Review of Malaysia Airlines flight Jakarta → Kuala Lumpur in Economy

Hello friends.

Here I will tell you the story of my journey to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on February 2017.

The story contains only 2 parts:
Part 1: Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia Airlines MH710, Boeing 737-800) - you are here
Part 2: Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta (KLM KL809, Boeing 777-300ER)

As usual, please apologize for my bad English, and there will be more photos than words.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

As a fellow undergraduate student, while also owning a small-scalle travel agency, I was very happy that the usual 1-month holiday would come after a semester with full of assignments and tests. This holiday would be also my last holiday before a long process to do my final research paper before graduation. Then I decided to once again visit my "negeri jiran" (neighboring country), Malaysia, a country with many cultural similarities with Indonesia.

At that time, Malaysia Airlines, Malaysian flag carrier and a member of Oneworld, offered cheap ticket price from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur for only IDR 650,000 (around USD 50.00), while usually the ticket price is more than IDR 1 million. Without too much thinking, I quickly bought it. Then how about my returning journey from Kuala Lumpur? I decided to fly with my favourite Dutch flag-carrier, KLM, which also offered cheap ticket price from Kuala Lumpur (popularly known as "KL", not to be confused with KLM's IATA code) for only IDR 480,000 (around USD 37.00).

This would be my 1st flight with Malaysia Airlines after 15 years. My last time with it was in December 2001, when I boarded it from Medan to Penang, then from Penang to KL. There were no meal sets on those flights, only "kacang masin" (salted peanuts). The Medan-Penang route of Malaysia Airlines had been discontinued after the arrival of its LCC competitor, AirAsia.

At February 13th of 2017, a day after my birthday, the journey began.

MALAYSIA AIRLINES
Jakarta Soekarno Hatta (CGK) - Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
February 13th, 2017
Flight no: MH 710
Reg code: 9M-MLN
Type: Boeing 737-800
Dep: 11.45 a.m. (UTC+7)
Arr: 2.15 p.m. (UTC+8)

From my lovely home at southeastern side of Jakarta, I hop an express bus to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. It was time when commuters left their home to their offices, so the traffic jam could not be avoided, especially on the Bogor-Jakarta toll road and Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR).

At the west side of Bogor-Jakarta toll road the construction of LRT tracks was still ongoing.


Congested traffic.


The elevated busway project still also ongoing in Ciledug area.


Around 10 kms from the airport, the traffic was normal without congestions.


Entering the Soekarno-Hatta Airport area. A 747 of Lion Air could be seen.


Our bus reached terminal 1, domestic terminal, before entering terminal 2.


Finally the express bus arrived at terminal 2. The bus journey took 2 hours from my residence.




Our flight number was MH710.


Then I proceed to check in counter, with quite long queue. Indonesian and Malaysian passengers dominated the flight, but there were also many People's Republic of China citizens going home through KL.






After the check in process, I proceed to immigration counter to have my passport stamped. Then I walked to the boarding gate. While on the way to the gate, there was a small playground area for kids.



A 777-300ER of Saudia could be seen, ready for departure to its base, bringing some "umrah" pilgrims to Mecca.


Gate D5, our boarding gate. There was an ongoing construction behind the screen.




Our aircraft ready for departure. The loading of foods and luggages were in process.


A Thai Lion Air fleet.


A330 of Garuda.




At around 10.45 a.m., the boarding process started. The passengers were separated based on the colour of cards distributed to passengers before entering the waiting hall.

Entering the aircraft, we were welcomed by senior cabin crews.

The front area of the cabin was dedicated to business class.


Then the economy class area behind it.


At around 20 minutes after that, all passengers had embarked. Then the IFE LCD started showing safety instruction video in 3 languages: Malay, English, and sign language.




At around 11.45 p.m. the aircraft started to take-off. But not so long after that, we faced bad weather condition for around 15 minutes.

Then the weather had been stable again. I started to open the table and explore any stuff inside the seatpocket.

The headphone.


Safety card.


"Going places" magazine.








Then I explored the IFE. There were updated movie collections, and also lot variaties of musics, especially Asian musics (Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean). I was very happy to see an album of my currently favourite K-Pop duo, Akdong Musician (AKMU), on the IFE.



















While listening to AKMU's album titled "Spring", the cabin crews started serving meals. They only offered 2 options: chicken or fish. I said them "fish". Then they gave me a lunch set containing rice, a Malay-style fish curry, vegetables, and a cup of water. The fish curry was so yummy and reminded me to my mother's cooking. The size was also enough to fill my stomach at this lunch hour.


The cabin crews also served drinks, but as we were in a not-so-good weather condition with small-scale turbulence, it was quite difficult to serve them. Some drops of the orange juice then were poured on my shirts. The senior cabin crew politely apologized to me.

After the lunch, I continued listening to musics on the IFE. This time I listened to another duo. This duo were not singers, but very talented guitarists. They were DEPAPEPE from Japan. I had attended their concerts in Jakarta twice.


The first song of the album was titled "START". It was a popular song for our guitar practice when I and my friends were in high school.


And this was the toilet condition. Clean and well-maintained.


During the journey, the aircraft faced bad weather condition 3 times, and even in other times some small-scale shakes happened.

Then finally the aircraft landed safely in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 2.15 p.m. (UTC+8), 1 hour ahead of Jakarta. While the aircraft was on the way to the apron, we saw 2 Boeing 777-200 of Malaysian Airlines parked. The one was in a full white colour without liveries. Malaysia Airlines faced their worst year in 2014, when they lost 2 777s in the same year. A 777 was lost while en route from KL to Beijing, while another 777 was shot down in Ukraine.




The aircraft stopped on the apron, the seatbelt signs were turned off, and it was time to leave. While disembarking, the plane's speakers played a song from Depapepe titled "Sunshine Surf".

And this is the final picture of the aircraft.


The situation inside KLIA's main terminal.




After immigration checks, it was time to claim my baggage.


Then I went down to the KLIA bus station, to hop an express bus to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), KL's main intercity bus terminal. There I would buy a ticket of intercity bus to Penang.