Craig

I have a dear friend who lives in Perth, AU. He's MH #1 fan. But since MH swapped to B738 on the PER route, he switched allegiance to D7 and sometimes, god forbid, SQ. The audacity of him to fly SQ, I say! So he asked me to monitor PER equipment daily and to inform him if there are any changes so he can pledge his allegiance to MH again. After all, getting a non-BSI 737 on a 5-hour flight is blasphemous here. And so I did - checked PER equipment daily via GDS and voila - found out there's a change for the better for PER along with other routes

MH loaded quite a few changes for Northern Summer 2019 (wef 31MAR19). Planned changes as below: Kuala Lumpur - Colombo frequency increased from 7 weekly to 10 weekly (reinstatement of daytime flights ex-KUL) Kuala Lumpur - Guangzhou A332 continues to operate for NS19 Kuala Lumpur - Hong Kong MH 432/433 equipment change from B738 to A333 (total of 2 daily A333 and 1 B738) Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta MH720/721 equipment change from A332 to B738 Kuala Lumpur - Kathmandu MH170/171 equipment change from B738 to A333 on day 236 Kuala Lumpur - Nanjing frequency increased from 3 to 4 weekly (new Saturday flight) Kuala Lumpur - Perth MH126/127 A332 replaces B738 Kuala Lumpur - Seoul MH66/67 equipment change from A380 to A333 Kuala Lumpur - Shanghai A332 continues to operate on MH386/387 Kuala Lumpur - Sydney A359 continues to operate on MH122/123 until 01MAY19 KUL departure Kuala Lumpur - Taipei A332 continues to operate for NS19 Kuala Lumpur - Tokyo-NRT A380 continue to operate on MH88/89 until 01MAY19 KUL departure

A family of 5 at RM23 is still equivalent to 2 public transit ticket for a family of 5 say in Tokyo or Sydney AK and D7 are the sole beneficiaries of this. Scoot and Jetstar only operate flights within ASEAN - MYR 50 applies, even to MH pax

Again, the extra MYR 23 for passengers departing out of ASEAN isn't going to burn a hole in the pax's pocket. It's USD $5.50 - probably the cost of a two single public transit ticket in most foreign cities served by AK/D7 (with the exception of South Asia). Passengers do not see how much taxes are paid - they just see the total amount that they need to pay. AK Group is throwing a fit because they were entitled to a lower PSC previously at LCCT, thus the total cost to their pax is lower and have a competitive advantage over others at the same base fare. And now they are suddenly equal to the likes of MH/SQ/TG etc. Kinda feels oppressive doesn't it, when you have all the privileges and equality comes knocking?

Funny that you brought up airport charges/taxes to the passengers (we aren't privy to airline charges, so we shall leave that out). Current Thai (both DMK/BKK) departure taxes: APS: THB 35 International Arrival/Departure Fee: THB 15 PSC: THB 700 Total: THB 750 (~MYR 96) Current Malaysia departure taxes: PSC: MYR 73 Regulatory Charge: MYR 1 Total: MYR 74 (Plus MYR 3 KLIA2 fee, whatever that is for KLIA2 departures) Again, still cheaper than Thailand. Is the MYR 23 increase in PSC for flights outside ASEAN going to impact passenger growth that much? That's a drop in the bucket for almost all passengers traveling out of ASEAN. Echoing what Chris said, zero landing fees, zero PSC etc. won't entice an airline if there aren't any demand What kind of entitled airline thinks their passengers should pay a different fee operating at a different terminal in the same airport? They are operating from an airport that serves almost exclusively LCCs in Bangkok but hasn't made a single complaint (at least publicly) about the high cost for passengers there!

All I can say is good luck collecting the extra RM23 from pax after they have purchased their tickets. Stock prices of AAX fell 2% and AK fell ~1.5% due to this pending lawsuit. I feel like they aren't protecting their investors' interest.

From MH's A350 Business Suite webpage: I am pretty sure that the full bed length is not 83". I am 73" (186cm) and I can't sleep with my legs straight (I think the full bed length is around 72" or 183cm).

MH Business Suites (BS) is not on par with QR QSuites. QSuites doesn't allow you access to their own al-Safwa lounge and neither do you get more mileage. You could be booked in R or J but it's still QSuites. You need to be booked in FAP for MH BS. So how much cheaper do you think MH J should be? Same price point as SV J? MH J is still better than a lot of carriers - LH/LX/BA comes to mind.

AFAIK, the cap is restricted to 4 airports: SYD, PER, BNE, MEL at 35,000 weekly seats. Malaysian carriers are granted unlimited seats to other airports.

More info? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Are they still selling it as F/A or is it just restricted to certain markets like ICN/SYD?

Unlike MEL, AVV is not subjected to seat capacity restrictions. D7 can operate however many flights they want to AVV, but if AVV didn't work out for D7, they'd have to apply for the seats back (assuming MH/OD hasn't exhausted them).

I feel like Josh is withholding some crucial information: From The Sun (UK tabloid): I did not view his YouTube, simply because I don't like to contribute to a blogger's bottom line but I wasn't sure if he mentioned the above in his video. A quick search revealed that he mostly reviewed premium cabins, with a few oddballs in Y. Maybe his modus operandi is to contact the airline's social media team (which he did with MH) and pulled out his DYKWIA card but failed this time? A full refund plus a letter from the CEO and ground staff waiting for your arrival isn't enough for a "worst flight of his life"? I wonder what else is he entitled to?

