By the time I started looking for reward flights from Southeast Asia back to Australia during the recent school holidays, most flights were already heavily booked. July is a busy month, and I’d left it a tad too late to start looking for options using my Qantas points.

Miraculously, I did manage to find two seats on Malaysia Airlines – a Oneworld alliance partner – into Sydney. Even more miraculously, they were in Business Class. Woohoo!

Finding premium cabin Classic Reward seats to or from Asia can be tough. But Malaysia Airlines often has availability if you book far enough ahead or are flexible with your travel dates. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find flights between Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney and Kuala Lumpur with up to two Business reward seats.

Malaysia Airlines flies twice daily from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney using Airbus A330-300s, offering the choice of a daytime and an overnight service in both directions. I personally prefer daytime flights from Asia, so I was especially stoked to pick up reward seats on MH141 departing just after 9am.

I’ve previously reviewed Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 737 Business Class within Asia. But what’s their long-haul Business Class like – and is it a good use of Qantas points?

Flight Details

Flight number	MH141
Route	Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Sydney (SYD)
Aircraft type	Airbus A330-300
Class of travel	Business
Seat number	5H
On-time performance	We arrived on time
Star rating

The route

Flight Cost

It cost me 75,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points and SGD187 (~AU$213) for a one-way Malaysia Airlines Business Class ticket from Singapore to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur.

I was starting this trip in Singapore, but it hadn’t cost any extra points to add a connecting Singapore-Kuala Lumpur flight onto the ticket – just around AU$80 more in taxes & charges. (I flew from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in the evening, then stayed overnight in KL before continuing to Sydney the next morning.)

Malaysia Airlines typically charges around AU$1,978 for a one-way Business Class ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, or around AU$3,055 round-trip.

Airport Experience

Malaysia Airlines offers a dedicated Business Class check-in area at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). This had more staff than passengers when I passed through at around 6am.

However, as I’d checked in and received my boarding pass the previous day in Singapore, I headed straight to the immigration checkpoint. I was able to use one of the e-gates and was through in under a minute – how very efficient!

At Terminal 1 of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, most long-haul flights depart from a satellite terminal. There’s normally a train that speedily connects passengers between terminals, but this has been out of service for maintenance for more than a year.

A shuttle bus service is running in its place, but Malaysia Airlines has arranged something better for its Business Class passengers! I followed the Business Class signs…

…to find a BMW i7 waiting to take me to the satellite terminal!

Lounge access

The private transfer took just a few minutes, and I was soon in the Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge.

The main part of this lounge is for Business Class and Oneworld Sapphire passengers. There’s also a separate section for Business Suites customers and Oneworld Emerald frequent flyers, which I could access with my Qantas Platinum status. However, as this is a Business Class review, I’ll just focus on the very nice Business Class section of the lounge.

This is a large lounge with plentiful food and drink options including a noodle station, nasi lemak, Indian curries and a salad bar.

A wide selection of non-alcoholic beverages is available, but alcohol appeared to only be served at the sports bar. This bar is open from 10am until midnight, so there was no alcohol available when I visited – not that I wanted any so early in the morning.

The Golden Lounge has lots of comfortable seating – including two massage chairs – and even a dedicated sleeping area.

It also had clean toilets and showers – just not enough of them! At one stage, the queue for the limited number of toilet cubicles (which doubled up as showers) was so long that I actually left the lounge to use a bathroom in the main terminal. That seems like a slight oversight.

Boarding

Like in Singapore, security screening in Kuala Lumpur is done directly at the boarding gate. There was quite a long line to clear security and enter the gate area. Although there was no priority lane for Business Class, there was one for passengers with special needs and crew.

Malaysia Airlines uses boarding groups, with Business Class invited first. Unfortunately, the gate area was quite crowded – our flight to Sydney was completely full – and getting through the crowd to reach the airbridge proved a bit of a challenge. Happily, though, the airline staff were enforcing the boarding groups.

The Hard Product

If you’re familiar with Qantas’ A330 Business Class product, imagine what it would be like if Qantas tried to squeeze an extra half a seat per row. Because that’s exactly what this is!

On its Airbus A330-300, Malaysia Airlines has an interesting layout with a 1-2-1 configuration in every second row, and 1-2-2 in every other row. They’re the same seats you would previously find on Finnair before the Finnish airline replaced them with its new AirLounge seats.

In total, Malaysia Airlines has six rows of Business seating on this aircraft. This results in a slightly smaller cabin than what most other full-service airlines have installed on their A330-300s, although there are still 27 seats.

With the smaller cabin, Malaysia Airlines has only installed one toilet for Business Class at the front of the plane.

