Although the flight was supposed to depart at 15:10, priority boarding did not start before 15:05, without much information provided by the ground staff. It was funny to see a few Northwest airlines cordons at the gate ! So vintage !
9M-MTV Airbus 330-200 in TPE
Scoot dreamliner next to it...
NWA is an airline I would have liked to try but was never able to... Their Asian network was quite extensive as far as I recall, and I think they had some fifth-freedom flights out of TPE...
Still waiting...
Malaysia Airlines MH367 - December 13th 2018
Taipei Taoyuan TPE - 15:10
Kuala Lumpur KUL - 20:05
Airbus A330-200 - 9M-MTV - Seat 04K, Window seat, Business class.
The business class was completely full again on this flight. Looks like the flights to Taipei on MH are quite popular, probably because of their low prices…
My seat 4K was a « good window » seat, in a sense that the seat is not directly in contact to the aisle, but there is still direct-aisle access. Just like the aircraft which brought me to Taipei several days before, this was a former Air Berlin plane.
Seat 4K
One thing I quickly noticed is the red light on the power socket, which usually means that the electric plug is not working, or not yet enabled. The former was the true reason for this red light and it seems this was a general failure for all the business class seats. The USB port was not working either, so I used my laptop to recharge my phone which had a low battery during the flight.
Some other features of the seat, like the light, the massage function and to some extent, the flat bed were not working either, but I noticed this only an hour or so after take-off.
Seat 4K
Seat controls
At this point, the IFE seems to be working. That won't last long...
Power plug not working
The usual pre-departure beverages were offered, and as usual I opted for some guava juice. No alcoholic drinks were offered, also as usual.
Guava juice !
The safety movie was played and we left our gate at 15:33, a few minutes after an AirAsia X Airbus 330 arrived next to us.
The menus were distributed with a hot-towel at this time. We took off around 15:55, with some nice views on the other aircrafts.
Plane spotting...
One leaves for KUL, the other one arrives from KUL
Safety movie...
...and push back
Menu MH Business class TPE-KUL
Bye-bye ! See you next time !
Two competitors : EVA air Boeing 787 vs China Airlines Airbus 350
The plane spotting continues...
Seems like OS is doing their maintenance in TPE
Spot the dreamlifter...
The onboard service started at 16:10 with some drinks, peanuts and satay (choice between chicken or beef satay, I opted for the chicken version). At this moment I informed the crew that my inflight entertainment screen was locked and that the touch screen, or the remote control were both not responsive. They restarted my IFE system but this did not resolve the problem… Another seat issue !
The late lunch / early dinner came was served around 17:15 and consisted in a salad and the fish (cod) main course I opted for. It was good.
That was the only movie available... :-O
Chicken satay as an appetizer
The fish was pretty good.
I found the service to be on the slow side, but for the defense of the crew, the cabin was packed.
After the purser got informed that I was having seat issues, he came to see me to apologize and told me he will be informing the maintenance crew in KUL about it. He also informed me about the news that popped up the same day about their new business class seat on their Airbus 350, which is basically the former first class seat, which was just renamed. He told me that I should be asking for an upgrade to this seat after I informed him I will be flying the 350 to Sydney in January. Starting at this moment, I found the crew members to be more attentive towards me and they started to address to me using my last name (which was not the case before).
That will be the IFE on this flight !
Coffee with dessert
Entering the dark side...
I managed somehow to put the seat almost flat and have a 40 min nap. The IFE seemed to be working again, with a clock being 30 min early, just at the moment I started to incline the seat. The power socket was still out of service though...
Ready to nap !
At 19:40, the pre-landing procedures started and the crew gave all business class passengers a fast track voucher for immigration clearance.
Fast track invitation
Total route
We disembarked at 20:10 and the purser wished me a good continuation of my journey, apologizing again for the issues with the seat. Considering my next flight was not departing before 23:20, I decided not to clear immigration yet and stay in the International sector where I could enjoy the First class lounge and its dining room.