MAS Privatisation

[Craig 0]

2 hours ago, Robert said:

MH4 was cancelled today. Anyone know the cause? 

Problaby because they are down 2 frames? 9M-MAB was supposed to operate MH 3 on 4th May was canceled. I'd imagine that's due to mechanical because that frame is still in London. 9M-MAE is probably undergoing heavy maintenance check as it hasn't flown since the end of March. Two LHR-KUL cancelations in 3 days isn't ideal.

[Craig 0]

I hope they rebook everyone on tonight's MH1 so they aren't delayed further. Otherwise it's £520 per pax if they are delayed more than 4 hours to their final destination. Assuming 100 eligible pax who filed for compensation on the previous MH3 cancellation, that's easily >£50,000. 

[Craig 0]

It appears that MH4 departed midnight last night and it's on its way to LHR. There'll be 3 MH A359s in London later today (MAB still stuck there, MAC flying as MH2, and MAF as MH4D). If I have to guess, MAD was supposed to operate MH4 yesterday and probably went tech. There were no 359 frames available since MAE is under heavy maintenance check. MH used MAF from MH 161 turn from DOH but it's too late to turnaround and fly it to London before the curfew.

[jahur 0]

7 A350
2 Having technical issues
1 on scheduled heavy maintenance
1 not configured properly for long haul(SAS galley configuration insufficient for MH's for inflight meal volume)

So i think a day before or more there was actually only 4 active A350 available with only 3 officially being able to handle Heathrow.
 

[JuliusWong 0]

57 minutes ago, jahur said:

7 A350
2 Having technical issues
1 on scheduled heavy maintenance
1 not configured properly for long haul(SAS galley configuration insufficient for MH's for inflight meal volume)

So i think a day before or more there was actually only 4 active A350 available with only 3 officially being able to handle Heathrow.

Oh dear o, this is really embarrassing and rather poor fleet planning by MH. How can you buy exact number to service the two routes but with two different configurations. London requires five A350XWB with one as spare, then DOH would need another three with one as spare. That's eight airframes at minimum. When the extra frames are not doing back up service, they can be deployed on shorter regional routes without affecting its role as back-up for LHR and DOH. They can have another two frames for HND/NRT. That's ten in total. I would say very poor fleet planning by MH management. Malaysia gomen has a habit of buying equipment just for cukup guna/makan, excuse no budget, lack of budget. Once there is an airframe AOG or crashed the whole operation will be screwed. Then need to buy one two airframes as replacement. OEM is not gonna entertain you or give you a discount for such small purchase unfortunately. And they won't make way in their production line just so you want your one or two jets fast. The recent crash of two helicopters in Lumut has severely handicapped the Royal Malaysian Navy airborne capability.

[jahur 0]

4 hours ago, JuliusWong said:

Oh dear o, this is really embarrassing and rather poor fleet planning by MH. How can you buy exact number to service the two routes but with two different configurations. London requires five A350XWB with one as spare, then DOH would need another three with one as spare. That's eight airframes at minimum. When the extra frames are not doing back up service, they can be deployed on shorter regional routes without affecting its role as back-up for LHR and DOH. They can have another two frames for HND/NRT. That's ten in total. I would say very poor fleet planning by MH management. Malaysia gomen has a habit of buying equipment just for cukup guna/makan, excuse no budget, lack of budget. Once there is an airframe AOG or crashed the whole operation will be screwed. Then need to buy one two airframes as replacement. OEM is not gonna entertain you or give you a discount for such small purchase unfortunately. And they won't make way in their production line just so you want your one or two jets fast. The recent crash of two helicopters in Lumut has severely handicapped the Royal Malaysian Navy airborne capability.

LHR can be done with 4 but it means if 1 aog u got the headache yesterday. It needs spares with the idea that these fleet numbers will not be impacted by moderate downtime maintenance schedule.

Everytime someone comes up with the idea of using funds for CAPEX you get bazzilion reasons from taukesoh, board, investor, bankers and accountants not to. Its a msian habit that it needs to shed off cause our neighbors have all gone up. As a whole we get nicely build up buildings and assets that dont get maintained once they start hitting up that age it becomes an eyesore. Business owners only starts scratching their heads when the thing actually breaks down or the building becomes unsafe by OSHA.

Another issue is our gov constantly trying to portray the country as still being strong willed when throughout the years there was no financing to renew and modernize. The recent mid air collision we lost significant amount of assets. No one takes out more than 50% of the fleet asset and puts them on aerial display doing dangerous maneuver just to give a false impression that we're still in 2005 lol with many assets around.

