Earlier this week, I did the same day return trip BKI-KCH-BKI: 6.45AM BKI-KCH with AK and 3.45PM KCH-BKI with MH (both flights in Economy):

- aircraft: AK - brand new A320; MH - old B737-400

- cabin appearance: AK - spotlessly clean; MH - they do an effort to deep clean these very old aircraft, but I wouldn’t say this aircraft was particularly clean

- seats: AK - nice leather seats, typical low cost seat pitch; MH - I couldn't believe what I saw when I entered the cabin: almost each seat was in a different color: cabin looked like a rainbow or like a cabin of a cheap charter airline flying from LGW to PMI - terrible (oh - and I am not talking about headrests being each in a different color like with Austrian Airlines - the fabric seat covers were each in a different color). BTW orange seat cover of the seat in front of me was quite dirty. Seat pitch better than with AK (as expected)

- F/A: AK - young, wearing nice, professional uniforms, MH - my last flight with MH was probably 15 years ago - uniforms are still the same, green male uniforms look as TERRIBLE as always

- meals - AK: if you are hungry a hot meal and water would cost you about USD 4 (12 Ringgits); MH - very nice hot meal (chicken or fish), water, OJ/tee/coffee, Kit Kat, 3 slices of fruit - very nice, KUDOS!

- punctuality: AK arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule; MH was 10 minutes late

- priority boarding: AK - priority boarding via a separate gate for Hot Seats (premium & emergency seats one can purchase online) BP holders; MH - no priority boarding (I think it was the first time in Asia, when I didn't see priority boarding of any kind)

- price: MH fare was about USD 40.00 higher than a fare quoted by airasia.com for a flight I could also fly with from KCH to BKI.

I guess I will stick to AK for now for short intra-Malaysian itineraries.