kboo

Some friends of mine are considering Malaysian Airlines to Sydney. Being a oneworld FF, I would tend to recommend Qantas, but wanted to find out whether anyone here has flown Malaysian and other airlines to Australia and was willing to comment on the service, flights, etc. (or direct me to a site that would have that information?) Many thanks!

GibSpmuh

It might help by mentioning where your friends will be flying from as well. Obviously if they're flying from somewhere like LAX then it's a bit of a detour taking Malaysian rather than Qantas and this should be factored into their plans. Flying from Europe on the other hand is basically the same when it comes to flight times between the two airlines.

Malaysian has good legroom in Economy class, 34" pitch or so, rather than Qantas and their 31" pitch which can be a bit snug. Service is good on Malaysian as well, and their entertainment systems are decent too. If mileage isn't of a concern for your friends, then Malaysian is a good option (and a stopover in Malaysia is worthwhile too - MAS usually has good packages available, certainly worth investigating if your friends have any interest at all in seeing that part of the world).

kboo

sorry, they're flying out of NYC.

wazirmh

So, your friends will be flying EWR-KUL (via Stockholm, ARN) to connect to KUL-SYD. You should get very good service on all legs. EWR-KUL is served 3x a week by a 2-class B777-200ER and KUL-SYD (twice a day) by the same aircraft type or a three-class B747-400.

Generous 34" seat pitch in Y and acres of leg room (more than 65") in angled lie-flats in C. You will get two hot meals for the transatlantic flights with another two from ARN to KUL, with snacks available in between. One hot meal and a light meal/snack for the KUL-SYD leg. AVOD available in all classes + free beverages. Generally, quality of service should be at par with QF, but with more pampering and more legroom.

Your friends should also consider a stopover in KUL, and MH may be able to offer very cost-effective stopover options for Malaysia or even regional South East Asian destinations.

Guy Betsy

Just as long as their booking class isn't G, L, V or W, they can accrue mileage on NW Worldperks for example.

http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/earn/a...shtml#malaysia

If the fares are as such, see if they can 'buy up' to another class of service so that they can earn miles.

EWR-KUL-SYD-KUL-EWR would earn quite a number of miles!

MH rivals CX and SQ in service. Their seat pitch is better of the two (rivals TG), their IFE is good (better than TG, equals CX), and their food is good too. Except that everything is halal - so no pork dishes! But it is not a dry airline - hardly.

singaporu_kooku

I just took Malaysia Airlines MEL-KUL-MEL recently. They are definitely not something to be talked about and don't expect anything too much from them. Flight attendants are not 5 stars, they dissapeared after meals, I don't see them distributing drinks every 30minutes like CX or SQ. In addition, they never pay attention to your call button, you have to wait for them to passed by to get their attention. Food is mediocre for airlines such as MH. For snack in Australia sectors, you will get a cold hard sandwich. I never get sandwich in any SQ or CX's australian sectors. IFE is good though. Overall, they are not at the same league as SQ or CX.

mario33

Once when I went down to the biz class section of the main deck to check on the seat layout of their newly refurbished 747, almost the entire crew were comfortably tucked in the new biz class seats watching movies on the IFE. They were not pleased with my "intrusion".

josh2803

I jus flew PER-KUL-BOM-KUL-PER on J class, all new seats apart from BOM-KUL, and it was fantastic. Service, food, entertainment, seats, amenity kits lounge etc was 5 star. I thouroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone and can't wait til I get the opportunityof flying them again.

k3nnis

Hi Josh,

Glad you enjoyed your trip. Just want to find out, for your BOM-KUL flight, what aircraft is that on? 772?

Cheers,
Kenn.

A-340 GOT

Any experience about MH C class SGN-KUL ?. Is there any MH lounge in SGN. ? Also is it possible to visit MH lounges in KUL upon arrival.? Transiting to domestic flight in Y....

hserus

India to KUL is typically A330 with old business class

Swiss Tony

I took a handful of those shorter Asian MH hops a couple of years back and they're so-so.

The food looks to me like what they serve in Economy but with the foil container sitting on a porcelin plate.*

Service onboard has been quite good mind you with drinks freely flowing. I recall that the plane had a fault leaving SGN. We parked on a remote stand, engineers came on board and curtain was drawn between C&Y. We got several rounds of a full bar service, whilst I think Y got a cup of OJ...

Lounge in SGN when I used it was the VN one - it's a lounge but that's about all I'll say on the matter and I think it was the only such facility at that time.

I believe you can use the Golden lounge on arrival at KLIA. See note at foot of this page - http://hq.malaysiaairlines.com/mh/en...en_lounges.asp. I'm no expert on this but I think you have to use the one at the satellite as they closed the international one in the main pier and your plane may well park at the main terminal. You just have to hop on the tram, but it adds to the time and you'll need to get back to the main part of the airport, clear customs & immigration etc then get to your departing gate all in good time.

Note there's no alcohol in the domestic Golden lounge at KLIA incase they try sending you over there and you want a drink!

* - having never flown MH in coach, I could however be horribly wrong on this count...

Keith009

My parents wish to do SIN-KUL-EWR/LAX-KUL-SIN on MH business class, since they've very attractive D fares ex-SIN.

Some questions:
1) I'm aware that all 772ERs (KUL-EWR) have been retrofitted with the new lie flat seats. Can the same be said for the 744s (LAX-KUL)?
2) Does SIN-KUL-SIN book into Y or F?
3) Is it possible to tag on domestic USA sectors on to the itinerary, and if so - what are the permitted carriers?

The fare rules don;t seem to say much about 2 and 3.

mario33

Couple of months ago, someone on FT reported flying on the old configuration aircraft for the LAX route which surprises me. The last time I flew this route on MH was close to a year ago and I had the new seats outgoing and the old seats coming back. Priorities are given to flights to LHR and SYD; and as long as there is a single aircraft in service that is not refurbished there will always be a chance they will use it for the LAX flight.

If you dont mind me asking, how "attractive" are these fares on MH ?
Would it be cheaper to purchase a RTW ticket based on the route your parents are flying since tagging on US domestic F/C flights is not going to be cheap.

Keith009

SGD5880 before taxes.

I'm thinking the transcon can be part of the fare, which is basically a SIN-NYC-SIN, outbound transatlantic and inbound transpacific.

I've not had much experience with MH fares but a similar routing on SQ (SIN-LAX-NYC-SIN) costs the same as a simple NYC return. Except on SQ it'd cost as much as a small tropical island.