Edited May 7 by jahur

[KK Lee 5]

5 hours ago, JuliusWong said:

Oh dear o, this is really embarrassing and rather poor fleet planning by MH. How can you buy exact number to service the two routes but with two different configurations. London requires five A350XWB with one as spare, then DOH would need another three with one as spare. That's eight airframes at minimum. When the extra frames are not doing back up service, they can be deployed on shorter regional routes without affecting its role as back-up for LHR and DOH. They can have another two frames for HND/NRT. That's ten in total. I would say very poor fleet planning by MH management. Malaysia gomen has a habit of buying equipment just for cukup guna/makan, excuse no budget, lack of budget. Once there is an airframe AOG or crashed the whole operation will be screwed. Then need to buy one two airframes as replacement. OEM is not gonna entertain you or give you a discount for such small purchase unfortunately. And they won't make way in their production line just so you want your one or two jets fast. The recent crash of two helicopters in Lumut has severely handicapped the Royal Malaysian Navy airborne capability.

Bean counters justified it is cheaper to pay compensation than having extra airframe year round.

 

1 hour ago, jahur said:

LHR can be done with 4 but it means if 1 aog u got the headache yesterday. It needs spares with the idea that these fleet numbers will not be impacted by moderate downtime maintenance schedule.

Everytime someone comes up with the idea of using funds for CAPEX you get bazzilion reasons from taukesoh, board, investor, bankers and accountants not to. Its a msian habit that it needs to shed off cause our neighbors have all gone up. As a whole we get nicely build up buildings and assets that dont get maintained once they start hitting up that age it becomes an eyesore. Business owners only starts scratching their heads when the thing actually breaks down or the building becomes unsafe by OSHA.

Another issue is our gov constantly trying to portray the country as still being strong willed when throughout the years there was no financing to renew and modernize. The recent mid air collision we lost significant amount of assets. No one takes out more than 50% of the fleet asset and puts them on aerial display doing dangerous maneuver just to give a false impression that we're still in 2005 lol with many assets around.

Kampung folks have no ideal of actual size of rmn asset, could only tell from aerial display.

Many politicians and policy makers only care of perception as they may not in the same position in a few years time. When s#1t hit the fan, blame all on scapegoat.

Edited May 7 by KK Lee

[Craig 0]

The good news is 9M-MAB is fixed and flew back as MH1 on 8th May. The bad news is that with that surplus of 359 at LHR, they canceled MH4 on 8th May. 9M-MAD is still down and 9M-MAF hasn't flown since 8th May (with an overnight delayed departure on 7th May on MH2).9M-MAF is still in London.

MH London's operations are in a mess right now. 9M-B/C/G is active. 9M-MAD/F is down with tech, 9M-MAE is under routine maintenance, 9M-MAH is different configuration/incompatible galley. They could still work with 3 359s servicing 2x LHR flights in the meanwhile but this is a bit crazy.

Edited May 10 by Craig

[Robert 0]

2 hours ago, Craig said:

The good news is 9M-MAB is fixed and flew back as MH1 on 8th May. The bad news is that with that surplus of 359 at LHR, they canceled MH4 on 8th May. 9M-MAD is still down and 9M-MAF hasn't flown since 8th May (with an overnight delayed departure on 7th May on MH2).9M-MAF is still in London.

MH London's operations are in a mess right now. 9M-B/C/G is active. 9M-MAD/F is down with tech, 9M-MAE is under routine maintenance, 9M-MAH is different configuration/incompatible galley. They could still work with 3 359s servicing 2x LHR flights in the meanwhile but this is a bit crazy.

.

Edited May 10 by Robert
mistake

[flee 5]

10 hours ago, Craig said:

The good news is 9M-MAB is fixed and flew back as MH1 on 8th May. The bad news is that with that surplus of 359 at LHR, they canceled MH4 on 8th May. 9M-MAD is still down and 9M-MAF hasn't flown since 8th May (with an overnight delayed departure on 7th May on MH2).9M-MAF is still in London.

MH London's operations are in a mess right now. 9M-B/C/G is active. 9M-MAD/F is down with tech, 9M-MAE is under routine maintenance, 9M-MAH is different configuration/incompatible galley. They could still work with 3 359s servicing 2x LHR flights in the meanwhile but this is a bit crazy.

Does anyone have any ideas what issues caused these groundings?

[Robert 0]

1 hour ago, flee said:

Does anyone have any ideas what issues caused these groundings?

Not sure but MH70 to Tokyo has the A333 appearing. A guy flying on 12th has been downgraded to Y and the email and CS response leaves a lot to be desired. He has posted own several FB groups (both MH and  Non MH) so its starting to go viral. This has now been picked up my travel site. 

