MAS A380 - Fleet to be Retained

[flee 5]

With all due respect, that is one heck of a pathetically lame excuse

Well, if the alternative is to pay lots of penalties for breach of contract, further delay in delivery as new cabins will have to be ordered (with corresponding lead times for delivery), loss of reputation with suppliers and customers, etc. The management has to balance these with the alternative, i.e. work with what they have and revamp in 3 years.

 

Not an easy call - I don't envy the CEO of MAS at all!

[JuliusWong 0]

Of all the new hardwares that Malaysia Airlines rolled out, their J class is indeed a disappointment. Perhaps MH had ordered the seats before the A380 delay fiasco. What they can do now is to source for new manufacturer for newly designed J seats or ask Sicma to amend the current flaw. Ripping the seats out now would be to expensive. Need to ground aircraft some more.

[dean hizudy 0]

One should remember that these planes were ordered a long time ago, by PMB.

 

The previous MAS management probably signed the contracts and there is no way to back out without suffering substantial penalties and further delivery delays. 3 years is probably the minimum period before the cabin can be refurbished (they have already made a minor change with the premium economy seats being replaced by business class seats) - the current management have no choice but to work with what they have inherited.

yup! agreed! this was actually happened to Lufthansa when they received their A380. Read about it in Airways mags.

[BC Tam 2]

Don't forget to also balance against having to roll out a sub-standard product (if at all it is sub-standard) when general paxs' opinion is that your fellow premium competitors are already a league ahead of you with their current products

Three years is a very long time available for these competitors to lure your premium cash cows away from you

Edited July 13, 2012 by BC Tam

[flee 5]

Yes, that was what the management had to weigh up - the cost of completely revamping the aircraft Vs the cost of NOT completely revamping the aircraft.

 

This time, it would seem that they have decided that the cost of revamping is greater than that of not revamping... Whether it is right or not, we will have to wait and see.

 

I have read that all the A380 flights for the next two months are fully booked - no doubt helped by the summer holidays as well as the Olympics.

[Isaac 0]

I have read that all the A380 flights for the next two months are fully booked - no doubt helped by the summer holidays as well as the Olympics.

There are still seats available. It's selling fast thou.

 

[Roy Chin 0]

come on guys their J class product is not like 40/100 still got 70/100 lar judging by the look...(I weirdly prefer their A333's J class hahaha) not to say good but not bad too...

[JualMinyak 0]

From the discussion so far, it looks like the J Class hard product is already behind the 8 ball from the word go. MH Sales/Marketing Dept should go into overdrive to sell the soft product, seeing that Skytrax has just released their survey results. Lets hope that MH never looses the category of Best Cabin Staff again.

 

Coupled with the Best Signature Dish, they should be able to pull something out of the bag...hopefully....

 

Then in 3 years time, rip the seats out and upgrade them, and reinstate 34" in Y class ....;-)

[BC Tam 2]

But J is but one of three products available - what is there to say that F and Y cannot exceed expectations ?!

(ok lah, admittedly on vast majority of the fleet, J is but one of two products available)

[Johan Z 0]

This picture shows the leg rest droops slightly:

 

Some more pictures here, including crew rest area: http://blog.seattlepi.com/airlinereporter/2012/07/13/farnborough-malaysia-airlines-airbus-a380-inside-and-out/

[Kenn Leong 0]

Does this mean MH A380 J is not 100% full flat???

[Suzanne Goh 0]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/airlinereporter/7560956134/in/set-72157630554889856

 

this photo shows it better

[nrazmoor 0]

Review on MH A380 J seat

 

The seat is a strange one. It has a pitch of 74 inches (188cm) and reclines into a bed of 72 inches (183cm), but although it reclines fully-flat, this doesn’t include the leg rest, which droops slightly when horizontal. If you are lying on your back, to be honest, it’s almost unnoticeable, but if you sleep on your side, it creates a build-up of tension in your knees, which isn’t great.

I can’t work out why the seat has been made this way – there’s plenty of room for the seat to go fully horizontal, and if people want a drooping leg rest, presumably it could have been programmed so that this is a choice.

I spoke with an onboard engineer for the airline and he said that it if I pressed the leg rest button, it improved things somewhat, but not completely. The seat would need reprogramming so that the best position for sleeping was attainable with one press of a button, but even then, he didn’t think the leg rest would come up enough to make the bed fully-flat.

 

from http://www.businesst...es-a380-busines

Edited July 13, 2012 by nrazmoor

[JualMinyak 0]

MH Mgmt has monitoring this forum and in response to all the feedback about its J Class seats, MH's second dugong, MSN081 will have all its J class seats removed. Instead, J class passengers will receive this in their amenity kits upon boarding:

 

 

Only kidding lah! ;-)

[Ja Singh 2]

sad to see J class not fully flat. One just have to look at the pics of the qatar 787 to see how the outside color scheme is incoperated inside,seat belts

are all the same color as the livery color and also nice additions of swoops inside of the same color.

MH interior colors for F class is rojak. Red borrowed from AK.

