ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 14807 times:
30 April 2008
Jakarta (CGK) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Airline: Malaysia Airlines
Flight: MH710
Aircraft: A330-300
Aircraft 1st Flight: 10 Feb 1995
Registration: 9M-MKA
ETD: 1110
ATD: 1105
ETA: 1410
ATA: 1350
Flight Time: 1hr 40min
Cruise: 40,000 Feet
Seat: 2A (Golden Club / Business Class)
Reason for trip
After being back for 2 weeks, its time for me to depart again for Jaipur in India, this time for an annual conference. Interesting fact for all flights from Jakarta, to Kuala Lumpur, to Delhi, and back, all are with MH in J and all flights are operated by the A333, very boring indeed. Hey but I am not really complaining as the A333 is my favorite medium haul aircraft. From Delhi I will fly Kingfisher for the first time and I am pretty excited about it as I have seen many great trip reports for Kingfisher, after Jaipur, our company chartered a Spice Jet B739ER to take us to Agra for a visit to the Taj Mahal. Ok, as usual, I will not say too much about the Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur and vice versa sectors as I fly this route too much, only details will be written down.
9M-MKA waiting for me
Cabin views
Lion Air B739ER
Scenes before take off, the B727 Graveyard at Cengkareng
Mealtime
Putrajaya
Spotting at KLIA, soon to say good bye Freedom of Space color scheme
Saudi B743
Eva Air A332
Service: 7/10 Food: 6/10 Aircraft: 7/10
30 April 2008
Kuala Lumpur (KUL) – Delhi (DEL)
Airline: Malaysia Airlines
Flight: MH190
Aircraft: A330-300
Aircraft 1st Flight: 21 March 1995
Registration: 9M-MKE
ETD: 1825
ATD: 1825
ETA: 2125
ATA: 2115
Flight Time: 5 hr 10 min
Cruise: 36,000 Feet
Seat: 2K (Golden Club Class / Business Class)
Pre Flight
After arrival, my wife and I just decided to park our lazy butts in the MH Lounge at the satellite gates. Although there is a newer one in the main terminal building, they still can’t open the smoking lounge as they are still waiting for the health ministry to approve it.
9M-MKE
In Flight
Somehow I can never get my luck straight and I never seem to be able to get the A333 with the retrofit regional seats. This time was no difference and 9M-MKE still has the old seats. Comfy but not good enough.
Good Bye KLIA
At least they already introduced the new Golden Club service for the catering and also portable media players are also available on this flight.
The food on this flight was just average and managed to watch a movie before I slept all the way into Delhi. But what this flight lacked in comforts, the MH crew always makes it up for their caring and great service.
Final approach into Delhi
Service: 9/10
Food: 4/10
Aircraft: 6/10
Hotel Stay
Hotel: Le Meridien Delhi
Room: Executive
Room: 7/10
Service: 6/10
Had a big problem with the elevator which also gave me a heart attack. It basically malfunctioned and dropped like several stories with me in it. At least I got out alive and this elevator was one of those bubble type ones where you can see the atrium to the lobby. Not an experience that I want again in my life. Other than that, the hotel is just above average food and room wise, although the staff did try to please.
I was so dead this morning as the previous night upon my arrival, we had to wait for more than 2 hours for my other colleagues on the SQ flight as it was delayed, and trust me, Indira Gandhi is not an airport you want to spent time in! We took a quick drive by tour of Delhi before heading to the dreadful domestic airport in Delhi. At .least the ground experience of the Kingfisher staff was a welcome this early in the morning. We were taken by bus to our aircraft and it was a nice sight seeing all the new aircraft.
Monkey spotting on the way to the airport
Domestic Airport @ Delhi
VT-KFI
In Flight
Sister aircraft next to us
It was quite a bummer when I found out that the aircraft that operated this flight did not have the Kingfisher First seats so economy it was Surprisingly the legroom was really good on this flight and really love the individual tv behind the seat back, I could barely finish one episode of friends before we were on final descent into Jaipur.
Really small details, but they do go a long way
The boss himself!
Catering even on this 40min hop
Final approach & Jaipur airport
Overall, the highlight of my trip so far into India has definitely been the Kingfisher experience.
Service: 10/10
Food: 4/10
Aircraft: 9/10
Hotel Stay
Hotel: Le Meridien Jaipur
Room: Villa
Room: 6/10
Service: 8/10
The entire hotel was taken up by all our conference delegates and we spent most of our time here although we were also taken to visit several sights during our stay.
Nothing much to say here except its my 18th time on a B738. The previous one being on Garuda in March to HKG. As this was a special chartered flight and the entire aircraft was taken up by our group, we basically sat wherever we wanted on this aircraft. But actually there was a second chartered aircraft and it was on a Kingfisher ATR72, really wanted that one, but it was at random and I took the boarding passes for the B739ER.
