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Singapore Changi
The taxi driver dropped me at terminal 2 right in front of the door, where the counters of Malaysia Airlines are located. It was still raining quite heavily outside, but given the layout of the terminal building, I was able to enter the terminal without getting wet. The terminal was not that busy, but a queue of 7 people at the Economy Class counter had formed while Business Class was not that busy and one counter became available shortly after I reached the line.
My luggage was checked to Kuala Lumpur and I was given directions how to reach the Malaysia Airlines lounge in the upper floor of the terminal.
I passed immigration with no wait and was soon on my way to the lounge which was further to the left as I had in mind, but then I remembered that the counters of Swiss had been further to the left as well and I had used the other immigration checkpoint. The lounge is located close to the Silver Kris Lounge which I had visited frequently in 2013 during several trips to Singapore.
I was welcomed in the lounge by a boring looking lounge agent. She crossed my name from the list of passengers.
The lounge is not that big butt offers a nice selection of cold and hot dishes and also wine, beer and soft drinks from two fridges. I had not immediately noticed the second fridge, which was placed on the left side.
The selection of newspapers is a bit limited and magazines are missing (except the airline magazine of Malaysia Airlines). Not sure if this was due to the weekend, but usually magazines are also available on the weekend.
I put some of my time in the lounge into some work related things, checked my e-mails making use of the WiFi, which was very stable and strong and I was able to set up a VPN connection without many difficulties. Since security is performed at the gate, I left the lounge earlier and went down to the gate. The Boeing 737-800 was parked close to the main concourse and I was able to spot the registration easily.
Only one x-ray machine was used and there was a line of approximately 15 people queuing at the entrance to the gate area. Some inexperienced passengers were in the line and they had not only liquid in their carry on but also stored laptops and iPads in a way that they had to unpack several things to get them out. From the viewpoint of the frequent traveller this is annoying as it takes unnecessary time, but if one is not flying that often, maybe does not know the procedures at Changi, it is understandable. It is time to travel with someone not flying that frequently to get the feeling for the average traveller back ... Anyway I passed the security checkpoint after 15 minutes and entered the gate area. General boarding had not started yet, but a wheelchair passenger was brought to the plane and it did not take a long time before the announcement was made which invited Business Class passengers and passengers holding an oneworld elite tier to board the plane. I have noticed that the announcement varies slightly from the ones in KUL, where Business Class passengers are allowed to board at their own convenience.
18 May 2014
SIN – KUL
[Singapore Changi – Kuala Lumpur International]
MH 624; Boeing 737-800 (9M-MSB)
Gate F 30
15:35 – 16:45 [effective 15:34 – 16:30]
Business Class
Seat 03 F
I was among the first passengers to board the plane. I was greeted at the entrance to the plane and walked to my seat at the window in the third row and stored my carry on in the overhead compartment. The plane filled with passengers and Economy Class and Business Class were fully booked. Pre-departure drinks were served and I choose a guava juice which was again available. After I received my guava juice a cold refreshing towel was also offered.
The safety video was shown while we were still at the gate. Right in time we were pushed back and like on the flight to Singapore the flight attendant used the time we were taxiing to the runway to take the orders. She started in the back but only managed two rows until the captain asked the crew to be seated. Available on this short hop to Kuala Lumpur were a chicken or corn pie. I decided to skip the meal service on this flight and only asked for a sparkling water.
We took off at 15:45 from runway 20 C after a Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-400 and a Silk Air plane. It had now stopped raining, but the runway was still wet. On our way to the runway the captain had told us to expect a smooth ride and an arrival ahead of schedule in Kuala Lumpur. Today’s plane was – no surprise – again a 737-800 or precisely a 737-8H6 as “H6” is the Boeing customer code for Malaysia Airlines. It was delivered to Malaysia Airlines as new plane March 25, 2013 a little bit over a year old. This plane had the same blue leather seats as on my round trip form Taipei via Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and back.
Five minutes after we took off, the seat belt signs were turned off and the flight attendant closed the curtain between Business and Economy Class and continued to take the order for the remaining two rows. After she had finished this, the tray tables were laid with linen and soon later the served the meals row by row. She collected the trays after the passenger had finished individually and also offered refills of beverage. The flight map was available on this flight and we were indeed arriving much earlier than scheduled and had began our descend into KUL as the flight deck updated us about our flight and the weather in Kuala Lumpur. The crew prepared the cabin for our arrival and took their seats. After a quick flight time of less than 45 minutes we touched down ahead of a Cathay Pacific 777 at 16:21 and taxied to our gate A 8.
During the taxi I noticed a number of European wide-bodies at the satellite terminal among those Lufthansa, KLM and Air France planes.
At the gate, the curtain between Business and Economy Class was once again closed and we could disembark ahead of Economy Class. The lines at the Premium Lane were quite short and I made it to the belt after a quick stop purchasing my round trip ticket on the KLIA Ekspress as my checked luggage arrived on the belt. I made the 17:00 train leaving KLIA for KL Sentral without any problem.