I actually just found Garuda and was looking at them. I never heard of them really though I remember seeing their counter at HKG I think on a recent trip to mainland China. They are number 10 on somebody's list of the 10 most dangerous airlines (based on fatal accidents per million segments flown). It doesn't bother me much as even the worst on the list is not that high. (8 fatals in half a million flights or something) I probably wouldn't fly that one. Garuda has, according to the author of the article, improved. For some reason, their website won't show me any seats from KUL back to HKG on any date, even with stops. Hard to believe they are really sold out this far in advance for a whole week. That leg isn't until 23 or 24 NOV. Am I missing something? Kayak says they have it but only by going back through CGK and it takes 17 hours with a 10 hour layover at CGK. Maybe they agree with me that a 10 hour layover at CGK isn't even worth putting out there for a trip only takes 4 hours non-stop on at least 3 carriers.

So, bottom line for me is Garuda, Air Asia, Malaysia Airlines are all on the table. Cathay Pacific probably not because their prices are just too high. That's why I'm really here asking. In the US, for a given city pair, you rarely find more than 20% variation in fares over all the possible airlines you could book. Cathay Pacific is over 5 x the cost of the others. Are the cheap ones that bad? That kind of fare difference doesn't make sense, at least from a very frequent flyer that isn't used to booking little hops around southeast Asia. In the US, that's called a "tuna fish" price. (Can't really tell you the source of that.) It means a price you quote when you feel obligated to quote a price but you don't want to make the sale. But CX has 5 non-stops a day from KUL to HKG. It's just fishy.