Craig
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Posts posted by Craig
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Malaysia's only direct link to Central Europe is now cutoff. Hoping with A350s coming online in next few years, MH can restart FRA (and the likes of AMS and CDG) again.
MH won't be resuming FRA anytime soon - the A350s are for LHR and if they order more, I think there are higher priority cities for the 350s.
Sad news indeed for KUL. Hopefully KL can increase their frequencies?
That depends on the future of the MH/KL JV. But it also seems likely that's going away.
Is/was load/yield on KUL-FRA really that seriously pathetic for MH and LH to call it a day on the route so soon after each other ?
Or could it be BA's return to KUL that has tipped the balance towards non-viable state ?
Here are a few reasons why LH failed at KUL:
- KUL yields are trash (KUL is a low-yield destination for most airlines)
- No onward connections beyond KUL (other than a few handful domestic stations)
- Low O&D demand
- Wrong aircraft (LH has fuel guzzler albeit "luxurious" A343 whilst BA and KL has high density 787/777 respectively)
- MYR sudden depreciation
- ME3 + TK
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This also applied to QF and JL?
Yes, but it depends on the fare you are purchasing. MH/CX usually require a more expensive fare to an offline city or flying a code-share/partner flight. BA/AA on the other hand is pretty generous. QF is somewhat more limited because QF doesn't fly to KUL and more importantly, they have 3K.
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MH does not code share with BA. Difficult transfer too as BAs are mostly at T5 while MH is at T4. And (presumably) they dont get along well.
MH loads on the A380 has been reportedly very light hence why the A380s will be decommissioned in 2017 and a new fleet of lease A350s will take over.
MH doesn't need to code-share with BA to transfer the pax. This is where OW partnership comes in. MH just pay BA the SPA price for that EU sector. A quick search for KUL-FRA routing rules yields:
1. KUL-MH-LON-BA-FRA
2. KUL-MH-AMS-KL-FRA
So MH pax can fly KUL-LHR on MH and then transfer onto BA to FRA.
Similarly, one of BA's allowed routing for SGN-LHR is:
1. SGN-VN/MH-KUL-LON
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it should not be a problem for emirates to fill up their high density A380s as by 25 Jan 2016, MAS will no longer fly direct to Paris and Amsterdam and all its european flights will be code-share with emirates.
Of course it's not going to be a problem filling up the A380, but it's still useless if EK was selling all those 615 tickets at $1 (hyperbole). Malaysia/KL is generally a low yield destination, with relatively low O&D and few onward connection possibilities.
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This is surprising. MH has code-share agreement with QR and EY (doesn't mean much but at least they do have some agreement in place) but almost nothing with EK. And AA/EY was supposed to announce a JV soon (so much so that AA was strongly rumored to fly DFW-AUH) and CX will be terminating their extensive code-share agreement with QR soon. Seems like no one wants to partner with QR (even QR's OW sponsor, BA).
QR - Don't know if they have an extensive JV or marketing agreement with any OW airlines
EY - AA and AB (AC will be the next logical partner if they want to sequential
)EK - QF and now MH?
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Not possible unfortunately. Am meeting family in London and traveling back together. So must be on MH. I would have preferred your idea otherwise.
Again, thanks both Mushrif and Suzanne for the tips
I don't know your ticket conditions but if you can do EU-LHR-KUL (with layover at London not exceeding 24 hours), you'll save on the £142 APD (a simple turnaround at BGO/SVG/BRU etc. are good, or if you are brave and can run fast, DUB).
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Will the new J-cabin occupies the entire space between Door 1 and 2? From the look of EI's seat map, it does (EI has 30 seats at 58" seat pitch per seatguru whilst MH has 27 seats at 43" seat pitch). CX 333 (Cirrus Zodiac) and AA 333 (B/E Super Diamond) with reverse herringbone has 28 seats between Door 1 and 2 - why go for a a J cabin that doesn't have all-aisle access and IMO, not as good as CX/AA 333 J cabin (one big assumption is Thompson Vantage seats cost the same as those reverse herringbone seats).
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Somehow, I am convinced that the A380 will work for MH on the LHR route if it is properly configured. The top deck should have business class and premium economy. They lower deck should only have economy. That way, business and premium economy class pax will feel that they have some exclusive cabins that economy pax cannot enjoy. And if the soft product is of a high standard, it can give BA a good fight on this route.
IME, for such a long flight, the hard product is more important than the soft product. And by all accounts, MH hard product wins hands down in all classes (especially for Y flyers when the BA switches to the B789 from December). As far as soft product goes, I'd still rate MH a notch above BA especially with the chef-on-call option.
