Inappropriately Woken on Overnight MH flight

[Pushka]

I've posed this question in the TR but asking for more general opinions here as to whether I'm off base.

We had a late night flight last night in MAS in J on points, thankfully. The flight length was 7 hours tops. Departed late at 11pm. . I decided to go to sleep immediately after seat belt sign was off, and was lie flat, bandana over eyes and to all appearances, settled in for sleep. I was shaken awake about 15 minutes later I guess, by the crew member, asking me what I wanted for breakfast, to be received two hours before landing. ie In five hours time. Not impressed. There was no dinner meal offered as an aside. I said simply coffee and yoghurt.

Settled back down to sleep. Obviously I slept as the next thing I'm being shaken awake again and on removing bandana all I could see was bright lights of cabin. It was 2.5 hours to landing. Sigh. No coffee - seat belt sign on. There was no turbulence. Then about 30 minutes later, having served breakfast, they turned off the cabin lights again for 90 minutes!

Same thing happened to MrP. We were seated two rows apart by choice. Single aisle seats. He was woken up as well by shaking.

Is this shaking by crew members to clearly sleeping passengers, for non essential purposes, and over two hours before arrival, ok? For the record we had both taken care to have our seat belts fastened over the blankets so they were visible to crew.

 

[RooFlyer]

No.

 

[I love to travel]

I've posed this question in the TR but asking for more general opinions here as to whether I'm off base.

We had a late night flight last night in MAS in J on points, thankfully. The flight length was 7 hours tops. Departed late at 11pm. . I decided to go to sleep immediately after seat belt sign was off, and was lie flat, bandana over eyes and to all appearances, settled in for sleep. I was shaken awake about 15 minutes later I guess, by the crew member, asking me what I wanted for breakfast, to be received two hours before landing. ie In five hours time. Not impressed. There was no dinner meal offered as an aside. I said simply coffee and yoghurt.

Settled back down to sleep. Obviously I slept as the next thing I'm being shaken awake again and on removing bandana all I could see was bright lights of cabin. It was 2.5 hours to landing. Sigh. No coffee - seat belt sign on. There was no turbulence. Then about 30 minutes later, having served breakfast, they turned off the cabin lights again for 90 minutes!

Same thing happened to MrP. We were seated two rows apart by choice. Single aisle seats. He was woken up as well by shaking.

Is this shaking by crew members to clearly sleeping passengers, for non essential purposes, ok? For the record we had both taken care to have our seat belts fastened over the blankets so they were visible to crew.

No and smacks of a lazy crew too.

 

[Pushka]

No and smacks of a lazy crew too.

We think it was the CSM who was a poor leader. I think she was the one making the terrible announcement in the lounge where everyone laughed - even though it was announcing a technical delay - because she didn't make any announcements on the plane. Curiously we saw the crew eating their breakfast about 30 minutes before touch down.

 

[Ade]

I've posed this question in the TR but asking for more general opinions here as to whether I'm off base.

We had a late night flight last night in MAS in J on points, thankfully. The flight length was 7 hours tops. Departed late at 11pm. . I decided to go to sleep immediately after seat belt sign was off, and was lie flat, bandana over eyes and to all appearances, settled in for sleep. I was shaken awake about 15 minutes later I guess, by the crew member, asking me what I wanted for breakfast, to be received two hours before landing. ie In five hours time. Not impressed. There was no dinner meal offered as an aside. I said simply coffee and yoghurt.

Settled back down to sleep. Obviously I slept as the next thing I'm being shaken awake again and on removing bandana all I could see was bright lights of cabin. It was 2.5 hours to landing. Sigh. No coffee - seat belt sign on. There was no turbulence. Then about 30 minutes later, having served breakfast, they turned off the cabin lights again for 90 minutes!

Same thing happened to MrP. We were seated two rows apart by choice. Single aisle seats. He was woken up as well by shaking.

Is this shaking by crew members to clearly sleeping passengers, for non essential purposes, and over two hours before arrival, ok? For the record we had both taken care to have our seat belts fastened over the blankets so they were visible to crew.

Crew never woke me up - in Y or J to ask about meal choices ... I remember quite a few times when the CSM comes to my seat and says "you were asleep, so didn't want to wake you up - would you like some brekkie?" ... To be fair, in Y, one might wake up due to the meals cart, the sound of people chatting etc ... in J, never ... although, I have been in overnight J only twice so far ...

In an international flight I took last month, I did sleep thru the snack service (lights turned off in a day flight, shades drawn down by most pax) - which was a crew member carrying a basket of goodies and asking *very* quietly if anyone needed anything

 

[prozac]

We think it was the CSM who was a poor leader. I think she was the one making the terrible announcement in the lounge where everyone laughed - even though it was announcing a technical delay - because she didn't make any announcements on the plane. Curiously we saw the crew eating their breakfast about 30 minutes before touch down.

