Review of Malaysia Airlines flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur in Business

MH785 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi BKK - Kuala Lumpur International KUL
STD-STA: 1105-1415
Actual: 1208-1457
Boeing 737-800 9M-MSC
Gate D5 Seat 2F

Shrine at Suvarnabhumi

Malaysia Airlines check-in counters
Arrived at the airport about 90 minutes before the flight with a taxi from the hotel. During the trip, I handed one of the chocolates I received as an amenity gift for the driver since he was pretty good offering a fast drive to the airport. Check in was fast as I proceeded to the 'internet check-in' counter which was empty. The lone staff manning the business class counter just happened to walk away as I proceed to check-in which was why I had to head to the 'internet check-in' counter.

Inside Thai Airways’ business class lounge
Then I proceeded to get tax refund for some of the purchases I made in Bangkok before I realized the agent forgot to hand me lounge passes and the premium lane voucher. Thus I had to return to get them. Premium lane immigration was easy and fast and I headed to the Thai Royal Silk lounge that Malaysia uses. It was interesting since they are part of oneworld and I thought they might use one of Cathay Pacific lounges instead. No matter since the Thai Royal Orchid lounge is definitely more spacious and offers more in terms of food. And having been to the Cathay Pacific's lounges before in BKK, I was not impressed. To add, Thai Airways' lounge has a pancake making machine!

Lunch spread at Thai's lounge

Pancake machine at Thai Airways lounge
Since I was not travelling on Thai Airways, there was no spa access so I just got myself some magazines to lounge. For drinks I got some honey lemon tea from the fridge and a banana in sticky rice for a snack since I already had a full breakfast in the hotel earlier this morning.

Main atrium of Bangkok's terminal
I headed to the gate around 11:05 since no boarding announcement was made. Turns out the flight was delayed, and even with some stops to take photos around the terminal, I still arrived at the gate before boarding started. This meant some waiting in the crowded gate area.

MH785 operated by a 737-800
The new liveries on the 737 indicates that I would be boarding the new cabin and I do like the new Boeing Sky interior on these planes.

Onboard Malaysia Airlines 737-800 new business class
Pillows and blankets placed on the seat on boarding, with menus on the seat back pockets. Occupancy in business cabin was 11 out of 16, and welcome drinks was served including guava juice (and I thought this was only served ex-Kuala Lumpur). A cold towel was also given out on pullback. I did have a seat mate initially but since the bulkhead was empty, he moved forward leaving me with 2 seats for the flight! Score!

Pink guava juice

KLM Boeing 777-300ER at Bangkok
Safety videos were shown while taxiing and the lead stewardess took meal orders from the front. One of my favourite things to do in Bangkok is to do some plane spotting during the taxi since there were more varieties of interesting airlines in Bangkok most of the time. The clear weather made it easier to spot planes.

Aerial view of Bangkok’s airport
Take off on clear weather with no wait in the runway gave me the opportunity to take some nice photos of the airport.

Hot Milo after take-off
The menu for the flight read as follows:

Brunch and lunch menu

Drinks menu

Wine list

Cocktail menu
One thing I liked about Malaysia Airlines is that they seem to switch on their IFE from the ground so I could start watching a new TV show titled 'Golden Boy', which I enjoyed. I picked the red snapper for lunch and a hot milo which was served far take off. The meal tray followed shortly afterwards.

Inflight meal of red snapper
The meal was alright, though the fish was lacking in size while there was a lot of rice. Papaya salad was a bit sour and there was not enough cashews. Taro pudding was average, but at least not too sweet. Overall a tasty and decent lunch, albeit the portions were a bit lacking like in Economy class that I reviewed last year. A hot towel was also served after the meal tray was collected.

New overhead controls
A Malaysia tourism video interrupted the show before landing, which was not cool at all. And on top of that there was a rough landing with turbulence on the descent which is probably due to the cloudy weather over KLIA. It is after all monsoon season in South-east Asia. And this again highlights the superiority of Singapore Airlines since they operate an all wide-body fleet which means SQ flies an A330 or 777 even on short routes between Singapore and Bangkok or Singapore to Jakarta. And these wide-body planes can withstand turbulence much better in my opinion.

Descent into KLIA
However this flight was certainly an improvement in service over my flight on Malaysia Airlines from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur. For a short flight, the meal was adequate and the brand new plane with a nice inflight entertainment made it an above-average flight.

MH Boeing 737-800 at KUL