stut
Mar 20, 03, 4:24 pm
The short version of the story is: I ended up going on a 4-day holiday to Malaysia from my current home town, London. I have no ties to Malaysia. But South-East Asia is the one gaping hole in my travel experience, and I wanted a taster. At least, that was the excuse I gave myself when I found the return flight, one day before departure, for £270.
My long-haul experience is mostly in Y (some transat J). And I'm tall (low-cost carriers hate me - they have to put me in the exit row http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ). I've got to admit, I didn't expect much from an airline selling that route for £270.
So, with much trepidation, I headed for LHR T3. This terminal has always been a nightmare for me: a never-ending queue with no distinct destination, surrounded by shabby brickwork and patched-up green carpet.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. Being a recent convert to FD, I have no élite status, so in the Y queue. Long, but processed quickly and efficiently. Checkin agents were very pleasant and helpful, gave me good seat choices, chatted, and sent me upstairs. Up there, same old BAA stuff: a shopping centre surrounded by crumbling gates. But, to my astonishment, possibly the nicest smoking lounge I've yet to see in an airport. With real ventilation and all...
MH3: LHR-KUL
OK, so on to the plane. Segregated boarding for us Y types, good, no pangs of envy filing past the nice seats http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif My last 747 flight was in a shabby NZ plane (wonderful service, creaky old jumbo) but this was bright and airy. Plonk myself down, and do the old 'please don't come and sit next to me' look on all approaching passengers. Lo and behold... I have what seems to be the only empty seat in Y next to me.
But the seat... 34" legroom is much appreciated by folks like myself. 6 hours in, and no buttock cramp either. Good recline, as you can have with that pitch. So far, so good. Nice service touches too - the hot towel and menu treatment - OK, it's far from J, but still nice to have. Menu is slightly disappointing - I was hoping to have some nice Malay or Indian food, but ended up with some beef, which is never my first choice on airlines. But it was palatable enough - braised, and *rare* (yes! on a flight!) with sautéed potatoes and spinach. All delivered by permasmile FAs, who also dealt admirably with the drink-the-bar-dry mob behind me.
Seat-back tellies and interactive gaming all in place, all working. Good choice of interactive games - I particularly enjoy the head-to-head trivia quiz, which shows all the participants seat numbers... Lots of furtive glances to laugh at whoever got the "what is the capital of Malaysia" question wrong... And off to sleep...
To be rudely awakened at 4am Malaysian time. Now, this would be alright, but that's 3 hours before landing. I know it's a 747, but it doesn't take 2 1/2 hours to serve breakfast. Had I been on a business trip, I'd've been quite annoyed... Breakfast waffles were OK, nothing special. Was too scared to have the curry...
Touch down in KL, breeze through the chiller cabinet of an airport, admiring its shiny newness, and find my taxi board waiting for me at the other end.
MH2: KUL-LHR
Three fantastic, sweltering, exhausting days in Malaysia later, I'm fresh off the KLIA Ekspres, all checked in at KL Sentral, and breezing smugly past the check-in queues and through the second-frendliest passport control in the world (the accolade still goes, as much as I didn't expect it, to ATL).
Time to kill in the departure lounge - loads of shops, good internet café, but the food choice very limited. Still, find some replenshing noodles, cough my way through the jam-packed smoking lounge, and head back on to the flight to London.
Busier than last time, and no empty seat next to me http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif In fact, I'm sat next to someone (a good deal smaller than me) who's very put out I won't swap and give them the aisle seat. Annoyingly, the headrest won't stay pushed up, but the only other seats are middle, so I choose to stay where I am.
Once again, the cheerfulness and helpfulness of the cabin crew is eminently praiseworthy. I was sat behind a perennial whinger, who was repeatedly, easily pacified. A tasty pasta dinner later, and I'm sitting staring at a sleeping cabin, jealous of those who can just fall asleep in a blink of the eyes. Watch an unremarkable film, amuse myself with Solitaire until, disaster of disasters... My IFE console crashes! No more mindless diversion until London! Oh well, probably for the best - I have to go to work the next morning.
So I sit and stare at the airshow for a while, as our route alters from the outbound, taking us on a circuitous route through the middle east, giving Afghanistan and Iraq wide berths.
Seat still comfy, still drifting nicely, but the good recline has the disadvantage that, well, obviously, the person in front also has good recline. It can be a little cramped if everyone's all the way back. It hadn't been like that on the way out.
Drift off to sleep and bang! 3am wakeup *again*. Grrr. Omelette and fruit (once again, scared by a breakfast Prawn Sambal - I should be more adventurous, but this is *breakfast* we're talking about), start to feel human, drinkable coffee, and land at Heathrow.
The only thing to ruin it after this is the miserable git of a bus driver on the 285 pulling away just as I get to the stop, and shouting obscenities (capably matched by my own) when I knock on the moving bus to stop it.
Get to work by 7.30AM, work through to 7PM. Which is good going - every time I've gone to work after a long-haul before, I've completely flagged by lunchtime.
My opinion? I can hardly fault MH at all. The only thing that they could do better is serving breakfast later.