Did you notice any hierarchy issues with the MAS crew? I've noticed on a couple of flights and felt it was a cultural thing.
Last flight was a fare while back but at that time they had a combo of coloured LED for non-direct cabin lighting. The choice of colours was garish.

 

[Quickstatus]

I've posed this question in the TR but asking for more general opinions here as to whether I'm off base

Never happened to me on MH J
I have not seen it either for sleeping adjacent pax when I am awake and they are not.

 

[Ade]

Did you notice any hierarchy issues with the MAS crew? I've noticed on a couple of flights and felt it was a cultural thing.

Agree. IME, very common with crew in India, Singapore, Malaysia and EK ... have not been on other international airlines as much ...

Sometimes one might get the feeling that the crew is *waiting* on the manager to tell what needs to be done next or it might appear that the manager is sort of watching what the crew is doing and correcting things as they go ... or the crew are *aware* that the manager is watching etc ....

 

[Pushka]

Never happened to me on MH J
I have not seen it either for sleeping adjacent pax when I am awake and they are not.

It’s never happened to us either except last night but now it has, is it acceptable or inappropriate?

 

[Quickstatus]

is it acceptable or inappropriate?

Acceptability will depend on whether you want the catering. There are people who complain that they slept through and no one woke them up for the F&B

Inappropriate? No, not unless you tell them you don't want to be woken for the F&B

If I want to sleep through, I would tell the CCcto not wake me. I think a sleeping passenger can be a conundrum for the CC. Should we wake 1A or not?

Are there "do not disturb" lights in the MH J seats? Can't remember for MH, but there is on the SQ J:

 

[Lynda2475]

is it acceptable or inappropriate?

Inappropriate to be woken unless you requested to be woken (or an emergency). And shaking never necessary. How rude.

My overnight experience in J on other airlines is that they hand out menu/card to select breakfast items during boarding (or right after take off) so preferences can be collected and passengers can maximize sleep.

 

[Pushka]

Acceptability will depend on whether you want the catering. There are people who complain that they slept through and no one woke them up for the F&B

Inappropriate? No, not unless you tell them you don't want to be woken for the F&B

If I want to sleep through, I would tell the CCcto not wake me. I think a sleeping passenger can be a conundrum for the CC. Should we wake 1A or not?

Are there "do not disturb" lights in the MH J seats? Can't remember for MH, but there is on the SQ J:

View attachment 332065

No. No DND buttons. Or sticker. First time I was woken for breakfast order to be provided in 5 hours time and not delivery. Just didn’t like the shaking bit.

 

[tgh]

It all seems pretty ordinary to me , a mix of poorly trained staff and cultural issues…my experience with long haul Malaysian has not been stellar and I will not choose them as a carrier

 

[Quickstatus]

On recent SQ, there were people who remained asleep through the pre landing F&B service.

A DND sticker or a tag is easy enough to do if there is no DND light.

Overall poor service

 

[Pushka]

On recent SQ, there were people who remained asleep through the pre landing F&B service.

A DND sticker or a tag is easy enough to do if there is no DND light.

Overall poor service

Yes, it's easy to be prepared once you know! I never expected any crew to disturb a sleeping passenger when there was no operational need to do so.

 

[lovestotravel]

Happened to me a few months back on a day-time SQ flight

Had DND pressed and was woken 3 times while fully reclined and under a blanket, clearly trying to sleep.

All because the FA was intent on serving up my book the cook meal

 

[jase05]

Never had it happen to me in MH J and I’d be very annoyed if it did happen on any airline. I’d definitely fire off a email to the airline and let them know

 

[Quickstatus]

Happened to me a few months back on a day-time SQ flight

Soon after take off, the CC will come around and confirm you ordered the BtC. Did you confirm - possibly that told them you intended to eat it irrespective of a DND light??.

I think telling the CC /CSM allocated to your seat should be the thing to do.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Serving the pre-arrival meal ‘early’ is common across many airlines. Cathay, Singapore And Thai are three examples in premium cabins, and there are many many more in economy class.

Our recent SQ flight finished serving lunch about two hours after takeoff, then served the arrival meal two hours later. Before disappearing for the remaining two hours of the flight.

Why? Because their service manual says so. Why does their service manual say that? Dunno. Maybe they’re worried about turbulence and not being able to complete the service if they start too late?

Our SQ flight only had 8 pax in business. Was turbulence free. But they refused to serve later, couldn’t comprehend why you would want to eat later The exception are the red-eyes that SQ does quite well in premium for serving something as late as possible.

 

[Quickstatus]

The exception are the red-eyes that SQ does quite well in premium for serving something as late as possible.

The red eye SQ221 SIN-SYD only has one F&B service 2hrs after takeoff with nothing prearrival.