Craig

But SQ also has tons of India-US connections and their premium cabins are doing extremely well. PEK - Probably aircraft utilization, but the 18:10 departure ex-KUL is great for business passengers - get a whole day's worth of work and fly home. There isn't a perfect schedule for KUL-PEK/Japan/Korea flights - you either lose a whole day or a redeye. The redeye to Japan/Korea is preferred for O&D passengers compared to the daytime flights. LAX/NRT - I meant the whole schedule (ex-KUL and LAX) move forward 3-3.5 hours earlier. MH will miss the curfew for NRT if they depart 1-2 hours later - again, passengers won't be able to connect or get to downtown Tokyo with a midnight arrival (they are already left with limited choices as it is). The most ideal solution is to move all of the flights 3-3.5 hours earlier, just like the old MH 92/93.

I've read a couple of posts in various forums on this site and other sites about MH's S12 changes - thought I'd consolidate them here. MH S12 changes: Los Angeles, USA - increase from 3 to 4 weekly, via NRT instead of TPE (tip of the hat to LAXIntl) MH092 KUL-NRT 1100-1910 772 x246 MH092 NRT-LAX 2040-1510 772 x246 MH093 LAX-NRT 1715-2030+1 772 x246 MH093 NRT-KUL 2205-0430+1 772 x357 London, United Kingdom - Introduction of the A380 services wef July 1, 2012 (tip of the hat to Airline Route) MH002 KUL2340 – 0550+1LHR 388 257 MH003 LHR1200 – 0725+1KUL 388 136 Daily A380 LHR service wef Aug. 25, 2012 from KUL and Aug. 26, 2012 from LHR Airline Route's Blog Beijing, China - increase from 7 to 14 weekly (tip of the hat to Airline Route) MH370 KUL0020 – 0635PEK 333 x457 MH392 KUL0900 – 1515PEK 333 457 MH360 KUL1810 – 0020+1PEK 772 D MH361 PEK0130 – 0740KUL 772 D MH371 PEK0900 – 1515KUL 333 x457 MH393 PEK1635 – 2250KUL 333 457 Taipei, Taiwan (tip of the hat to Airline Route) MH366 KUL0925 – 1405TPE 738 D MH367 TPE1505 – 2200KUL 738 D *3 weekly KUL-TPE-LAX 772 cancelled. Airline Route's Blog Amsterdam, Netherlands - downgrade from 744 to 772 (tip of the hat to Airline Route) MH016 KUL2355 – 0655+1AMS 772 D MH017 AMS1200 – 0630+1KUL 772 D Airline Route's Blog Other changes not reflected in the GDS yet: Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Increase from 9 weekly to 11 weekly wef Mar. 25, 2012, and 14 weekly wef May 1, 2012 Jakarta, Indonesia - Increase from 40 to 42 weekly services Medan, Indonesia - Increase from 13 to 14 weekly services Manila, Philippines - Increase from 2 to 3 daily B738 services Bangkok, Thailand - Increase from 27 to 28 weekly services Since I am based in LA, all I can say is that the LAX schedule is awful! If slots are available, it will be much better for them to move it 3-3.5 hours earlier for the more traditional SE/E Asia-NRT-US schedule. The LAX arrival is poor for connections anywhere east of the Rockies (other than Denver/Houston), the KUL-NRT is too late for any JL/AA flights to US/Canada other than HNL. I guess on the plus side, passengers are not required to have a forced overnight layover anymore coming from the US.

MH Business Lounge is really nice (haven't been in there, but from the pictures I see, it looks really good). The best first class lounge (or rather terminal in my case) I've ever been to is Lufthansa First Class Terminal (FCT) in Frankfurt! Nothing beats private security, private passport control (you don't even hang on to your passport - you give your passport to the agent at check-in and then they will give you back prior to boarding with all immigration formalities done for you), private duty free-shop, cigar lounge (with complimentary cigars), fine dining (made-to-order menu items), personally chauffeured to your plane in a Porsche (Paramera or Cayenne) or a Mercedes (S-Class or whatever that van is called if there is a group of people boarding the same flight) and of course, a bathtub complete with a yellow rubber ducky at their FCT! I don't think they need to provide lounge access to OW members worldwide. MH elites can use other OW lounges which will save them from opening one in HKG etc. I believe there is a pretty decent lounge for all OW members in most cities served by MH.

I don't think it's possible for MH to change the seats on the A333 now (and maybe the first 45 B738s) - MH would have already signed the contract for the seats and it can be very costly to change it midway through delivery. However, they can upgrade the B772 seats to that of the A380s.

