Azman MN

Azreen, N Azman, I was also thinking that MH was probably in such a dire situation that cost cutting had to impact the front end as well. When things get better, they can then start spending on upgrading their service. Actually, after the BTP2 presentation, I was really really hoping that this would be the case. I can't remember exactly, but IJ also said that once everything looks better, they can move on to steps like this. So I was optimistic. Unfortunately, now I see that they are really trying to compete against Air Asia by offering zero fares. This strategy is pointing towards competing in the LCC market, and not the premium market. So now I am pessimistic. Thanks for pointing out those other cost cutting measures. I should have remembered that google is my friend. Anyway, looking at the list, I wonder how many of them did so at risking their 5 or whatever star status? How many of them did so while still claiming to give the same level (5 star) of service? About MH's C class, I am happy to say again that I think it is as good or better than SQ in almost every respect. Check my last trip report. Only 3 things are clearly better on SQ - if you really want to sleep (the new seats are good for sleeping but uncomfortable for sitting), frequency of service and the ground service. However my last MH C class long haul flight was 1 year ago, and SQ was 1 month ago. So things may have changed on MH.

actually I have never experienced snek boks, so for me this thread is not about snekboks. I have experienced several flights in the last few years between ZRH and Asia on board SQ, TG and MH. Until a few years ago, I would consider MH and SQ to be the same, slightly better than TG. In recent years, MH's C class has improved and I even consider it to be slightly better than the new SQ C class, but the problem for business people is frequency (only 3 flights a week), not product. The Y class however, has gone noticeably downhill. No more proper drinks service, no more menus, main course presented on alumunium foil instead of plastic plates, no more sandwiches between meals. Any passenger who has flown on TG, SQ and MH would have noticed the difference and given the same ticket price, you would choose SQ, TG and then MH in that order. Ticket price has been increasing steadily which is understandable given fuel prices, inflation, etc., but you would expect the product quality to remain the same, not diluted. Luckily for MH, they have avoided this problem by disappearing out of Zurich altogether.

Yes, these are all very good examples of cutting costs without affecting customers, and to this extent I think IJ has done a good job of pushing this through (You gotta admit that even though any business student could have come up with these ideas, it takes a special guy to push it through ). However, my issue here is his long term business strategy. I cannot think of another company that actually cuts cost by diluting their product value. Maybe someone has seen a case study of one? No doubt cutting cost will improve business margins, but the best companies will use this improvement in margins to upgrade their product which will increase their number of customers, and as a nice side effect, existing customers will enjoy the benefits too. So in theory if I were to run MH, I would cut cost as per the above and more but any savings will first be pumped back into providing decent meals, menu cards, proper drinks service. This is how I will maintain my loyal customers and win new ones. This is such a simple business principle that I really have to scratch my head and wonder why MH is instead diluting its product, especially when the product already has a long established good reputation. In the business world, top management are obsessed with cost cutting. We have to remember however, that cost cutting is only part of the equation to get the best margins. Best margins = high revenue - low cost. So MH is getting the low cost bit under control. But to do this at the expense of their future revenue is from my point of view, not sustainable.

It is true, survival of the fittest and smartest. But the smart company will reduce cost without diminishing the quality of their product and hurting their clients. The smartest company will reduce cost and use the cost saving to upgrade their product, which will attract even more clients. A company's internal cost is its internal problem. It should not be the clients' problem. I work in a financial services company. I have clients. We are constantly under pressure to cut costs. We do a lot of things to cut costs such as travelling in economy class for regional flights, or where possible, use videoconference instead. We outsource our accounting office to Bangalore. We hire part-time university students to do data entry so that the more qualified staff can concentrate on more value added work. We spend millions on new IT systems so that we save multiples of millions. We squeeze in 8 desks into office rooms where there were 6 desks previously. We replaced the company cars with cars with smaller engines, or diesel engines or hybrids. The office canteen manager now has access to our electronic agendas so that they can estimate how many employees are outstation for the day, so that there is less food wastage. We can do many different things to save costs, but we would never give our clients an inferior product! Our competition will make a killing if we do. Cost cutting should not be our clients' problem! In fact, the more we save, the more we can spend to improve our product and therefore, become more competitive.

