Hi guys! First TR, be nice.
I recently flew to London (right at the beginning of July) to attend a conference and also take a break from work. When booking Y tickets, prices for BA and SQ direct flights were insane (above $1900). I ended up booking MH at a much better rate ($1200). The report will cover the SIN-KUL-LHR sectors on MH. Apologies in advance for some missing/not-so-good photos. They were the best i could manage in the circumstances. Fair warning: i’m going to provide quite some detail as i’m hoping to give us a better look at MH’s product. For a TL;DR, head to the end of the report. For those who want a closer look, buckle up and here we go!
I woke at 0430 to catch MH602 to KUL. I’d just returned from Ipoh the previous night so you can imagine how tired i was….. Reached check-in counters at Changi T2 at around 0500 and had the bags checked all the way through to LHR and received my 2 boarding passes.
I said my goodbyes and made my way to the departure gate. Security was at the gate, as usual.
I walked down the stairs, wondering why on earth there was a lower gallery…….and then realised that this was a bus gate. We would be driven to the plane waiting on the tarmac! This was my first time, so cue some excitement having hardly boarded a plane by airstairs (though ironically i had done that yesterday when flying Tiger back from Ipoh).
Malaysia Airlines flight MH602
Singapore (SIN) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Depart: 0650
Arrive: 0735
Duration: 50min
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Registration: 9M-MSC
Seat 29B
Since boarding was done via airstairs, I had the opportunity to grab this shot.
MH’s 737 have 4 rows of J seats and 25 rows of Y seats. I was seated at the last row of the 737 cabin. Flight was full today.
I managed to snap some pics of the MH 737 Y seats. Sharing only relevant ones to save space.
These were the slimline, leather upholstered versions. To me they compared favourably with other 737 seats i had flown before. In 2015 i flew 6hrs from LAX to ANC in an Alaska Airlines 737 with the Recaro slimlines. Those were borderline unbearable, though to be fair i am big sized. Width was similar, though the MH seats were a notch above in terms of padding. For a 50min sector though, they were perfectly acceptable.
Legroom was fairly generous. Would not have too many complaints even on a 3 hour sector. No footrest and no IFE boxes under the seat meant there was more space to stretch out!
There was also touchscreen IFE with full AVOD. Screen quality was pretty good, however the system was pretty slow and fairly unresponsive. Might have caused frustration on a longer sector but for this short one i was not bothered. MH Y screens can be turned off and on at the touch of the power button. Their A380 Y screens also have this (not sure about the A330s), and i found this to be helpful because you just had to touch a a button to completely shut off any glare. A godsend especially if you've tried to sleep with an IFE screen shining in your face!
As we pushed back, the captain gave us his warm welcome and quirkily invited passenger to share their candies with other passengers, especially the kids! Quite a nice start to a long 16 hour journey to LHR!
We took a short taxi to the runway (i forgot which one we used) and were quickly airborne. I got chatting to my seatmate, a very friendly Nepalese man who was flying to Kathmandu from Papua New Guinea to visit his wife and 2 daughters. He stayed the night in Changi!
Shortly after takeoff, the crew rolled the cart down the aisle and offered each passenger a choice of orange juice, apple juice or water, and 2 packs of packaged peanuts. I took orange juice and continued chatting with my seatmate.
As the sun rose, the landscape of Peninsular Malaysia became clearer. It was a fairly cloudless day. I spotted Melaka off in the distance as we were seated on the port side of the aircraft. However, my phone camera failed me so i decided not to post a picture.
40 minutes into the flight, the captain announced that we would be commencing our descent and should touchdown in Kuala Lumpur right on schedule. The descent was smooth and we touched down lightly at KLIA before a quick taxi to the gate, where i deplaned and headed to the Satellite terminal of KLIA via the AirTrain to connect to MH4, my outbound to LHR. The AirTrain afforded loads of unrestricted views of the tarmac surrounding it, but due to a packed train i could not snap away freely.
Having reached the Satellite Terminal and with time to kill, i decided to kill my hunger. This turned out to be a good decision as the meals on MH4 were on the small side. I had wanted to eat local food, but Burger King turned out to be the most cost-effective option by a fair margin, so that ended up being my breakfast.
I made my order and plopped myself down at one of the tables overlooking the tarmac with a book. KLIA isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing airport, but it is functionally adequate and affords some decent views.
At around 8.40 i packed my stuff and headed to the departure gate at the far end of the terminal where the whale awaited to whisk me to London!
Security at KLIA is also at the gate, and was fairly efficient. I waited for barely 10mins before we were called to board the whale.
