Malaysian Airlines Business Class A330 Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur
Introduction
We recently had a chance to experience the Malaysian Airlines Business Class offering on our trip to Indonesia. The Journey from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur is just a shade over 2 hours and we were pleasantly surprised to travel on an Airbus A330-200 with lie flat seats. It was a considerable upgrade compared to our travel from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta which was on a Boeing 737-800 which had a 2-2 configuration with only angled seats.
Flight Details
- Route – Jakarta, Indonesia (CGK) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL)
- Flight Number – MH720
- Aircraft Type – Airbus A330-200
- Flight Time – 15:45 to 18:50
- Flight Duration – 2 Hours 5 minutes
The Airport
We arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) Terminal 3 around 2.5 hours prior to departure. The Airport is located around 30 km outside the city and is really massive. Navigating the airport is a breeze as the Airport has done a good job of placing signboards almost everywhere.
Check In
Malaysian Airlines had only two counters for check in. One was dedicated for Business & OneWorld elites and the other one for Economy Class. The Business Class counter was running extremely slow. Average time to check in per person was approximately 10 minutes and we spent almost 25-30 minutes waiting for our turn.
After checking in our luggage, we proceeded for the Security Check. To our surprise, there was no separate queue for Business Class passengers. CGK is the hub of Garuda Airlines which is a Sky Team member. Dedicated queues are only available for Sky Team Priority (Sky Team Business & Sky Team elites). Probably the only place where we had to use the same queue for security check as Economy when flying in Business. Luckily the queues were not long and hence this was manageable. Immigration was also super quick even though there was no dedicated counter for Business/First.
Airport Lounge
We were given passes for the Sapphire Lounge. There are multiple Sapphire Lounges at the Airport and nobody mentioned this to us. We ended up at the wrong Sapphire Lounge initially. The Actual lounge is in one corner of the airport and we ended up walking almost 15 minutes to reach the lounge. Check out the Video review of the lounge below.
Boarding
Our Gate was close to the lounge but a gate change was announced and we ended up walking almost 10 minutes to reach the boarding gates. A 15 minutes delay was announced at the gates and the weather was extremely humid and super hot. Not a good situation to be in. The Business Class passengers all seemed desperate and a huge queue of Only passengers in Business emerged whereas everyone in Economy was still seated. This is becoming a trend and we see Business Class passengers in a bigger hurry to board panes nowerdays. Boarding was smooth. For such a short journey the lie flat seats were really great. To our surprise the Business class was almost full.
Seating
All the lie flat seats have direct Aisle access in a 1-2-1 configuration. Each alternate row is exposed to the aisle. Choose your seats carefully if you want more privacy. Each seat has USB Ports and a Power socket. In Flight entertainment was also average but you can’t really expect more from a 2 hours flight. The IFE did not actually start for us and we had to seek help from Cabin crew almost 30 minutes after take off. Blankets were average and head phone quality was a bit poor. No amenity kit on such a short flight. The Plane was clean.
Food & Drinks
We were offered a welcome drink on arrival. I choose the Tomato Juice. We had booked an Asian Vegetarian Meal as we have hardly seen any vegetarian options on these sectors. The food service started with the Signature Satays. I wish they would add a vegetarian/vegan option to their satays some day. The food menu had 3 choices of non-veg and that is honestly a bit excessive. Atleast one of the 3 options could have been Vegetarian/Vegan.
One thing we really love on these routes is Teh Tarik which is a special Malaysian Tea. The Vegetarian meal was tasty and consisted of Rice, Palak Paneer and Gobhi.
I requested the Cabin Crew for a change of dessert to the Blueberry Cheesecake and the Crew member Andrea Lim happily did it. She even followed up with me asking if the food was good.
The Staff
The Staff was wonderful on this short flight. They were attentive to our needs and extremely responsive. Requests around non functional IFE and change of dessert were swiftly dealt with.
Conclusion
While the long wait times at the Airport Check in counters and the delay in boarding amid bad weather was frustrating, the inflight experience was great. Took away all our frustration. We ended our journey on a happy note.
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