{"id":23236,"date":"2013-06-01T11:57:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T01:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.lastminute.com.au\/vc\/blog\/?p=23236"},"modified":"2015-03-13T11:35:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T01:35:31","slug":"airline-review-malaysia-airlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/airline-review-malaysia-airlines\/","title":{"rendered":"Airline Review: Malaysia Airlines"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n
Five star carrier. 80 destinations. 51 flights departing Australia weekly.
\nlastminute lovely Louise road-tests the airline to report back on the real reasons why over 13 million people fly with Malaysia Airlines each year. <\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
My relationship with Malaysia Airlines<\/a> began over 16 years ago. I say relationship because since that virgin flight I\u2019ve been on more than 20 legs with the carrier. That\u2019s a lot of flying with one international airline. And there are more than one or two reasons why I choose Malaysian over other airlines.
\nService<\/strong>
\nAirlines from Asia are regularly celebrated for their excellent hospitality and my experience with the Malaysian cabin crew definitely testifies to that. I find the crew polite and gracious. Asking for extra drinks is never a problem (yes, this is an important metric when flying long haul \u2013 that extra glass of red can make or break my body\u2019s decision to succumb to sleep) and if you need a hand with baggage, headphones etc, I have always found them really attentive. This level of service is across both across Economy and Business. Oh, and I\u2019m going to give them extra points for their outfits \u2013 colourful, cute and feminine.The hardware (AKA the planes)<\/strong>
\nThe Malaysia Airlines planes operating out of Australia to Kuala Lumpur are the A330-300. At the time of writing the planes departing Sydney are brand spanking new (launched in April 2013). Gotta love a new fleet.<\/p>\n

In economy the seating configuration is 2-4-2 or 2-3-2 (avoiding the dreaded 5-person-row gets a tick of approval from me). The seats each come with their own 9\u201d TV and are tres comfy – the seat pitch is 32\u201d which is pretty standard for airlines these days.<\/p>\n\"A330<\/a>\n

In Business, a special shout-out must go to the massage functionality inbuilt into the chair. That\u2019s certainly one way to arrive to your destination refreshed! Seats are arranged in couples 2-2-2. The seat pitch is 60 inches with an angled lie-flat seat with a bed length of 75.2 inches.<\/p>\n

Note – If you are flying with Malaysia Airlines onto London, Paris or Hong Kong you\u2019ll experience their A380 aircrafts which are, in a word, impressive. I find them spacious, modern and strikingly quiet. For those flying economy (um, like nearly everyone) I recommend the economy section of the upper deck for a more intimate experience.
\nThe food<\/strong>
\nAs a rule of thumb I don\u2019t dig airline food. But Malaysia Airlines have some winning formulas that get some bonus points from me.
\nEconomy<\/strong>
\n1. Malaysian curry<\/em> \u2013 As someone with a penchant for a proper curry (no watered down stuff for me please) I really recommend opting for one of these which, from my experience, are generally offered on every Malaysia Airlines long haul flight (generally chicken or fish). They have got these curries down to a fine art. Do it.
\n2. Ice-cream<\/em> \u2013 Okay a few airlines have got on the mid-flight ice-cream bandwagon. But a banana passionfruit Weiss ice-cream post curry and mid Ryan Gosling movie totally hits the spot \u2013 icy, not too sweet and refreshing.
\n3. Hot snack<\/em> \u2013 As you\u2019re on the homeward straight towards KL from Oz, Malaysia Airlines regularly serve chicken or vegetarian hot rolls. These are a take on your traditional sausage roll with just different fillers. And despite the dubious name, these puppies are yum – the pastry is buttery and flakey and the inside is hot and salty. Delish.
\nBusiness<\/strong>
\nTwo words: Chicken Satay. These little sticks of deliciousness have been celebrated globally and heralded the Best In-flight Meal<\/em> in a recent airline award series. Once you\u2019ve tried them you\u2019ll understand why anyone who\u2019s flown Business with Malaysia Airlines rave about them. A-MAZ-ING. (PS I actually ate all of this because it was so good).<\/p>\n\"IMG_3083\"<\/a>\n

And of course the curries in Business totally rock. Fragrant and the side of veg still have that fresh crunch. Don\u2019t even think about choosing another main.<\/p>\n\"IMG_3084\"<\/a>\n

Entertainment<\/strong>
\nMalaysia Airlines has an extensive range of movies, games and TV shows including recently released flicks, classics, cheesy rom-coms and my personal guilty pleasure when flying \u2013 mindless trashy tele. Let the Lindsay Lohan court case marathon commence.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Audio Video on Demand\u2019 service is available across economy and business and is really easy to use. Plus all seats have a power source and a USB port which is handy for your own entertainment on laptops and iPads etc.
\nThe price<\/strong>
\nOne of the most important factors when choosing an airline is undoubtedly price. And for me, this is where Malaysia Airlines really sets itself apart from the competition \u2013 you get all the pleasantries of a five-star airline (safety standards, food service and entertainment options) but for a price that\u2019s not going to break the bank.
\nOn lastminute.com.au you can score some great special fares on Malaysia Airlines<\/a> \u2013 check out their Earlybird deals to Europe released yearly in October and then they have a few key sales throughout the year to Asia and beyond for example Summer Spectacular. One lastminute lovely recently flew from Brisbane to Bangkok for a mere $550 return \u2013 now that is a complete bargain for a full service airline. So keep your eyes pealed for those red hot fares. Frequent flyer point junkies will also be pleased to hear that Malaysia Airlines recently joined the oneworld program so points can be racked up on all flights. Hurrah.
\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So there you have it – I am a big, big fan. But what about you? Have you flown Malaysia Airlines? And would you recommend them?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five star carrier. 80 destinations. 51 flights departing Australia weekly. lastminute lovely Louise road-tests the airline to report back on..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1068,1069,159,3293,697,452],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23236"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39223,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23236\/revisions\/39223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lastminute.co.nz\/vc\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}