Malaysian airlines.. where do I begin? First of all, let me say that passengers who don’t have kids (infants and toddlers) should not have these problems. If they do, then MA is worse than I thought. My most recent experience with Malaysian airlines is nothing short of appalling.
We (my wife, my 2yr old son, and my 6 month old daughter) decided to travel to Asia from Australia and chose Malaysian Airlines, simply because they were about $100 cheaper, per adult ticket.
Everything went fairly well on our way from Australia to Malaysia. We were allowed 3 hand luggages and 4 main luggages. Almost all of our hand luggage was full of essential stuff to keep the two kids clean and fed for the full 12+ hrs of flight one way. When we land in Malaysia for the transit and about to board the connecting flight we were told that we cannot take 3 hand luggages in as it’s a smaller flight, and they only allow one hand luggage per seat. Smaller flight? How is that my problem? They didn’t didn’t tell me any of this nonsense when they happily took my money a month earlier. We had paid for 3 seats and a bassinette anyhow. However after arguing with the ground staff for 10 minutes, they still did not let us take the last hand luggage in with us. Guess what? When we got in the plane, the flight wasn’t really full either. There were only two business class passengers, so if they really, sincerely wanted to help, they could have squeezed in the third hand luggage in there. To add to the misery, they had allocated seats for us in completely different places, leaving my 2 year old by himself, my wife in a completely different section by herself, and me with my 6 month old in another section!
Do these guys have any brains at all? Why would they separate a 2 year old from his family? And most importantly, why would they allocate a father a 6 month old child? Do fathers in Malaysia lactate? When I complained to the on-board crew, they said that they are unable to help, and that I’d have to speak to the passengers of the area where I wished to be seated, and swap seats with them. Very professional Malaysian Airlines! Wow, what great customer care!
Our return flight wasn’t the best either. No bassinette for the complete journey, although we had fully paid and confirmed a month ahead of our journey. The excuse was that there were 9 infants on board and only 5 bassinettes. Why did my wife have to suffer for their stuff-ups? My poor wife had to hold our 6 month old for over 12 hours in a cramped seat!
At one point, my 2 year old was getting unsettled, so I asked one of the stewardesses if they have any toys or kids activity books on-board to keep my son occupied/entertained. She disappeared for about 15 minutes and came back with 4 packets of peanuts! Are you serious? Do they not know that peanuts could have an allergic reaction and are a choking hazard to little kids? I was told that they had run out of toys as their supplies were not replenished from the last flight.
When we returned to Australia, we learned that 2 out of 4 of our main luggages were mishandled, and two of the suit cases were destroyed/unusable. Tried calling their Australian hotline to get this sorted, hoping that the Australian side would have better customer care. I was very wrong to assume so. They don’t even answer their phone. I get a recorded message at 9:15AM on a Monday morning that their business hours are from 9AM till 5PM from Monday till Friday, and to call during business hours. Duhh! 9:15AM guys! Hello??? I call 15 minutes later and they make me leave a message anyway. I left three messages on three separate days. No one has returned my call to this date.
Never again will I, anyone I know or who is related to me, fly Malaysian Airlines! EVER! The lower price is not worth the plethora of inconveniences that follow. The ground staff was very rude, and the cabin crew were unhelpful, and became next to useless as soon as were inquired about the bassinette for the return flight.
Home Malaysia Airlines review by Jayasinghe 2014-07-31