actually when I think about the type of on board service airlines in Europe and US provide, MH's snekbok is actually pretty good. However, when compared to the airlines in the same region as MH, such as CX or SQ, then the snekboks is obviously not up to scratch. A european passenger flying MH into KL, connecting to regional flights would even have a positive impression of the snekbok, but only if he/she is blissfully unaware about the products of MH's main competitors. I agree that the snekbok is a good way of reducing cost. However, the problem is that, it has the impact of downgrading the front-end service as well. Downgrading the service means that passengers would be more willing to jump ship. I am sure that MH could have found other ways to cut cost without affecting the front-end service. In the long-term, cost-cutting that affects front-end service will have a negative impact because you will lose passengers. Compare this to the car industry. The VW group had various brands such as VW, Audi, Skoda and Bentley. The way they cut cost is hidden from their customers, i.e, shared chasis, engine parts, etc. What the customers see is the superficial bit outside, but that is all that matters. I heard a story about the delivery of the first few units of a Bentley model, they invited celebrities such as Mr. Beckham, et al to a special ceremony to hand out the keys. They made a big mistake - the key itself looks exactly like the key of a normal VW car (which looks the same as the Audi, skoda and seat keys). So these luxury car customers were a bit annoyed as having spent GBP100k++ on the car, they expected something more luxurious or fancy like a remote control or something. They didn't really care if the chasis of the car and engines are "cost-saved" and the same as the cheaper VWs because they could not see it, but that key thing was really a damper. This is how I see it. Cost saving is something that should be done in the back-end behind the scene, and not in such an obvious manner in the front-end service. Are you sure that MH's passenger count has increased? I recall in the BTP2 discussions that passenger numbers have actually gone down. A few years ago, it is hard to notice the difference between SQ and MH in Y class. Now the difference is really stark. Right from the drinks service to the menu cards, to the food trays. The difference is now too apparent, and any neutral passenger can now see that MH is not in the same league as SQ. If ticket prices were the same.... I really wonder why MH finds it difficult to find other ways to cut costs, when it should have the much lower cost base in Malaysia?

not enough WCs for C class passengers upstairs...

I was on it 25 April SYD-SIN. Everything looks very fresh... Must say, C class appears narrower than 77W, especially the aisles. Y class upstairs seems nice. Downstairs look a huge sardine can.

good one!

airport tax in Europe is very high but air travel is still growing. On the other hand, you can fly into London City which is waaay cheaper than Heathrow in terms of airport tax, but then the airlines charge slightly more for the ticket, hoping that the passengers don't notice it... I guess that is what they are doing because the ticket prices to LCY are usually slightly more expensive.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Swiss_bo...56000&ty=st Everyone remembers that Swissair went bust in 2001. After that it was practically taken over by Crossair, renamed Swiss International Airlines, got a new code "LX". Surviving various refinancing exercises, it tried to compete against LCCs (sounds familiar?) by being an LCC within Europe, but a 5 star airline for long haul. That did not work mainly because travellers flying in C or F longhaul would then transfer to an LCC- standard airline when connecting in Europe and have to pay for drinks and food. To make matters worse, while it sold tickets at LCC prices, its cost base was still very high because it did not have good turnaround times, especially when most mornings the European flights have to wait for passengers who were delayed coming in on their intercontinental flights. Good thing they figured out that the Swiss brand is all about luxury, efficiency, service, etc. etc. So they began again to emphasize their brand, undo the LCC nonsense and were lucky enough (or unlucky, depends on how you see it), to be bought over by Lufthansa. With the financials becoming stable and membership within Star Alliance, it has a good platform to perform and so it did. Things continue to improve, next month they will reintroduce PJs in F class. I think there is something here for MAS to learn. Not saying that SQ should buy over MH (like LH bought LX), but the govt. should provide the strong financial backing. Then its time to join an alliance. And most important of all, MAS should play to the strengths of its brand, and not mess around in the LCC market.