My 2 cents bet that the new startup is going to be in Singapore. Qantas wants this to be a premium airline and Singapore will be the perfect place for it (KUL/Malaysia doesn't really generate that much premium traffic).

Anyone read the cash flow? The MYR $1.5 billion cash reserve is gnarly!

My emphasis bolded - Malaysia have anti-trust laws? That's news to me!

It's actually an upgauge (although not by much). The 772 seats 35-247 while the 333 seats 36-247 (an additional seat in C). Although the seat pitch is reduced, passengers get a newer product with better IFE and more importantly, in-seat power.

Hi Mohd.- Great post, but I think you left out Air Mauritius which operates KUL-PVG-KUL once weekly with full traffic rights. Schedule (every Tuesday): KUL - PVG: 10:55 -16:20 PVG - KUL: 21:25 - 03:05 +1

There are no same-day US/Canada-NRT-KUL connections available on any airline (the last NRT-KUL flight leaves around 13:30 and US/Canada's NRT arrival bank is between 14:00 and 16:00). Unless MH tweaks its NRT schedule, passengers will need to overnight at NRT (e.g. possible tweaked NRT schedule - KUL-NRT: 07:30 - 15:40 and NRT-KUL: 17:15 - 23:30). CX's HKG hub offer way better connection for US/Canada-KUL passengers and there are quite a lot of passengers flying via HKG to US/Canada from Malaysia due to bad KUL-NRT-US/Canada v.v. connections.

It's just a more polite way of saying your invitation is rescinded. If I remember correctly, the vote for new members must be unanimous (e.g. no one opposed MH joining OW earlier this year).

Looks like a lot of my post were accidentally deleted when I tried to edit my post. Sorry! Here's my full post: While I would love TK to fly to KUL, I doubt it will this year. I really liked TK when I flew them in Comfort Class a couple of weeks back - great food and their lounge in IST is one of the best C Class lounge I have ever been to! Their service is good, but they do need some fine tuning. If the rumors are right, they are planning to fly to MNL either as a turnaround service or via HKG 3 times a week. Another rumor was going around that SGN will be de-linked from BKK and BKK's flight will be extended to KUL instead (seems to be a lot of *A carriers flying this route - TG, LH, MS and maybe soon TK). However, I do believe they have a shortage of long-haul aircraft now (TK is returning 4 B77Ws back to Jet Airways which in turn is leasing them to TG). IF MH were to swap its NH code-share deal with JL, maybe we could see the return of NH to KUL. KUL is the only major SE Asian city not served by either NH or OZ. With the NH/AC/UA/CO Pacific JV, I believe it might be feasible for NH to start its own flights to KUL. *A passengers need to go through SIN or BKK everytime they fly in/out of KUL (with the exception of CA's PEK-KUL service - but China is not known as a transit country due to visa regulations) and there are no Canada/US/NE Asia-KUL nonstop flights (except for the CA flights). Passengers pretty much have to do a double overnight in either BKK/SIN in order to catch most of NH/UA/CO/AC trans-Pac flights.

While I would love TK to fly into KUL, I doubt it will%2

There are 2 elite qualifying criteria - either 120 elite qualifying sectors (e.g. for people who do KUL-PEN on a weekly basis) OR 100,000 elite qualifying miles (for long distance travelers). Personally, EQM qualification is easier for me than EQS. AA's lifetime Gold/Plat is one of the easiest to achieve in the industry. ALL miles including credit card spending and bonuses count towards lifetime status although that might change soon. 1 million miles will give you lifetime Gold and only 2 million miles will give you lifetime Plat (lounge access for life!). However, having said that, if you can achieve Enrich Plat and provided MH does not reduce the benefits of Plat, MH Plat looks really good. Benefits include: - Meet and greet service - Chef on Call service (would love to see you eat Lobster Thermidor while flying Y!) - Spouse benefit I haven't flown MH F before, but do they offer a personal assistant like TG/LH/LX does? While the F check-in area at KUL is nice, there isn't any private security/passport control for F Class passengers.

Looks like Emirates will be the first A380 operator into KUL this winter (effective Dec. 1, 2011). Per this Flyertalk link, EK 346/347 will be upgauged to A380. This was also mentioned in Airline Route Blog. Also, per the Airline Route post from above, EK will introduce B77W with F Class Suites on EK's DXB-KUL-MEL route beginning Oct. 30, 2011

I don't know if it was posted here before, but I noticed that MH enhanced (for the better this time) Enrich recently. Among the major changes: - Economy class travel on MH now counts towards Platinum qualification/re-qualification (previously, only F/C were counted towards Plat qualification - maybe to align itself more towards OneWorld) - Elite bonus miles now based on miles instead of class of service bonus (norm for most airlines) - Sliver/Gold earns 25% bonus while Play earns 30% bonus (rather indifferent) - F/C/Y earns 3/2/1 elite sectors respectively And while browsing MH's partners, I noticed that Enrich has 0 FFP reciprocity with OneWorld airlines - kinda weird for a OneWorld elect member!

