wolf72

I can see your logic and argument.

I did the same thing on domestic flights..went up to the counter to ask for an upgrade 1 hour before my flight from economy to business class (i am a gold card carrier with MAS ENRICH). Problem is, they let you upgrade at a very reasonable price but won't give you the bloody points for it.

RTW1

Hardly any airline does.... it's still basically an economy fare.

wolf72

But you would think you would at least still get the economy points at the minimum right?

RTW1

Of course you do.

GGLwannabe

I've been flying a lot with Malaysian over the last year and a half - ever since they joined One world Alliance. They have handy connections around South East Asia and are generally good value in business class. In the last month or so however I have noticed that you can find extremely attractive fares on their website but when you have selected your flights and click Next you get to the summary page with a message at the top saying 'The price of your itinerary has changed. Please review it below'. I have just had this happen again and a J class return from BKK to HKG in March changed from B.8,853 to B14,060. That's some change. Does anyone know what's going on? Are MH just trying to sucker us in to booking the flights and hope we won't notice the massive increase? Or is there something else going on - e.g. the deal is only for Thai residents and they can detect from my ISP that I'm not in Thailand

Guy Betsy

Try offering what you did with QF or SQ. Do you think they will even flinch?

MYR 1300 is already a bargain for a long haul upgrade. I would have gladly taken it.

Leavinglondon

BA has announced it is starting a 4 class 777 to KUL in May 2015. View seems to be that this will replace one of the A380s - not least as it has a pre 6 am landing slot (of which there are few at LHR and it is unlikely that BA would move another flight to make way for this). Any news from Malaysian? And to where else could the A380 be deployed? Amsterdam - to replace 2 daily 777s?

eminere

Exactly.

eminere

BA does not currently fly into KUL?

wolf72

Code Sharing with MH who use 2 of their A380's for this route with 2 flights per day. One departing at 10.00am and the other at 10 or 11pm out of KUL...or 10pm and 10am UK time

I wonder if it means BA are now getting in on the act with their own aircraft since it is a lucarative route..or if MAS are really going to drop one of their A380's from this sector.

I would be shocked if MAS did..it's probably one of their busiest routes

RTW1

It fits perfectly with the restructuring plan to only operate regional routes and routes where the majority of passengers has KUL as their departure or destination.
They explicitly mention extending their partner agreements for routes with mostly transit passengers, which I assume LHR-KUL is. Busiest doesn't mean profitable.

Leavinglondon

And MH has been losing huge amounts of money - well before the recent disasters - it might sell lots of economy seats at low prices, but profits come from the front of the plane being sold at high prices.

A post on the BA page says that their new flight is not linked to anything MH will do, due to competition reasons (which is reasonable) but it will be interesting to see how MH react to this.

wolf72

Sorry, forgot to mention most profitable routes as well.

RTW1

In reality MH has no profitable routes..... and while the published numbers don't break down for an individual route the general assumption is that the KUL-LHR has more capacity then it needs. Even a full plane in economy (but the MH A380 is never full, 85-88% rates are quoted) isn't guaranteed to make a profit.

A very informative piece about the MH restructuring can be found here: http://centreforaviation.com/analysi...airways-184576

Where they already speculated on what is happening now:

While a smaller European and Middle Eastern operation would make MAS more attractive to potential Gulf partners, it would also make MAS more attractive to potential European partners. British Airways for example has looked as serving Kuala Lumpur but was dissuaded as it believes the Malaysia-London market became oversupplied after MAS upgauged its two London flights to A380s.

As MAS looks to cut its own capacity to Europe, a scenario could emerge in which BA takes over one of MAS’ two Kuala Lumpur-London Heathrow flights (and slots). BA and MAS could potentially seek a joint venture arrangement on Kuala Lumpur-London and cooperate on the London-Australia kangaroo route.

QF ExLurker

QF and SQ are not flying around with half-empty aircraft.

I agree that MYR 1300 is not expensive.
It was just more than I was willing to pay on this occasion.
The revenue management aspect of refusing any offer less than MYR 1300 for an empty seat is interesting.