Review of Malindo Air flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu in Business

Good day everyone,
It has been more than a year since I posted my last flight report here. Today, I am going to post about my trip to Uzbekistan. Stay tuned…

My first ever overseas trip since January 2015 came at a rather short notice. The idea of going to Central Asia first came to mind in July 2016 when my aunt and her family paid a visit to our home for the Eid. Whilst talking about family matters and what not, the topic of overseas holiday sure came. We all know my aunt is an avid traveller and whenever we have a family get together she talks about how she is planning to go here and there, visiting the exotic places that we seldom heard of. But, when the price starts to be mentioned, everyone started thinking twice. For several years, she always eager to invite us for a tour of exotic places but the cost does not always justify the intent. Although my parents did follow but that so far that is only for places that are within five hours flying time.
“We are planning for a trip to Uzbekistan this September,” she said. This is not the first time I heard about that country, but it struck a chord in my mind that I may finally have a chance to go for seldom seen places. Immediately, I swipe my smartphone and began searching online to know more about the country. Sure, we all somehow heard this and that countries before, but knowing a bit more detail is always exciting when someone especially in your family begin enticing you on a trip like that.
I didn’t make instant decision that afternoon. I need to sink in whether I should join this trip or not. I promised to my aunt that I will decide later. “You are still young and energetic, this is a great opportunity for you to get out and see places beyond. Not like us elderly, getting harder to walk,” she quipped. Fast forward few days later, I finally decided to join the trip.
When I told my colleagues that I am planning to go to Uzbekistan, I can see bewilderment on their faces. “Uzbeki…what? Which …tan? Where is that? How do you pronounce it? Isn’t there war going on there now?” are all the reactions I got. Quite frankly, mention the countries with the suffix ending with –stan nowadays have a bad connotation in them. Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Afghanistan are way more popularly known and sadly for all the wrong reasons and large part of it have to do with portrayals in mass media, be it news channels or films.
Anyway, my return journey to Uzbekistan involves six flights. The highlights of the trip are my experience on flights in business class with Malaysia Airlines and Malindo Air (recently renamed Batik Air Malaysia) for the domestic leg of the journey and of course my first flight with the seldom heard airline, Uzbekistan Airways. We also took a domestic flight too within Uzbekistan. All will be told in the next six reports. So, stay tuned.

Hello! This is the last instalment of my journey to Uzbekistan and back. Congratulations for staying put until the very end of this journey.
My flight back to my hometown of Kota Kinabalu (KK) was scheduled to depart at 7.30AM. Since my previous flight arrived at 7.30PM the night before, I stayed in Tune Hotel KLIA2 for further rest. I woke up at 3.30AM, had a shower and repack my bags to ensure everything was in order. This would be my first time travelling on-board Malindo Air (IATA Code: OD), which is a joint-venture company between a rather obscure Malaysian company and Lion Air, which as some of us know by now, the largest LCC carrier in Indonesia and fast becoming a chief competitor to AirAsia Group in ASEAN region. I will be travelling in Business Class.
The airline has since been rebranded as Batik Air Malaysia and the owner claims that Malindo Air (or Batik Air Malaysia, depending which name you prefer) is not a pure LCC but a hybrid one, in the context of Malaysian domestic aviation market, a cross between AirAsia (pure LCC) and Malaysia Airlines (pure FSC). It competes directly with both other Malaysian based carriers in economy (AirAsia) and Business Class (Malaysia Airlines). So, it would be interesting to try the business class product and how it fared compared with MH.

After everything settled, I checked out from my hotel room at about 4.00AM. The lobby was very quiet, devoid of guests except hotel staff. But, before I left the hotel, I also pre-booked a breakfast meal which came as an optional add-on while booking my accommodation online. So, I return the room key and then went straight to the Glass House Café. As I entered the café, there was no one to be seen inside – perhaps I was a bit too early. Luckily, one staff appeared and I informed about my pre-booked meal which was a Nasi Lemak (a traditional Malaysian dish).