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I am curious how will MH market its "super economy" - an entire separate cabin with different booking class e.g. CX/SQ/BR/BA/LH premium economy or more in the line of AA MCE or UA E+ (same booking class, but elites get it for free and minimal charge to non-elites).
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So no more First class if A380s are fully taken off the fleet. I wonder if First is really that unpopular, even for LHR route? Anyone has any idea what's the load like for First for the LHR route?
But again, if you have Business like SQ, is First really needed?
I don't think MH will install business class seats similar to SQ - MH can't afford those seats and there isn't enough premium branding on MH that passengers will justify paying that much more for MH. If MH gets off-the-shelf Zodiac Cirrus (similar to CX/AA 77W) or B/E Super Diamond (similar to QR/AY A350), I'll be a happy camper. But having that said, it's probably going to be something less premium like Solstys or Vantage seats similar to EI/EY (which are still great products).
MH F soft product is very similar to MH J - F comes with an additional main course entrée, caviar and better selection of alcoholic drinks (read that Dom is not served in FCL anymore too - can't confirm), so I don't think most will pay more to fly MH F. Plus, most F passengers are booked in Z/P (on OW) or O (on *A) anyway.
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I think that presently, MH is still using all 6 frames - they are rotating the aircraft so that the hours and cycles of all the frames are utilised and not wasted.
Only 5 frames are active right now. 9M-MNC has been on the ground for quite some time now.
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LH Group (along with TK) is still flying over the Caspian Sea despite new warnings from ICAO and EASA. Flight route image from SCMP:
Here's a quote from LH:
Sophy Zheng, a Lufthansa spokeswoman for greater China, acknowledged precision weapons crossed air routes between Europe and the Middle East, but believed it was safe to fly because the missiles and jets were "operating on very different altitudes".But we all know what happened to MH 17 (and LH group was flying over Ukraine then too).
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LH once again updated its schedule for S2016. LH 782/783 will now be 5 weekly instead of the planned 7 weekly. Flight schedules:
LH782 2200FRA - KUL1620+1 x37 343
LH783 2250KUL - FRA0545+1 x14 343
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MAB to unveil new name, logo and livery next month
It is understood that the changes, which include an overhaul of the design and colour of its livery, are part of a plan to shed a negative image....
More:Am I the only one confused whether a new livery/name change is involved in the rebranding? Just a few weeks back Mueller said it was just going to be a soft rebrand, keeping the same livery and name.
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I believe they shot this commercial at LAX. I saw them shooting something with the 380 a few months back.
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No market for KUL-FRA?
There are no connections beyond KUL for LH and KUL is not a huge O&D destination for LH.
And also, BA/ME3 has very *reasonable* DE-MY premium cabin fares from time to time (especially during BA's weekly Thursday specials - suspended until further notice though).
KUL will be among the first few A350 destinations for LH, rolling in last quarter of 2016.
That's what I hear, but if I am not mistaken, the first few A350s are going to be MUC based.
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Lufthansa will reduce its KUL frequency between 9JAN16 and 25MAR16 from 5 to 3 weekly flights.
LH782 FRA 2210 - 1725+1 KUL 343 246
LH783 KUL 2315 - 0545 +1 FRA 343 357
Let's see how long LH will remain in KUL. I'd be surprised if they are still around by the end of 2016.
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This is what £2,500 buys you on British Airways' new Dreamliner: Carrier unveils swanky designs of its latest first-class cabin
Meh. When BA had its weekly Thursday specials it was about one third of the price. But sadly their weekly Thursday specials have been canceled due to overwhelming response
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Is it really that bad under Smisek?
Yes! There are quite a few high value flyers that left UA (I am not a high value flyer, but I left UA for AA too!). They pretty much
copiedfollowed DL's lead in MP "enhancements" (revenue based accrual and highly inflated award charts) without DL's operations performance with far too many delays and cancellations.Not to mention TODs (ten of dollars upgrade) and worst of all, choosing SHARES instead of Apollo (which was supposed to migrate to Amadeus later down the road to align with most *A carriers). You have to babysit reservations with SHARES - any schedule changes will mean that you need to call and reconfirm your flight, partner flights dropping off itineraries, mis-pricing partner flights, over aggressive protection (which leads to downline flight auto-cancelation if computer didn't see that you took a different flight) and "DOS-based" UI for agents (that's not for me, but during IRROPS, it's horrible when it takes a few minutes to rebook one passenger onto OAL).
