crackjack

IIRC:
Salad: Chicken Caesar or Avocado Salad
Soup: Carrot Ginger, ______ or Oxtail
Main: Chicken Roulade, Stripsteak or Barramundi
Dessert: Fudge bar, Apple pie or ________

Brandon Lord

Surprised to find that QR J pax are not welcome at the Golden Lounge prior to departure (despite Oneworld business class lounge regulations, and MH’s own website FAQ’s…). Additionally, if you happen to be in UL J you are also denied entry. This apparently due to disputes between MH and the other two airlines, where the other two are supposedly not providing payment to MH when they admit their J pax into the MH Golden Lounge. If you are OWE you can get in, but if you don’t hold status you’re out of luck. Head down to the PP lounge or Sama Sama as an alternative.

QR offers the Plaza Premium First as the contract lounge option if departing out of KUL for DOH in Biz (or F, it seems!?!?).

Honestly, though, you won’t be missing much. Golden Lounge, although it is quite large, is a massive disappointment. Food is below BA galleries, IMO, which folks seem to feel is already the bottom of the barrel. I far prefer the Galleries lounge at LHR to this any day of the week. Doesn’t even compare with AA Flagship or (of course) QR’s Biz or First class lounges. Honestly, if I wasn’t here on a 15 hour layover connecting from MH (ironic, right) to QR for the remainder of my trip, I would happily accept QR’s invitation to spend my pre-flight time in the Plaza Premium lounge. Other non-notable “features” of the Golden Lounge visit included:

- 5 nap chairs per gender. Dirty blankets and trash all over them.
- All food options removed around 11pm, but that’s OK because I had a better buffet setup (specifically for sweets/fruits) at the HIE free daily breakfast anyways…
- Every seat was full leaving only uncomfortable dining area chairs with small tables. No charging, obviously.
- 1/4 of bathroom stalls & urinals blocked for “maintenance”
- No one to be found to reserve shore stalls and/or retrieve towels, shave kits, etc

Seriously a disappointment for such a “highly regarded” lounge. I can now jump on the avoid MH bandwagon with everyone.

clubeurope

Hi, welcome to the MH forum.
I think there's a lot of hostility against MH going on here, so I'd like to address some of the points you've raised.

• First, I don't think anyone really considers the Golden Lounge to be "highly regarded" at all. It hasn't been a great lounge in a long time, especially not its J/Sapphire side. Whilst it's not a great lounge but it's also a lot better than some lounges I've been to in South East Asia. It does its job too given how bad KUL could be on a prolonged layover.
• Second, it's also open 24 hours (unlike LHR or BA Galleries/Concorde), and I'd personally rather be there than in the terminal in the wee hours of the day. There should be someone at the desk in front of the bathrooms, but I don't imagine it'll be too difficult to ask other lounge staff for help if they're not there.
• Third, you're right that their food selection is weak but I think their noodle bar holds up rather nicely. There's also an a la carte restaurant if you're OWE, which to me, is so much better than Galleries First. If anything, I'd raise that their alcohol selection is terrible. Conversely, I tend to find the BA Galleries Lounge (both Galleries First and Club South) to be in a similar or worse state of disarray. The bathrooms tend to be messy, the lounge is also usually overcrowded and messy, and the food selection is likewise meh.
• Malaysia Airlines hasn't been an exceptional airline in a long long time, and I think it's unreasonable to come with expectations that it would be on par with the likes of QR, CX, JL, or otherwise. Likewise, KUL isn't the best nor the most ideal hub, but I can already name so many worse hub lounges in the region (UL Serendib Lounge CMB, Vietnam Airlines Lounge HAN, PAL Mabuhay Lounge MNL). Even the purportedly highly regarded Garuda Indonesia has an on-par or perhaps worse lounge offering in both CGK and DPS.

I think QR offering J Pax access to PP First (like what BR does) is a good thing since it is a relatively newer lounge. The food there isn't great either, although it is a la carte (poor food offerings seem to be a KUL thing in my opinion). I'd take an invitation there any day if I didn't have access to the Platinum Golden Lounge. Even the CX lounge wasn't very good when it existed.

crackjack

Agree wholeheartedly with ce’s view. Also, on this point specifically, sounds like this gripe is with QR / UL… UL I have no idea what’s going on (though the whole LKR crisis might have something to do with it), but QR playing hardball is very much like them and their renowned ‘service standard’ when not in the air.

wantan

thanks for the info, wonder how much MH is charging per entry for QR / UL to make a fuss of it (especially for J passengers) and also bending OW rules.

Any idea what's the recourse for OWS traveling Economy on QR ? Would suck to find that there's no lounge available if that's the case despite being a OneWorld airline hub.

clubeurope

I’m sure QR will have a lounge arrangement in place for non-J status pax since they specifically don’t use the MH lounge.

crackjack

It sounds like OW elites (though whether that excludes QR/UL elites or not is uncertain) can use the Golden Lounge.

I believe that the OW partner who has issued the elite status is on the hook for the cost of the lounge access, whereas in the case of the J class passenger, the operating airline is on the hook (and with UL/QR, apparently already pay another lounge for access). Hence, if QR / UL are not responsible to pay, it shouldn’t matter to them.

With FlySmiles / Privilege Club members, would be interesting to know if they too have access when flying on UL/QR flights; the mileage programs likely run as separate units, and also may not have arranged for separate lounge access in KL already for their elites.

nldogbert

this is very strange, but aren't MH and QR codesharing flights to KUL/DOH?
Sleeping in the same bed, but not on talking terms.. guess this can only happen with MH management....

SilverChris

They codeshare with JL and CX too, but I've never been turned away when travelling on those airlines. It takes two to tango.

fender5787

FWIW I’m a OWE with QR and was able to access the plat lounge last week (albeit flying MH). I’ll be through KUL later today and hopefully should be able to access it again unless this policy of denying QR status holders lounge access sticks.

carrotjuice

Based on earlier threads, the denial is on QR J passengers without status. OWE of any OW airline, including QR, is still allowed entry.

nickf619

What about those that arrive in KUL from a QR DOH-KUL service then transiting onwards on MH in J (on a QR Codeshare), surely they'd be granted access to the lounge on MH metal?

pushmyredbutton

I guess my expectations were a bit too high, but wow the Platinum Satellite lounge is bad...

No champagne, only some bottom shelf sparking wine due to "stock issues" according to the staff.
In the restaurant, I think the "ribeye" steak is possibly the worst cut of meat I've had around SE Asia... it was absolutely revolting.
In the main area, there's nearly nothing out in the food spread - and the sign for "bathrooms, showers, prayer room, etc" at the far end of the lounge near the nap rooms just leads to a locked door; many pax were confused by this.

Now I know to keep my expectations in check

ps. Is there an easier way to get up there? The "up" escalator banks were all not functioning and 1 of the round elevators just wouldn't work... took quite a while.

carrotjuice

This doesn't seem normal. So to use the bathroom, staff would lead you to the J lounge via the side connecting door between the F and J lounges?

NoY

It's been pretty much like this forever. I never bothered with it after giving it a try a couple of times, it's just pi** poor, simple as that.