GinFizz

Good to see that Malaysia Airlines now has its own forum. I just returned from BKK on MH and noticed some interesting reading in the December edition of the Going Places magazine regarding plans for 2017 and beyond (interview article with the new CEO). Apologies if some or all of this has already been posted (if it has my Google-foo is clearly depleted...)

The main things I can see of interest are:

(1) Delivery of A350 set to start in 2017 - 6 aircraft ordered "... and they will operate to London and within Australia and Asia";

(2) Boeing 737Max scheduled for delivery in 2019 ("... will have lie-flat in business class");

(3) Changes to the Enrich program: "... we will be more generous with the points awarded, particularly for business travellers". Also plans to "... expand the number of partners by 20% in 2017";

(4) Major expansion of China routes: New direct services in 2017 from Penang to Shenzhen and Shanghai, and from Kota Kinabalu to Tianjin. New services from KUL to Haikou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Chongqing.

Some thoughts on the above:

Re: (1) Does this mean a final farewell for MH to the A380 then?

Re: (3) best guess is more differentiation in earnings based on booking class (would be nice if el-cheapo Z-fares earn more miles, but unlikely given the way other programs have headed).

RE: (4) might some of these be via code shares? Seems a lot of routes to fly with just 6 new aircraft (though these may not of course be daily services).

On a personal level I hope the Beijing to Penang route via KUL will still be available (and pricing out as one of the lowest "deals" when on offer). The timings are good for me and it is far easier to change internationally in KUL than Shanghai (given typical delays on domestic flights)!

{Full article can be found here on pages 41 to 43}

Guy Betsy

Wow. Great to know that Going Places magazine may be viewed online!

To your questions:

1) Yes. The A380s will be phased out once the A359s come. The A380s will be going to a charter arm of MAB where they will be retrofitted for all economy class seating for Haj charter runs.

4) Can be achieved with existing 737s though. Doubt any of the routes will get the A330s. Even PEN-PVG is doable with a 737-800.

MAB should really consider a direct PEN-HKG, and PEN-BKK route. That's my opinion. PEN-HKG is underserved with only KA flying the route, and PEN-BKK is only served by TG once a day, and Air Asia to DMK.

carrotjuice

Wow. Would this even be profitable? One would imagine in the days leading to Haj the flights will go to Mecca full but leave empty, and immediately right after Haj the reverse would happen.

Guy Betsy

Its not just during Haj season (when it once was) but now a trip to Mecca can be done any time of the year... so the flights would go and return full in most cases. The flights would also operate from various cities (under the airlines' flight number there) with large Muslim population to Saudi Arabia. Air Asia for example has been chartering their aircraft and crew to operate as Air Algerie flights between Paris and Algiers in the summer. Oh the stories I have heard from my friend who does those runs...

http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/09/1...t-says-mas-ceo

MeltingAlf

The A350s should be enough since MH's A330s aren't going anywhere, so there is still capacity to go around after replacing the A380 to LHR.

Personally I am quite surprised MH is going the route of launching non-stops to China, since the Chinese market wasn't very happy in the aftermath of MH370 and the Chinese authorities/media/everyone literally denounced MH and the Malaysian government - refusing to support and buy anything Malaysian (like even singer Fish Leong).

Yes, as Guy Betsy as mentioned, other than Hajj, Umrah can also be performed - and Umrah can be performed any time of the year. Hajj flights are often times much fuller since Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, and should be performed by a Muslim at least once in their lives. There is a quota imposed by the Saudis to prevent overcrowding (else the demand for Hajj flights would be even higher) - so for example, the waiting list for Hajj is 33 years here in Singapore.

It will be interesting to see what the model of the charter arm of MAB is - whether or not they will be leasing some of the aircrafts to countries with more adherents, since I very much doubt Umrah charter ops in Malaysia alone can support all of the A380s they currently have.

ashkale

The china routes are due to the political shift in Asia, these routes were announced during Malaysian PMs week long visit to China.

carrotjuice

But if Umrah may be performed anytime during the year, wouldn't the load be spread across the year hence won't be filling up an A380? Unless MH would be selling this with feeder positioning for Muslim pilgrims from neighbouring countries like Indonesia.

wolf72

1) The China market is massive for MH and Malaysia tourism. The tourist are back en-masse and MH370 has all but been forgotten. A number of other airliners are doing chartered flights direct to KL, Kota Kinabalu, Penang and I am told they plan on starting flights to Langkawi as well.

Malaysia needs the Chinese tourist market desperately especially during this current poor economic time.

2) The Malaysian tax payers will be forking out a large amount of $ to pay for these haj flights as most haj trips are subsidized by the Malaysian government arm that handles islamic matters, tabung haji and JAKIM.

I think they have been allocated a massive RM30-50 billion which, nobody has any idea why.

Guy Betsy

The MAB charter arm does not need to only operate between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia... there's Indonesia... and any airline that wants to charter the aircrafts.

MeltingAlf

Which is why I said thereafter on it will be interesting to see if they charter the aircraft out (which I think in all likelihood will happen).

Chartering an aircraft from MAB for Hajj/Umrah probably makes more sense than to buy one sole 747/A380 for airlines like RAM anyway.

sxc

They just recently increased Enrich mileage earning. So they will enhance it again?

wolf72

As an enrich gold flyer, they (MH) have promised to update us on the changes to the enrich point system and what they plan on introducing for 2017 moving forward.

Have not see any emails or updates from them about specific changes..still waiting. >)

IanFromHKG

The latest info I can find is here - effective 1 November 2016. Is it expected that they will enhance it again?

I have a question. If I redeem a return flight from HKG to LHR on MH in business class, how many Enrich Miles would I need? Do I need to add together the return HKG-KUL and return KUL-LHR legs and effectively redeem two tickets, or can I do it all as one redemption. If so, what is the appropriate Zone?

To illustrate my question:
(1) The flight distance from HKG to LHR is 5,990 statute miles (Zone 5)
(2) The flight distance from HKG-KUL is 1,581 statute miles (Zone 3) and from KUL to LHR is 6,596 statute miles (also Zone 5), so if I have to treat them separately then I have to get an additional Zone 3 ticket.
(3) Conversely, if they look at the overall flight length (HKG-KUL + KUL-LHR) but treat it as one overall flight length then the total is 7,571 statute miles (Zone 6)

So what would I need - (1) Zone 5 only, (2) Zone 3 + Zone 5 or (3) Zone 6? I suspect (2) or (3) but if anyone has any insight do please let me know!

lcpteck

A simple dummy booking will show you.

90k miles one way or 180k miles roundtrip. It's actually much cheaper to redeem on partner flights instead. You can use this site as a reference.

IanFromHKG

Thanks, lcpteck. I'm not an Enrich member yet (still deciding whether to switch from Marco Polo!) so cannot log into the site to do a dummy booking, so this is very helpful indeed, as is your link

Given that earning rates on MH are higher this doesn't seem hugely dissimilar to the 120,000 miles that CX charge (in the sense that both redemptions would require about the same amount of actual flown "earning" mileage)

Thanks again