As I had to make an urgent trip back to Malaysia, I booked a last minute flight on Jetstar. Coming back was rather tricky as it was a weekend and very near to Christmas, hence the price was high! Thankfully, I still had some leftover Avios in my British Airways Executive account which I used to make a redemption on MAS Business Class.
This is the return segment of the flight I did back in February 2017. Since October 2016 I have been using return J ticket on MAS from KL as the price is exceptional at only SGD $200 return. Due to my recent trip, I had not book my return ticket and by the time I realized it, the promo Business Class ticket is no longer available. I decided to get a one way Malindo from KUL-SIN instead (which I will review later).
While not unexpected, the upcoming devaluation of the Krisflyer programme still came as a blow to many. Come on, who likes to pay more for the same thing? Like it or not, award programme is still subjected to real world inflation. So after all the posts about Krisflyer, I shall talk about something different: AVIOS.
I recently concluded my short Seoul getaway. I bought the tickets in September when MAS had a promotion at $1068 (incl. tax) for Business Class (which was a great price). During the October promotion, the price went down further to $1018, otherwise the normal price was about $1900-2000. 2016 is the year MAS introduced the new J seats progressively and I managed to catch the new seats just in time as the changeover for Seoul happened on 31 October.
Despite the excellent price, there were a few disadvantages of this flight. Firstly, the KUL transit. This can be mitigated either by taking an 830pm flight to KUL (leaving just slightly less than 2 hours of transit time) or one can opt for a morning flight and spend half a day in Kuala Lumpur instead. The flight time between Kuala Lumpur and Seoul is about 6.5 hours, leaving you barely any time for nap (especially with the meal service factored in). Lastly, the return flight from Seoul is 11am, hence one full day is wasted. If you are willing to compromise on these, MH J at this price is definitely a steal!
My final leg for my October trip was my KUL-SIN flight on MH619. I bought this flight as a return flight from KUL and it cost me about $203 (not a bad price for a J return tickets).
I will be doing a short 5 nights trip (including one night on plane) in November. I will be doing SIN-KUL-ICN-KUL-SIN on Malaysia Airlines (yes.. Malaysia Airlines). I hope to try out their new A330-300 (MH 66 and 67) lie-flat business class seats and try out the famed Laksa Bar in MAS Golden Lounge.
MAS is offering pretty good J fare (Z class – earning you 125% miles on Enrich and most other Oneworld partners). Best value tickets will be to North Asia where ICN for $1068 and NRT for $1168 (return, all inclusive). In comparison, Y on MH cost $600+ while Y on SQ will set you back $800+
My upcoming reviews in october:
I had a short break from 11 March to 14 March in Kuala Lumpur to visit my parents (and at the same time meeting up with my sis who was taking a short break from Finland). This trip was meant to be a break as I had been very busy since beginning of the year.
As I had some 15,000 miles left in my JAL Mileage Bank (expiring in June 2016), I decided to use it to redeem a return ticket on Malaysia Airlines. Accumulating miles on JAL is extremely difficult in Singapore (with no earning partners) and JAL redemption chart is not to my liking (distance based instead of sector based).
My upcoming review will be on MH 628 (SIN-KL) and MH 605 (KL-SIN) on Economy Class. Both flights are on 737-800 (I used to remember MH used to have A330 going between KL and Singapore).
As a kid, I used to hold Malaysia Airlines in high esteem and would feel proud whenever I get to fly on MAS. But those flights were limited only to short haul flights on their old regional workhorse, the 737-400 (back then, flying was really expensive!). My first redeye flight on MAS was on a 777-200ER to Melbourne in 2002. It was quite exciting going on a 777 back then, although the 2-5-2 arrangements in Economy wasn’t exactly my favorite (but hey, getting to travel on a plane back then was already a luxury). My first and only long haul flight with MAS was in 2007 to London and my experience on that flight was far from satisfactory. By then, MAS was a shadow of its former self and was nowhere near their glorious past. It took me another 6 years before I gave MAS a try again. The trip was on MH73 from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur on one of their brand new A380-800 followed by MH 609 back to Singapore on a 737-800.
That Time Of The Year! 