Craig

In other news, MH and CX will not proceed with their joint business (metal-neutral, network planning and coordination etc.) application with MAVCOM. It appears that MAVCOM isn't satisfied with the outcome of this proposed JB as it will severely hamper competition between MY and HK. I am curious if you know that the most revered airline in MWings, SQ, is using PP Business for their business/*G pax? Probably not SIN. It's too short of a flight to upload proper meals. BKK/DPS has almost always been uplifted from outstation. Some cities like HKT, PNH etc. are back-catered (i.e. uplifted from KUL). Just 7 weekly NRT and 5 weekly HND. HND will be swapped with NRT in a few days and HND doesn't appear in schedule until Summer 2024 (not open for sale, but MH70/71, the daytime KUL-NRT is open for sale). I don't know if HND schedule is not working out for them or if they can't get a permanent preferred slot at HND.

QR will resume PEN passenger service beginning 29 October. Routing will be DOH-HKT-PEN (no traffic rights between HKT and PEN). And QR will add another daily DOH-KUL flight beginning 15 December for a total of 4 daily between MH (359/333) and QR (77W/788). Flight schedule will be very similar to previous QR852/853 and will be operated by B787-8.

But I was replying to KK Lee’s argument. I wasn’t the one making the straw man’s argument here. The whole premise was - tourists avoid Malaysia because alcohol is expensive. I said tourism malaysia has 99 problems. Expensive alcohol ain’t one. And the goal post kept moving. And I was saying, we used to have nonstop flights from the UK to a duty free island. But it wasn’t successful. Get the connection between a nonstop flight to a duty free island where alcohol is dirt cheap but yet it was unsuccessful? And please don’t listen blindly to whatever politicians say (Malaysia or otherwise). Changing the definition of states in Malaysia requires a constitutional amendment. Not something to be announced over a party general assembly and be done with.

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1. Has this been gazetted? Because Sarawak and Sabah governments are still identifying themselves as Malaysian states. 2. You mentioned city to city - do you mean Kuah town and another beach town in Cambodia? Because when I last *lived* in Langkawi in 2020/21, a can of beer costs around RM3-4 (and that's at a restaurant, not from a supermarket). 3. You mean like how in Cambodia and Vietnam try to quote you in USD instead of local currency? 4. And I said, there are a lot of flights from KUL and SZB. I didn't say it's highly connected. My emphasis was on KUL/SZB.

Bullet point renumbered when I removed some text. 1) Did we lose 2 more states along the way or the 14 stripes on our flag adopted in 1963 meant to represent the 11 states + 3 territories? 🤣 2) Sabah Parks is an anomaly in Malaysia. Whilst the entrance fees are high, I've been told that getting the climbing permit isn't easy and it's sold out in advance. So good for them if they can maintain high fees and still get visitors. Sabah generates a lot of income from tourism and they don't have a lot of other industries other than, oxymoronically, palm oil. Same goes for Sipadan - you need to spend 3 nights and, if you are lucky, you get the prized Sipadan day permit. I guess that's the leverage you have when you are one of the top diving sites in the world. Taman Negara on the other hand only charges RM1 entrance fees. Mulu National Park only charges foreigners RM30 for a 5-day pass. 3) I have never said alcohol is cheap in Malaysia - I said, expensive alcohol is not the primary issue. 4) If anything, MYR depreciation is great for tourism. You remember MH1 used to fly LHR-LGK/PEN-KUL and Tui used to fly UK (BHX/LGW)-LGK? There are nonstop flights (and plenty of them) from KUL and SZB plus other cities to LGK.

I was at the domestic MH lounge a few weeks ago and the food quality/selection has improved a lot. I think you were right after the *scheduled* MH main morning departure bank. With current delays, who knows what the morning departure bank is. The GLL food has improved a lot.

Can you provide examples of those countries having cheaper alcohol than Malaysia duty free islands? And you can't just move the goal post all the time.

Depends on the lounge you have access to 😅 But I'd think no. Food is still provided on board, just that instead of the usual rice/noodles, you may get a fruit and cake. And since MH allows you to bring food onboard, I heard patin tempoyak taste great in flight 🤣

Did I miss the memo that Malaysia is banning alcohol or are we talking about banning alcohol? Those 100 drinkers in your example are all still welcomed in Malaysia (and also duty free islands of Langkawi, Tioman, and Labuan where alcohol is cheap). Funny you mention Chinese tourists visiting Japan. Guess all is forgiven with Fukushima now.