I recently flew to London (right at the beginning of July) to attend a conference and also take a break from work. When booking Y tickets, prices for BA and SQ direct flights were insane (above $1900). I ended up booking MH at a much better rate ($1200). The report will cover the SIN-KUL-LHR sectors on MH. Apologies in advance for some missing/not-so-good photos. They were the best i could manage in the circumstances. Fair warning: i’m going to provide quite some detail as i’m hoping to give us a better look at MH’s product. For a TL;DR, head to the end of the report. For those who want a closer look, buckle up and here we go!
I woke at 0430 to catch MH602 to KUL. I’d just returned from Ipoh the previous night so you can imagine how tired i was….. Reached check-in counters at Changi T2 at around 0500 and had the bags checked all the way through to LHR and received my 2 boarding passes.
I said my goodbyes and made my way to the departure gate. Security was at the gate, as usual.
I walked down the stairs, wondering why on earth there was a lower gallery…….and then realised that this was a bus gate. We would be driven to the plane waiting on the tarmac! This was my first time, so cue some excitement having hardly boarded a plane by airstairs (though ironically i had done that yesterday when flying Tiger back from Ipoh).
Malaysia Airlines flight MH602
Singapore (SIN) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Depart: 0650
Arrive: 0735
Duration: 50min
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Registration: 9M-MSC
Seat 29B
Since boarding was done via airstairs, I had the opportunity to grab this shot.
MH’s 737 have 4 rows of J seats and 25 rows of Y seats. I was seated at the last row of the 737 cabin. Flight was full today.
I managed to snap some pics of the MH 737 Y seats. Sharing only relevant ones to save space.
These were the slimline, leather upholstered versions. To me they compared favourably with other 737 seats i had flown before. In 2015 i flew 6hrs from LAX to ANC in an Alaska Airlines 737 with the Recaro slimlines. Those were borderline unbearable, though to be fair i am big sized. Width was similar, though the MH seats were a notch above in terms of padding. For a 50min sector though, they were perfectly acceptable.
Legroom was fairly generous. Would not have too many complaints even on a 3 hour sector. No footrest and no IFE boxes under the seat meant there was more space to stretch out!
There was also touchscreen IFE with full AVOD. Screen quality was pretty good, however the system was pretty slow and fairly unresponsive. Might have caused frustration on a longer sector but for this short one i was not bothered. MH Y screens can be turned off and on at the touch of the power button. Their A380 Y screens also have this (not sure about the A330s), and i found this to be helpful because you just had to touch a a button to completely shut off any glare. A godsend especially if you've tried to sleep with an IFE screen shining in your face!
As we pushed back, the captain gave us his warm welcome and quirkily invited passenger to share their candies with other passengers, especially the kids! Quite a nice start to a long 16 hour journey to LHR!
We took a short taxi to the runway (i forgot which one we used) and were quickly airborne. I got chatting to my seatmate, a very friendly Nepalese man who was flying to Kathmandu from Papua New Guinea to visit his wife and 2 daughters. He stayed the night in Changi!
Shortly after takeoff, the crew rolled the cart down the aisle and offered each passenger a choice of orange juice, apple juice or water, and 2 packs of packaged peanuts. I took orange juice and continued chatting with my seatmate.
As the sun rose, the landscape of Peninsular Malaysia became clearer. It was a fairly cloudless day. I spotted Melaka off in the distance as we were seated on the port side of the aircraft. However, my phone camera failed me so i decided not to post a picture.
40 minutes into the flight, the captain announced that we would be commencing our descent and should touchdown in Kuala Lumpur right on schedule. The descent was smooth and we touched down lightly at KLIA before a quick taxi to the gate, where i deplaned and headed to the Satellite terminal of KLIA via the AirTrain to connect to MH4, my outbound to LHR. The AirTrain afforded loads of unrestricted views of the tarmac surrounding it, but due to a packed train i could not snap away freely.
Having reached the Satellite Terminal and with time to kill, i decided to kill my hunger. This turned out to be a good decision as the meals on MH4 were on the small side. I had wanted to eat local food, but Burger King turned out to be the most cost-effective option by a fair margin, so that ended up being my breakfast.
I made my order and plopped myself down at one of the tables overlooking the tarmac with a book. KLIA isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing airport, but it is functionally adequate and affords some decent views.
At around 8.40 i packed my stuff and headed to the departure gate at the far end of the terminal where the whale awaited to whisk me to London!
Security at KLIA is also at the gate, and was fairly efficient. I waited for barely 10mins before we were called to board the whale.
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