Whilst the downgrade couldn't be helped it frustrating that MH has such a poor response to issues: https://www.refinedpoints.com/post/malaysia-airlines-downgrades-business-class-passenger-to-economy-without-compensation?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=blog.post-promoter&utm_campaign=d29821d9-5fb0-4d89-b192-c6214f51bac9&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3y3qA1tNZsSWVZYFZ6XCj7nqxe7itZBCae0YRw5RX5YIONPv2TM0mRv1o_aem_ATQJE5Lze_4VdNThan1zpbnjwA4PwMb41ZtP5pq45MnhYobkq3WG-ZA9_C_HkgVXs31_auITkcPABVcPL2wshb9G

 

[JuliusWong 0]

2 hours ago, Robert said:

Not sure but MH70 to Tokyo has the A333 appearing. A guy flying on 12th has been downgraded to Y and the email and CS response leaves a lot to be desired. He has posted own several FB groups (both MH and  Non MH) so its starting to go viral. This has now been picked up my travel site. 

Whilst the downgrade couldn't be helped it frustrating that MH has such a poor response to issues: https://www.refinedpoints.com/post/malaysia-airlines-downgrades-business-class-passenger-to-economy-without-compensation?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=blog.post-promoter&utm_campaign=d29821d9-5fb0-4d89-b192-c6214f51bac9&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3y3qA1tNZsSWVZYFZ6XCj7nqxe7itZBCae0YRw5RX5YIONPv2TM0mRv1o_aem_ATQJE5Lze_4VdNThan1zpbnjwA4PwMb41ZtP5pq45MnhYobkq3WG-ZA9_C_HkgVXs31_auITkcPABVcPL2wshb9G

Like it or not, the airline will definitely hide behind their terms and conditions of carriage to try to wash their hand off. Remember, the airline is only responsible to transport you from Point A to Point B safely and in one piece, they did not say it must be via air or land or even sea. Lol, sounds ridiculous, but that's how their terms and conditions works.

That being said, they could have explore the following options:

1. Route the passengers to partner airlines within oneworld or code-sharing/partner airline, or via fastest duration available. If this is not possible, route via other rival airlines or another hub.
2. Offer to return the fare difference, up to a capped value and offer an discount voucher for the next travel [min. at least 40%]
3. Offer 100,000 Enrich points and three nights hotel stay

Your airline name will be sullied any way by the public, better use this chance to do better PR rather than a lawsuit. MH really needs a better HR and CS department. During last year's MATTA Fair, the Group Chief Marketing Officer Lau Yin May was there, she asked for my feedback flying with MH. I told her bluntly "Your department sucks to the core, useless, brainless and hopeless." She could only smile and her other colleagues looked at her, cringing.

That being said, MH still owes me RM3,900 refund, for a cancelled NZ trip last year. Full flexi fare. 

[Craig 0]

12 hours ago, Robert said:

Not sure but MH70 to Tokyo has the A333 appearing. A guy flying on 12th has been downgraded to Y and the email and CS response leaves a lot to be desired. He has posted own several FB groups (both MH and  Non MH) so its starting to go viral. This has now been picked up my travel site. 

I hope they at least offered business on a different flight, like MH 88 or their JV partner JL. Or fly to KIX/ICN and then transfer to HND/NRT. Neither of these are acceptable because it's loss of a day in Japan, but just downgrading pax without any form of compensation or alternative is just poor form. 

Edit: Oh wow. I just read the letter. It's shocking to put it mildly. "As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to honour other business class entitlements such as lounge access (if available) and free baggage allowance". They downgraded pax and wrote "as a gesture of goodwill"?! The audacity.

No mention was made whether pax could change to a different flight or be rerouted. This is absurd.

Edited May 11 by Craig

[Robert 0]

27 minutes ago, Craig said:

I hope they at least offered business on a different flight, like MH 88 or their JV partner JL. Or fly to KIX/ICN and then transfer to HND/NRT. Neither of these are acceptable because it's loss of a day in Japan, but just downgrading pax without any form of compensation or alternative is just poor form. 

Edit: Oh wow. I just read the letter. It's shocking to put it mildly. "As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to honour other business class entitlements such as lounge access (if available) and free baggage allowance". They downgraded pax and wrote "as a gesture of goodwill"?! The audacity.

No mention was made whether pax could change to a different flight or be rerouted. This is absurd.

Ive chatted with Steven via FB and after a while the only options were a flight another day (day before must pay his own hotel), a long connection via another airline or economy with a free J ticket too Japan for another time. T&*C's need to be checked. At no point was a refund for the fare difference offered although Im not sure that he pushed for that. He has to be Japan by a certain day / time so it doesn't have much choice at the moment. 

The email is appalling and based on his feedback the CS staff told me that they couldn't do anything. 

[Craig 0]

8 minutes ago, Robert said:

Ive chatted with Steven via FB and after a while the only options were a flight another day (day before must pay his own hotel), a long connection via another airline or economy with a free J ticket too Japan for another time. T&*C's need to be checked. At no point was a refund for the fare difference offered although Im not sure that he pushed for that. He has to be Japan by a certain day / time so it doesn't have much choice at the moment. 

