Come Fly With Me... (Malaysia Airlines)

Member Name: Jamie73

Product:	Malaysia Airlines
Date:	21/02/07 (1582 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great food, great entertainment, good leg room

Disadvantages: A little bit more expensive than other operators

Before 2006 I had never been on an aeroplane before. My girlfriend and I booked a holiday to Borneo for October 2006 so this was to be my first ever (very long) flight which we booked with Malaysia Airlines.

About Malaysia Airlines
Malaysia Airlines have been around since 1947, but back then, they offered a very small and restricted air service. Today, they have won countless awards and fly people to more than 100 destinations across 6 continents.

Price
We booked this flight as part of our package holiday so I am unable to give an exact price for this flight. We paid £860 for our holiday which included 11 nights in Kota Kinabalu and 3 nights in Kuala Lumpar as well as out in and out bound flights and 8 internal flights.


Check In
The check in desks for Malaysia airlines opened 3-4 hours before your flight departs. With most long haul flights, you have to check in at least 2 hours before so for anyone who loves doing a bit of duty free shopping, it would be ideal to use Malaysia airlines as you can have 3-4 hours of shopping, knowing your luggage is safely check in. We arrived at the airport 3 hours before our departure and arrived at a very short queue that moved very quickly due to the fact that there were several check in desks open. We queued for around 5 minutes and then were called to the desk. Once at the desk, our passports were checked, our luggage was weighed and we were asked all the usual security questions. We travelled shortly after the suspected bombing at London airports so the lady at the check in desk also advised us of what items were still restricted and offered for us to pack them in our suitcase before we checked in which I thought was very useful.

Boarding
We began to board about ten minutes before our flight which personally I liked as it meant we would not be sat around waiting on a plane, it would literally be on the plane and then take off! As we boarded the plane, we were approached by a friendly member of staff who asked to see our boarding pass, she then directed us to our seat. Just inside the plane there were free English and Malaysian newspapers for people to read.

The Plane
I have never been on a plane before this journey (but have been since) and I have to say, that there was definitely extra leg room when we flew with Malaysia Airline. My knees, once seated came about 6 inches from the seat in front of me so I was fairly comfortable in my chair - good job too seeing as I had to sit in it for 13 hours. Underneath the chair in front was a footrest that you could choose to have up or down. The plane smelt nice and clean and there was no rubbish on the floor, or on any of the seats.

Food and Drink
As well as the regular meals that were bought round, there was also free food and drinks would you could have whenever you like. All drinks were complimentary, even the beers and cocktails, although they do not bring them round, you have to ask, which we did. My cocktail was lovely and tasted even better seeing as it was free! We could also ask for sandwiches, biscuits and crisps that were also free.
Even with the main meals, we actually had a choice of what we wanted to eat, a fish dish, chicken or beef. I have found that with other airlines, you often just get one bog standard meal for everyone so it was certainly nice to have a choice.
The meal was hot and very tasty (I had chicken by the way!) and it came with a desert which was treacle sponge and also a cup of orange juice. Tea and coffee was also bought round while.
My girlfriend is vegetarian and she really enjoyed her veggie meal. She was impressed with their service as apparently on most airlines, they take round the special meal first and then take everyone else's meal round so she was pleased that she actually got to eat her meal at the same time as me.

Entertainment
In the back of every chair is a small TV screen which was about 9 inches square so a fairly reasonable size. I really liked this as it meant that you could watch whichever film you liked rather than on other planes when you all have to watch the same film.

There was a large selection of entertainment - you had the choice of about 8 recent films (showing in English cinemas at present). As well as these films you also had a 'Classics' channel which showed all time favourite films such as Runaway Bride, Meet The Parents etc.
They also have around 50 foreign channels which showed Bollywood type films (with English subtitles)

They had a channel which showed short programs such as Friends, The Catherine Tate Show, The Simpsons etc

There was a separate children's channels with children's TV programs and various kid's films.

There were 6 radio stations, playing pop, jazz, rock music etc and there were also a selection of albums that you could choose to listen to. There was a large selection of albums ranging from albums currently in the charts to albums by The Beatles so I felt that they offered everyone something to listen to.

One of my favourite channels was a Games channel which offered a choice of around 25 - 30 games. There was all time classic games such as scrabble and tetris as well as puzzle games so these were great to pass the time. Each chair had a remote that you could pop out of your armrest. On the remote were the controls for the TV and it also contained all the controls for the games.

The Staff
The staff were very friendly and always seemed pleased to help you. The staff dressed in traditional Malaysian uniforms which I thought made this airline stand out from other and added a nice personal touch.

Summary
I would 100% fly with Malaysia Airlines again. Our flight was on time, the plane was clean and the staff were friendly. The fact that you get extra leg room as standard with the operator was an added bonus! The food and entertainment were much better than any other company I have flown with! If you get the chance, use Malaysia Airlines.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A great airline that offers excellent services all round