Chris Tan

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to. Unless something has changed very recently, the only foreigners that can use autogates at KLIA are long term pass holders. General visitors are excluded. SG has introduced automated clearance for Malaysians, and a bunch of other nationalities, for arrival and departure by air (not sure if the land crossings have them). In AU, Malaysians do technically qualify for arrival SmartGate clearance, though it can be hit or miss. Departure clearance has been SmartGate for a long time. The US has no e-gates to speak of, not even for their own citizens. They have kiosks where you submit your customs declaration, but you still have to be cleared by an officer.

There's no right answer for this, because the concept of given names and surnames in the western sense is incompatible with many Malaysian naming conventions. My understanding is (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong here) the "Bin/Binti X Y Z" part is the closest thing to a surname/last name, because it's inherited from the father. Then again, you don't typically address someone by their "surname" as you would with a Mr Smith or Dr Lee. As long as your names are correctly spelt and reasonably complete (no issues dropping the bin/binti for example), you'll have no issues, so just go with your Enrich profile's naming order to make sure the number sticks. That's because Malaysian passports don't technically have given names, since the entire name is coded as the last name in the Machine Readable Zone (MRZ). The Australians take it at face value now that they scan your MRZ whereas previously, your TA could manually enter it in your application. This has caused a LOT of grief for repeat visitors who are now subject to extra scrutiny because the system thinks it's their first time. It's quite different from, say, the U.S. which lets you decide what your naming convention is.

It's simple, really. Book your tickets according to whatever your account name is. Forget what the call centre agent said about getting denied boarding, because it's all hogwash. You won't be turned away on any airline for not following MH's suggestion, which really isn't authoritative. The Malaysian passport doesn't even distinguish between first and last names. In that sense, it's up to you to decide.

Great to see them make a return, even if it's a 333. I'm guessing this means LGK is on the backburner, if not gone for good.

It should be the passengers who are congratulated for surviving such an ordeal

It’s 2x 77W 1x A380 when the third daily first resumes, then 2x A380 1x 77W come 1 Aug.

Does anyone know what FY's SZB bag drop deadline is? I recall pre-Covid they had a rather unreasonable deadline (60 mins) for bags, which seemed entirely unnecessary for an airport like SZB. Looking through their CoC, it says the counters close 30 mins before, but I'm not sure if it's any different with bags.

This must be their third or so "resumption" for YIA. Or am I thinking of another destination?

They manage to fly ICN and NRT while avoiding Russian airspace. I’m sure they can do the same for HKG if they wanted to. In any case, flying via BKK avoids it entirely but they still chose KUL.

AMS-BKK has more than enough to stand on its own, and that matters much more than BKK-HKG. Yes, they flew AMS-HKG direct pre-pandemic, and I'm sure it'll come back once demand rebounds. KUL-TPE is a bit of a stretch. I don't think the crew can operate that route as a turn, compared to say ICN/HKG/BKK-TPE.

Similar to what SQ has done with their lower-yielding regional routes - handed to TR but codeshared, so connections are still easy enough. Not so great for those expecting OW benefits, but they're probably a small minority in those markets.

How else can they add misleading surcharges and pin it on the airport authority?

Do you?

I'm quite aware of equipment swaps being perfectly legal (having flown TG and CX regional once or twice). That doesn't in any way lessen the disappointment of having your 5K on a QR 77P swapped for 5K on an MH 333. It might be legal, and most frequent flyers are aware of that possibility, but do it often enough and people will take their money elsewhere. When you're paying QR prices, you expect something along the lines of QR standards -- the leased WY/CX birds are fine, for example. I'm not entirely sure how HiFly and the likes came into the picture. This is QR we're talking about, not TP or D8. QR isn't THAT desperate for planes. You don't pay RM26 at Madam Kwan's only to be served a food court Nasi Lemak because of a kitchen issue, and told to be thankful they didn't get it from the roadside stall.

Plenty of passengers booked before the switch happened, so it's understandable why they'd be annoyed. I'm not aware of QR offering an unofficial same-day change - that's news to me. Is it only at KUL?