Wow I did not realize that BMI programme is that good! When LX was bought over by LH : 1) status was maintained 2) in fact, we did not have to re-qualify for the status (you need to requalify for the LX status on an annual basis, but for that particular year, it was not required. LX Travelclub gold became Senators in the following year without having to requalify) 3) I think Gold/Senators received 50,000 miles as a welcome bonus ... can't remember...

saw a documentary about this. The microphone in front of the mouth takes sound from all directions, left, right, front, back, etc. Sounds that come from all directions will be cancelled out. When you speak however, the sound is predominantly coming only through the front of the mike. So this sound is not cancelled out.

I had a golfbag problem with SQ in 2001. SQ ticketing staff told me that I get 10Kg extra for golfbag. But at check-in in ZRH, the dumb girl told me no. I gave the girl my Krisflyer silver status card with my tickets and passport, just to ensure that my membership no is in. Then the golfbag issue started... after some arguing, I said "I have flown with golf bag before and usually this is counted separately". She then held up my green coloured card (silver status) and said loudly "if you are really a frequent traveller, you would have a gold status and with gold this would not be a problem." Gosh, so I was practically kicked out of the queue with the instruction to pay up or lose weight. So I called the ticketing agent and asked about the allowance, then I walked back to the counter and asked the agent to repeat the answer to the girl. Yes! 10kg. Ha! So since then, everytime I fly with golfbag, I will make sure that a note is made during the booking that I am with golfbag. MH will add 15kg, and the last time I flew SQ economy in Nov. 2006, I got 10kg. This has to be noted in your reservation. This actually works quite well - I once decided at the last minute not to bring my golfbag, and at check-in, the lady had a puzzled look and asked me "sir, it says here that you have a golf bag, did you forget it?" EDIT: not all airlines have this free golf bag policy. Swiss will carry skis, snowboard for free, but not golf equipment. So it depends on the airline.

hmm, I have a layover in SIN on Friday. Arriving early morning and leaving Sat.morning. But meetings the whole day... Didn't bring my zoom lens either. Any suggestions on a quick sneak peek of the airshow?

Good question. I was actually looking at business class fares on their website and when you get to the page where you can choose the different flights, the A380 will be more expensive, and it even says on top that flights with A380 will be more expensive. Furthermore, I hear that in the future other *A FF members can book award business class seats on A380 and 77W for some additional miles (on top of the normal miles for the other types of aircraft). And with the recent issues with both types, I wonder if you get a refund, or will SQ put it down to operational issues which cannot be guaranteed?

anyone knows how long it will be grounded?

Actually, cannot attend for obvious reasons. More importantly, I am not applying for the charter job because I am aiming much higher. Give me a few more years, who knows...

hmm.. from limited the information I have, I don't see how these profits will be achieved in the future. I am finding it surprisingly difficult to get more information on the financials. I also wonder who are invited to these conferences. Any Mwingers invited? Or perhaps we can send a note to B.K.Sidhu or the S&P analyst before the next meeting. Feed them some tough questions, etc. Btw, trying to book C tickets ZRH-SYD for the end of Feb. SQ is waiting list only, ticket cost EUR9,000. MH... must go via FRA, ticket cost EUR4500 only, plenty of seats available. Similar flight on SQ from FRA to SYD costs EUR8000, only a few seats left on the codeshare LH metal to SIN. This raises a few points: 1) SQ can charge twice as much as MH in ZRH 2) SQ planes are full, and MH cannot get enough traffic 3) why would MH charge only EUR4500 from FRA? It can charge EUR7000 and still be a lot cheaper than SQ. Oh... maybe then they are more expensive than Emirates... but MH is 5 star!! And this statement from them that business traffic to KUL is only 50% of SIN and BKK... Well, businessmen like me don't terminate our trip in SIN or BKK. Quite some of us transit through. But who wants to arrive in KUL and then have to wait for poor connections, only to end up in old A330s or 734? And now who wants to transit in KL, and in addition have to transit through FRA or AMS or god forbid...FCO? I'll probably get on the MH flight anyway... I like the new-ish C class product... but oh no.. I forgot... cannot accrue miles on the usual alliances... arrghh...