After several minutes, my meal finally came. The Nasi Lemak tasted great and the proportion was respectable too. I also asked for a cup of tea.

After finishing my breakfast (which, again was very good BTW), I left the hotel and followed the same path towards KLIA2 terminal heading for ERL station for a short train ride to KLIA1. I arrived at the train station at about 5.00AM and waited for the first train of the day to come. While waiting, suddenly an old lady approached me and asking for direction to KLIA1. I kindly said that the first train hadn’t arrived yet and we still have to wait for it. Since there were only two of us there, I also more inclined to have a chat with her. I was mildly surprised that she would also be in the same flight with me. She said this would be her first time coming back to KK after residing in Peninsular Malaysia for a very long time. Her reason for coming back was to visit a sick relative. Seeing an elderly person like her, I thought I just want to ensure that she got in the train and guided her until arriving at KLIA1.

The first train finally came and then brought me back to KLIA1. After the short ride, I exited the station and then went straight to departure area at level 5 for check-in.

At the counter, the ground agent greeted me nicely requested the usual (my ID card and boarding pass since I checked-in online). I requested my baggage to be put in the cargo hold and I still had a wide margin of reserved baggage weight left. After everything was cleared, the agent then gave me a piece of meal voucher while waiting for my flight. I then realise that since OD didn’t have any dedicated business class lounge, so perhaps this was an alternative way for OD in regards to their business class guest. So, I went to the nearby designated café where the voucher was redeemable and this was what I got in return (photo below). But since I just had my big breakfast at the hotel, I think this was fine after all…

As soon as I finished the muffin and the beverage, I wasted no time and went straight to the waiting lounge after passing through the usual security and ID checks. Upon arring at the designated gate (Gate B6 to be exact), I gazed through the window towards the dark tarmac and the plane wasn’t there yet.

Because the plane arrived from somewhere, it took a while for us to wait until all passengers from the previous flight disembarked along with their baggage and the plane’s cabin tidied-up and cleaned for the next journey to KK. At about 7.00AM, the sun began to rise. Passengers for the next flight began to fill the waiting lounge. Soon after boarding was announced starting with Business Class passengers. As I entered the aircraft, the cabin crews greeted me and guided me to my seat. If I could remember, there were only two of us passengers in Business Class section and the Economy Class seemed to be full.

Soon after take-off and the plane ascending towards its cruising altitude, the cabin crew then offered me a packet of mixed peanuts and also a headset. Meal service then followed. A crew helped me set the table and laid the table cloth before breakfast arrived.

The meal option was good enough but I think MH is still better in terms of assortment of courses within a tray. However, food is still food and I still managed to finish everything.

Interestingly, OD also offered on-board internet connection and this specific aircraft has been specifically fitted to offer such service for passenger use.

Out of curiosity, I then turned on my smartphone’s Wi-Fi receiver and immediately it detected the on-board Wi-Fi signal from within the aircraft! But, then to make full use of it, a payment was required and the price offered was USD6.95 for 30 minutes that day. I am not sure what is the pricing nowadays.

I think internet connection can be the future form of IFEs for passengers in the future. Who knows? Maybe those big TV screens at the back of your seats may be no longer being needed, thus shaving more weight off airplanes. We can instead stream movies online directly to our tablets and smartphones. Just my thought on this…

Our plane cruised for another 1.5 hours. At about 9.30AM, we began our descent as the plane flew nearer to the shores of Borneo. Since the weather was cloudy, I could barely see the land. And as the crew announced in preparation for landing, the economy class section suddenly became livelier. Since I was seated at 3F which is the last row of Business Class section, the only thing that separated me and the first row of Economy Class section is a thin piece of panel which isn’t soundproof. I could hear passengers seated in the first row of Economy Class section chat with each other at ease.

So, that is all folks! Thank you very much for staying put and read all my instalments of my journey to Uzbekistan and back! I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading my flight report!