17 June 2005
Japan Airlines Flight JL722 767-300
Sch Dep. 2140/ Actual ??
Sch Arr. 2245/ Actual 22??

A little apprehensive about taking this flight knowing that the wheels of another JAL 767 came off during landing, but it was all in the head more than anything of course.

Took the train from Sentral which was just across the road from where I stayed at the KL Hilton. Superb hotel. Extremely highly recommended, although the location of the place might be slight outta' the way if you are looking for some city action.

The train got me to the airport in just under 30 minutes. The concept is great with the express train, but there are just so many logistics that isn't taken care of. The lifts at the airport station for one, is just too small to accommodate so many people. Plus it's just so slow!!

Anyway earlier today I called JAL, MAS and SIA's offices in KL and all told me different stories. In another thread I mentioned that I wanted to fly on MAS first preferably, otherwise SQ's first, or if there arent any other choices, on JAL's business. MAS told me to stuff it coz the flights are "too full", SIA told me there's no chance even to get on waiting, and JAL told me to go down to their Jln Ampang office to get a new ticket because they "don't have a ticketing office in the airport". I thought forget it, and I'd try again at the airport.

Anyway back to the airport. After finally managing to find the check-in counter, I went straight to the business class check-in despite holding onto an economy ticket, and told the grumpy looking agent that I wanted an upgrade and I'll pay the difference. She hesitated for a while before calling the JAL station manager, who advised that I have to go down to the malaysia airlines' ticketing office on the 3rd floor of the terminal. So lugging all my bags we headed there, waiting for the slow lift once again, headed to the arrivals level, got approached by heaps of taxi touts, and finally found the super crowded MAS lounge. When it was finally my turn (I took the First/Business Class number) after 10 minutes, I got to the agent who told me to pay the RM92 difference per pax. She took her jolly good time to write the coupons, and by the time she finished it was already 8.15pm (I got to the airport at 7.30).

Headed back to check-in counter J and stood behind 2 Japanese businessmen with 8 bags. The agent was very strict with the baggage allowance, and the men begged for her to close an eye, and therefore another 15 minutes of waiting. When it was finally our turn, she took our passports and called the station manager again, and apparently there was some system issues which has to be rectified with our upgrade. Another 10 to 15 minutes of waiting. There was this Singaporean chinese sister duo next to us checking in on the next counter, in typical Singaporean fashion. Apparently a first time premium class flyer. I was crossing my fingers I wouldn't be sitting anywhere near them.

Finally got our boarding passes for 5A and 5C and we proceeded to the emmigration. I thanked the guy but he just acknowledged my gratitude with a "yah". Sigh.

Headed to the train to get us to the satelite terminal, and when we got there upstairs to the Premium Lounge. Met the sister duo again who was doing musical chairs, trying out almost every possible empty seat before they settled down. We got a seat at the far end of the lounge, which was about 80% full, mainly filled with Japanese-looking passengers most probably on the Toyko or Osaka flight. The food selection was very poor. Drinks worse.

The lounge felt wrong so we left after taking a small bite at the crappy offerings. Went downstairs and walked around for a bit. Went into the cosmetics and fragrances and was immediately pounded by 3 salesgirls who managed to scare us off with their overtly display of zeal. Headed to Gate C14 and was met with a queue at security, before walking into a pretty full waiting room.

Soon after the sister duo walked into the room and made their presence known by standing in front of the glass door to the jetway.

Boarding announcement soon commenced. It was business class passengers and passengers travelling with children call, but at the entrance to Door 2 (only one jetway was used) a ground staff only allowed business class boarding pass holders in, and asked the families to wait, creating pretty much a bottleneck chaos. Anyway heading down the short jetway we were greeted by a senior FA who spoke to me in Japanese even though I said 'Hello' to her in English and 'Thank You' in the same. Found our seats which is one row in front of the wall separating the business and WHY classes.

I knew it was going to be a crazy flight coz there was a baby screaming down the jetway, all the way all through the flight, and even after the jetway was connected in Singapore.

Anyway the doors were closed pretty much on time and we were impressed with the seats on this aircraft. Not the new shell-type seat but more of the regional ones. Pretty slow taxi to runway 32R and we waited for an Air Asia flight to take off. After a quick roll we were up and away...

When the flight levelled out, the sister duo, who was on the other side of the cabin, asked for snacks and drinks. Sigh. The senior FA came down the aisle to offer drinks a little while later, and struggled with speaking to us in English when we asked what was on offer. I tried to ask for champagne (the menu says they serve piper) but she didn't seem to understand me or probably didn't know how to mouth the words in English to tell me that they dont serve it on this leg, but I took the orange juice which was on her tray, and she smiled at me and left.

I WAS expected a snack of sorts but it didn't arrive. So much for premium class travel. I thoroughly enjoyed SQ's chicken panini when I took the SIN-KUL leg!

After a quick 35-minute journey the plane touched down (not sure which runway but it was coming in from Tekong and Changi beach). The roll was rather scary as the plane seemed to come in too fast and the recurring thought of the fallen wheels kept playing in my head. The cushions on the empty seats falling onto the cabin floor reinforced those thoughts and I thought the plane was never going to stop! It did.

The taxiing was much quicker this time and we docked at Gate C11, the nearest one to the arrivals hall. The transit passengers were told to wait for passengers terminating their journey in Singapore to disembark first before waiting for their next flight in the "transit room". When we got out of the jetway I glanced at the "transit room" and it was in complete darkness. Good luck to them I thought.

Anyway after clearing immigration and the customary bottle of cologne at DFS, headed to Belt 19 where there was a changi staff removing our bags on the belt. Headed out to a humungous taxi line, never saw it so long before.

Overall, compared to the SQ First class service, it definitely isn't worth the RM92 upgrade for this JAL's KUL-SIN leg. Don't bother, really, unless you want to try out the seat in its glory sleeper Z position for the 10 minutes the seat belt sign is off.

Metcalve what a horrid travel experience, what is happening ? I loved reading your reports but every thing on this trip bothered you. What gives?

Huh?? Erm.. the excessive waiting, crappy service, running into attention-seeking sister duos, screaming baby who wouldn't stop for an hour, crappy lounge, crappy food when you're really hungry, and not getting value for money (this I admit I might've been spolit by SQ)... do these reasons suffice?? Yeah it was a pretty much horrid experience.

Oh I forgot to add that the uglier sister of the sister duo glared at the screaming baby pretty much when the flight touched down and was taxiing to the gate, and commented pretty inconsiderably for the rest of us to hear about how she wants to pound the baby with the fist to see whether the baby'll shut up 'coz "she paid so much to sit in Business Class" and didn't think she had to put up with it.

For consistency, you should also describe the ethnic group of the "kiasu" Singaporean sisters (I assume they are Chinese) since you have used the "Malay" & "Indian" description for the less than pleasant characters in your SIN-KUL report

BTW thanks for your 2 reports. It was a sector that I used to fly very often as a kid, but with the inconvenience of KLIA and the ridiculously high fare now for such a short sector, I hardly fly this route anymore unless I have to transit in Changi for another destination.

Thanks, edited it. Thought i'll leave out as many ethnics as possible in this report since some people think that describing people by their ethnics is an issue. So much for teaching kids today to describe how they look like, and using politically correct terms to do so.

But c'mon, hands up, how many of you out there receive preferential treatment mainly by the... how can i put this politically correctly... non-chinese staff at the airport?? It's out there, and just that people don't want their opinions published.