Service: 7/10
Food: Did not eat
Aircraft: 9/10
Dinner at one of the local palaces
Customary elephant
Delhi (DEL) – Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
Airline: Malaysia Airlines
Flight: MH191
Aircraft: A330-300
Aircraft 1st Flight: 21 November 1995
Registration: 9M-MKJ
ETD: 2310
ATD: 2345
ETA: 0655
ATA: 0705
Flight Time: 5 hours
Cruise: 32,000 Feet
Seat: 2K (Golden Club Class / Business Class)
Pre Flight
Well, as they say it in the ad, Incredible India! And lets say it was truly interesting for me. But sadly just as I hope it would not happen I got a serious bout of food poisoning on the last day and me and another colleague of mine basically occupied the fore and aft lavatory on the J class section of our MH flight. And the great MH crew really took care of us and gave us pills and stuff and they said this is a common sight from foreigners leaving India. Boy was I glad to be finally going home.
In Flight
Another delayed SQ flight next to us
Well sorry I really didn’t document much as I was so sick, but this A333 was in the exact same layout as on my inbound. My connecting flight from KUL to CGK was also operated by this very same aircraft and I already knew it beforehand as upon landing at KUL, our aircraft taxied and parked at the regional G gates.
At least being half dead is not too bad when you have he great MH crew there with you.
Service: 9/10
Food: 4/10
Aircraft: 7/10
Thanks for reading and as usual, below are my TR from newest to oldest.
MH J class does look slightly outdated, hopefully they refurbish their J class to attract more premium passengers.
Thanks for sharing.
You just came fresh from the Boeing 777-300ER of Singapore Airlines, but I do hope you remmeber that just a day before your flight, SQ had similar seats
Ojas From India, joined Mar 2008, 2785 posts, RR: 23 Reply 4, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 14425 times:
Quoting Ag92 (Reply 3): but I do hope you remmeber that just a day before your flight, SQ had similar seats
Yes and till that day, and even now considering they still operate those B777-300A's needs to be refurbished to attract the premuim customers. SQ F is fine but the Raffles class is not liked by many.
On similar lines MH does need to attract premium customers considering they are seeing reduced loads on all destinations across India, and the people flying MH to India to complain about the shabby service. MH along with SQ does attract passengers bound for Oz, USA, Far east.
A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of the sheep
Ag92 From India, joined Jul 2006, 1317 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 13469 times:
Quoting Ojas (Reply 4): On similar lines MH does need to attract premium customers considering they are seeing reduced loads on all destinations across India, and the people flying MH to India to complain about the shabby service. MH along with SQ does attract passengers bound for Oz, USA, Far east.
But I think SQ is slightly more successful in gaining the passengers going elsehwhere, due to its reputation
ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Reply 6, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 13442 times:
Quoting SASDC8 (Reply 1): Would like to give India a go soon, but without the food poisoning and elevator heart attacks Big grin
ahhaah ....nice point Stein!!! ...actually it was also my first time to India and besides the scares, everything else was just fine ...
Quoting Ojas (Reply 2): MH J class does look slightly outdated, hopefully they refurbish their J class to attract more premium passengers.
They have actually started refurbishing some of their A333 to better seats and in set tv, but somehow that program just stopped!!!
Quoting Ojas (Reply 4): On similar lines MH does need to attract premium customers considering they are seeing reduced loads on all destinations across India, and the people flying MH to India to complain about the shabby service. MH along with SQ does attract passengers bound for Oz, USA, Far east.
I actually thats true, people always say that MH & TG mainly attract tourists, but trust me, whenever and whereever I fly them in J or F, its always full or at least 70 % full. As SQ charges such a huge premium for their J and F products some people like me will automatically move to MH or TG
ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Reply 8, posted (4 years 10 months 1 week 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 13056 times:
Quoting GCDEG (Reply 7): Bit confused. All your pics show you flew on a B737-800 but the safety card was for a B737-900ER??
I was really confused too! SO to make it sure, I took down the rego and when I came home checked it on airfleets and it was indeed a B738. I also guessed it when I was onboard the aircraft, certainly not as many rows of seats as on the Lion Air B739Er whcih I took last year.
I guess the ground crew are just lazy and just took any safety card and put it in the seat backs!!
Tonyban From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 311 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 12006 times:
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 8263 posts, RR: 56 Reply 10, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 11951 times:
Great report and pictures.
Having just flown EK's 380, it really shows how date those MH J seats are now!
Quoting ThaiA345 (Thread starter): Had a big problem with the elevator which also gave me a heart attack. It basically malfunctioned and dropped like several stories with me in it. At least I got out alive and this elevator was one of those bubble type ones where you can see the atrium to the lobby. Not an experience that I want again in my life
- Blimey, that cannot have been a nice experience, I trust you reported it to the hotel and they did 'something' for you?
Shame you got ill for the return, as you are aware, happens to a great many people, such a shame as it does put people off visiting.
ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Reply 11, posted (4 years 9 months 2 weeks 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 11734 times:
Quoting BA319-131 (Reply 10): Blimey, that cannot have been a nice experience, I trust you reported it to the hotel and they did 'something' for you?
Well, I reported it to the hotel reception and they acted dumbfounded, or shocked...and then just informed the engineering staff to go have a look at them
Oh well, such is life ...at least I got out of that ordeal.
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Would like to give India a go soon, but without the food poisoning and elevator heart attacks 
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