Craig
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Posts posted by Craig
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AK is still flying to/from TWU with reduced cruising altitude. 27-29k.
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20 hours ago, jani said:To be honest I think LCCT is better. Because you know what you are getting. It was built for LCC.
Will you be saying the same with what Capital A group has become since they left LCCT? I don't even know if that area is large enough to accommodate all of AK Group, let alone Scoot, Jetstar etc. Can you imagine immigration in that tiny little shed? And what happens when there's a thunderstorm? No one should be allowed outside during a thunderstorm (including ramp staff).
19 hours ago, JuliusWong said:That was why TF was pissed off with MAHB and wanted to build his own airport.
Please don't listen to a businessperson or a politician. And where would he get the money or approval to fund "an airport" which will include runway(s), ATC, and the whole nine yards. I remember he was adamant about not using aerobridge. I disagree with him on this. They should use aerobridge. If he's fine using it in DMK and other airports, he should be fine using it here. MAHB shouldn't build a terminal/airport catering to the need of 1 airline even tho they are the main tenant.
But WCT is not the best contractor. Their plan is always to maximize retail instead of flow of passengers. I don't even know if they are an architecture firm. Their escalators are scattered all over to maximize pedestrian flow inside the mall instead of creating convenience to passengers.
11 hours ago, JonathanFong said:^^ I remember when T2 first opened, some of the gate directional signage on the walls were actually thin plastic/polystyrene panels. If you took a closer look at them, you can see it starting to peel. IMO T2 needs a rebuild, it just seems too flawed to retrofit further.
The original plan for T2 was a mirror image of current T1 with a total of 4 satellites (2 each on each terminal). That was supposed to be good for up to 100 million pax when it was first designed. But of course, that was designed before Air Asia. T2 is too late to be saved. What can be saved now is the Subang Airport. They haven't rebuild anything yet and based on the rendering, it appears to be another KUL T2 in the making.
WCT can build a mall in the airport. But build it after security/immigration. Most travelers arrive at the airport between 1 and 3 hours before flight. And if I haven't cleared immigration and security, I wouldn't dream of going to a mall because I don't know how long that's going to take. So most people would want to check in, clear immigration and security and then hang inside the secure area. But T2 is completely opposite. There's almost nothing inside. Everything is in landside.
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6 minutes ago, JuliusWong said:I think so, something like CX's angled life flat seat on their A321neo. It is made by Collins Aerospace Air Rest. Oman Air is currently using it on their B737max
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).
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3 hours ago, KK Lee said:KUL T2 was designed and built to be inferior and more inconvenience than T1.
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.
47 minutes ago, Robert said:Personally I don't think T1 is that bad. Yes the bus can be a pain but other times its not really much if an issue. KLIA seldom uses remote gates but other airports do and I generally dislike a cramped bus ride to a remote stand and then dealing with the stairs.
My issue with T2 is the general poor design and finishing.
Walkways are too narrow, compounded by the fitting of travelators
Gate waiting areas are too small and narrow
Ramps to the air bridges are too narrow and just depressing
Far too much walking with a lot of up and down secretions
Taxi pick up area is a shambles
If you have a trolley you need to queue for a lift to get to the taxi area. The lift is badly signposted
Walls are full of scuff marks
Security queues are usually very slow when I travel there
When you exit there is a ramp. What didn't they build it on teh same level
Crappy airconditioning
Confusing arrival immigration hall
People sitting/sleeping on the floor before you get arrival immigration
The list could go on and on.
Personally I cannot understand how somebody came up with this design and whichd10t approved it.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.
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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.
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1 hour ago, jahur said:They never had proper passenger loads and were resorting to cutting back ticket price using high density pax configured a333.
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).
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38 minutes ago, Robert said:Post covid many flights to/from Singapore were being cancelled. 99% of the time I book via the MH site and in the event of a cancellation you or put on another flight and given the choice of alternative flights.dates. Either the system has an issue or its caused by booking it via an OTA.
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.
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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).
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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.