And now I get 13k KLM FD miles too... Sometime in the distant future anyway...
[This message has been edited by stut (edited 03-20-2003).]
[This message has been edited by stut (edited 03-20-2003).]
My long-haul experience is mostly in Y (some transat J). And I'm tall (low-cost carriers hate me - they have to put me in the exit row http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ). I've got to admit, I didn't expect much from an airline selling that route for £270.
So, with much trepidation, I headed for LHR T3. This terminal has always been a nightmare for me: a never-ending queue with no distinct destination, surrounded by shabby brickwork and patched-up green carpet.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. Being a recent convert to FD, I have no élite status, so in the Y queue. Long, but processed quickly and efficiently. Checkin agents were very pleasant and helpful, gave me good seat choices, chatted, and sent me upstairs. Up there, same old BAA stuff: a shopping centre surrounded by crumbling gates. But, to my astonishment, possibly the nicest smoking lounge I've yet to see in an airport. With real ventilation and all...
MH3: LHR-KUL
OK, so on to the plane. Segregated boarding for us Y types, good, no pangs of envy filing past the nice seats http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif My last 747 flight was in a shabby NZ plane (wonderful service, creaky old jumbo) but this was bright and airy. Plonk myself down, and do the old 'please don't come and sit next to me' look on all approaching passengers. Lo and behold... I have what seems to be the only empty seat in Y next to me.
But the seat... 34" legroom is much appreciated by folks like myself. 6 hours in, and no buttock cramp either. Good recline, as you can have with that pitch. So far, so good. Nice service touches too - the hot towel and menu treatment - OK, it's far from J, but still nice to have. Menu is slightly disappointing - I was hoping to have some nice Malay or Indian food, but ended up with some beef, which is never my first choice on airlines. But it was palatable enough - braised, and *rare* (yes! on a flight!) with sautéed potatoes and spinach. All delivered by permasmile FAs, who also dealt admirably with the drink-the-bar-dry mob behind me.
Seat-back tellies and interactive gaming all in place, all working. Good choice of interactive games - I particularly enjoy the head-to-head trivia quiz, which shows all the participants seat numbers... Lots of furtive glances to laugh at whoever got the "what is the capital of Malaysia" question wrong... And off to sleep...
To be rudely awakened at 4am Malaysian time. Now, this would be alright, but that's 3 hours before landing. I know it's a 747, but it doesn't take 2 1/2 hours to serve breakfast. Had I been on a business trip, I'd've been quite annoyed... Breakfast waffles were OK, nothing special. Was too scared to have the curry...
Touch down in KL, breeze through the chiller cabinet of an airport, admiring its shiny newness, and find my taxi board waiting for me at the other end.
MH2: KUL-LHR
Three fantastic, sweltering, exhausting days in Malaysia later, I'm fresh off the KLIA Ekspres, all checked in at KL Sentral, and breezing smugly past the check-in queues and through the second-frendliest passport control in the world (the accolade still goes, as much as I didn't expect it, to ATL).
Time to kill in the departure lounge - loads of shops, good internet café, but the food choice very limited. Still, find some replenshing noodles, cough my way through the jam-packed smoking lounge, and head back on to the flight to London.
Busier than last time, and no empty seat next to me http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif In fact, I'm sat next to someone (a good deal smaller than me) who's very put out I won't swap and give them the aisle seat. Annoyingly, the headrest won't stay pushed up, but the only other seats are middle, so I choose to stay where I am.
Once again, the cheerfulness and helpfulness of the cabin crew is eminently praiseworthy. I was sat behind a perennial whinger, who was repeatedly, easily pacified. A tasty pasta dinner later, and I'm sitting staring at a sleeping cabin, jealous of those who can just fall asleep in a blink of the eyes. Watch an unremarkable film, amuse myself with Solitaire until, disaster of disasters... My IFE console crashes! No more mindless diversion until London! Oh well, probably for the best - I have to go to work the next morning.
So I sit and stare at the airshow for a while, as our route alters from the outbound, taking us on a circuitous route through the middle east, giving Afghanistan and Iraq wide berths.
Seat still comfy, still drifting nicely, but the good recline has the disadvantage that, well, obviously, the person in front also has good recline. It can be a little cramped if everyone's all the way back. It hadn't been like that on the way out.
Drift off to sleep and bang! 3am wakeup *again*. Grrr. Omelette and fruit (once again, scared by a breakfast Prawn Sambal - I should be more adventurous, but this is *breakfast* we're talking about), start to feel human, drinkable coffee, and land at Heathrow.
The only thing to ruin it after this is the miserable git of a bus driver on the 285 pulling away just as I get to the stop, and shouting obscenities (capably matched by my own) when I knock on the moving bus to stop it.
Get to work by 7.30AM, work through to 7PM. Which is good going - every time I've gone to work after a long-haul before, I've completely flagged by lunchtime.
My opinion? I can hardly fault MH at all. The only thing that they could do better is serving breakfast later.
And now I get 13k KLM FD miles too... Sometime in the distant future anyway...
[This message has been edited by stut (edited 03-20-2003).]
[This message has been edited by stut (edited 03-20-2003).]