Our Qantas flight on the A380-800 had been cancelled so we were moved to this Malaysia Airlines flight on their A330-300.  Not having flown with Malaysia Airlines before we were not sure what to expect and to be honest were a little nervous.  Our flight to Malaysia was to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary with a stay on spectacular Pankor Laut and a week in Kuala Lumpur.

Airline and Flight #

Malaysia Airlines MH0146

Aircraft 

Airbus A330-300

Airport and Terminal

Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne Australia | Terminal 2

Departure Date and Time

Scheduled: Tuesday 6th August 2019  11:55 am | Actual:  11:54am

Arrival Date and Time

Scheduled: Tuesday 6th August 2019  18:15 pm | Actual:  18:30 pm

Our flight left on time and arrived 15 minutes late

Flying Time

Scheduled: 8 hours 20 minutes  | Actual: 8 hours 34 minutes

Luggage Allowance

Carry-on: Economy passengers are allowed just one piece of hand luggage not exceeding 7 kilograms (15 pounds) and 115 centimetres (45 inches) and one personal item such as a purse, laptop or overcoat.

Fun Facts

• Malaysia Airlines has its hub in its capital, Kuala Lumpur
• On 1 February 2013 Malaysia Airlines joined the Oneworld alliance
• There are no Business class suites or First class on the A330-300’s
• The airline received the Skytrax award for the World’s best cabin crew in 2012
• Registered 9M-MTA, this aircraft was delivered to Malaysia Airlines on 4th April 2011 and is currently their oldest A330-300.

Website

• Flights can be booked through the Malaysia Airlines website.  As we were supposed to be flying Qantas, we didn’t use the website at all.

Check-in 

There are three ways to check in when flying Malaysia Airlines.  1.Via the web, 2 at the counter or 3 via a self-service kiosk.

1. Via the web – or by downloading the app to your mobile phone, check in commences 48 hours prior to your flight up until 90 minutes prior to departure.  To check in, select your flight date and enter your booking reference or e-ticket number before continuing.  Print or download your boarding pass and bring it with you to the airport along with ID.  Bags should be dropped off at the bag counter at least 60 minutes before departure.  Boarding closes 30 minutes prior to departure.
2. At the counter – the check-in counter closes half an hour prior to departure however this service cannot be used for passengers flying on Malaysia Airlines out of the International terminal unless they are travelling as a group of nine or more, are on stand-by or have special needs.  All other passengers must use the self-service kiosks.  If using the KLIA Ekspres train service, you can check in at KL CAT located inside the KL Sentral station.  You can also check in your bags here up to 2 hours prior to your departure time.
3. Via a self-service kiosk – here at the airport you can check in, select your seat and print your boarding pass and baggage tag.  You can then proceed to the bag drop counter or straight to the gate if you have no checked baggage.  If flying to Kathmandu or Dhaka, you cannot use the self-service kiosk so will need to check in at the counter.

Seating

• We were seated in row 15 of 44 on this flight  The Malaysia Airlines plane is a wide bodied jet with a 2-4-2 configuration in Economy.  The aircraft has 290 seats divided into 27 Business class seats, 16 Economy class seats with extra legroom and 247 Economy seats.
• The aircraft is fitted with Weber 5751 slimline seats with four-way headrests and retractable arm rests.
• The cloth seats we were in were a pinky purple with light pink flecks and the headrest was a light purple leather.  Some of the seats were maroon with maroon head rests.  A mostly white pillow and purple wrapped blanket were already on the seats.
• The seats have forward articulation recline mechanisms so that the seat bucket moves forward when reclining.
• Seat pitch 32 inches ( 81 cm), seat width 17.3 inches ( 44 cm). seat recline 6 inches (15 cm).

Tray tables – these are foldable and slide out depending on how close you want the tray to your body,  Each has a circular indent for your cup on both sides which you can use when the tray is folded or fully out.  There’s also a ledge closest to you to maybe hold a pen or two.  Unfortunately the tray tables hadn’t been cleaned very well after the last flight as ours were both dirty.

Storage – Apart from the overhead luggage bins, the only other storage was the seat pocket on the chair back in front of you and a bit on the floor in front of you.

Cabin Comfort

• I liked having just the two seats together instead of three which made it feel less cramped
• Leg room was decent on this flight
• The entertainment screens were a bit small and there wasn’t a very good range of shows to watch.

In-flight Entertainment

Electronic Devices

• In line with the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia, electronic devices must be switched off once the aircraft has moved out of the bay/gate for departure.  Whilst cruising, devices can be used in flight mode.  Devices must again be switched off during the approach for landing until the aircraft is parked at the terminal building.  Devices transmitting strong signals must be switched off throughout the flight until disembarkation.  

