In summer 2018 I declared that I would never fly Malaysia Airlines again, after I had some very poor experiences with them.  For my Christmas 2018 visit to Langkawi (“LGK”) I instead booked to fly between KL and LGK on Malindo Airlines.  Unfortunately, a week before departure, Malindo emailed me to say my flight from KL had been cancelled, so I got Qatar Airways to rebook me onto the next flight after my arrival on them from Doha, which happened to be on Malaysia Airlines.  Furthermore during my holiday I found out just by chance that Malindo had retimed our flight back and the new time didn’t work with our connecting flight out of KL to Doha, so I again asked Qatar to find an alternative, and again it turned out to be with Malaysia Airlines.  I really did try to stick to my word, but there’s so little choice on how to get to Langkawi, especially if you’re going via Kuala Lumpur (don’t even mention Air Asia).  Sadly we had a few problems on this trip too, so for future visits to The Datai on Langkawi I will  definitely not transit Kuala Lumpur (“KUL”); Singapore here we come!

As it turned out, Malaysia (“MH”) didn’t even accept Mr A for our KUL-LGK flight, claiming Qatar had made a mistake when rebooking him, and that the flight was overbooked. With our agreement they booked him on a Malindo flight operating just 10 minutes after my flight, but the process took ages at the transfer desk in the satellite terminal and we never felt entirely sure that the MH agent knew what she was doing.  She told us that Mr A’s bag (tagged through all the way from London) would not be carried by MH if he wasn’t on the plane (fair enough) but she seemed uncertain how Malindo would get it out of the MH baggage system, and onto theirs.  That meant we had to waste half an hour going to the MH baggage office before it was confirmed that Malindo had collected the bag.

MH would not allow Mr A and I to be in the same business class lounge before our flights; I was entitled to use an MH lounge, but Mr A had to go to the Malindo lounge.  It was very disappointing that they wouldn’t issue him with a guest entry voucher, which would have been in their gift.  Their argument was that he was flying on Malindo, my argument was that he had been booked to fly MH, but they rebooked him onto Malindo. I lost.

My flight MH1438 was uneventful, just departing and arriving ten minutes behind schedule.  Except they didn’t serve their famous satay and they didn’t have their pink guava juice which I like (or rather, which I tolerate, in the absence of alcoholic drinks, which MH doesn’t serve on flights of less than 3 hours)

After our lovely holiday we were actually on the same aeroplane back to KUL!  LGK airport has had some extension works in 2018 and a consequence is there is no longer a Plaza Premium lounge.  MH doesn’t offer a business class lounge there, but, unusually, you can access a lounge if you stayed at the Westin or the St. Regis on the island.  As we walked across the apron and ascended the steps to B737-800 9M-MXQ, we discovered that we were the only passengers in the 24 seat business cabin. And economy seemed only half full.  I’ve been on 4 different MH 737s this year, each with a slightly different product, but this one was the best: everything seemed fresher, less tired, and there were seat-back video screens and in-seat power sockets.  The comfortable cradle-style seats were perfectly good for this 1 hour flight, but I’m not sure how I would feel in them on the 4 hour plus sectors MH also uses them on.

We were offered pre-take-off drinks (they had the guava juice today) and doors were shut five minutes ahead of schedule at 16:25.  As is the norm in LGK, we took off downwind, out over the sea.  After take-off a light meal was offered, but once again there was no satay. This was always a very popular and delicious snack, served on all MH flights; I can’t understand why they would choose to stop it. Instead I had a very mediocre tuna roll, while Mr A chose a fragrant and spicy Malay dish.

Throughout my bad experiences with MH I’ve been pleased with and satisfied by their cabin crew – all of my issues were caused by back-room or ground staff.  And so it was again on this flight.  A beautiful FA was assisted by a male purser, both of whom spoke great English.  Taking into account the lack of booze, but good service, I would rate this flight experience at 8/10 – it’s certainly so much better than a European business class flight!

After a few circuits over Subang, we landed at KUL ten minutes late at 17:46 and made our way to the recently reopened MH Golden Lounge in the Satellite terminal. I think we were able to access this best lounge at KUL because we’re both Qatar Gold card holders, and both Qatar and MH are One World alliance partners. I think other Qatar business class pax have to use the Plaza Premium lounge (we had to 2 years ago), but it’s not nice there.

This Golden Lounge is large, spacious, with apron views and plenty of seats. There are food areas including a live noodle station, and it was, for us, a pleasing uncrowded place to wait in, for just over an hour between 6 and 7pm.

Our experience of MH on this trip was a good one, but for so many reasons I hope not to have to fly with them again, or to have to transit KUL. 6/10