Experience on Malaysian Airline for KUL -MEL Route

[wsthong]

Hi,

I have been travelling with MH from MEL - KUL - MEL for sometime.
It has proven to me that MH did not pay much attention to the level of services for this route. The service level provided by the stewardess and steward on this route are unbelievable.3
Angry Raymond

 

[Travel Guru]

Hi Raymond,

Perhaps you could provide some specific examples, which would prove more useful than having a general rant and rave?

TG

 

[opusman]

Last time I flew this route about the worst thing that happened was they didn't have any satays in J

 

[Evan]

Hi,

I have been travelling with MH from MEL - KUL - MEL for sometime.
It has proven to me that MH did not pay much attention to the level of services for this route. The service level provided by the stewardess and steward on this route are unbelievable.3
Angry Raymond

You know it is a free world, vote with your wallet and take a different airline ! Then again they are generally very cheap but as you say the service is not great, but cheap, and i would still generally find the service better than the LCC's and other airlines, its not that bad is it ?

I mostly avoid Malaysian for a different reason to you, due to there lack of on-time performance ! (and no decent FF options)

Has anybody ever been on a MH flight that has been on time ?? (So far in the last few years i am am about 0 for 10 in regards to ontime performance, even been forced to overnight in BNE do to missing all QF connections back to SYD or MEL)

But just keep remembering... cheap cheap well generally cheaper than other options.

E

 

[NM]

Has anybody ever been on a MH flight that has been on time ??

I have only ever used MH for the SIN-KUL-SIN shuttle. I don't recall any of my shuttles being particularly late. But the shuttle probably isn't the best way to measure OTP across the board.

 

[Keith009]

I avoid MH but for a different reason - being the mileage tart that I am it's not too hard to work that out. I've flown Malaysian on this route a few times in J and Y though and found the service and catering just fine. Rather comparable to SQ, except with slightly less polished FAs but still providing the same earnest service. Them being in oneworld is one of the things I include in my annual letters to Santa... though I know the chances of that happening are next to nil.

In saying all that however I am aware that the airline has hit a patch of financial turbulence of late and that has led to a series of cut backs, so my positive experiences with them might not be the most up to date.

Like what Travel Guru said, it'd be most helpful to the rest of us if you could supply more details.

 

[oz_mark]

I have flown MH on PER-KUL vv and have always found their service to be fine (aside from the odd plastic cups they serve drinks in!). While the FA's may not be as polished as their SQ cousins, they seem to be more friendly and less robotic. In my experience their OTP has been fine as well (whihc is good given some of my connections in KUL have been fairly tight)

 

[djfuzz]

Can't say I agree. This time last year I flew J to KUL, service was excellent as were the seats on the 777. On the way back they upgraded me to F on the 744, and despite the older F seats, I can hardly find any reason to complain.

Haven't flown Y with them in a while, but I found their J service is more than adequate.

 

[agfox46]

Has anybody ever been on a MH flight that has been on time ?? (So far in the last few years i am am about 0 for 10 in regards to ontime performance, even been forced to overnight in BNE do to missing all QF connections back to SYD or MEL)
E

We must have been fortunate: in the past 2 years we've travelled MEL-KUL-ICN return with Malaysian on 2 occasions, with a 100% on-time record. Now you have me worried about our next flight with them, Evan!

 

[stryker]

Well, my wife discovered there is another reason to maybe avoid MH.

Last January she had to book a last-minute business trip to CGK (in Y) and the only (sensible) availability was on MH via KUL. Outwards, everything was fine, including schedule-keeping.

However, she can only describe the return from KUL to SYD as a "nightmare". As you all know, the haj was finishing in January last year and all the Australian ultra-devout moslems such as Sheikh Hilali were on the flight, 10-deep everywhere. Made for a very unpleasant flight, according to my wife (and she's certainly not racist, working for a university supervising Indonesian students).

So there's another factor to consider when booking MAS...

 

[vt01]

I flew MH last October on SYD-KUL and return in Y. I had a window on both flights and the centre seat was empty. The service was also fine on both flights. Nothing spectacular, but still about what I would expect from Y.

 

[ethernet]

I know of someone who was bumped down to cattle class because of a dishonoured D class booking - but was told 7 others had the same foulup - reason unkown - as yet.

Their level of discounting is about right, but Thai is too successful in poaching almost KL tourists with seemingly better packages. Service is OK, and you can avoid the checkin lines by checking in Sentral and taking the express train.

 

[Travel Guru]

Well, my wife discovered there is another reason to maybe avoid MH.

Last January she had to book a last-minute business trip to CGK (in Y) and the only (sensible) availability was on MH via KUL. Outwards, everything was fine, including schedule-keeping.

However, she can only describe the return from KUL to SYD as a "nightmare". As you all know, the haj was finishing in January last year and all the Australian ultra-devout moslems such as Sheikh Hilali were on the flight, 10-deep everywhere. Made for a very unpleasant flight, according to my wife (and she's certainly not racist, working for a university supervising Indonesian students).