Power

• Individual in-seat power(115 V AC) is available in the armrest and a USB port is situated beside the remote control under the screen in the seat in front.

Reading Material

In the seat pocket you will find Malaysia Airlines’ magazine “going places” along with their duty free magazine “Temptations” and the airline safety card.

WiFi

• There was no Wi-Fi on board this Malaysia Airlines flight as it is only offered on their A350’s.

Entertainment System

• Video on Demand : Each seat on the aircraft is equipped with an individual 9 inch seat back smart screen featuring audio video on demand. The select in-flight entertainment system offers a selection of over 300 popular TV programmes and a range of movies including the latest blockbusters.  Despite this I found trouble finding good content to watch and the touch screen wasn’t very responsive.  It did work better using the remote.  Multi-player games are also available to play.

• Audio on Demand:  A host of radio shows across a number of genres as well as a library of nearly 500 music and spoken word albums can be accessed.

Safety demonstration

The safety demonstration was performed by the crew in conjunction with a safety video which played on the screen.  The video was to the point and all pretty serious with no obvious attempt made to make it fun or humorous as more airlines are doing these days. 

Catering

Menus

• Malaysia Airlines do not have menus, even on an eight and a half hour flight.

Food/Drinks

• All food served on Malaysia Airlines is Halal and alcohol is available on flights over three hours to passengers over the age of 21.
• All times below are AEST
• 12:22 pm – A small packet of salted peanuts were issued to each passenger in Economy shortly followed by cups of either water, orange or apple juice.

12:55 pm– A choice of three hot dishes were available which included Fish Sambal with rice and vegetables, Chicken and potatoes or vegetarian pasta.  They had run out of the chicken already when we were served. Meals were accompanied by salad and dressing, cheese and crackers, bread roll and butter, a Kit Kat, a spring water and a drink.  We both chose the fish and after us asking what the butter was for they brought us a bread roll which was obviously supposed to go with it.  Hubby was missing his spring water so it seemed they were in a bit of a rush putting the trays of food together.  We enjoyed our meals.  The sambal was tasty but quite spicy and I liked having a salad with my meal.  Something most but not all airlines do.  I would have liked to have seen a dessert on the tray along with the mini Weis bar that came ten minutes after our lunch was served. But in saying that, we didn’t go hungry.

6:40 pm– A snack was served which was a choice of a chicken or vegetable mini pizza.  We chose the chicken one and it was quite tasty.

Restrooms

The Economy class cabin has seven restrooms on board.  Two towards the front, four near the middle and one up the back.  I thought they were well laid out making good use of the available space.  It contained the basics and was unfortunately a bit dirty when I visited mid-flight.

Service

Service got off to a bit of a slow start with lunch served an hour after we departed.  This could have been due to a high number of special ordered meals.  No hot towels or refresher towelettes were handed out and staff were not overly friendly.  Especially the female cabin crew.  More attention needs to be paid to assembling the meals as our bread rolls were missing  which was rectified when I asked nicely what the butter on our tray was for.  Hubby was also missing his spring water.  Given there was no self-service snack bar on board, it would have been good to have received a small snack between lunch and when the mini pizzas were served as we were quite hungry by then.  Better attention to cleaning is also required as both our trays were dirty from the previous flight.

Pros

• The 2-4-2 configuration in Economy feels more spacious and meant we didn’t have a stranger sitting next to us.
• The food we had on Malaysia Airlines was quite tasty
• The seats looked quite attractive in their shades of pinks, purples and maroons
• The female cabin crew look lovely in their Malaysia Airlines uniforms

Cons

• No menus and they ran out of our preferred meal choice
• No self service bar for helping yourself to snacks and drinks when you got hungry
• Staff (particularly the female cabin crew) were not that friendly on this flight
• No face towels or towelettes
• No amenity kit (although this was a day time flight)
• The entertainment screens were small and not very responsive when using the touchscreen
• Not a very good selection of movies and TV shows to watch

Conclusion

Knowing what Singapore Airlines is capable of, I had reasonable expectations of their neighbour Malaysia Airlines but instead ended up rather disappointed.   Dirty trays, no menus, running out of our preferred meal preference, unfriendly cabin crew and limited choice of entertainment to watch were some of what you would not expect to find on a full service airline .  On the other hand, the plane looked attractive in its pinks, purples and maroons as did the female cabin crew in their beautiful uniforms.  The food was tasty and I was grateful for the 2-4-2 seating configuration which gave us more room and saved us from having to climb over an extra passenger when we wanted to leave our seat.