SYD is too far for it to be back-catered. It's uplifted from SYD. Back when MH uploaded their menu online, I recall that a few stations were back-catered (i.e. KUL catered for the outbound and inbound MH flight). I recall distinctly that stations such as BKK and DPS was never back-catered where as stations such as HKT, HKG (just after covid), SGN was back-catered. I might be wrong tho.

A friend of mine sent me a KUL-India daytime J class meal. Let's just say there was a plastic wrapped Gardenia wholemeal bread, maybe a dessert tart from Family Mart, and chickpea curry served with rice in an aluminum container (no it wasn't plated - business pax are expected to eat out of the aluminum container). I guess I forgot that MH's Brahims contract also meant that Brahim will wash all the dishes/plates for MH. If they do not take over Brahim's, I expect it to be much longer. I can't imagine starting an airline catering company from scratch will be easy (building, crew training, procurement, certification etc.). MH can't just hire a few kenduri caterers and cook it under a tent and deliver it to planes. If they end it abruptly with Brahim, Brahim will bleed even more and MH is probably looking at a hostile takeover when Brahim is desperate.

I am not sure what durians has to do with tourism. I never claimed Malaysia is the best country to visit, but if we didn't attract hicks, bogans etc. to visit Malaysia and I don't know - drink all day, pet a tiger, or ride an elephant previously, I don't think we should begin now. Most of our neighbors are trying to attract premium travelers instead of these backpackers and retirement fund day drinkers.

Malaysia is going to cost more than Indonesia and Thailand because our standard of living / wages are higher than Thailand/Indonesia. We aren't competing on the lowest cost base for travelers. But 3-4€ ($4-5USD) for a meal is reasonable for most travelers - we cannot compete with 1-2€ a meal here. Our transport (except for Grab during KL peak hours) is very reasonable compared to the rest of Southeast Asia. Public transportation is still one of the cheapest in the region, if not the world (comparing apples to apples - can't compare say buses to trains). I take it you haven't been to DPS in the past few years? DPS is geofenced. You can't get a normal Grab price there. IIRC, my grab price was 220,000 IDR (~RM65) from DPS to Sanur/Seminyak for a short 6-7km on the road. I haven't been to HKT in a while because I had bad experience with price gouging there but I recall that Grab was really expensive from HKT as well and to get anywhere in the island are all fixed rates. Even a short 10 minute Grab ride costs 300THB - this may have changed, I don't know, but my impression was that it was all a scam and I don't plan on returning. I think drunk bogans drinking away their Centrelink funds is exactly what Bali wants to get rid of. Most of my Aussie friends refused to visit Bali because it's filled with bogans and they don't want to be associated with them. Just like how some Malaysians avoid a place full of rempits (and don't want to be associated with them).

Malaysia doesn't know how to market themselves well. All these banning doesn't help either - Malaysia's government cancel culture is as bad as West's woke cancel culture, except that we are in the opposite spectrum. MPs on both side of the aisles aren't helping when both keep bashing concerts/alcohol when the other is in government and both are pandering to the conservatives even though the current government won on a progressive ticket (and they can keep dreaming of flipping northern/east coast states - it will never happen within the next few years). Tourists getting irked by manufacturing are the least of their worries when all tourists see on their way say from Sandakan to Kinabatangan are oil palm plantations and you get a tiny strip of primary rainforest (and only on one side of the river nonetheless) at Sukau/Bilit area. Whether it's confined to tourist strip or not, I sincerely hope a small part of Malaysia does not turn into Nha Trang or Pattaya. It is really gross there. The only reason they are in Bali, Phuket, Nha Trang, Antalya etc. and get stupid drunk is because it's relatively cheap place to spend winter. Money goes slightly further there than Malaysia but do we really want to compete with them to get those tourists? Malaysia has way higher standard and cost of living - obviously we wouldn't attract those tourists. Bali is also in the process of reducing those tourists because they do not want tourists to do stupid things and disrespect local customs. Grab/Maxim/Air Asia Ride is still available at KUL, PEN etc. at a very reasonable rate, no? There is a choice at KUL/PEN but there is no choice in DPS or HKT. It's even worse in HKT where local (non-airport) Grab are all flat rate. Let's not even talk about LGBTQ - belly dancing is apparently too haram in KL last week. If only there was a time where social media users kept their opinions to themselves and not complain or get offended about everything and get their 15 seconds of fame through a social media post. I don't know of any friends that choose a destination based on price of alcohol - of course that's my experience. I am not saying price of alcohol here is cheap either - just saying that I am not sure how many people actually chooses a destination (unless you want yo spend significant of time drinking) based on price of alcohol. Food and hotel here is much cheaper than say Bali - so it all evens out somehow.