Coming from the same manufacturer, these seats have the same basic design as Qantas Business Class. But there are some key differences. One is that the seats feel a tad narrower. Another is that not all seats have dedicated storage space to the side – though some do.

If you’re sitting in an “A” seat on the left hand side, you get a window seat with direct aisle access, storage to the side of your seat and a bit more privacy. In the centre section, one seat out of each pair comes with storage space and a bit more privacy. The other doesn’t.

It’s a bit of a weird setup, with some significant differences between different seats – so choose carefully! Nonetheless, this does create two additional seat types that Qantas doesn’t offer.

On the right hand side of the plane, there are three prized “throne” seats as well as three pairs of seats that could be ideal for couples. The downside is that the window seats within those seat pairs don’t have direct aisle access. And neither seat within those pairs has much storage space, other than a pocket below the TV screen.

As I was travelling with someone, I chose seat 5H – an aisle seat in one of the pairs:

I found the seat itself very comfortable, particularly when reclined to become a fully lie-flat bed. I was quite tired and enjoyed a solid sleep during the middle of the flight. (Although this was a day flight, the cabin crew directed all passengers to close their window shades after the first meal service to create a dark cabin environment.)

The seat had an adjustable headrest, plenty of padding and even a massage function. It also had a USB port and a power outlet for charging electronic devices. There was a large TV screen above the footwell.

The in-flight entertainment system was stocked with plenty of movies, music and a moderate selection of TV shows. Unfortunately, my screen stopped working before we’d even taken off – but was fixed after a reset.

Although Malaysia Airlines offers free Wi-Fi on some of its Airbus A330s, this wasn’t one of them. There was no internet available at all during the flight. The airline says it’s currently working to install this on more aircraft.

The Soft Product

When I got to my seat, a pillow, blanket, mattress cover and headphones were already waiting for me. The pillow could have been a bit bigger, but the bedding was otherwise good.

The three flight attendants looking after Business Class were kind and attentive. Before take-off, one of them offered a cold towel along with a choice of pre-departure water, apple juice or orange juice.

Shortly after I was also offered a glass of champagne, which I declined as it was still a bit early. (I know, I know, it’s never too early for champagne… on this occasion, I really just didn’t feel like it. Please don’t judge!)

I did accept a bottle of water, though.

The crew distributed amenity kits after take-off. The kit itself was very nice and contained most of the essentials… except for one really obvious thing that was missing. I couldn’t find any earplugs! Luckily I’d brought my own, as the gentleman across the aisle was already snoring like a trooper before we’d even left the ground.

After take-off I also received a menu and an express arrival card for Australian customs.

On-board meals

There are two main meal services on this flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney; brunch after take-off and dinner before landing. Malaysia Airlines also offers a selection of snacks and light meals that you can order any time between the main meals.

Malaysian is my favourite cuisine, so I was delighted to see some classic Malaysian dishes on the menu:

The menu also contained a drinks list:

Alcoholic beverages were notably absent from both the menu and the drinks trolley. However, beer and wine, including Duval-Leroy Brut champagne, appeared to be available on request.

The brunch service started with yoghurt and fresh fruit.

This was followed by a choice of breads and the main course. I couldn’t go past the Malaysian nasi lemak, which was full of flavour and absolutely brilliant!

After a mid-flight nap, I woke up somewhere over Western Australia. There was still a bit of time until dinner, so I ordered the classic egg noodles from the “dine anytime” menu.

This was basically a pimped-out version of instant noodles with chicken, fish balls and a prawn. That may sound basic, but hey – I like instant noodles (who doesn’t?!) It was warm and tasty, and it hit the spot.

Exactly two hours before landing, the cabin crew switched the lights back on and began the satay service. I could barely contain my excitement when I spotted the chicken and beef skewers on the trolley!

Malaysia Airlines is rightfully proud of its satay, which it’s been serving ever since the beginning. The airline’s in-house kitchen in Kuala Lumpur prepares around 20,000 satay sticks a day, where they’re basted and chargrilled by hand over charcoal.

Being one of the last passengers in the cabin to be served, I was a bit worried they might run out. My fears were unfounded – in fact, since they still had plenty of sticks left, the flight attendant let me take as many as I wanted! These came with the traditional accompaniments of cucumber, onion and nasi impit (rice cake), along with a generous dollop of that famous, oh-so-good satay sauce.

As if this meal couldn’t get better, the flight attendant happily obliged when I requested a glass of champagne and some ice cream to accompany the meal. She proactively returned with the bottle of champagne a bit later to offer a top-up as well.

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 economics, aviation & 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.