Has anyone experienced Malev in J?

Tossing up flying from DUB to BKK in J on Malev (transiting BUD) - how's the food service? IFE? BUD Duna Club?

Can't seem to find anything much online about it. A friend travels with them regularly in Euro Y and raves about the airline, but I'd rather have the opinions of people here who actually fly on other airlines.

I regularly fly BA and QF in J, and have flown CX, AY, RJ, AA in J. Any advice appreciated.

I have recently posted the same question with not much success in term of an answer. My understanding is that MA is excellent in C (Euro business), but that the seats and IFE on the B 767 are very sub par (good food, I hear). Let's face it, their business class across the atlantic with connection to wherever in Europe is around $ 2,200 RT all included and no strings when the competition in Oneworld is at 3K for advance purchase, 7000-9000 at short notice. There must be a reason and bad/few connections in BUD is not enough. In addition, there seems to be no bonus miles for AA higher tier members.

I will be travelling BUD-JFK in J in the next couple of weeks so I will let you know how it goes.
I am not expecting great things and nor should I based on the fare paid. Very reasonable compared to other airlines.
However it will be direct which is important as I am only to BUD for the weekend.

Thanks fatmac, this will be greatly appreciated by all as MA is too small to be widely commented upon (even Skytrax and Business Traveler largely ignore it in their surveys), especially the long haul which is quite extensive considering they make do with 3 B767 and have relatively few flight ops disturbances.

Hi,

I am a Hungarian student in the US and I fly with Malev frequently on the BUD-JFK route. I find them nice, the service is good and they have never lost any luggage. The only drawback I can mention is that since they operate a single airplane that flies back and forth between JFK and BUD, if it leaves late from Budapest, it will be leaving late from JFK too - this happened to my girlfriend once, but not to me. This might change now that they have joined oneworld.

I was particularly impressed by Malev once when my luggage was too heavy but the agent said it is OK since the plane was not full anyway. This is in contrast to Delta (the only other airline with JFK-BUD direct flights), who are happy to charge you $25 whenever they can.

Now only if I could figure out how to book these flights cheaper ;-)

HTH,

Tamas

Welcome to FT, tkpapp! I am sure your knowledge of Malev will be happily drawn on here. And hopefully with the help of FT you will get to be flying up front and for less.

Looking forward to the report fatmac70! Thanks!

Not flying Long Haul but short haul from LGW to BUD in J. Seeing there aren't any reports on here, will gladly report their standard of service to all.

-CF-

Just flew BEY-BUD on 737 J yesterday. The flight left BEY an ungodly hour of 4:10 in the morning.

The seat was fine for intra Europe C but nothing extraordinary. I was seated on the first row and there was not much space to put my feet into.

Feeling lazy today so would someone have a link to the Malev route map?

Well I have just done JFK-BUD-JFK and I must say it was good considering the low price. The seats are not BA CW but they are comfortable. I would say 55-60 inch pitch and slightly less recline than the old AA Business class seats. In fact there was more legroom and recline than I was expecting.

The IFE is main screen which is a bit behind the times.

At JFK you can use the Admiral club and at BUD Malev have a small lounge near the departure gate. The Malev lounge was much better than the AA T9 Admiral club- but that�s not hard!

I was however impressed by the in-flight service. Full dinner on the JFK-BUD flight. Dinner included a starter, main course, cheese, fruit, desert then coffee and liquors. All portions were very generous - maybe too much food!!
Drink selection good and all wines if I remember were Hungarian. A continental breakfast was served before landing.

On the BUD-JFK the Lunch again was substantial and I only had the starter and main course. When I declined the rest of the meal the FA looked quite surprised (I needed to sleep - a long weekend!!!). Before landing a cold plate of meats and fruit was served with bread and drinks and coffee.

On both flights crew were good and very friendly.

Both flights were only 15 mins late arriving. Outbound due to long taxi at JFK (Thunder Storms). Inbound strong headwinds. So no issue.

All in all a good experience and for the price well worth the money. It�s a very good option if you are connecting to other arts of Europe as it seems the ticket price is the same for all destinations.

I would recommend it as an option and is on par with the Old AA Business Class. Interesting point is the JFK-BUD flight is a code share with AA - but to fly under the AA code share was at least another $1500.

A surprisingly good experience over all � considering the fare paid.

Thanks fatmac70! Appreciated the time out to write that one up. I've heard the same about Malev's food service - since they don't have the most modern IFE or seating, they go hog wild on the food. I found RJ Crown Class to be the same - loads of legroom, flat seats, crappy IFE but superb dinner and service to match.

Excellent, looks like Malev is getting my booking!

Mine too, Thanks Fatmac This, with IB and AY, constitutes good, if scarce, alternatives to overpriced AA J, especially considering that AA's "Advance Business" has gone up tremendously these past 2 years. Of course, getting mileage on BA from/to the US would provide more opportunities, but I can see why this will never happen:The difference in service would deal a fatal blow to AA's front cabins.

On Wednesday I flew BUD-TXL on Malev J. Only two of the eight c seats were taken. These seats on the Fokker are like domestic F on UA.

It seems that Malev is fixated on sausages as their breakfast offering. This time wrapped around in bacon.

In this August, I took flights of IST-BUD-ARN.
(Reason ?, Probably very clear for members of this forum )

IST BUD MA205 0525 0620 737-500
BUD ARN MA764 1820 2030 737-600
class J (D)
fare 371 EUR

Business class seats are almost same as BA's one.
I feel slightly better than BA, bus very marginal.
Hot meal service is almost same as BA's Club Europe.

BUD airport is very small.
I took taxi to city center and enjoyed 3 hours sightseeing bus tour.
(1000-1300)

I tested thourgh baggage handling.
I intentionally arranged one through checkin baggage at IST.
Luckyly, I got the luggage at ARN peacefully.

Wifi hotspot service is available at BUD.
However, you need credit card and SMS capable roaming phone.
The hotspot service sends activation-code/password to your phone by SMS.

There are three lounges in BUD, but nothing sepcial, very minimal.