The SURPRISING State of Malaysia Airlines

today we are trying an airline that is unfortunately famous for all the wrong reasons they also happen to be relatively unknown in terms of their current inflight experience so join me Dan a self-funded full-time Airline reviewer who's flown over 160 Airlines as I try out a new Mia airlin signature route between Doha and koala lumper on their A330 300 it's time for me to take another katar Airways Outsourcing Airline off the list the national airline of qaraar Airways is incentivizing all their partners in one world and Beyond to replace them on routs to their home markets and Malaysia Airlines is one of over a dozen of those Airlines at this point they fly twice daily to Doha once on an a350 but that flight leaves at 2:00 a.m. in the morning which makes it an automatic no no for me since I've usually been sleeping for 4 hours at that point and once on an A330 leaving at 8:00 a.m. which is much better in qual lumper a Malaysia Airlines business class ticket gets you priority immigration which is a lifesaver so you don't miss your flight like I did a few months back but in Doha it can get you something even better if you're coming from a connecting flight one awesome thing about flying C our Airways is that if you have a flight arriving in first class whether that's a short hul in the Gulf or a long haul flight from Europe or Australia in first class if you have less than 24 hours connecting and it's on the same ticket you get the first class ground Services you get access to the amazing alafa first class Lounge even if your connection is in business and that applies ala for first class checkin as well so what did I realize though if you're flying any partner and CER Airways is trying to get quite a lot of Partners to fly to Doha so for example today I'm on Malaysia Airlines even if it's booked via ketcher Airways you need to go to their check-in which is usually Row 8 or row 9 at the other side of the airport but then you can go back to alafa first house sh to clear security and go to the lounge I order a plate of full metam mamos and a lemon mint which are delivered in less than 5 minutes then I devour it and head to the [Music] gate today's flight is operated by the backbone of Malaysia Airlines Fleet the A330 300 this bad boy has 27 business class seats with many different seats to choose from the a or Alpha seats up here go between being closer to the window and closer to the aisle they're pretty standard and lock privacy the middle seats Delta and Gulf are the best for people traveling together or if you're alone they're pretty much the same as the window seats however then we get to the kilo and hotel seats the kilo seats are in Row 1 4 and six don't ask me why Row three is missing and are the best on the whole plane is these are so-called Throne seats I'm lucky or unlucky to be in 6 kilo today usually I try to at least select an average seat and not the best but today this was the only available Window Seat left when I booked the worst seats of all are the a couple seats on this side as you'll see on board there are two Laboratories dedicated to business class weirdly these two so one of them is shared with two rows of economy that means 43 passengers share two Laboratories for a ratio of 21.5 to1 with that how about we hop on board I don't know how many times I have to say this my best friend who I know watches my videos was in China last week transferring flights I try to text him when he's there we always chat on Facebook mess messenger and I don't get any response the message isn't even delivered until 15 hours later when he's landed in Sweden I've said again and again and again when you're traveling to certain places like China like the Middle East Qatar for example where this flight was originating you must have a VPN on your phone to access stuff you access at home that means using things like FaceTime WhatsApp Facebook Messenger YouTube and Google or Gmail in China and these types of things are things you need to think ahead for so you can't just download it once you get to the UAE or Kar or China and the thing is this is not something you need to invest a lot in way beforehand you can get a 2-year plan on today's video sponsor nordvpn at a massive discount and several months free this many to be exact at the link at the top of the description right now or by scanning the QR code you may think Dan you know I'm not planning to travel to the Middle East or or whatever a 2-year plan will cover you for a long time and cost much less than a coffee at a coffee shop every single month stay one step ahead don't do what my best friend did and have a 7-hour layover in Beijing without access to pretty much any of the services he's used to using because he didn't listen to me and he didn't join nordvpn at nordvpn.com suban at the link at the top of the description or right here as someone who would gladly attend an airline boarding music concert Airline AAS tour if you will I'm pleased Malaysia Airlines has boarding [Music] music the cabin looks great for being 10 years old and I'm led to my seat by a lovely crew as I give bombastic side eye to every other seat in the cabin you can see the alternating seats on the other side of the cabin here the decent middle seats and the couple seats on my side it's a shame that this quite common business class product creates such an in consistency based on which seat you get I mean my seat is awesome there's more storage than even I know what to do with and if there's one thing I'm good at it's dumping all my belongings all over my seat so I can access them without standing [Music] up the Insite service starts with the choice of water orange juice or apple juice I'm feeling fun so I choose use the water we're also given hot towels which as you know is always my preferred way to start a flight one thing we lost in the pandemic which I'm sure all avgeeks agree is a tragedy is inflight magazines to my delight Malaysia Airlines has one and it contains all the nerdy info it should contain I approve we push back at our schedule departure time of 8:10 on the DOT [Music] as we take off let me say that one thing I appreciate about Malaysia Airlines is that they're not very stingy when it comes to award space on most routes I booked this flight during Peak dates for the equivalent of about 900 $100 by buying British Airways points transferring them to C our Airways and then finding a w space it might sound complicated but it really isn't and you can do it wherever you live doesn't have to be in the US anywhere in Europe anywhere in Asia the Middle East you can use these tries of buying points and then redeeming them this flight would have cost almost $600 more of paying cash at about $1,500 one way stay tuned for the end of the video where I give you more details on how this works after takeoff the crew announced that the there is free unlimited Wi-Fi for all passengers I almost don't believe it until I try logging in and realize oh my God it really is free for everyone not only that but it's actually usable free usable Wi-Fi for economy and business class sign me up the crew also quickly comes around with amenity kits and slippers the kit is missing one essential earplugs turns out those are available on request but I like these little toiletries I'm especially fond of this pulse Point roller that makes my inner yoga mom want to come out the slippers are also appreciated and actually fit me which I'd say has about a one in three chance of happening our menu for today shows us the options from koala lomper to Doha and for ourf flight so on this leg the crew helpfully points out which is the right page to avoid anyone getting confused as they hand out the menus this is a lot of food for a relatively short 6 and 1/2 hour flight compared to that the drink list is shockingly small and uninspired apparently they're not promoting or even listing any alcohol due to Ramadan having just two juices and a choice between Coke or Sprite in terms of soft drinks on a Muslim majority Airline where many people don't drink seems like an obvious opportunity for improvement one great thing though Malaysia Airlines has dine on demand so you can eat what you want whenever you want today the crew are working like ninjas and it's not long at all before we get the meal breakfast is a typical Doha departure breakfast but I'm mainly surprised at how similar my vegan breakfast looks to the regular breakfast I've had Doha overnight oats far too many times and I will never like this gloopy sludge on a positive note this fruit is it this fruit is that girl it's so ripe and fresh I couldn't care less about slimy gloopy overnight oats at this point there's also a bread basket and as soon as I see that fota I think okay now we're talking when the main course is brought out I stare in horror as they remove the cover and reveal more Pardy type food this time it's [Music] conji well luckily it turns out what Doha catering does not succeed in when it comes to overnight oats they nail when it comes to kji this is actually a delicious [Music] breakfast now for the other options on the menu they certainly look more filling than what I got and I like the plating of everything I guess the food doesn't look amazing but it also doesn't look bad the crew also gave me a look at their signature noodles which are apparently served on all roots and I definitely give this a try if I could as soon as the meal is done I am ready for bed I spent the previous evening in Doha with my podcast co-host Alex and as you'll know if you're a podcast listener my visits to Doha always tend to drag out quite a lot the thing about these Throne seats is that they have notoriously very tight foot areas that said I find Malaysia Airlines bed very comfortable there's a mattress pad and a thick duvet and individual air V which you almost never find on East and Southeast Asian airlines frankly laying down in a Life Flat seat when you're exhausted never ever gets old I have a little Pinch Me moment before falling asleep quite