Review of Malaysia Airlines flight Kuala Lumpur → Singapore in Economy

Hi all,

Welcome to the continuation of the trip home on a random weekend. The first segment of this flight was flown on Silk Air courtesy of Malaysia Airlines while the return was made on Malaysia Airlines itself.

Here are the breakdown

02 Dec 2016 SIN-KUL MI330 link
04 Dec 2016 KUL-SIN MH605 You are Here

I was initially booked on a later flight departing 17:35, however there was a mix up in the departure status of my SIN-KUL flight where MH ground staff at Changi Airport forgot to check me off as having my flight changed to Silk Air and left my flight status as did not board the outbound flight, causing my return ticket to be automatically cancelled in the system. Worse was I wasnt notified, and it was until I tried the online check-in that I found the situation that I was in. I had to get MH customer service to get my self re-booked on another flight due to this fiasco as my initial flight was sold out even in Business. This undermined my recently found confidence on the airline.

I got my Dad to drop me off at KUL


MH encourages online or kiosk check-in not unlike many airlines in United States and Europe.


KUL still has a rather grand appearance at its entrance facade and the departure area despite its age, however a closer look at the details screams the need for an uplift.



A quick scan of the mobile boarding pass and I was let off towards border control. In Asia, border control for passport inspection and stamping occurs at both the entrance and exit of the country unlike Europe and North America. Went through the automated passport clearance which was rather clear at that time of the day.


A quick look at the FIDS to determine my gate, and I am onward to it, passing the array of shops that fulfills the secondary purpose of airports nowadays. Harrods was the particular standout offering many items that is found in its store in London.


As described in my previous posting, KUL is split into to terminals and MH narrow body departs from the terminal that houses the border control allowing me to reach it quickly. The queue stretching from the waiting lounge confirms that my gate is indeed open. In KUL, like SIN, security is done at gate hence the queue.


Headed down to the waiting area after security for some avgeek moment.

The satellite terminal at the far end houses the more interesting flights. An MH A388 departing for London, a MH A333 and an EY and UL A332.

The MH A388 departing. These sights are going to be the thing of the past soon as MH gets its A359s end of 2017 to replace its entire fleet of A388.

Bi-coloured KLM arriving from Amsterdam

My flight finally arriving at 15:15, means that it will definitely be a delayed departure.


Boarding finally took place at 16:00 which is a pretty quick 45 minutes turn around.
Flight Details
Aircraft: 9M-MSF
Type: Boeing 737-800
Age: 3.5 years first flight 13 Jun 2013
Operating Code: MH 605
Scheduled Departure: 1535
Actual Departure: 1615
Flight Time: 45 minutes
Seat: 15F

Passing Business class, with a total of 16 seats. Pretty standard J seats for a narrow body in my opinion.

and into Economy class. Pretty tight seat pitch on the MH 738, with a pitch of only 30". Significantly smaller than the MI flight 2 days ago. There was also no separate headrest making it less comfortable to
rest your head against. All together pretty uninspiring to travel in, considering these planes are used for flights as far as Delhi for MH, which is 5.5 hours long.


FAs greeted passengers at the entrance and went about their usual duty of assisting passengers. After all I have gone through to get on this flight, the service, so far, has been a redeeming factor, bettering that of MI.

Most of MH's 738s come equipped with built in IFEs. They are available for use at gate, however due to the short duration of flight, ear pieces are not provided.


Boarding was completed pretty quickly. In fact the full flight was fully boarded within 15 minutes and we were ready for pushback.


No congestion for take off and we were straight into the air.


Right about here, in-flight service commenced. This an area where MH uproots MI. A choice of juices and water was offered for the short flight with ice cream for each Y passenger, exactly as the first post I did link. A glass of water for me as well.


Although hot beverages were not on the cart, request for coffee made by other passengers were accommodated.
The remainder of the flight was pretty uninteresting. Soon after the in flight service was completed, the First Officer came on the PA announcing descent, Weather en-route wasn't the best and we experienced some turbulence while descending. Surprisingly not much traffic on descent into Changi Airport today and we were allowed a straight approach.


We landed on runway 20R which as adjacent to Terminal 3 of SIN. A long taxi was required to get to Terminal 2 where MH uses. Passed the usual suspects that call SIN home.
A quick walk from the gate and I was released into Singapore. Typical Singapore immigration efficiency got me through within 10 minutes of disembarking. Something HKG and ICN must really learn.


Thanks very much for reading. Stay tuned for more reports in the next 2 weeks.