Craig

Fake news. And airlines shouldn't play this movie. I watched this movie from HKG to LAX at the beginning of my flight and I still haven't finished the movie when we reached the Californian Coast. It's such a long movie and make sure the sun is still shining, birds chirping, flowers blooming when you leave the theater/plane. Otherwise you might just drain a vein and go into a deep sleep.

Just me being pedantic. Their market cap value dropped ~$900MM, not stocks. A new video surfaced and it didn't show him to be belligerent/confrontational at all (the conversation between him and the Chicago airport security (whatever that's called) before he was dragged out of his seat). Munoz read what the GA wrote on the passenger's PNR without verifying the agent's claim. It appears now that the GA embellished some details into the PNR (which is not unheard of), but there are so many videos that it's hard to prove the GA's and security personnel's claims.

OK. Maybe I'll stop whinging about BA's LCC service for the next few days. Long-haul BOB? Go for it. No baggage interlining? OK. No complimentary water on intra-EU flights? Fine with that. Just don't beat me up and drag me out of the plane.

No. It's not bad flying 5-6 hours on an A321. But the problem is what's inside the plane. The 320s aren't fitted the same as KA's 330 (and not to mention, CX 33E/K and 77W).

For those who said KA is an improvement/not a downgrade from CX, we might see KA 320/321 paying KUL a visit soon. 5 times a day on those narrow body or getting subbed for a 1-clas 320. CX group loves frequency more than capacity. Correct me if I am wrong, but is this the first regularly scheduled KA 320/321 into PEN?

That's what buffaloes are for. They can be led into the airfield and tow the plane away (just like how they used to irrigate the paddy fields). I say deploy the rear slides so I can get a better bang for my buck when sliding down those slides I get a more exhilarating ride instead of one that's close to ground at a smaller angle.

Not a bug. I didn't research into this, but it's common for airlines to have different fares for one way and roundtrip. Sometimes the roundtrip can be more or less than two one ways (more when minimum stay is not met - this is mainly targeted to business travelers).

Opps. i misread. Sorry!

Add no lounge access (except for TG ROP members), no business class, and possibly no interlining besides TG. It not on par with MH at all. Despite what most people here think, MH is not even close to the LCC level. To my knowledge, MH still offers (which some full-service carriers doesn't even offer): - complimentary meals and drinks even on short hops - complimentary checked bags - baggage interlining with OW partners and sometimes with others - complimentary seat assignments (coming soon)

I can't say how full MH's flights are those few days, but for the next few days, AKL-KUL is packed with only a handful of seats available. Same goes for AKL-SIN/HKG. So I'd assume they really can't put their pax on OAL.

It'd be naive to think that MH doesn't care about on time performance. I've flown on a few MH flights within the past few years and I find that their OTP is pretty good. I've only experienced two delays with them - 1 was due to thunderstorm at KUL where my inbound was diverted to JHB and another was MH 132 which was thankfully only delayed by 1.5 hours (but then again it was 00:55 to 02:30). I've flown in and out of KUL a lot and noticed that MH flights generally depart on time. The worst OTP airline based on my limited KUL FIDS observation is OD.

Wasn't on this flight, but I flew MH 132 recently and this flight has abysmal on time performance. It's scheduled as a 75-minute turnaround at AKL but it almost always never leaves on time at KUL (as MH133) and subsequently AKL (as MH 132). I don't know if they are too optimistic about their KUL-AKL block time, KUL ground delays (MH 130 KUL-AKL has shody OTP as well but not as bad as MH 132), or if they are delaying the planes for transfer passengers. Doesn't help that the AKL lounge will close if MH 132 is severely delayed (>1h).

Something's not right with this list/ban especially for AUH - it's a pre-clearance airport and that means it must meet US standards for security screening. And haven't potential terrorist heard of connecting flights? Of course not. QR holds 20% of IAG and EK is one of the biggest non-EU carriers into the UK. Imagine how much money they'll lose from business travelers and tourists if they implement this ban for EK/QR/EY.

QR will once again add 4 weekly seasonal summer flights to KUL (IIRC it was 3 weekly last summer). Flights begin 06JUN and end 27OCT. QR856 DOH2045 - 0930+1KUL 332 x157 QR857 KUL1050 - 1305DOH 332 x126

3 more Chinese routes loaded into the GDS. Per routesonline, the following flights have been added: eff 13JUN17 Kuala Lumpur – Nanjing 3 weekly MH532 KUL1705 – 2230NKG 738 247 MH533 NKG2335 – 0520+1KUL 738 247 eff 20JUN17 Kuala Lumpur – Wuhan 3 weekly MH515 KUL1835 – 0005+1WUH 738 246 MH516 WUH0105 – 0635KUL 738 357 eff 26JUN17 Kuala Lumpur – Fuzhou 3 weekly MH358 KUL1005 – 1445FOC 738 135 MH359 FOC1545 – 2040KUL 738 135 Am I the only one who is OCD on how MH numbers its flights? Do they just spin the wheel and see what number it lands on? Isn't China/Taiwan in the MH3xx series?

KUL-HAK is loaded in the GDS until EOS: MH382 KUL0840 - 1155HAK 738 15 MH383 HAK1255 - 1625KUL 738 15

MH will give you the lounge invitation to the lounge they are contracted to. But your J boarding pass will get you into either the QF or CX lounges. HKG is one of the few airports where they have really remarkable lounges since both QF and CX have top-notch lounge facilities. I like the QF lounge as well as the CX Pier J lounge the most.