 

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Qatar-Airways/Boeing-787-8DZ-Dreamliner/2131658/&sid=491b693643719afb61c077ec8c9fc47e

Edited July 13, 2012 by jadivindra

[KK Lee 5]

The long await TR from Ronerone and Airpearl;

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/221530/

[JualMinyak 0]

The long await TR from Ronerone and Airpearl;

http://www.airliners...ad.main/221530/

 

Great trip report from the both of them. Summary sums it up pretty well - simple but functional. Go MAS! Keep up the momentum!

 

I thought seat pitch in Y was 33", but Airpearl reports it to be 32"?

[S V Choong 4]

MH Mgmt has monitoring this forum and in response to all the feedback about its J Class seats, MH's second dugong, MSN081 will have all its J class seats removed. Instead, J class passengers will receive this in their amenity kits upon boarding:

 

 

Only kidding lah! ;-)

 

Actually this looks more like the "seat" on the 747-400F's main deck. Nice

Edited July 23, 2012 by Mohd Azizul Ramli

[Isaac 0]

I thought seat pitch in Y was 33", but Airpearl reports it to be 32"?

Because the seat pitch really is only 32".

 

And it seems from their report that most cabin crews working on that flight weren't particularly excited and were there just to put on a good show. Many don't seem to have much faith in the management and are worried about their future on MAS. Poor people. They are such great assets yet they are stuck with such a poorly run airline.

[filipeseda 0]

Were there amenity kits in economy class?

[JuliusWong 0]

Now that MH A380 has been trialed and tested. Here are some of my suggestions to further improve MH's A380:

• Redesign the J class seats to enable fully flat mode (to allow pax to sleep sideways and lying flat on their back)
  
• Reconsider Y+ seats (MH will be first airline in South East Asia to do so. TG and SQ are not installing Y+)
  
• Install snack bars in Y class (most A380 operators have this in their Y class), maybe snack bars can be one of the galley in Y class
  
• Upgrade snack bars at J class with more variety of food and beverages (from the look of the TR, MH's selection looks quite limited)
  
• Expand the selection of reading materials
  
• Consider mood lighting for all class, currently only available to F and J class
  
• Reconsider new livery for whole fleet of MH......(Hahas!!! I just opened a can of worms)
  

If all of the above can be done, MH will be able to compete aggressively with TG and SQ........two competitors at our neighbourhood.

[S V Choong 4]

Now that MH A380 has been trialed and tested. Here are some of my suggestions to further improve MH's A380:

• Redesign the J class seats to enable fully flat mode (to allow pax to sleep sideways and lying flat on their back)
  
• Reconsider Y+ seats (MH will be first airline in South East Asia to do so. TG and SQ are not installing Y+)
  
• Install snack bars in Y class (most A380 operators have this in their Y class), maybe snack bars can be one of the galley in Y class
  
• Upgrade snack bars at J class with more variety of food and beverages (from the look of the TR, MH's selection looks quite limited)
  
• Expand the selection of reading materials
  
• Consider mood lighting for all class, currently only available to F and J class
  
• Reconsider new livery for whole fleet of MH......(Hahas!!! I just opened a can of worms)
  

If all of the above can be done, MH will be able to compete aggressively with TG and SQ........two competitors at our neighbourhood.

 

 

You really think they will do all the above after they have just had the aircraft delivered?

[Isaac 0]

Did you guys know that MAS is more expensive than SilkAir/Singapore Airlines in both Economy and Business Class for flights to Europe from Kota Kinabalu ?

 

Any of you who have flown SilkAir between BKI/SIN will be aware their flights on this route are full and very often, more than half of the passengers are Ang Moh (seem to be mostly European). Take BKI I to LHR for example, a return ticket in Business Class cost just RM20,551 while MAS is charging more than RM24,000. And the new JCL seat on MAS 388 is not even a truly flat bed! And if you guys buy a return Business Class ticket between BKI and LHR when Dragonair is having a sale, it will cost you less than RM16,000. Go figure.

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Did you guys know that MAS is more expensive than SilkAir/Singapore Airlines in both Economy and Business Class for flights to Europe from Kota Kinabalu ?

 

Any of you who have flown SilkAir between BKI/SIN will be aware their flights on this route are full and very often, more than half of the passengers are Ang Moh (seem to be mostly European). Take BKI I to LHR for example, a return ticket in Business Class cost just RM20,551 while MAS is charging more than RM24,000. And the new JCL seat on MAS 388 is not even a truly flat bed! And if you guys buy a return Business Class ticket between BKI and LHR when Dragonair is having a sale, it will cost you less than RM16,000. Go figure.

 

That's point of sale and captive market dynamics. MH is a lot cheaper ex SIN than SQ to LHR. Point is MH will always be more expensive ex KUL.

 

Anyway those prices you quote are VERY expensive - wait till you see what some other people around the region pay for similar length flights during non-sale periods no less.

[JuliusWong 0]

That's point of sale and captive market dynamics. MH is a lot cheaper ex SIN than SQ to LHR. Point is MH will always be more expensive ex KUL.

 

Anyway those prices you quote are VERY expensive - wait till you see what some other people around the region pay for similar length flights during non-sale periods no less.

Thanks Suzanne for the explanation. Just about to explain the same thing. Previously I took SQ from KL to Melbourne, cost me a little over RM3,000. MAS would have cost me a whopping RM5,000!!! What the frog!

 

In conclusion transit flight is cheaper than direct flight....if you don't mind the layover or changing planes.

Edited July 15, 2012 by JuliusWong