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Malaysia Airlines Is Burning $2 Million Every Day as Flights Go Empty

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Malaysia Airlines Is Burning $2 Million Every Day as Flights Go Empty

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Old Aug 26, 2014, 5:28 am
  #1  
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Malaysia Airlines Is Burning $2 Million Every Day as Flights Go Empty

"The southeast Asia air carrier burns its cash reserves at nearly $2.16 million each day," wrote Howard University professor Oliver McGee. "Operations are losing about $1.6 million a day."

According to Australia's news.com.au, the airline has doubled the commission it offers to Australian travel agents, from 6% to 11%, for booking travelers on the carrier. It is also offering deep discounts compared to other carriers: A sample fare search on Malaysia Airlines showed a round trip flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing for $238, while a similar flight on other carriers was listed for more than $500.

http://mashable.com/2014/08/25/empty...lines-flights/
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 5:48 am
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A bit sad, but very true. I just did a return from Singapore to Melbourne on MH for around $480 SGD (~$390USD). Whilst both sectors between SIN & KUL were well loaded, the two flights between KUL & MEL (on 333's) only had 160 and 120 seats occupied.

Was nice to have four seats to myself, especially on the overnight flight, but this clearly isn't sustainable.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 9:19 am
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And yet First Class Award Availability for BA/AA/QF Frequent Flyers remain unavailable.

Guess its their way of saying thanks for all the help British, American and Australian taxpayers have given them following the loss of MH 370
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 9:59 am
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This is totally irrational. I mean, lightning never strikes thrice, does it?
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 11:07 am
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I jut checked their fares from LAX and I don't think they are competative. I was willing to do a MR to KUL if the price was right.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 11:10 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by Psychocadet
I jut checked their fares from LAX and I don't think they are competative. I was willing to do a MR to KUL if the price was right.
MH doesn't serve LAX anymore.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 12:48 pm
  #7  
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Originally Posted by UncleDude
And yet First Class Award Availability for BA/AA/QF Frequent Flyers remain unavailable.

Guess its their way of saying thanks for all the help British, American and Australian taxpayers have given them following the loss of MH 370
There was actually a decent amount of space available on CDG-KUL the last time I checked. Remember, only LHR and CDG see F on MH currently, the A380 run to HKG isn't in the schedule currently, and the A380 doesn't fly anywhere else for MH.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 12:53 pm
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very sad and tragic
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 1:38 pm
  #9  
 
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Originally Posted by UncleDude
And yet First Class Award Availability for BA/AA/QF Frequent Flyers remain unavailable.

Guess its their way of saying thanks for all the help British, American and Australian taxpayers have given them following the loss of MH 370
Give MH a break! Didn't people on FT book MH First LHR-KUL through the BA glitch that priced them as economy awards?

I agree with BOSMan that I also saw KUL-CDG and CDG-KUL availability, but hardly any for LHR-KUL.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 4:34 pm
  #10  
 
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There isn't an aggressive sale at the mo despite low loads it seems. The prices from Europe aren't the lowest on any of the routes that I checked.

Was hoping to bag a bargain and help out MH a little at the same time
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 4:42 pm
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I just checked 3 random September dates on britishairways.com for KUL - CDG, and each of them had a First Class MH redemption available (for 90k Avios + USD 25.55). I think that the complaint of lack of availability may be worth revisiting, as it appears to be out-of-date.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 4:51 pm
  #12  
 
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Originally Posted by UncleDude
And yet First Class Award Availability for BA/AA/QF Frequent Flyers remain unavailable.

Guess its their way of saying thanks for all the help British, American and Australian taxpayers have given them following the loss of MH 370
They're not making any money selling F award seats to partners. If airlines did there would be a lot more available.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 5:36 pm
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by Armodeen
There isn't an aggressive sale at the mo despite low loads it seems. The prices from Europe aren't the lowest on any of the routes that I checked.

Was hoping to bag a bargain and help out MH a little at the same time
When I last looked at seat maps of imminent departing flights, it seemed that European flights were almost OK, however the Australian and Chinese flights seemed to have huge banks of empty seats on them.

From Singapore there is a very generous sale on (at the best of times locals here don't want to fly MH for various reasons) but I have noticed availability is constrained by capacity between SIN and KUL (for example on long weekends whilst there maybe wide open flights out of KUL it seems that SIN/KUL and vice versa flights have only the most expensive fare classes available - which is typical for long weekends). Maybe the should be running some A330s to here!
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 7:17 pm
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by UncleDude
And yet First Class Award Availability for BA/AA/QF Frequent Flyers remain unavailable.

Guess its their way of saying thanks for all the help British, American and Australian taxpayers have given them following the loss of MH 370
I think that is more of a question of nobody thought of it or are SO ROOTED in old style conservative thought processes that they do not think of doing discounted redemption for all classes. A missed opportunity.
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Old Aug 26, 2014, 7:51 pm
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MH has been miss managed and staffed by rent seekers for the last decade. The airline should be allowed to die if only to give the poor Malaysian tax payer a bloody break! Surely there must be better ways to flush RM5 billion down the toilet.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/B...-next-3-years/
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