comfortably on my side I end up dreaming that there's a mob of Rowdy teenagers stopping me from using the lavatory on this specific flight I'm not kidding and I wake up relieved to realize that there really isn't a gang and it turns out I really need to use the bathroom so that that's a good [Music] thing 2 hours of solid sleep on a daytime flight is massive and the biggest luxury of all there are two business class Laboratories as I mentioned earlier and both are on the small side but kept spotless by the crew which I really really appreciate actually the crew today is just chef's kiss so good I haven't flown a Southeast Asian airline in a few months so this reminds me oh yeah this is the type of service for me so similar to Singapore Airlines This Crew manages to nail that extremely polished yet relaxed Vibe I mean in general I just love Malaysians I find their sense of humor is right up my alley basically bitching about things and being cynical in a humorous way I also love that one of the girls kept saying La at the end of all her sentences at this point the pre-arrival meal service is starting for everyone else this means an option from the anytime list or a standard serving of Malaysian Sati let's be honest you really can't go wrong with that an oh how I wish they offered a tofu option of this do catering has made me vegetable skewers which I mean could at least have some sauté skewers or something to accompany them there are also vegetable sandwiches to accompany that that are as depressing as they [Music] look yeah not great special meal catering today I end up working pretty much the rest of the way to qual AUM the Wi-Fi isn't really working for much of the second half of the flight which is actually good for my productivity since I have no distractions speaking of distractions I haven't even covered the entertainment system so let's quickly acknowledge that it's okay I bought an iPad just so I could watch my own shows on board a couple months ago instead of being limited by the on board selection and yeah how late am I to the party but this is a game changer we end up having to hold for about 30 to 45 minutes as we approach koal lumper due to thunderstorms but eventually touch down so I guess now's a good time to go to real life Dan and see what I think about Malaysia Airlines so this is real time Dan here coming in with my conclusion I love doing these little spoilers nowadays where I record on a future review so you guys get a teaser of what's to come on the channel so what do I think about Malaysia Airlines I think they are solid I would absolutely be happy to fly them again of course based on this video you can tell they're not in the league of Singapore Airlines for example but that's tough for any airline to be in the same league as they're pretty much I'd say on par with taii Airways cath Pacific I don't know I need to try them again last year I would say my flight with them was worse than this Malaysia Airlines flight so yeah a very very solid option and the good thing is that they have plenty of award space two are from Australia and two are from Doha so it's really easy to fly them this has been a long flight so I had the chance to do some more detailed calculations it turns out for this flight I paid about pretty much $860 the equivalent of that when the retail price was $1,400 so I saved $540 by buying catcher Airways points and redeeming them for this ticket instead of just paying for the ticket outright needless to say that's an amazing amount of money to save on a single ticket and speaking of that this is a reminder that that you have less than a week if you want to join my program points Master at the QR code here at the link at the top of the description to learn how to do this with over 70 different airlines that's the key to how I fly around the world in premium cabins and don't go broke over 200 students have already joined and changed their lives you can check out some testimonies if you go to the page in the description as well there's also a free starter guide if you want to see what points Master is like but again this is not a drill people that's less than one week left to take advantage of the launch price before the price goes up as I'm introducing an extension to the program so you can fly Malaysia Airlines but even if let's say you live in Malaysia you want to go to Malaysia you can fly for example Singapore Airlines business between Malaysia and Australia for the equivalent of about $650 each way compare that to cash prices and you'll see it's very very favorable that's just one of literally thousands of examples I could give again it's at the QR code and on that note thank you so much for joining me in this video today guys and we'd see you in the next one very soon and until then you know what they say or what I say lie safe

Channel: Nonstop Dan

Views: 354,011

Keywords: Nonstop Dan, Flight Review, Luxury Travel, Flying, Airplane

Id: hTKBt-Z_JQc

Length: 16min 6sec (966 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024