Security at KLIA is undertaken at the gate, and I was able to enjoy about 90 minutes in the Malaysian Airlines lounge before I needed to go to the gate. There was a long queue waiting to be screen. The x-rays machines had not opened yet and people were blocking the corridor as it was near to boarding time. Eventually they opened several lanes and we were all processed pretty quickly. Immigration staff were stopping families with young children and verifying that they were theirs.
The flight from KL to Seoul leaves late at night and lands, about 7 hours later, in the early morning. The refurbished A330 had the new seats installed which, as you can see from the photo above, alternative 2-1-2 depending on row. I managed to secure the single seat in the image above which meant plenty of space and privacy.
MH provides each passenger with a seat cover, a duvet and a pillow. It made the bed pretty comfy and I slept well for about three hours. The cabin was full and many people stayed awake and ate.
I settled in and pretty quickly fell asleep.
During the flight I got up to use the toilet – there is one at the front for Business Class, well that is what I thought. As I approached the toilet, I was firmly told that it was for crew use only. The member of staff then escorted me back to the economy toilets where they had designated one of the loos as being for being for business class :
They kept it locked and so how you are supposed to know that it’s occupied or just reserved I do not know.
I realise that MH has had a hard time recently, but you would think that would make the staff super nice, rather than self interested.
The foot well is pretty large and I had not problem going back to sleep until we started to land in South Korea.
It’s hard to report much when I slept for most of the trip, but that is tribute to the comfort of the seat!
There was an electrical socket, USB port and TV screen in the seat as well.
The only negative item is that there are no overhead bins for the central section and so it was a bit hard to store all of the luggage for the Business Class passengers.
We arrived at the remote terminal at SEL and after a 15 minute taxi were at our gate. Disembarkation was pretty quick and I was soon joining large numbers of passengers from other flights to take the train to the main terminal. The first train was so busy it was impossible to get on and so I had to wait for the second, which left similarly packed.
I was in immediate transit back to KL and so I found the transit security point. Unfortunately you can no longer transfer at the midfield terminal. Rather you have to go to the main area, and just opposite immigration there is a checkpoint for transit passengers. Of course, I then had to ride the transit back. Oh, the things we do for Tier Points.
The post REVIEW: Malaysian Airlines KL to Seoul – run for the crew! appeared first on Miles from Blighty.
