This is my first Flight Report from Osaka Kansai Airport (KIX) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) by Malaysia Airlines new business class seat in their A330-300 which is just retrofitted around Aug/Sept 2016
Check in process was smooth and I was given the lounge invitation card to Pacific Lounge by Cathay Pacific which is located nearby gate 13.
2 Reason why MH uses this lounge:
Firstly, both CX and MH are being OneWorld member, passenger can access to OW's lounge, other than Asuka lounge (independent lounge, I guess?)
Secondly: Boarding will take place in Gate 13, whereby the lounge just in front of the assigned boarding gate
nothing much special in this lounge, however it has enough to feed your stomach in the morning
Boarding time was started at 10.20am, departure time was 11am. Boarding was smooth as this flight wasn't full. A
round 75% full for Business Class, 50% for Economy class.
This is the new business class in MH A330-300
Seat cover, pillow and blanket placed on each seat when enter into plane
Welcome drink was offered, choice of orange, pineapple and apple
Touch sensitive IFE ssytem, new 16"HD monitor by Panasonic
Full flat business class seat with massage function. Control panel at the side of the seat
easy to use button if you want to turn your seat into normal, relax or flat mode
Noise cancelling headphone was distributed. Hope MH can change to a better brand new time!
Meal was started to serve one hour after departure time. Appetiser was award winning dish back in 2013 by Skytrax - Malaysian satay! Many other airlines also serving this dish now, namely SQ & TG
Portion was generous and matched perfectly with richly peanut sauce
Soup before main course.
No bread basket was served, however they've offered this very cute muffin shaped bread. One side is multi-grain and another side is buttered bread
Main dish was terriyaki Salmon with rice. You can also order "Chef on call" service 24 hours prior to your flight.
Desert: seasonal fruit platter and Japan chocolate cake!
Snack: nuts, get it from cabin crew as you like
Request to have a cup of coffee after meal
Ice cream can be requested anytime you want from the crew
Overall, this flight was very satisfying and all the crew members are showing vert attentive hospitality to each passenger!
Compare to other airlines in the region SQ, TG, CX or even GA, they win MH in all hard products that offered eg: newer airplane A350, B777-300ER, award winning business class seat, lounge, However MH no doubt can easily offer on-par or even better service to passenger.
Always a reason to fly with MH again.
PS: no amenity kit was given due to flight time less than 7 hours.
Hello, Leong. And welcome on board to the Flight-Report community!
First and foremost, thank you for sharing this report with us.
The angle of the photos that you've uploaded are askew. If you have trouble uploading it correctly, try rotating it on multiple angles first and see if flight-report will then rotate the angle of the photo to portrait orientation. My way of tackling this is, as a Macintosh user, I do a partial screenshot only for the photo that I want to upload (Command + Shift + 4 pressed together), and later upload the screenshot. Upon finishing the report, I will delete all of the screenshots and keep the original copy. Not the most efficient but it works just fine for me.
Also, it'd be nicer if in the future you'll be able to have more photos of the seat, and if possible, the cabin on your report. It's unfortunate that this is the first report on this website covering Malaysia's new A330 Business Class cabin, but the pictures are insufficient to give your readers more views inside the cabin.
On a 7-hour flight, that's plenty of time for a lavatory visit. So please do include one as well in your future reports, time allowing.
Also, given the layout of the website, as I was once advised, it'd be nicer if you put the caption above/before the photos, not below/after them.
I think that's all for my feedback to you so that you can improve your flight reports in the future :).
The lounge at KIX looks very underwhelming. I had assumed that because it's a CX-operated lounge, it would be better-appointed, given their frequency between HKG and KIX. Was hot food on offer? What about beverages?
So MH's cost-cutting is apparent given that they don't hand out amenity kits at all for a medium-haul flight served by an aeroplane with flatbeds. Did the flight crew's level of service at least made up for it, to an extent?
How was the quality of the food served on board? So far as I'm concerned, the on-board catering on SQ and TG are downgrading, with Garuda a hit or miss, and CX are improving again. But seeing from your verdict, the on-board catering must've been very good.
Thanks again, and happy flying!
Hi Leong,
Great to see more reports on MH especially the post disaster Christoph Mueller/ Peter Bellew era. However I agree with Razaa that this new business class seats which MH has hyped so much on should have more photos taken on it, especially on the entire cabin and the lie flat position.
Furthermore I am in the opinion that they missed the boat to install a 1-2-1 business cabin since they are phasing out the first class when the A350s are in next year. Should have used this opportunity as a test bed.
Catering looks ok in my books but should have been better, a flight from Japan should have all the bells and whistles of Japanese cuisine, and not just the mains only. MH was a skytrax 5 star airline with the best business class award twice, this is not sufficient to bring them back up there.
I really hope to see they significantly improve on the hard product they offer which can then match the great service that you were talking about.
MH has played it safe for far too long, it's time to be creative.
Nice report nevertheless, keep them coming.