It's best if you look up for availability first and then feed agents the flight you want. And some (most?) English calls are routed to Fiji call center (FCC from now on). They know how to make revenue bookings and even that it's OK. If you want a Malaysian agent who knows MH system at the back of their hand, sila tekan 1 until Bahasa Melayu, 3 for Mandarin, 4 for Tamil, and 5 for Cantonese, whichever you are fluent in.

EUR:MYR has been around 4.00 since 2012 and for about 12-months between 2013 and 2014, it was 4.5-ish (5-year low was 3.807 and 5-year high was 5.019). Now it's 4.72. LH introduced nonstop services to KUL March 2015 (along with AF, but maybe a year before LH). EUR:MYR then was 4.00-ish. LH pulled out of KUL March 2016, EUR:MYR was 4.50-ish. However, I don't believe the decision to pull out happened in March 2016, but maybe sometime late 2015 and EUR:MYR was around 5.00. Let's assume they expect to generate $1 million MYR in revenue a month for ex-MY operations. In March 2015, they can repatriate back €250k. In Nov. 2015, the can only repatriate back €200k - that's a loss of €50k (or 20%)! My math was a little off earlier because I was using USD in reference to jani, but EUR depreciated (and is still depreciating) against USD as well. True that company repatriation doesn't work by simple exchange rate calculation, but it's useful to see that they aren't getting that much revenue from MY operations with the falling MYR. I didn't realize LH/AF is setting up a base or another carrier in Malaysia. Why would they want to turn that money around for MY ops without repatriating it back to DE? They just keep all their in MYR hoping that one day it'll appreciate and then repatriate it back in EUR? How are they going to invest in anything (buy new planes, pay their staff in DE, secure new loans, marketing etc.)? Basic economics that cheaper exchange rate should drive more money to that country? Let's all invest in Egypt now (OT: I think a few MW members are indeed investing in airline tickets from Egypt now) And "USD is expensive because everybody wants to put money there now" -- your previous statement just contradicted this. Basic economics state that cheaper exchange rate should drive more money to that country but yet people are putting money in USD because they are so expensive?

Fair enough, but what if a pax bought a J class ticket ex-MY for MYR 20,000 a few years back and let's assume the J ticket costs the same today - LH can only repatriate back 3/4 of it in EUR today. Probably not going to happen anytime soon. The first few 350s are MUC based and MUC-KUL won't work for sure. Until the Malaysian economy and MYR recovers to a healthy level, it'll be hard for EU carriers to return to KUL. And let's just say ME3 is making quite a dent on them too (not just limited to KUL/MH).

Maybe I don't know much about aviation management or economics, but please enlighten me how is this be a boon to foreign carriers?

That (aircraft reason) and also KL has SPA and codeshare agreement with MH for beyond KUL traffic. It's not that the market is weak, but rather the yields are weak especially with the free-falling MYR. There are business traffic from DE to MY, not high, but it exists. And they don't have the right plane for KUL. Both are old gas-guzzlers and LH doesn't have any connection agreements with MH beyond KUL, i.e. KUL is the end point for most LH pax (except for a few domestic destinations in MY).

AFAIK OD did not take over MH's code-share partner. Other airlines may have signed up with OD for SPA/interline in addition to or replaced MH. And I don't know why MH-EK partnership exists - literally. Except for ME/Africa, MH routing rules aren't valid on EK (I don't know if it's a regulation hurdle that has yet to be cleared tho). Ex-EU/East Coast US, it's usually BA/AA to LHR and then MH to KUL. West Coast US is usually CX/JL/KE/AA to HKG/TYO/ICN and then MH to KUL. There are a few EY via AUH options on MH fares to/from MENA too.

I was checking out FR24 on Friday when it happened (not related to BR15) but that was a weird night with both departures and arrivals to the east and west. Heavies to Asia/Australia were using 7R for departure whilst arrivals were using 24L/R. Rain or easterly winds kinda screw things up a little at LAX.

Enhancements in progress . There could be some "real" enhancements though - I don't mean pay for check bags or meals etc. I mean the ability for passengers to perform changes online or through their mobile app. I bought a NZ and VY ticket recently that is about $10-20 more than the cheapest Y and it gives me the flexibility to do same day change FOC on the day of travel, reduced changed fees if I change my flights before day of departure etc. I don't believe MH allows you to do that via its app or website. I don't see how MH is a half-baked FSC. Sure it's not up to par with say SQ from some passengers' perspective but they are, by all measures, a FSC. Complimentary check bags (and extremely generous 30 kg for non-status Y), meals/drinks on most flights, FFP, assigned seats at check-in, IFE, baggage interlining (the one and only OW carrier that still check-through bags on different PNRs and that's a huge win in my book) etc. I'd say they are more "full-service" than FSC carriers like BA, LH, KL, UA, AA etc. I for one would not want to see MH heading the way of BA or DL. HBO fares, random seat assignment at check-in and you can't change it, charging for meals/water etc. Come January 2017, BA might just remove the huge bottles of Highland Spring water in the GFL/GCL lounge due to large incidence of theft and replace it with a tap