Craig

Those aren’t lie flats. I am thinking more in the line of Diamond Seats (found on AA’s 321T cabin) or Aero Vantage / Vantage Solo (found on B6’s Mint and SQ 7M8).

They can build something inferior. No granite floor tiles, no high ceilings etc. but does not cause any inconvenience to passengers. Having to walk through a shopping center to get to check in desks whilst carrying all your luggage is plain dumb. Passenger flow is just not there. Same. Other than the bus, I don't think T1 is bad. It flows nicely. You only have to go down the escalator once for either domestic or international departures from check in to gate and down the escalator once for international arrivals from gate to meet & greet area. One thing I would say is poorly designed is the C/Satellite concourse. All the airline lounges are on the 2nd level and passengers will have to find the obscure lifts/escalators and take it up a floor (MH's lounge is even worse where you have to do quite a big u-turn). You never really have to walk far for gates at T1. Longest walk is probably G10 to H10 if you are on a transit and that's maybe 1 km? Even from check-in to C27 is not that bad of a walk. Train station is just below where you exit the sterile area or just before check-in. T1 was designed by a world-renowed architect (Kisho Kurokawa).T2 was designed by well, the same company that brought you Paradigm Mall in Kelana Jaya. Same confusing layout, parking that doesn't work, lifts and escalators that are not conducive to people flow. And the best part is? They will be the one redesigning the re-construction of Subang Airport. T2 lounges (IIRC, only they only have PPL in T2) is located in the shopping center itself. Passengers have to lug their bags through the whole complex and check-in, and then go back to the shopping center with slow incline escalators instead of those steps but shorter escalators (there are step escalators but you have to find it and it's not the most easy place to find them). If I read MAHB's report correctly, YTD (Jan-Feb. 2024), T1 handled 4,885k pax where as T2 handled 4,117k pax. But if you are on the ground at the airport, it always feel like T2 is busier and more chaotic. I'd like to think bad design contributes to part of it. T1 whilst busier just looks calmer and more serene.

Maybe quite far down on the list of things they need to fix but one of my pet peeves is that they display cities/airport arbitrarily on their FIDS. LHR is "London", KIX is "Kansai", NRT is "Narita", TFU is "Tianfu", BKK is "Bangkok" where as DMK is "Don Mueang" etc (and your passport stamp will say Bangkok Intl Airport for DMK and Suvarnabhumi Airport for BKK). It'd be nice if they display it something like London-Heathrow, Tokyo-Narita, Chengdu-Tianfu etc. Not all travelers are familiar with airport names.

This and I think the ME conflict was just an easy excuse. Doesn't help that they fly into SAW instead of IST. Batik have some sort of a code-share agreement with TK (but it's more for beyond KUL connections rather than beyond IST). There are no connections beyond SAW as most airlines there are LCC (unless they are self-connecting).

I have used that function during covid as well (granted they were all domestic flights then). I don't recall a huge schedule change or cancelations with MH for my post covid travels with them, so I wouldn't know. My MH experience is usually delays on the day of travel and it's too late to do anything about it. But a travel waiver is a bit different. It allows passengers to rebook themselves if they are flying on these dates, whether or not their flight is canceled/delayed.

Seems like EK still hasn't recovered from their meltdown a few days ago. Pictures of people sleeping on the terminal floor, bags taking forever (if they are ever found/delivered), no communications from EK, poor IT, no weather waiver. There has been a few people complaining about how MH handled this Mt. Ruang situation too. They can't rebook online nor can they cancel online (not too sure if they booked via OTA). MH could learn a few things from American/European carriers by issuing travel waivers due to force majeure and enable their IT to allow passengers rebook themselves (rebook themselves to another day within a window or full refund if their flights are canceled).

Seems like a few regional flights have been affected due to partial closure around Kota Kinabalu FIR. MH603 to SIN and MH784 to BKK has been canceled. As a result, MH788 to BKK will be up gauged to 332.

Are BI’s plane built differently? They seem to have somewhat normal operations. 🤣 We have relatively decent drainage system but sometimes it does get overwhelmed. But developers are eyeing a few of those retaining ponds for development. So who knows in the future. And I am also surprised that some people don’t understand why SMART tunnel is closed during heavy downpours and blame poor planning when the tunnel floods 🤣

It seems like Air Asia has a travel waiver in place. Would be nice if MH let passengers know what their options are and also waive change fees and fare difference if they manage to reschedule within 30 days (this is very generous). I am curious if MH's waivers will be channeled through to OTAs etc. Even better would be a full refund option but that almost never happens on AK 😅 I can see people typing DUB for Dubai and click on the wrong one.

That and also this was once in a century storm. Not saying that they shouldn't invest in proper drainage system, but countries do not usually build drainage to handle a year's worth of rain in 24 hours. If KL had 140+mm (5+ inches) in 24 hours, it'd overwhelm our drainage system too but of course it wouldn't be as bad as what Dubai experienced, but good luck to Sri Muda or Puchong. Are there still a lot of post-raya demand? I still see MH 7xxx series flying around so I assume there will be some backlog. What does black/blue box on your map indicates? I am curious how many South Africans end up in JHB when they are supposed to buy a ticket to JNB (JHB is often referred to Johannesburg in South Africa with the exception of air travelers, just like how 99% of Malaysians call Air Asia AA *facepalm*).

Good to know. Thank you.

Interesting. AK5136 (KUL-BKI) is on approach to BKI, AK 5302 (JHB-BKI) is on its way to BKI, and MH 7427 (SDK-KUL)is taxiing out as we speak. It looks like the whole Sabah East Coast all the way to North Sulawesi is no go. There's also MH3061 (SDK-TWU) which I guess they are flying below the ash clouds. DXB is kinda like a meltdown. So a few order of magnitude difference 😅 This is probably why US/EU carriers (especially UA/AC) invested heavily on their IT to make sure that passengers can rebook themselves rather than calling/in person at the airport. I don't know if EK has that capability. But then again, I don't know if Malaysians are tech savvy enough to change their flights themselves when a Gen Z doesn't know how to read 24 hour clock system.

