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Kuala Lumpur International
As usual I took the KLIA Airport Ekspress to Kuala Lumpur International Airport and arrived at the airport 28 minutes later. One elevator ride later I was at the Malaysia Airlines Check in area for Business and First as well as Sapphire and Emerald customers. The luggage was checked to Singapore and I received an invitation for the use of the Premium Lane at immigration.
Immigration was busy but there was only passenger ahead at the premium lane. Waiting time was not long and I was allowed to pass. The first security checkpoint was surprisingly not that busy given the longer lines at the regular immigration counters and I passed this as well in a couple of minutes.
I decided not to do any lounge hopping today and only to visit the regional MAS Golden Lounge at the main terminal, which is an escalator ride up. Around noon with not that many flights leaving at this time of the day, the lounge was also not very busy as I entered it, but became busier in the next hour.
Plane Spotting
Time passed quickly with reading, surfing the web and doing some work and finally it was 30 minutes ahead of boarding time and I went down to the gate. There was an announcement that the boarding gate had been changed to H 6 and as I left the lounge I was asked if I was flying to Singapore and after I confirmed this assumption was informed about the gate change again.
No lines at security meant that I passed it quickly. Boarding had not started yet but the agent was about to make the announcement inviting passengers travelling in Business Class as well as oneworld elites to board the plane followed by families with small children.
Our flight for this short hop to Singapore was Boeing 737-8H6, which was delivered to Malaysia Airlines on November 15, 2010. It was equipped with 16 seats in Business Class and 144 seats in Economy – the same layout as on my previous flights. It was also the same seat than on the flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur.
16 May 2014
KUL – SIN
[Kuala Lumpur International – Singapore Changi]
MH 623; Boeing 737-800 (9M-MBE)
Gate H 6
13:40 – 14:45 [effective 13:39 – 14:42]
Business Class
Seat 03 A
I was greeted as I entered the plane and walked the few steps to my seat in the third row and stored my belongings in the overhead compartment and under the seat. A couple approached the flight attendant and asked about their seats. It was not until they finally were in the plane, that they noticed that they were not sitting together which seems to be a big issues given the Islamic background. The flight attendant mentioned that the flight was fully booked in Business Class and she could not do much. Well, to avoid any complications, I offered so swap seats and moved one row back, as I did not really care on this short hop where to sit.
Pre Departure Drink
Orange Juice
Pre-departure drinks were offered, guava, apple and orange juice and water. The usual cold and refreshing towel was also brought. The flight was full in both classes but boarding went in an orderly manner and there was no delay. Once all passengers were on board the flight deck informed us about the flight time to Singapore and the weather forecast for Singapore. We should see a blue sky but expect rain in the night and the morning. The safety video was shown during push back and as it was finished one flight attendant used the time during the taxi to runway 32 R to take our orders for the meal service. Two quiches would be served on the short flight to Singapore; one was a quiche with salmon the other one with mushroom. She asked also about our choice of beverage. I decided to go for the mushroom pie and tonic water.
At 13:45 the captain asked the crew to be seated and two minutes later the engines roared and we accelerated on runway 32 R and left KLIA. Approximately five minutes later the fasten seat belt signs were turned off and the first act was to close the curtain between Business Class and Economy Class. Also the meal was prepared and served about ten minutes after we left KUL by the flight attendant row by row rather than using the cart. He had placed the beverage on the tray. Also on this short hop, the tray table was laid with linen, which was a nice touch.
Main Course
Mushroom pie
Strawberry Cheesekake
tonic water
Given that the flight time between KUL and SIN is only about an hour, the crew is doing a full meal service. I do not put this in any relation to flights of the same duration within Europe or the United States. Nevertheless I am also amazed about the level of service Asian airlines perform on such short flights.
But every fight will end at some time and after the flight attendant has cleared the tray individually, i.e. after a passenger had finished. He had offered refills of water and also other types of beverage. During the meal service the flight deck had given an update about the flight path and the flight time and announced to expect an on time arrival. Soon after my tray was cleared we began our descend into Singapore’s Changi airport. We passed the airport in the sky offering nice views of the airport and the ships before we made a U-turn and approached Singapore from Western direction. We touched down on runway 02 L / 20R around 14:41 and had to taxi quite a bit before we reached our gate F55 at terminal 2.
As we reached the gate, the curtain between Economy Class and Business Class was again closed before the jetty was attached and we allowed to deboard,
I walked towards immigration where the lines were not that long but unfortunately I choose once again the wrong lines with the queue moving slowest. So my I found my checked luggage already circling on belt 38. At least the wait at the taxi queue was not that long and soon I was on my way to the Grand Hyatt, which was my home away from home for the first of the two nights in Singapore.
