Malaysian Airlines
First Class
Airbus A380
MH001 LHR-KUL
March 2013

Check-in
MH1 departs from Heathrow’s T4, and the process is very low-key/basic, but then there’s only two MH flights a day so wasn’t expecting any grand check-in experience. The MH facilities were a set of standard check-in desks at the far left of T4. One desk was set aside for First Class, but there was no pax waiting at any of the MH desks anyway.

Lounge
MH has a single lounge which is cut into two by a glass wall/door. It’s a little odd I suppose, as the glass partition is mostly see-through, whereas you might have expected an entirely opaque partition. This was particularly confusing to my travel companion who went through the door to the spare seats on the other side, not knowing that he had transferred into the Business lounge. The First Class lounge is nice enough but very small. The food offering seems to focus on cooked-to-order full meals, with only a small buffet selection made available.



Boarding
The boarding gate for the flight was a very short walk from the Lounge, but as you might expect for loading an A380 the boarding area/gates were a bit of a zoo. Thankfully there was a specific First class line (as was there also for business class). The First Class gate was empty except for an obnoxious Australian who was arguing with the desk clerk, whilst simultaneously talking on his phone, as to why she wouldn’t let him use the First Class door when he was in Business Class. He seemed lost to the fact that his cabin is on an entirely different floor of the plane. When pointed out the business class gate, he continued to protest that he couldn’t possibly get past all the economy pax. I interjected that he could easily circumnavigate the crowd by simply traversing the rows of seating, and he departed on his epic journey with a sneer. The rest of boarding was relatively standard not much an airline can really excel at with a cabin consisting of 2 rows of 1-2-1 seating config. The main gripe at this stage was the lack of alcohol prior to take off. I enquired but was told that the bar was not to be open until after takeoff, so soft drinks only. This was particularly frustrating given the events that followed. Hot towels were distributed, and I glanced over to see the gentleman next to me use it to give his rollaboard luggage a complete clean, including the wheels and the fabric; a real good scrub. Never seen anyone do that before. The toiletries bag was then provided, and contained the usual mix of products, with Bvlgari being the chosen brand. Very nice.


The Seat
First impressions of the First Class seat were simply WOW; it very much has the xfactor. A huge suite with no narrowing at the feet-end. Lots of personal space, and a little personal locker for hanging suits etc. There was a built-in lower back massage feature, which my companion liked but I found somewhat basic and more of a gimmick. It was hard to take photos of the seat that realistically portrayed the space available, especially given I was using a phone as a camera. Many other pics on the web are better, but here as some of mine.
This first pic gives an idea of the colours and fabric of the seat but fails to really get across how wide it is.

This next pic aims to show the sheer amount of space at the foot-end, the quality and size of the TV screen, as well as my excellent taste in socks..

Finally a cross-cabin shot showing the personal locker in the middle of the doorway.

The buttons to operate the seat were constructed of rubber/sponge which gave a nice feel compared to the usual hard plastic click like that which you get on BA.


Taxi and take-off
The boarding seemed to be over quite quickly, and we were taxiing to the runway. We eventually got to the runway and started trundling down it, but then turned left off the runway and looped back round to the start. We waited there for 10 mins before the captain announced that there was a technical issue that they couldn’t identify and that we’d have to return to the terminal to get an engineer to look at it. We trundled back towards the terminal, and turned into a parking slot but oddly the plane stopped mid-turn and say 30meters from a proper parking placement. You can sort of make out the odd position in this photo, as the plane is at an angle to the parking bays.

We stayed in this position for 40mins longer, and never heard a pip from the Captain regarding the situation. Then we began to push back and thought that all was fixed, but all that happened was that we got pushed back and then got straightened up and put properly into the parking bay. A further hour went past and the Captain said that the lights would be going off as they were going to turn everything off and on again (classic IT fix!). Various things were blinking off and on for quite some time (sort of like a short haul BA 767 disco but much worse). By this time all pax in the F cabin had their seats heavily reclined, and some fully asleep, in bed position with duvets out etc.
Eventually we pushed back and taxied off to the runway. The crew didn’t do any pre-flight checks though, and the plane took off with everyone in bed position! That was good fun. All in all about 2hrs45mins delay, with fluff-all updates/explanations from the cockpit. And no booze/food permitted at all. Very poor show.

Food and Service
By the time the crew started the cabin service, after all the delays etc, it was coming on for 1:30am and I had lost all will for food. They came to take my food order but I informed them that I wouldn’t be eating, and I’d be getting straight to sleep. The crew seemed unable to accept this though, and badgered me beyond belief. (For those in the UK, think Mrs Doyle offering cups of tea to Father Ted). I was really quite angry by the end of the interrogation. I ended up taking the satay just to get rid of her. I thought the satay was incredibly average. I slept very well but awoke to undergo the same interrogation as to why I wouldn’t eat a full meal. I NEVER eat a big breakfast and only ever have cereal/juice wherever I am, and know that I am not alone in this. So quite why they thought it necessary to question what was wrong with me just because I didn’t want a full 4-course curry and rice meal the minute I got up is beyond me. For the sheer persistence and obtrusiveness of the MH service, I’d say it’s the worst airline service I’ve ever experienced; and I’ve travelled on AA …

Entertainment System
The AV hard-product is very good, with a quality screen of excellent size. However, the AV selection was poor in terms of western content. Poor selection of movies and poor selection of TV shows. But I cant complain too much because its not a western carrier, and they had selections for a wide variety of cultures (Hindu, Japanese, Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc). So a wide selection overall, but poor in terms of any one particular demographic.

Closing comment
Fantastic hard product, but let down by substandard service, AV and food. I cancelled my return leg and rebooked onto BA ClubWorld from SIN; I just feel more at home on BA.