This is in this 3-year old thread because AR will have to re-paint CZ Skyteam livery aircraft? *confused*

Thank you! That makes more sense!

I thought Malaysia already enjoys unlimited landing rights into Japan other than Tokyo-Haneda (with 7 nighttime slots). Sounds like D7 wants to get first dip on the daytime slots should it become available to Malaysia in 2020 (which I think Malaysia will, at least 1 daily daytime slot, but it's up to Mavcom to decide which airline to award the daytime slot to). I don't believe other airports are slot restricted (besides NRT/HND)

Pretty sure it's non-discriminatory and applies to all pax. Most pax won't notice/see the charges (unless one goes through each line of taxes). I don't think Indonesia exit tax exist anymore (at least it's included in the ticket now). Some countries like Mexico charges MXP 500 (~RM100) for all tickets to Mexico (e.g., even with the same fare, a MEX-LAX RT is 500 MXP cheaper than a LAX-MEX RT). This arrival tax is refundable for all Mexican citizens/residents but they have to actively request the refund from the airline since it's included in the ticket.

Buried somewhere in Malaysia's 2019 Budget is a proposed new international air passenger levy beginning 01 June 2019. Proposed levy: - RM20 for travel to ASEAN countries - RM50 for travel beyond ASEAN countries This is in addition to the PSC of RM11 for domestic travel, RM35 for ASEAN travel, and RM73 for beyond ASEAN flights. PSC is charged based on the destination of your first outbound flight from Malaysia regardless of final destination (e.g. KUL-BKK-HKG on TG will incur RM35 PSC instead of RM73).

Not necessarily so. Most airlines usually offer deals during the first few months to promote awareness. They've changed from Thomas Cook 330 to Condor own's 767 with real (albeit angled) business class cabin and also made it year-round instead of seasonal. They've also partnered up with MH for beyond KUL connections (as opposed to LH where almost all of their pax ends at KUL).

Older aircraft on TK? TK uses the A333 for its KUL flights which I find pretty comfortable and it's new. 2-2-2 in J for the 333 vs 2-3-2 in J for the 77W. QR has 21 weekly services. 24 weekly was only during summer peak (which I think was canceled - QR had those extra 3 weekly flights in the GDS for some time but I don't think those flights actually took off). KUL will get a daily Q-Suites fitted 77W next year (at least that's what is shown in the GDS now) but with QR, you wouldn't know what aircraft you'll be in until it shows up at the gate. I've been QR-ed a few times. A333 is horrible for J, but I think it's decent for Y, much better than the 787/77W for sure. Some flights in November are still on the 788. It's still the same schedule as before, the only difference is Etihad reduced their flights from 2 to 1 daily.

Oppps. Good catch. Its meant to be weekly. So CGK is 7x 332. Not sure why I typed 1x. BKK is currently 4 weekly 332/333 mix. The NW18/19 schedule becomes almost exclusively Fri and Sun with 333 flights (I dont see a sub for the school holidays which usually see a spike in demand, especially for the first week). All this of course doesnt take into consideration of flights consolidation or last minute sub. The 332 has previously operated to BKI on a few occasions too.

That I am a little surprised. I'd have thought BKK would have more demand than CGK (especially during BKK's peak winter season). CGK - 42x 738 + 1x 332 BKK - 40x 738 + 2x 333

For the past 2 weeks or so due to the Golden Week holidays in China but MH 386/387 will be operated by 332 on a regular basis at the end of the month. The A332 has a pretty low utilization rate as it is, not sure the 6th will help (but they should receive it next month). AFAIK, 332 destinations for NW18/19 are: - PVG (MH 386/387) - TPE - AKL - DPS (MH714/715) - CAN - DAC (MH196/197)

Korrekt The ex-AB 332 hard product is much better in J than MH 333 (other than row 1 on MH). It's long enough for me to sleep with my legs straight (where as MH 333 requires bending my knees to sleep) and I am not a fan of the cubby hole in J (row 1 is great tho). And for Y pax, the first few rows of ex-AB 332 are extra legroom seats (more like UA Y+ or AA MCE) and I don't believe MH charges for those seats unlike the first 3 rows of Y (Y+?) on the 350. IFE is better quality/resolution and way better UI than MH's 333, especially the rewind 10s button on the screen (much better than the 2x/4x etc. rewind function). It's almost identical to SAS' IFE UI and I love that UI. IIRC, the crew told me that the 332s only have enough galley space for 1 meal service, hence the double red-eye on AKL flights (which I think works better connection wise on both ends). MH 132 (previous midnight redeye ex-AKL) was also severely delayed most of the time (never knew it was called Delay-sia), but it has abysmal OTP (my flight was delayed for 1.5 hours, so a 02:30 departure ex-AKL was no fun) due to short turnaround time (IIRC MH scheduled 75 minutes turnaround).

Seems like a one-off (charter?). NZ 1941 (B789, reg: ZK-NZH) is operating AKL-KUL today, arriving at 14:45

Sounds about right. MH applied (and received MAVCOM's blessings) for an additional 870 seats to MEL (3 x 274 seats on 333 is 822 seats). In addition, MH also received approval for 2 weekly MED services. OD on the other hand applied and received approval for 1,260 seats for KUL-DPS-SYD wef 12/2018 (presumably waiting for D7 to relinquish their seats at MEL due to bilateral restrictions?).