In my mind he did a few things - changed UAMP, took away Economy Plus for Star Golds's , fumbled their wifi roll out (AA and DL have far greater percentage of planes equipped) , fumbled their transcon product - whereas AA and DL really stepped up with their A321T and Delta One offerings respectively. Made UA look old fashioned and out of touch.
and at the same time, I'm pissed off with them because of the DKK ex Denmark fare error they refused to honor
but that's another story lahAll in all, result is I haven't stepped on a UA (whether premerger UA or CO) plane since Jan 22, 2013 because AA simply does things better.
I believe access to E+ for *G was during Tilton's era. But yes, UA's transcon product is the worst amongst the US3, bad IFE resolution and most importantly, who says "let's fly premium to New Jersey!"
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why not they can easily rely on transit passengers onwards to US...not many competitions ex KUL
NH flew KIX-KUL last time and it wasn't successful. NH 815/816 is timed for US connections, but having that said, US-MY traffic is not huge and there are CX (which offer multiple flights a day to US and KUL compared to once daily with NH), BR, and CI. And I don't believe NH has any KIX-US flights (excluding HNL), the only one is JL's KIX-LAX and I don't believe that's doing great either.
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Maybe it's time for MH to relocate to T1 in SIN and join most OW partners. The new soon-to-be-opened BA lounge looks spiffy and the QF lounge is fantastic as usual.
Not even SYD and CDG?? I think MH should retain the lounges in SYD and MEL, workout with QF to share the OW lounges. Quite surprised there's no lounges in HKG, NRT, SEL? Not even TPE, PVG and PEK?
CDG T1 OW lounges are abysmal. Even QR uses the same lounge as MH in CDG. There isn't a need for a lounge in CDG when MH only flies there once a day. The ideal situation would be to move to T2 to share the lounge with CX/AA (CX has a decent lounge in CDG).
Why would MH need a lounge in HKG when there are so many excellent CX choices to choose from? For a J/OWS, there's the QF lounge (great food!), CX Wing/Cabin/Bridge/G16 and for OWE, there's the lovely CX Pier/Wing. Same goes for SYD/MEL, the QF lounge is amazing!
Since we are on lounge; found out MH is charging OW partner US$60 and US$50 for use of F and J class lounge respectively. Hence, some OW airline (e.g. UL) prefer their premium pax to use cheaper third party lounge (e.g. Plaza Premium). Believe MH is doing likewise in HKG, BKK.
Find lounge at KUL is busy during morning and evening. Hardly anyone could consume over US$5 of food during breakfast.
If that's true, that's quite a hefty charge considering a day pass cost roughly the same. MH can give you an invitation to Plaza Premium Lounge, but flyers can visit the CX lounges both in BKK and HKG and both are lovely! What if I lounge hop - is it $60 USD per lounge? (AA would be paying a lot for me if that's the case
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That's rather shocking. Hope this is just for domestic!
It was an upgrade through MH Upgrade so I thought that was the reason the meal was in a box. I was the only one in J so could not compare with others.
It shouldn't matter how you got into J (op-up, upgraded with miles, MHUpgrade, kawan-kawan with check-in agent etc.), meals and service must be the same for all passengers.
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Just minor equipment changes for CX KUL flights for NW 2015/2016
CX 722/723 - remained as usual 3-cabin A333
CX 724/725 - changed from 3-cabin to 2-cabin A333 (seatmap still shows 3-cabin but PE is zeroed out)
CX 720/729/790/791 - 90% operated by either 3-cabin A333/343 and 10% 2-cabin A333 (major improvement especially for CX 720/729!)
As usual with CX regional operations, you don't know what aircraft you'll be on until you show up at the gate, but this is based on GDS.
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EY's 320's are worse than QR's 320's.... QR's 320's are actually quite nice leh.
I flew both and I think both are decent and better than MH, AA etc. Probably because EY has more modern interiors.
Lufthansa to Terminate Kuala Lumpur on 1 March 2016
in General Aviation
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3x weekly is hard to sustain due to crew cost. But it's not what the EU market has shrunk - AF aren't doing too well financially and they are shrinking globally. Other airlines like CX is growing in EU - new flights to DUS, ZRH and MAN and soon LGW and MAD.
Malaysia is very low-yield. Just a few examples of MH OW partners:
JL - flies more than once daily to CGK (and with 4-class 77W!), SIN, BKK
CX - 7-8 daily flights to SIN (although KUL get most of the long-haul planes whilst SIN is mostly high-density 773/333), even more flights to BKK and about the same amount of flights to CGK
BA - 1 77W and 1 380 to SIN
AY - 1 daily to BKK and SIN (we get LGK as a consolation
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QR - 3 daily 380 and 1 77W to BKK
QF - 1 daily to BKK/CGK and multiple daily flights to SIN
You would think if MH is in OW, there'd be more OW flights to KUL since it's considered a "hub to hub" route, but the opposite is true.