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Are BI’s plane built differently? They seem to have somewhat normal operations. 🤣
59 minutes ago, jahur said:At least for KL if it is flooded water will recede within few hours. For Dubai i heard its been 24hours and not much condition has improved.
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.
QuoteIn light of this weather event, AirAsia is making the following options available to guests whose flights have been cancelled:
Move Flight: One-time change to any new travel date within 30 days from the original departure date on the same route without additional cost and subject to seat availability; OR
Credit Account: Retain the value of the flight booking in the guest’s airasia Rewards member account for future travel with AirAsia to be redeemed within 730 calendar days (2 years) from the issuance date. The travel date of the new booking can fall on any date within the published flight schedule on airasia.com
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 😅
4 minutes ago, Robert said:Dublin / Dubai were always getting mixed up. There were one or two others but the names escape me right now.
I can see people typing DUB for Dubai and click on the wrong one.
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2 hours ago, jahur said:DXB is more of the city not financing planning proper drainage system for a torrential rain that originally happens once every few years.
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.
1 hour ago, jahur said:If we rewind this back to 14 years ago with a disruption like this. Would probably see MH sending in 2 B747-400 for KCH BKI back to back to clear up the backlog up to late night. For now 1-2 A330s should be call up on standby but will effect domino effects on some of the international flights.
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?
1 hour ago, Robert said:LOL - Im waiting for one to change their flight to DUB and get upset when they end up in the wrong place.
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*).
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Just now, jahur said:Depends on timing. Cause the cancelled flights for KUL to BKI KCH is based on MET forecast on when and where the ashcloud will reach the predicted areas some earlier flights are completely unaffected.
Good to know. Thank you.
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32 minutes ago, jahur said:Ak, Mh have put up advance notice and cancel flights way ahead. FY and OD as of now have yet to officially cancel asking pax to wait for further updates lol.
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.
29 minutes ago, jani said:Speaking of disaster-management, a friend is stuck at DXB because EK have been poor in communicating issues as well. However of course the magnitude in scale is much more significant
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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12 hours ago, Robert said:Am I correct that the A339 can't do these routes without payload restrictions?
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).
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54 minutes ago, Robert said:Sort of reminds of the Bangkok airport train to Phaya Thai. You have to lug cases up and down stairs to get to the Skytrain.
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.
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2 hours ago, Robert said:That's supposed to be the new TBS but for north/east departures instead 😱
1 hour ago, Robert said:hey use the same tracks with the Express switching left upon arrival and the Transit taking the middle 2 platforms. The Express then pulls forward into a headshunt and then reverses to the departure platform.
Yes I find LRT/MRT messy and they should create simple names for them.
As for the location of the arrival area it's on the right as you exit the KLIA Express barriers into the KL Sentral arrival hall. Not sure that it was ever used or even fitted out and 2 mins on google hasn't found any pics. Now i'm curious I will keep looking.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).
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On 4/9/2024 at 2:14 PM, Robert said:Slightly off topic but on a FB group and local land transport group were the lack of planning and forward thinking at an LRT station considering that a new adjacent bus terminal is opening soon. Seems that there is only 1 escalator up, stairs down and a single 5 person lift.
Good luck with that
KL Sentral with the entrances for Transit and Express far apart is confusing for many but not really fixable.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?
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On 3/30/2024 at 11:54 PM, Riza said:If this materialize then AK will be the first international airline to operate to LBJ.
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).
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5 hours ago, JuliusWong said:Singapore Airlines is now suffering from this recent move, as they are now forced to cancel Chengdu and Chongqing at the last minute notice "after failing to get approval from authorities there to continue flying to the two cities".
SQ just extended their reservations for XMN, CKG, TFU.
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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 😅
1 hour ago, Adam Lawrence said:Juneyao Air also announced the launch of direct flights between the Kunming and Kuala Lumpur, commencing on May 31st, 2024
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).
MAS Privatisation
in General Aviation
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KE's 333 (either version) are fine; OZ's 333 on the other hand are not from a passenger perspective.