So there's another factor to consider when booking MAS...

Sorry, if that's not racist what is it meant to be???

TG

 

[Keith009]

Sorry, if that's not racist what is it meant to be???

I agree - seems like the description of the flight being a 'nightmare' had nothing to do with actual service issues at all...

I hope this semi-devout Catholic won't cause an unpleasant flight for anyone next time I travel for World Youth Day, advanced notice will be provided to those concerned... Oh wait...

 

[NYCguy]

... All the Australian ultra-devout moslems such as Sheikh Hilali were on the flight, 10-deep everywhere. Made for a very unpleasant flight, according to my wife.

Yes, I suppose the smell of the racy spices in the halaal dinners were a little much for the poor thing.

You don't live at Cronulla or Camden, do you???

I think the post is rather off. It's in the same vein as "Some of my best friends are Muslim/Aboriginal/gay/etc, BUT..."

 

[Evan]

I know of someone who was bumped down to cattle class because of a dishonoured D class booking - but was told 7 others had the same foulup - reason unkown - as yet.

I also know somebody who was put on a MH flight since Gulf Air stopped flying the route and were booked in J but bumped down to Y on a SIN-KUL flight.

Now i have no idea how this happened, i could not say it was an MH issue or related to the re-booking by Gulf but i did think it intersting since you mentioned it.

E

 

[Yada Yada]

I also know somebody who was put on a MH flight since Gulf Air stopped flying the route and were booked in J but bumped down to Y on a SIN-KUL flight.

Now i have no idea how this happened, i could not say it was an MH issue or related to the re-booking by Gulf but i did think it intersting since you mentioned it.

SQ only provides F and Y on their SIN-KUL shuttle and I believe that the same applies to MH flights, as this sector has been highly regulated (although that's about to stop). So that might explain why.

I flew Y once on this sector (on SQ) and have flown in F ever since because the seat pitch in Y was the smallest I've ever seen. And for the extra bucks I got to visit the SQ F lounge in SIN which beats just about any lounge.

 

[davi]

I just came back from visiting my parter who's posted in Hanoi for 12 months and travelled on an MH ADL-KL-HANOI.
I really wasn't keen to fly with MH, but at this time of year, flight availability for QF codeshare on Vietnam Airlines and Singapore out of any Australian city was impossible.
I found the service ADL-KL very reasonable as it was a daytime flight. Cabin crew were excellent but the KL to Hanoi leg was pretty awful to say the least. A basic, old 737 is used for the 3 hr 40 min flight (I consider that quite a distance). No entertainment is provided whatsoever (audio or visual). The cabin crew were also hard to attract.

The night flight coming back (KL-ADL) was also very average.We boarded approx 10 pm and no amenties packs are provided. The crew turned the lights out for 2 out of the 7 hours and provided little service for the duration. Everyone's seat requests seemed to be out of wack, meaning that families with children and couples were split up, causing caos in seat swapping and overhead luggage maintenance. Just before take off the crew still had many articles of luggage that they were unable to fit in any overhead area.

Judging from complaints from my MH frequent flyer neighbour on the flight, the issue of paying for business class upgrades and turning up to the flight with an inconsistent excuse for their unavailability may perhaps be a common occurance on MH flights. He was looking forward to an upgrade from LDN to KL only to be told at check in that it wasn't showing up and that all business seats had been accounted for. And to rub more salt in the wounds, he was shafted to one of the worst economy seats on the flight, no apology or option to upgrade on the connecting one to Adelaide!

FIngers crossed that next time Qantas or SIngapore will have flights a plenty!

 

[soorox]

I've flown MH from MEL to KL, from MEL to KL everything was fine, the flight was on time and happy flight attendants but they should improve on their food just like Thai's! (TG) Flight back home wasn't as pleasant as I had to go on the plane, on the runway ready for take off then "Lady & Gentleman we are facing Mecchanical problems" waited for about 20 minutes the we all had to go off the plane and catch another one which we had to wait for 2 hours then finally! We took off for Melbourne! Great service! But it didn't end there! when landed at MEL no gates for our plane to come in so we waited for about 20 minutes! overall great trip! one of the best in Asia!

 

[Evan]

I also know somebody who was put on a MH flight since Gulf Air stopped flying the route and were booked in J but bumped down to Y on a SIN-KUL flight.

Now i have no idea how this happened, i could not say it was an MH issue or related to the re-booking by Gulf but i did think it intersting since you mentioned it.

E

So if you were either Gulf or Malaysian and you involentary had to change somebodys flights so they transit SIN-KUL instead of just SIN would you not atleast arrange an F seat or some compensation ??
I assume this was a Gulf issue even if they booked J and did not realise it was F and Y only on the flight (i was not aware of such since i have always flown JL in J or on SQ Y)

E