web analytics
Aviation & Travel

Social Navigation

Part 1 of #ExcitingHongKong: Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong with Malaysia Airlines Business Class.

:: All Posts ::, AVIATION, Blog Posts, Featured Articles, REVIEWS

The idea of visiting Hong Kong for a short weekend getaway came in a rather random way. We wanted to take a quick break but we do not want to break our “little promise” of not having any trips >5 hours of travel anywhere this year (supposed to be a “relax and recover” year for us). A quick search on Malaysia Airlines website revealed good fares for flights to Hong Kong and since I never been to Hong Kong, we made the decision to purchase the tickets right away. To sweeten the deal, I had some expiring miles to waste; hence we decided to upgrade our tickets to business class!

I was not planning to blog about the journey but with some photos from the camera I think I could prepare a short post, so here goes. 🙂

1

With a departure time of 3:40pm, MH 432 is a daily service that is conveniently timed to allow business travelers to do a couple of business meetings in the morning before flying back to Hong Kong and arriving in time for dinner at home. I myself took the opportunity to work in the morning as per any ordinary Thursday before driving to the airport with my wife for the flight.

Check-in was done a day earlier via our mobile phones so it took us less than 15 minutes from the airport car park to drop our luggage at row D (Business and Enrich) and to reach the regional Golden Lounge.

2

3

My favorite corner of the lounge, away from the crowd and has the best view of the tarmac. Perfect for an aviation geek.

4

Especially when you have “rare” visitors like this. 9M-TMJ (no points for guessing whose aircraft is this), 9M-MPP the short-lived Malaysia Airlines retro Boeing 747, an A330 involved in an airport simulation exercise.

5

Serving the KUL-HKG route today — 9M-MXP. Conveniently parked at the nearest gate to the lounge.  KLIA’s domestic and regional gates are definitely livelier now thanks to Malindo’s decision to move to Main Terminal-KLIA.

6

Boarding was on-time and despite the long queue, Enrich Silver and Gold members and business class passengers along with those needing assistance were allowed to board through a special lane.

The seats. Comfy if you get the newer 737-800 which thankfully we did this time.

7

Settling at 2A and 2C.

Welcome drinks.

9

It was an almost full business class cabin mainly with corporate travelers which is no surprise considering it one of the major business routes for airlines in Malaysia.

Right after pushback, we were asked on our preference for the so called “light meal”.

11

Good bye KLIA.

10

Take-off and climb out of KLIA was smooth. After about 20 minutes, seat belt signs were switched off and cabin service started.

Headsets were distributed but the quality was quite basic so I decided to use my own piece of earphones with the airline adapter (which by the way you can get it cheap on Lazada or any online sites)

Drinks. Ice milo for my better half and coke light for me. The premium peanuts.

12

The “star” of any business class flights on Malaysia Airlines more than 3 hours. The awesome Satay!

13

World Class Satay with World Class crew. 2 icons of Malaysia Airlines until today.

14

The other appetiser, the Seared Tuna Loin was quite good.

15

But sadly both the main dishes we had the noodle and Sheppard’s Pie were not as what we had expected. Tasted a bit bland and to be honest, for a flight that is almost 4 hours long, I would imagine a slightly heavier portion.

15

16

Solid range of on-demand entertainment line-up including local contents. I enjoyed watching Langit Cinta featuring big names like Keith foo and Fazura. Nothing like a typical Malay drama storyline to kill a couple of hours.

18

Outside, the stunning sunset created an entertainment on its own. Definitely my head was glued to the window for a good 20 minutes.

19

Mood lighting was set to simulate the lights outside.

And finally as we approached the airport, cabin lights were switched to this blueish ambience lighting.

21

Hello Hong Kong.

Unfortunately there was no special lanes for business class passengers at Hong Kong International Airport but being the first few to leave the plane does put you in a better position in the immigration queue. Provided that there are no other arrivals on other gates nearby at the same time.

23

An hour later, after a couple of train rides, we found ourselves all set for our Hong Kong holiday!

24

Coming up next:

Part 2: The Common sights of Hong Kong

Part 3: Delicious Halal flavours of Hong Kong

Part 4: Dragon’s Back – Hong Kong’s Open Secret.


Azuan Zahdi

Malaysia's first aviation blogger. AzuanZahdi.com started in 2006 and has been my little online space where I document my travel and aviation stories. Opinions on AzuanZahdi.com are my own and not the views of any organizations I am attached or affiliated to.

Comments
  1. Interesting write up on the MAS business class trip to HK. From my previous experience, MAS used to serve 5 sticks of satay for its business class passengers instead of 3 sticks, one of the measures undertaken by the airline to cut cost, as admitted by the cabin crew. From the picture, u are lucky that the tray used was covered by linen, sometimes they just used anti slip paper as replacement. Same goes with the main course caroussel, instead of ceramic casing, i noticed i was sometime served with plastic casing the one they used for economy class long haul trip. As for headphones, MAS will be providing economy class headphones for route less than 3 hrs, which is really an undesiarable approach. I sincerely feel that malindo business class product offering is far more superior than MAS.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.