The email is appalling and based on his feedback the CS staff told me that they couldn't do anything. 

I understand MH has 350 issues and airlines had downgraded pax in some rare instances. But at the very least least, prepare a nicely worded draft so all the CSR need to do is fill in the details instead of this atrocious "take it or leave it" e-mail. Any downgraded pax shouldn't have to push themselves for compensation or alternatives.

[Craig 0]

With the current MH 359 fiasco, it appears that MH planes are showing up in places they don’t usually go. A332 is flying MH67 from ICN, MH129 to MEL and a B738 to TPE (downgrade from 332). Can’t imagine all the downgrades from all these alone! 

[flee 5]

That is one of the reasons why I don't fly MH on long haul. 

Because of poor fleet planning, they are now suffering issues - they are spread too thinly and any aircraft tech issues will more or less affect many of their routes. Lets hope that with the new A339s, product equivalence is closer than with the A332s and A333s and interchangeability between A359 and A339 is less problematic.

[Izanee 0]

Wow. I am amazed by all this. I thought they were improving. I guess they have one hand tied behind their back cos of poor fleet planning. 
unfortunately it is a GLC and this is the quality we can expect, for now. 
 

 

[BC Tam 2]

This evening's MH2 (23:30) to LHR is now tomorrow morning's 07:00 departure - BKI transit pax still do not know their fate 😁

[Craig 0]

It's a complete CF right now.

9M-MAB/G/H are working fine. 9M-MAC appears to be fine since it arrived as MH 1 this evening, but if MH2 is delayed until tomorrow, which makes me think MAC is not.

9M-MAD went tech a few days ago but flew as MH70 to NRT yesterday (not too sure if NAA or Japan MOT gave them a fine for departing past 23:00. It pushed back at 22:46). However, 9M-MAD had to return to Tokyo and was diverted to Haneda after they flew just north of Okinawa. Arrived HND at 03:05 and expected to depart tonight as MH71D from HND at 23:00. I assume 9M-MAD will turn around as MH2D tomorrow.

If 9M-MAD is good to fly from HND tonight, then it should turn around fine as MH2D tomorrow (I am curious if it's a medical or mechanical and if Japan/HND will grant them a daytime slot exception or they'd have to wait until past 22:00).

If there are only 2 working long-haul galley 359s, good luck with London.

9M-MAE is under scheduled maintenance and 9M-MAF went mechanical and remained at KUL since 9th May.

And 9M-MAH is not without issues as well. It operated as a very late MH164 today, departed at 16:02 instead of 02:55. And MH 160 to DOH is canceled tonight (along with tomorrow's MH161)

And one would think that a MH 140 service from SYD that arrives at 05:00 will have sufficient time to turn around as MH70 to NRT today that's scheduled to depart at 09:50. Nope. MH70 left at 12:59 today.

9M-MTG is under scheduled maintenance(?) and 9M-MTF has not been flying since 1 Jan. 2024. What happened to 9M-MTF?

Edited May 11 by Craig

[Craig 0]

mistyped

Edited May 11 by Craig

[Robert 0]

5 hours ago, Izanee said:

Wow. I am amazed by all this. I thought they were improving. I guess they have one hand tied behind their back cos of poor fleet planning. 
unfortunately it is a GLC and this is the quality we can expect, for now. 
 

 

they have high fleet utilisation and keep adding routes. If anything goes wrong then its a mess  

[Craig 0]

It appears that 9M-MAD didn't make it out of HND tonight and it's canceled. It was supposed to have a 19:00 departure before being re-scheduled to 23:00 and now canceled. MH2D is still expected to depart at 07:00 tomorrow. Let's see if any of the other frames (9M-MAC/E/F) are fixed by tomorrow morning so MH2D won't be canceled.

Edited May 11 by Craig

[Craig 0]

MH2 11/5 will depart at 09:30 12/5 (using MH3 turnaround)
MH4 12/5 will depart at 23:30 12/5

At this rate, they’d operate 2 flights a day every other day. 

Why don’t they just cancel MH2 11/5 so they can have MH2/4 operating as usual 12/5 or delay MH2 11/5 by about 24 hours. This is just crazy that they are delaying each flight by about 12-14 hours. 
 

Can’t imagine all the compensation they have to fork out for UK261 (similar to EC261). 

[Pall 0]

9 hours ago, Robert said:

they have high fleet utilisation and keep adding routes. If anything goes wrong then its a mess  

And snail paced decision making on acquiring new aircraft. At this rate they better start considering wet/damp lease from 3rd party to fill in the gaps until they get their engineering house in order.