A little OT - UA's million mile status is one of the hardest to achieve in the industry. UA ONLY counts the "butt-in-seat" miles on United/United Express metal alone for million mile status (no bonus for booking in Y/B/C/F and 0 miles for *A metal). AA counts everything, including bonus, miles from partners and credit card purchases into their MM status, thus making it easier to achieve. Don't want to sound like an UA apologist here, but you can't really compare UA with MH/SQ/CX - they are in a totally different league. There are no MH/SQ/CX to choose from in the US and UA was a really good carrier back in the 90s (deteriorated in the early 2000s and then slowly improving again starting 2008-ish). Also, UA (at least PMUA) treats its top-elite flyers (1K and GS) extremely well - they bend over backwards for them. Auto sales consultant.

This could really work in your favor if they charge you $500 Vietnamese Dong instead of $500 MYR. Do tell if you find these mistakes!

+1. I have flown on SQ, NH, OZ, TG regional C and they are all comparable to MH's new C. I do not see why full-flat is necessary considering most of the A333 flights are flying for 8 hours or less (and usually only one-red-eye per destination/direction). NH doesn't have lie-flat (it's like a cradle seat) in their newly launched "Inspiration of Japan" regional C and LH/JJ doesn't even have full-flat on their new long-haul C. Also, MH does not attract that many premium passengers (that'll be another topic, but the seat itself is not the primary factor - schedule and lack of premium traffic into KUL are probably the main reasons). Without passengers paying premium price for MH C, it'd be hard to justify a regional C with an out of this world seat.

Was flying into LAX last week (July 20) and noticed that there were two MH B744 at LAX - one was just landing on Runway 24 (north runway) as MH 94 and the other one was sitting on the tarmac close to the UA hangars (close to Runway 25, the south runway). Anyone knows why there are 2 MH B744 at LAX on 7/20? Did one go mechanical at LAX? Thanks!

Just a quick note - never book a "through" flight for SIN-NRT-IAD-MCO if you are after the miles. If you are flying UA 804 all the way (as in your ticket will say SIN-MCO, "Plane Change", you'll be credited 10,353 miles) while you'll be credited 10,853 miles if you break up your segments (SIN-NRT on UA 804, NRT-IAD on UA 804 and IAD-MCO on UA 804). Plus, I'll avoid IAD at that time - you are arriving in the middle of the European bank and clearing customs and immigration on a good day will take at least 1 hour....I nearly missed my 2-hour connection at IAD once!

Not to rain on your parade, but my flightmemory:

I was keeping my fingers crossed for Fauchon until I saw California...how about Pinkberry? Although that's a yogurt, not an ice cream.

Actually, ALL visitors to the US are subject to fingerprinting once you enter the U.S. The only difference you may encounter is the NSEERS Special Registration program. That can take up to an extra hour!

Unless you have a lot of points in Enrich, I wouldn't consider sticking with Enrich and going with NW. You earn pretty much 70% base miles for all flights except when you are booked in Y or higher (C, D, Z etc.). And chances are, you won't be booked in Y unless there are irr-ops. Plus your miles with NW does not qualify for elite status. If you are planning on returning to Malaysia this calendar year (ie 2008), then I say start a new FFP with an American based carrier since most of the airlines give you 100% base miles and some even with 500 minimum miles (United just announced that it will be suspending its 500 miles minimum accural policy) *grr* I'd stay away from flying into the west coast (LAX/SFO). The earliest flight you can get into the LAX/SFO is around 11 am or noon, and by the time you clear immigration/customs, you'll need to fly over to Chicago/Detroit/Cicinnati etc. and it's like 7-8 pm once you arrive at the connecting city and connect onto the last flight to LEX. I think there are too much traveling and layovers involved by flying through LAX/SFO, especially since it's your first trip as a student. I've flown on SQ A345 before and although the nonstop flight seems really long, it's really not as bad as you'd think. I'd say that I enjoy flying the EE on SQ for SIN-LAX better than Y on LHR-KUL/SIN on MH/SQ. I also find EE in SQ A345 much better than Y in TG's A345. Hope this helps!