I had the oppotunity to fly Business class on Malaysia Airlines from LAX/KUL, and coach class form KUL/PEN and PEN/BKI.
My experience started at th LAX ticket counter. Pete, the agent who checked me in, was VERY nice and helpful. Then I went to the Golden Lounge. What a joke. I’ve been to other airlines’ lounges, and this place left ALOT to be desired. First off, the MH website said that there would be a sumptuous buffet for those who wanted to skip dinner on the plane, to sleep, because the flight
left at 1130 pm. They must have been referring to the lounge at KLIA, because the buffet consisted of crackers, cheese, cookies and chocolate. Not even a sandwich to be had. There was a VERY small bar, several chairs and tables, a couch a tv, and one computer to access email. That’s it.
I was lucky enough to be on the upper level of the 747, and had a bulkhead, window seat. The seats were nice...could be a little more comfy, though. I was impressed with the on-demand IFE. There were 12 movies to chose from, and you could start one when you were ready to watch...you didn’t have to wait until the movie started again. You could also pause, rewind and fast foward anything you were watching. There were also several other channels to chose from. From music videos, games, tv and news.
We were served 3 meals during the 19 hour flight, and all meals had 3 entree choices. Dinner was served about 40 minutes after departure, and the choices were a Western chicken dish, something Chinese, and an Indian lamb stew with rice and greens beans...which was wonderful. A basket with various hot rolls, came by a couple times.
Breakfast was served about 2 hours before arrival at TPE, and the choices were a Western style omlette, something Chinese, and an Indian rolled buckwheat pancake stuffed with potato, and a side of coconut chutney...again, very good. another basket of croissants, toast, and cinnamon rolls was being offered.
Brunch was served between TPE and KUL, and the choices were a dim-sum variety, Western style omlette, and something else Indian. I chickened out and chose the omlette.....not very good....but then eggs on the plane are never good.
My main complaint was that the announcements were in Malay, Chinese and English, so it took some time to have to listen to all of it. if you were watching a movie, the movie stopped, and you had no choice but to listen. It was a great opportunity to go the bathroom.
Coach class wasn’t as bad as I tought it would be. There was more leg room than say, Southwest airlines. The food was unrecognizable...I didn’t eat.. I slept.
On the return to the US, the Golden Lounge at KLIA was wonderful. A huge buffet with many Chinese and Western foods was available, as well as a salad bar, sandwich bar and desert bar. There were a few private cubicles for internet access, a shower room, massage room, sleep quarters, and a childrens room. There was even a trickling stream right thru the middle of it all. VERY nice. Much better than LAX’s version.
The flight back, I was again in the bulkhead, upper level, window from TPE/LAX. 3 meals and lots of movies later, I was home. The service from the flight attendants was great, except for one on the flight from KUL/TPE. She seemed to forget to pick up my tray when I was finished, and it took 10 minutes to get a glass of water, even though I was in the last row of seats, 10 feet from the galley on that flight.
All in all, it was nice. Malaysia did a good job of taking care of the customer.