on SA it depends. I think all domestic is snack box. I got snack box JNB-Windhoek but warm meal on the way back. Also warm meals on the return flights to Kasane but snack box on the Gabarone flights. If I were to guess, I would say it depends on what time you are flying - close to dinner/lunch time means warm meal, otherwise you get snack box. In any case, I feel that it doesn't matter what DL or SA are offering because the proper comparison would be against airlines competing in the same region. Do Thai (non-5 star), SQ or CX serve snack boxes? I have not had the MH snack boxes so I can't comment whether I like it or not.

9M-MRB Sorry, no pics from ZRH from me. I am out of town today.

Totally agree here. Asians are generally more reserved, and unfortunately this may also appear to some as being rude. Sometimes when I board the plane early, I do a bit of people watching. In most airlines there will be F/As positioned along the aisle, greeting passengers and helping with seat locations, hand luggage, etc. As passengers walk in past the F/As, they will be greeted. A simple "good morning, welcome on board" usually. What I notice is that more than half of Asian passengers do not respond. Some managed to muster a shy smile while looking away. On the contrary, most Westerners do respond back with good morning, thank you, a simple hello, or even a smile to acknowledge the greeting. So in terms of expecting the F/A's to be friendly to Asians, I think this is a bad start to the flight!

Surcharges for counter services are here to stay. I think banks started it once online banking became mainstream. With more and more people using e-banking, there is less of a need to have bank counters, and they can close down some branches, reduce staff and of course, bank branches are usually in prime locations, with high property costs. All this helps to reduce the banks' costs tremendously, and to encourage customers to use e-banking, e-banking is usually free and if customers still want to use counter services, then they have to pay extra for it. Same for airlines - you can book tickets on-line and use e-tickets. I think Swiss doesn't even have a ticketing office in Zurich city so they save a lot of money. If you book online, there is no service fee. If you still want to call them or pick up paper tickets at their airport office, you must pay at least Fr.25 (RM75). However, it is only fair for the customers if the on-line system works properly!

half-dead. Changed jobs and found myself making intra-european trips on a weekly basis in the past year. Between trying to keep the Mrs happy and other interest, something's gotta give.

Hi friends, Long time since my last posting - been busy... sorry for that. Anyway, the news that MAS is cancelling ZRH got me quite upset. A few days ago I found out that SQ is doubling its frequency to ZRH. This got me boiling!! My colleagues in the company I work for do about a thousand trips to Asia/Australia anually. As a cost conscious company, our 1st choice airline is MH, because it is the cheapest. However, my colleagues can hardly fly with MH because of the poor frequency. 3x weekly is just not good enough for business travellers. My simple deduction of this is that if MH can increase frequency to at least 5x a week, then they can also increase prices to a point which is close to EK or even SQ, i.e., a double win. For leisure travellers, it is also the same. MH was by far the cheapest to Australia (now it is EK), and is still the cheapest to Asia. However, MH did not capitalise on this by increasing frequency. I know a lot of people who would like to travel to Asia/Austrlia, stumbled upon nice price tickets from a MH, decent airline, but can't seem to be able to fly on the day they want to fly. Enter SQ and TG with their daily frequencies. Even more surprising is how MH could not make it work even with the codeshare with LX. LX has a very strong network in Europe that could feed MH. The Manager of the MH ticket office and their agents here agree - the problem is always frequency - they have a lot of enquiries for seats, but cannot close the sale because of poor frequencies. The kangaroo route is known to be a profitable route and everyone wants a slice of the ever growing pie. It is thus shocking that MH's slice of the pie is actually getting smaller! SQ (double daily), TG (Daily), EK (double daily), etc. show that there is demand on this route. Very nice for them that MH is pulling out... How sad...

Yes, that's my reaction exactly! Maybe MH did get compensation : a freebie joyride on the A380 in Toulouse! Not only have they told Airbus, they even announced it to the media... now in negotiation terms, that's like pulling your pants down and taking your underwear with as well!