Review of Myanmar Airways International flight from Yangon to Nyaung U in Economy

Good (early) morning

At least that’s what I told myself when I was aggressively woken up by what could only be described as a synchronized assault: banging on my door, my phone screaming, and multiple messages from a friend clearly enjoying ever agreeing to travel with me. (I was very late)

This flight is part of my (short) series across Myanmar (Burma)

Arrival at Airport

Arrival was quick, thanks to my racer/taxi, with some checkpoints along the way but as soon as I flashed my foreign passport we were let go quickly.
Once we arrived I had to go through a checkpoints which I had mastered quickly and ran to the check-in desk and finally arrived 1h02min before departure (the magic 1h limit for bag drop off which I was not even sure about with MAI but I just kept the ball playing). 
As I arrived at the check in desk, the agent called another agent which turned out to be my escort for the morning. Maybe I gave off the ‘needs supervision’ vibe, just kidding.
MAI offers cheap add ons, from additional luggage to escort services.
The lovely escort agent had my boarding pass printed, my heavy suitcase was checked-in, my hand luggage was taken over and we made our way towards security.

The lounge

After a small ID check, followed by security, I was surprised to find out my escort service included free lounge access. 

So I sat down, grabbed some water from the quite bland lounge offering and relaxed while looking at the FIDS and being surprised that most domestic take offs at that time all have a STD of 06:00am.

Note, the bathroom was outside the lounge but I was happily allowed to leave my belongings in the lounge during my visit to the powder room.

Boarding

My escort agent was chatting with the lounge attendant throughout my stay and once the plane was ready for boarding I was called upon asked to follow the escort agent to the (bus) boarding gate where after skipping the long boarding line a small shuttle was waiting next to the "regular" bus. The shuttle which honestly felt unnecessarily VIP for someone who’d barely made it to the airport with dignity intact, but I accepted it like the prince I am.

A short ride later we arrived as the first ones at our ATR.

Boarding

I was the first to arrive and quickly settled into my seat. ATR as usual, it's tight but good enough for a short ride.

with some planes you never know if the first row is any good. Sometimes the bulkhead is closer to you than row 3 from row 2, sometimes there is just no comfy way to put your feet, sometimes it's endless legroom, sometimes the seat pocket won't even fit an iPad, sometimes the "eau de toilette" is a bit too sharp and sometimes the galley is too noisy. Which is why I generally tend to avoid row 1. But on this lovely MAI ATR I noticed quite a decent legroom.

Our neighbor 

But around 5:55, so right on schedule we started taxiing and had a nice sunrise view of RGN where from what it seems most of their A320 family was spending its night.

Take-off and climb

Catering

Some of my readers, friends and listeners (intentional and random passersby) will know my ultimate and unconditional love (not) for airlines in the USofA. Particularly domestically where even on a 2h30 flight in "First class" one cannot even get a snack (an adult one like a sandwich, wrap or salad and not some children's granola bar where the fun got taken out) or even a warm meal??

So, airlines of America, see for yourselves how a state owned airline - with cheap-ish fares - with practically no competition - in economy - on an ATR does catering.

As basic as it actually was, I do would like to dedicate the following poem to every airline executive which thought of, actually introduced and rollout the idea that a bag of peanuts is enough on a 2h AA flight in "First class", and thinks people should be amazed by amazing customer service when offered a second one. 

Oh mighty mystery pastry,
golden, soft and proud,
you showed up on an ATR
and outclassed AA’s First
without even trying.

No filling inside,
because you don’t need gimmicks.
You just exist,
and already you’ve done more
than a sad American granola bar
ever will.

Even your little cardboard box
has more personality
than AA’s entire catering team.

Bless you, pastry.
You are the snack
the US airlines wish they were.


And as the box proudly promised, yes it truly delivered happiness.

So this plane had a "technical stop" in NYT (Naypyidaw - Myanmar's official capital) where we dropped of some people and collected some new ones as the plane was I think continuing to Mandalay (at least I knew it was going to NYU where I was supposed to go).

Turnaround was very quick and we left ahead of schedule for our short 135 mile-long hop (my shortest flight distance in 2025 according to my Flightly Passport). Spoiler: no second pastry on the second leg. Tragic, but I survived.

Descent and landing

Nothing to write about: some clouds, some bumps, a landing, some claps.

Touchdown in infamous Bagan!

We were pretty much the only plane on the grounds. NYU does not get many flights and I assume the airport is just open for when planes are arriving or leaving only.

Interestingly: so bags were all offloaded while we deplaned and I saw my suitcase and thought I could just grab it and did not have to wait for someone to bring it to the carousel but I was told off and went inside the small airport of Bagan.

Once my bag got out, my bag's VIP tag suddenly turned me into the Sultan of Bagan. One agent practically sprinted to grab my suitcase and insisted on carrying it for me. I’ve had worse welcomes in actual First Class…

We exited the secure area, stopped at a counter where I had to pay some archeological tax (from what I saw it was cash only and only MYR) and then outside were some few taxis standing one of which then drove me to my hotel.