as the Middle East, London and soon Paris. Most of its Australian services are on Airbus A330s.

Although many Australians prefer Qantas for their overseas trips, Malaysia Airlines often has cheaper airfares. It also offers more schedule choices, with both overnight and daytime flights between Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Melbourne.

Like most people, I don’t particularly love flying overnight in Economy. But I really don’t mind flying Economy on daytime flights. So, when searching for flights back to Australia at the end of a recent trip to Southeast Asia, Malaysia Airlines seemed like a great option. It had a one-way ticket available at a reasonable price, on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne departing in the morning.

I would earn fewer Qantas points and status credits than I would if I booked a Qantas flight. But that was a sacrifice I was willing to make!

In this review, I detail my experience flying Malaysia Airlines’ Airbus A330-300 Economy Class from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne.

Flight Details

Flight number	MH129
Route	Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Melbourne (MEL)
Aircraft type	Airbus A330-300
Class of travel	Economy
Seat number	16H
On-time performance	We arrived on time
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

I bought my own ticket and paid MYR1632 (~AU$583) for a one-way Malaysia Airlines Economy Basic ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne.

As it happens, there is also plenty of Classic Reward availability on this route for bookings with Qantas Frequent Flyer points. Rather than buying a ticket, you could redeem 30,200 Qantas Points and MYR235 (~AU$84) for a seat.

Airport Experience

Checking in at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) was super easy.

I was fortunate to be able to use the Business Suites check-in counter thanks to my Oneworld Emerald status, but there wasn’t much of a queue for the regular Economy check-in counters either.

It took less than a minute to clear immigration using the e-gates, before I made my way over to the satellite terminal where my flight to Melbourne would depart from.

Normally, KLIA has a shuttle train service connecting the terminals but this has been out of service for maintenance for an extended period. This train is due to reopen around June 2025. In the meantime, the airport is running a terminal transfer bus at regular intervals.

As I got to enjoy when flying Malaysia Airlines Business Class out of Kuala Lumpur last year, Business Class passengers can enjoy a much more luxurious chauffeur transfer between the terminals.

If you have Oneworld Sapphire or Emerald status, including Qantas Gold or Platinum, you can use the lovely Malaysia Airlines lounges in Kuala Lumpur. I’ve covered these in my previous review of Malaysian Business Class, so you can check out that review if you’re interested. I won’t cover them in this review as lounge access is not a standard inclusion of a Malaysia Airlines Economy ticket.

Security and boarding

In Kuala Lumpur, security checks are done as you enter the boarding gate area. Since this was a flight to Australia, you’re not allowed to take bottles of water through security – and there are no drinking water fountains (or even toilets) in the boarding gate area. I personally think this is a bit of a design flaw with the airport…

Malaysia Airlines uses boarding groups. There was a bit of a scrum around the gate area once boarding began, but the ground staff did a good job of turning away people who weren’t in one of the groups that they’d already called forward.

The Hard Product

Overall, I found the Malaysia Airlines A330-300 Economy Class seat to be very comfortable for a daytime flight.

Malaysia Airlines A330-300 Economy seats

Malaysia Airlines uses a 2-4-2 seating layout on this aircraft, which I really like. The seats are reasonably wide, and there are only two middle seats per row.

This is a fairly standard configuration for Economy Class on the Airbus A330, and is the same as you’d find on Qantas. But Malaysia Airlines’ main competitor AirAsia X has managed to squeeze in one more seat per row on its Airbus A330-300s – and the difference is definitely noticeable!

I was travelling with a friend and we selected a pair of seats by the window. So, we didn’t need to worry about any seat neighbours or middle seats on this completely full flight.

My cloth-covered seat was comfortable and well-padded, with an adjustable headrest. The legroom was also quite good for Economy Class, with 32 inches of seat pitch – an inch more space than on Qantas. I’m around six feet tall, and my knees were not touching the seat in front. I could also stretch my legs out fairly comfortably underneath the seat in front.

Every seat has its own USB charging outlet, and there’s one shared universal power outlet underneath each pair of seats.

It was nice to have enough space to work during the flight, and I’m pleased to say that I wasn’t desperate to get off once we landed in Melbourne!

Note that Malaysia Airlines has more standard legroom on its A330-300 than it does on its A330-200. The A330-200 cabins have a completely different fit out as those planes originally belonged to former Oneworld member Airberlin.

In-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi

There was a slightly outdated in-flight entertainment (IFE) screen on the back of the seat in front, as well as a Going Places magazine in the seat pocket.

My screen was unfortunately quite unresponsive when using the touch screen, but it did come with a remote. The entertainment system came with an OK selection of content including movies, TV shows and music. You could also view the flight map or read the Quran.

To be honest, I didn’t find a huge amount of content on the IFE that interested me. I also thought that the TV shows could have used better descriptions. For example, one of the listings was “The Big Bang Theory S3 E19”, with no further information such as the episode name, a trailer or a brief description of the episode.

However, Malaysia Airlines more than made up for this by offering free, unlimited Wi-Fi to every passenger – even if you aren’t an Enrich member. You just needed to enter an email address to access the internet.

I worked on my laptop for most of the flight and I don’t think the Wi-Fi cut out once. You probably wouldn’t be able to use the Wi-Fi to stream movies, but I had no issues.

The Soft Product

When I boarded the flight, a pillow, blanket and basic headphones were waiting for me at my seat.

Shortly after take-off, the cabin crew handed out Australian arrival cards and the in-flight service began with a choice of apple juice, orange juice or water.

The cabin supervisor also came by at the start of the flight to welcome me and my friend on board as Oneworld Emerald frequent flyers, and to ask if we wanted anything. This was really polished, and didn’t seem scripted or forced at all. While not necessary, it was a nice personal touch!

Malaysia Airlines Economy meals and service

Malaysia Airlines has a “Chef on Call” service that lets you pre-order from a large choice of meals, including in Economy Class, at no extra charge. I took full advantage of this and pre-ordered the satay chicken with fried rice for breakfast.

Although I had pre-ordered my meal and was sitting towards the front of the cabin, I was one of the last passengers to be served breakfast around two hours into the flight. When she got to my seat, the flight attendant was somehow unaware that I’d pre-ordered a meal. But once I mentioned this, she went to the galley and immediately returned with a serve of delicious satay chicken. It was worth the wait!

Passengers who did not pre-order a meal were offered a choice of nasi lemak with chicken (a classic Malaysian dish with coconut rice), or baked egg with sausage.

The hot meal came with fresh fruit, yoghurt, a croissant, cheese spread and crackers. It also came with a bottle of water and a choice of juice or soft drinks.

Malaysia Airlines does also have alcoholic drinks available on request, but these were not proactively offered.

While the cutlery was plastic, it came with a toothpick – a small but thoughtful extra touch.

After they finished serving the meals, the crew came through the aisle again to offer drink top-ups.

Overall, this was an excellent Economy Class breakfast! The satay chicken was very tasty, and the accompaniments were satisfying.

The cabin crew did not serve any hot drinks with breakfast because the seatbelt sign was kept on for the first four hours of the flight. As an aside, the pilots left the seatbelt sign on for so long – despite the flying conditions being mostly smooth – that most passengers just ignored it completely. Even the cabin crew were up and about, serving breakfast, for much of that time.

Once the seatbelt sign finally went off, the crew came through the cabin offering tea and coffee.

Two hours and 15 minutes before landing in Melbourne, a pre-arrival snack was served with more drinks. This was a choice of a hot chicken or potato puff, along with ice cream bites.

Throughout the whole flight, the cabin crew were very friendly, hard-working and great ambassadors for Malaysian hospitality.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.