On SilkAir's New 737-800 to Kuala Lumpur (MI322 SIN-KUL)

[yflyer]

I was headed to Kuala Lumpur again. It was Friday. I was booked on SilkAir MI326, departing at 10.15am on Sunday morning.

A plain vanilla A320. Safe, comfortable, reliable. A known quantity. Yawn.

Is the A320 the most boring passenger plane in the sky today? It is probably even boring to fly, if you were the pilot (Captain Sully may disagree…).

I pored over the flight schedule, line by line...like a hungry diner looking over a restaurant menu for something to excite a jaded palate…

What’s this? SilkAir flies one of their new 738’s to KL at 7.10am every day? That would mean an early Sunday morning wake-up call. But to try this new equipment, it would be worth the effort.

I have had a love-hate relationship with 737’s since my first flight as a child on a first generation MH 737 from Penang to Singapore. I remember air stairs, a chocolate éclair as an inflight meal, and a ear ache. Since then, 737’s have been a necessary evil: flown only if I needed to get from point A to point B by time T.

But MH’s 738, with the new Boeing Sky Interior, stylish dark red leather seats, and brilliant IFE, changed my perceptions of the 738. I actually enjoyed my flight.

Qantas also flies very comfortable 738’s trans-Tasman, with good IFE and a thrilling roller coaster ride thrown in when the weather isn’t so great on approach into Wellington.

Air China flies 738’s from Beijing to many destinations as well. Their top notch treatment of Star Gold members makes up for their incomparably bland domestic catering…

What has SilkAir done with their brand new 738’s? For a start, they have new Boeing Sky Interior with the cool blue lighting and spacious overhead bins. They also have inflight IFE via wifi. Trying out this plane on a short flight like SIN-KUL would also be a relatively risk-free way to decide if I could tolerate longer sectors in this flavour of metal tube…

I was keen to check this plane out.

[yflyer]

A quick call to my travel agency to switch flights and the deed was done: I would now fly to KL on MI322, operated by SilkAir’s new 738. I would lose out on some sleep, for sure, but it would be worth it. This would be SilkAir’s 2nd flight of the day to KL, departing at 7.10am on Sunday morning.

In view of the early departure, I headed to the airport the day before to check in and grab my boarding pass. This is a feasible option for me because I live fairly close to the airport, in the East. By doing this, I can depart from home on a 6am taxi booking for a 7.10am flight...



T2 was fairly busy, but the queues at the SilkAir check-in counters were not long.



I noticed that Krispy Kreme at T2 was now open. That would make some folks very happy!

[yflyer]

It was surprisingly busy on Sunday morning, when I arrived at at the Departure area at 6.15am.



There was a queue at SilkAir check-in at that hour, but it was not excessively long. I had already collected my boarding pass the day before, so headed straight to immigration, where the automated clearance machines were free (whereas the manned counters had deep queues, even at 6.20am in the morning).



My aircraft that morning would be 9V-MGE, another very new plane, delivered on 9 August 2014, just over a week prior.

[yflyer]

Boarding began on time…



This aircraft had the new Boeing Sky Interior.



The front J cabin had 3 rows of leather seats arranged 2-2.

[yflyer]

The Y cabin was configured in conventional 3-3 layout.





The seats had audio (but no in-seat video)…



…and winged headrests.



I thought seat pitch looked a little narrow, however at 30 inches, this looked to be standard on most 737’s – no better or no worse than other 737 Y cabins.



On short sectors, I would not have any issues. I wonder if this Y config would really make for a comfortable flight on long sectors like the 4 hour plus SIN-HYD sector, though.

[yflyer]

I was fortunate to have asked for, and received a front row bulkhead Y seat, though. There was ample legroom there.



You had individual, adjustable, air vents.



Restful blue lighting in the Y cabin…



Headphone sockets were conventional mini-plugs, which meant that your iPhone or iPod headphones would work fine.



A/C power and USB charging were available for seats in Y. Thumbs up on that feature!



Cabin crew came round with newspapers prior to closing the doors…

[yflyer]

A short taxi to Runway 20C...



...and a take-off to the South...



...before a long left turn towards Peninsular Malaysia…



…which gave pax on the left side of the cabin great views of Singapore as we climbed out…

[yflyer]

Cold towels (of the disposable variety) were handed out.



As well as a choice of fruit juice or coffee/tea.



Proper coffee cups…but powdered creamer (Yuck) rather than tubs of milk.



Overall cabin ambience was good…



Cruising altitude on this flight was 22,000 feet, just skimming the clouds.

[yflyer]

IFE on this flight was SilkAir’s new wifi streaming IFE, which enabled you to use your own tablet, smartphone (iPhone or Android) or notebook PC to access movies, TV and music, in addition to the separate in-flight audio channels.

This was a very nice system, which worked well when I tried it on my iPad and iPhone. The days of SilkAir’s silent features are finally coming to an end!

This system was already available while the aircraft was on the ground, and continued to be available until just before landing.

You simply connected to the wifi network just like in hotels or hotspots, and were redirected to the IFE menu. Note that internet surfing is not supported, only the Silkair IFE programmes (Movies, TV, Audio, Info) are available.














Not as large a selection of movies as SQ’s amazing Krisworld IFE, but a reasonably good selection that should be sufficient for the short and medium haul sectors that SilkAir flies.

[yflyer]

The Noose (Possibly the best local programme on TV these days) was available, as was Phua Chu Kang…



Audio programmes…





The UI was intuitive, not unlike viewing iTunes Movies or Youtube videos…



Full screen viewing was possible, and on a tablet this was roughly equivalent to viewing the move on seatback IFE, although the picture quality was average, a little better than 4:3 Krisworld, but not as high quality as the latest widescreen SQ Krisworld.





Viewing was paused when inflight announcements were made. I wonder how they implemented that feature.



Audio on the iPad was equally user-friendly.

[yflyer]

I also tried the system out on my iPhone, and it worked well as well, although the screen was obviously much smaller.

[yflyer]

On descent, we flew by KLIA, with the white buildings of the KLIA 2 low cost terminal (The 'H-' shape), and the Sepang F1 circuit (The 'V' shape) clearly visible in the picture below.

[yflyer]

We overflew Putrajaya as well…





…before a smooth landing at KLIA.

[yflyer]

Conclusions?

A comfortable flight, overall.

While not introducing anything revolutionary as far as cabin layout was concerned, SilkAir’s new 738 addresses the gap in SilkAir’s IFE offerings, and brings them to practically the same level as other 738 operators. At least you have proper IFE audio, and advanced tablet-based AVOD, not to mention A/C power and USB charging.

The Y seat pitch is nothing to cheer about, at 30 inches, but this is standard for 737 configurations these days, and no worse than what other airlines provide, although in general I still think 737’s configured this way are not my preferred way to travel on sectors longer than 2 (maybe 3) hours.

Between SilkAir’s A320’s and the new 737’s, having now tried both, I think for future flights I would still prefer the relative spaciousness of the A320 Y cabin.

So although I started this TR lamenting the “boring” A320, perhaps being the quiet, steady performer wins the day after all.

In the neverending fight between Airbus and Boeing, this round goes to the Airbus A320!

[yflyer]

As an epilogue, after clearing immigration and customs, I headed to KLIA food garden on Level 2 for roti canai (i.e. prata) before heading to the city.





RM5.50 gets you a roti canai telur (egg) set with masala tea included.



A wonderful breakfast and a great way to start the day, before I caught the KLIA Express train service to KL Sentral, where I checked into the Aloft Kuala Lumpur hotel, but that is the subject of another TR…

Thanks for reading!