MH has canceled several flights to/from Sarawak and Sabah due to Mt. Ruang's eruption in North Sulawesi. You'd think that this would be more prominent on their website but no, it's like a small rotating ticker at the top. I wish more Asian airlines (cough *MH*) have EU/North American carriers style waivers for weather/industrial related events (industrial much less common here). Free change if you want to change your flights for an extended period (usually 2-4 weeks) or free change and waived fare difference if it's within a few days from the affected day(s). MH used to offer free changes, waived change fees for schedule change and it can be done online - not too sure if they still have this.

Even MH's 350 suffer a payload restriction with the current air space closures. MH will not carry cargo from KUL to LHR for the next 2 weeks until 30 April.

If anyone is fortunate enough to fly great distances over similar-ish mid latitude, one can certainly feel the huge difference. i.e. LAX-HKG can be 15.5-16 hours flying time on a bad day where as HKG-LAX can be as quick as 12.5. A JFK-HKG route can be faster (assuming you can overfly over Russia) in winter than LAX-HKG even tho JFK-HKG is about 800 miles further.

There should be payload restrictions westbound during winter or if there are any air space closure that requires a deviation (e.g. MH is avoiding Iran now).

I used to get off at Makkasan. That was no man's land back in the day. No taxis and can't get to the MRT station next to it. But BKK is another one with MRT/BTS/Skytrain naming system 🤣 and they have a different fare system.

That's supposed to be the new TBS but for north/east departures instead 😱 It's the same tracks from KL Sentral and south but yes I haven't taken the Transit in a long time to know where it drops off or picks up. I just see the Transit sign near the Nu Sentral escalators (if you miss the Express, you literally can't just hop on the next Transit, which is dumb). Malaysia tries to reinvent the wheel but fails almost all the time, like KUL Terminal 1 and 2 is so much better than KLIA 1 and KLIA 2. Passengers won't care if they are on LRT/MRT, they just know that it's a train. But keep KTM separate because that's suburban rail. And maybe monorail too. A useful line but it's slow with long headways. That area above escalators and ticket barriers is tiny. Can't imagine people waiting for their bags there (and if bags aren't there on time, it's not exactly the most pleasant area in KL Sentral to wait).

Which station is that if I may ask? I am curious if this is due to the cost cutting by then unpopular Finance Minster, who of all things, cut the connected paid interchange at Ampang Park between Kajang and Kelana Line. And cut the mostly underground MRT 3 project which was projected to cost less than what the current mostly above ground MRT 3 will cost. I am trying to remember if the Express and Transit is actually on the same track but just further up for the Transit at KL Sentral. If only they planned more platforms at KL Sentral instead of a mall next to it! Would be helpful of "ERL" change their name or at least the logo so it has a plane next to it. Non Malaysia residents would have no idea what ERL meant when they are on a public transit in KL, especially when arriving at KL Sentral/Muzium Negara it will just announce "change here for the ERL". And maybe put up signs on the train which terminal to alight for which airline. I have so many things that I'd like to change for KL transit that doesn't cost a lot of money, like getting rid of "MRT/LRT". Just the name of the line will do. And where would passengers pick up their bags at KL Sentral 😅 I remember it was built as a check out facility too with the IATA code "XKL" but how do passengers clear customs then?

I would fly AK more if they don't do that dumb weigh your carry-on before security. 7kg is nothing and I don't want to check-in a bag on a short trip. We shall see.I might fly with them to Belitung or LBJ and if they fly there. Much better than a transit at CGK/SUB/DPS (and DPS taxes are paid twice if you do a roundtrip to LBJ via DPS).

SQ just extended their reservations for XMN, CKG, TFU.

Air Algérie has canceled seasonal KUL flights. Not a huge loss tho - reservations were never opened and if you've ever seen an Air Algérie office, there's always a huge queue outside 😅 What an odd city to start from. It's not Juneyao's focus city and KUL is HO's only international destination from KMG (plus a handful of other Chinese cities that HO can connect to). Flights still haven't appear in the GDS tho. On another news, MU will be continuing their KMG-KUL service beyond April until end of October for now and flight leaves both KMG and KUL about an hour earlier from May (still early morning arrival into KMG at 01:00).

MH133 connects from India but not most of Asia. Return MH 132 connects to most of Asia but doesn't really connect to India (other than MAA, BLR, BOM, DEL on certain days) MH 145 connects from Asia and some cities in India Return MH 144 connects to some cities in India but doesn't really connect to Asia other than JP/KR But the oddest thing is AKL has double frequency on Tuesday ex-KUL of all days. Not exactly the busiest travel day. AKL is in this weird time zone and distance where it's either a very long layover or a very short turnaround but still can't fulfill connections on both sides. I think they tried it once with a daily flight with similar timing to MH 145 on the outbound (departing much alter around midnight) and the plane sits around for 9 hours at AKL and do the return with similar schedule as MH 132 (earlier return to arrive around 7AM).

Things are fluid but I still see 25Nov on EF.

AKL will be the second 339 route for MH (for now) beginning 30 March 2025 (a bit late? I thought AKL was primed for 339 as soon as they have 3-4 339s?). Flight schedule for NS25: MH133 KUL0835 – 2250AKL 339 x357 MH145 KUL2110 – 1125+1AKL 339 x146 MH132 AKL0025 – 0750KUL 339 x146 MH144 AKL1300 – 2025KUL 339 x257 Very rare to see MH updating their schedule this far in advance 😅