REVIEW: Malaysia Airlines business class part 2 – Kuala Lumpur – Auckland – London

This Malaysia Airlines Flight review is by Jane D. This is the second of three articles about her trip to Langkawi that I will be publishing over the coming days. 

 

Return from Langkawi to KL, then New Zealand

The Plaza Premium Lounge in Langkawi was simple but clean and quiet. There was a cafeteria section as well as more comfortable armchairs – I chose the latter.

Hot food was served up (rather than self-serve), including soup, chicken curry and rice. I chose tomato pasta, which was brought over. Basically, it was spag bol! It tasted fine and had plenty of Parmesan. A minor point – I would have preferred shorter pasta shapes. There were also tuna sandwiches and small pieces of cake. Lager seemed to be the only alcohol available.

 

Boarding

There was a special priority seating area at the gate for groups 1-3 boarding.

This was a great idea, and prevented the usual scrum when passengers ignore boarding announcements, which had happened outbound at KL.

My New Zealand e-visa was checked here without me having to be called.

Everything seemed efficient as Malaysia Airlines operates a frequent shuttle, KUL-LGK.

We walked along the outside edge of the building to board, though with some potential confusion, as there was an Air Asia plane next door, whose passengers were also embarking at the same time.

The onboard snack was seafood dim sum, which was delicious.

The monorail at KL’s T1 was out of action for long-term work. However, the replacement bus worked OK and has since been replaced for business passengers by private BMWs (see Michele’s article 27.1.24).

 

International lounge at KL

The Golden Lounge at C gates took a bit of finding, not least because the Global Lounge staff directed me the wrong way!

It’s big with lots of choices, e.g. pizza and pasta made to order, fresh fruit, as well as plenty of eastern food choices. There’s a separate noodle bar.

Alcohol is served in a separate bar area. I opted for a tuna panini, which was cooked to order, accompanied by a glass of French Sauvignon Blanc (Edmond Bernard).

On a Friday evening, the lounge felt a bit noisy at times, especially with kids running around.

However, there was a nap area with separate male/female sections, each containing four dark beds, with good availability when I looked.

This was tempting, but I thought I should stay true to my current time zone!

 

KUL – AKL

The A330-200 plane seemed old and a bit tatty. There was less storage space: no cupboard with a mirror or a handy pouch for putting a phone in.

My tray table was stained, and the seatbelt was slightly fraying. I’d swapped across the aisle with another passenger whose seat was broken.

The Duval-Leroy champagne gave some cheer.

This flight suffered lots of turbulence, which affected dinner service. We only finished eating two hours after take-off.

Mixed satay skewers were followed by a salmon pinwheel starter. The bread basket only arrived when I’d finished that, so it was rather disjointed.

I chose buttermilk prawns for my main, accompanied by excellent garlic rice. The dessert was cake with berry compote.

The seatbelt sign was on for much of the night. I was ready to sleep and managed a decent four hours. The IFE completely failed to boot, which felt like BA Club World in the bad old days. There was also no WiFi.

The amenity pack included a hairbrush and a nice bamboo toothbrush kit. More turbulence meant a delay to the crucial first caffeine of the day! Despite all this, the crew were very attentive and cheery with some nice gestures such as cleaning the toilet before I went in.

Breakfast was good: fruit and croissant plus smoothie, followed by a mixed grill. I had a very smooth exit from Auckland airport, which felt empty on a Saturday lunchtime.

Unfortunately, I felt really sick later in the day. I don’t believe there was anything wrong with what I ate or drank – I’ve put this down to the turbulence.

 

Return from Auckland

After a very refreshing overnight stop at the Auckland Airport Holiday Inn, which I recommend for cheery service and a nice courtyard pool, I checked in early and went to the Strata Lounge. The lounge seemed to be available to a wide range of passes but was, in fact, very peaceful late on a Saturday morning.

There was a shower area and playroom, which was overtaken by adults curled up on the beanbags.

Over-enthusiastic staff tried to clear away my plate while waiting for the toaster! The flight screen told me to relax, so I obeyed.

The fizz on offer was Jacob’s Creek reserve Prosecco – I felt it was a shame this wasn’t a Kiwi sparkling wine, having tasted some excellent ones.

There was a great range of food, including fresh salads and even jelly sweets in plane shapes!

 

MH144 Auckland to Kuala Lumpur 

Again, the plane was old and slightly tatty. It was just as well that the business cabin wasn’t full: around me, passengers changed seats because chargers didn’t work or seats didn’t recline. One such seat seemed to be given to a rather large economy passenger after dinner.

Malaysia Airlines says in their magazine they’re modernising their fleet, and it can’t come soon enough as this is presumably a competitive route. We took off 30 minutes late, but this didn’t affect arrival time.

The peanuts and satay appeared once again, and I drank champagne. The starter of green bean and walnut salad was nice (and would have been even better with blue cheese). The beef lomo saltado was delicious. I was offered a second helping of cherry frangipani, but that would have been greedy!

I didn’t watch the IFE films as the selection seemed the same as on my outbound journey. Fruit and then a tuna sandwich from the “dine anytime” options sustained me. The second meal was garden salad, and I then chose chicken fried rice, which was tasty.

I had to request tea, and I didn’t receive an amenity kit. Overall, the service on this flight was rather unsmiling.

 

Kuala Lumpur – London

The Golden Lounge at KL was much quieter this time than it was later. The staff had put up some special displays for Chinese New Year, which was a nice touch.

I had some fizz and tortilla chips, then some cheese and salad. It was really lovely to board MH2 (an A350-900 as outbound). Not only was it a better plane, but the crew were excellent throughout, run by the wonderful Mary Ann. We were given pyjamas as well as slippers and amenity kits.

I was really tired by now and asked if I could have dinner at some point after sleep. This was no problem at all.

I ate 3.5 hours into the flight – and Mary Ann double-checked later that I’d had the meal.

Salmon mousse was followed by chicken roulade and then bread pudding, which was quite nice considering I’d never usually choose it! I had fruit and tea for snacks.

Spinach and goats cheese frittata made a lovely breakfast – but there was even an option for minute steak. Turbulence struck again, but the crew worked around it and managed to get hot drinks out relatively quickly.

 

Arrival

We touched down at rainy Heathrow bang on time at 5 am! I was the first woman back into the UK border that day, which got me a cheery greeting from the staff. This flight is a good one to choose if you want a head start on getting into London early. All too soon, my wonderful adventure was over.

 

Bottom line

I’d happily fly Malaysia Airlines again, especially on this side of KL.

Most of their crew and staff do a fantastic job, and their offer will be even better when they complete their fleet modernisation.

 

You can read Jane D’s part 1 of the Malaysia Airlines here.

 

You can visit Jane D’s site: https://dalemoorltd.com/