Flying business with MH

[miniyazz]

I've planned a nice route from Alice Springs to LHR return, most of which is flying business with MH (~$4100, 855 SCs). Due to some detours for cost & SC reasons I'll have a few stops of up to 12hrs or so in places including BKK, SIN, KUL & MNL.

Firstly, am I likely to be able to check my baggage through from e.g. DRW (might be a stretch) or perhaps BKK all the way to LHR, and vice versa? My itinerary would be ASP-DRW-KUL-BKK, BKK-KUL-MNL, MNL-KUL-LHR & then LHR-KUL-MNL, MNL-KUL-BKK, BKK-KUL-SIN, SIN-KUL-PER and all flights are with MH apart from intra-Australia (all in J apart from the first block). I feel like I'm going to get to know KUL quite well..

Does anyone have any tips regarding which lounges to use? I've had a look at the oneworld list of lounges and it may come down to what's open at the times I'm at the airports but if I have a choice it would be nice to have a recommendation.

Finally, what should I expect on MH J? I've looked at their promotional blurb which all looks pretty good with lie-flat seats etc but it's difficult to know what I will actually end up with as they presumably have different products - so anyone been disappointed with MH J, or the opposite?

Thanks.

PS this works out to around $800 more expensive than the cheapest possible, while retaining business for the long haul flight with a oneworld airline - but has an extra 385 SCs (and an extra transit day each way).

 

[I love to travel]

Are the flights all on one ticket - of so, should be ok to check luggage through if you transits are less than 24 hours.

MH business is good - satay is a treat. Staff are usually fine, its not 5 star J but nothing to complain about either. KUL airport is huge - if you are OWE their first lounge is nice and quiet. Duty free prices are poor though

 

[miniyazz]

I'm not on one ticket unfortunately - in fact haven't yet found anywhere that will allow so many stops on a multi city flight - there's a single, two returns, then two more singles.

Good to hear re J. No OWE yet though will be close after this trip.

 

[MH_fan]

MH have a solid J product now that almost all of their A330s have flat-bed seats. Your flights to LHR will be on the A380 and I've always found their J seats very comfortable. The seats are wide and I find it very comfortable sleeping on my side in those seats. For the A380, I would recommend the forward cabin (rows 6-8). For the A330, get the single seats and definitely avoid the pair by the window. As for the B738, any seat is good. There's plenty of legroom and decent recline.
Also, MH will check through luggage on different PNRs.

 

[miniyazz]

Awesome - thanks.

 

[miniyazz]

Now that I've completed the first half of my trip, I thought I'd update with some thoughts.

Firstly, which I think I mentioned elsewhere also, is that MH weren't able to check through my baggage. This was no more than an inconvenience but will be a pain on the way back when I am heavily loaded.

The flights -
737-800 seats were comfortable and seemed like a lot more legroom than on QF domestic.

A380 - I prefer the isolating style of the seats on e.g. Cathay J (can't remember what that's called). I was sat in row 6 which is upper deck very front seat but did find it quite open to everyone else - not a big issue except the TV which I'll come to later.
The massaging seat was a nice touch which I used a couple of times and the seat was comfortable.
There was a noticeable lack of storage space although this might be slightly better on the window seats. The seat controls are also locked out with the tray table up which was slightly annoying but no biggie.
The TV was pretty terrible though. For starters although nominally a large screen, it's so far away from you that the equivalent size is no bigger than in economy, because it's placed all the way over on the bulkhead (or in the seat in front if seated further back) and the seats move forward to lie flat so even when seated they're 6 ft away (on my previous flight with Cathay they swung out and were at a 'normal' airplane viewing distance). A far bigger issue was they've clearly used low quality TN panels which have shocking viewing angles in the vertical downwards position. Even seated fully upright the darker scenes are becoming just a mass of black and that only gets worse when you try to recline. Normally when faced with this screen type on a laptop or even in economy you can angle the screen down to compensate but these are fixed to the wall without any adjustment possible.
To make matters worse the adjacent screens are clearly visible so when the person next to you switches it to display flight information, which is a particularly bright screen, you've got an even worse picture.

I have an A330 for my SIN-PER leg on the way back.

So the A380 experience with MH wasn't as good as I was hoping for (but plenty better than being stuck back in economy)! I will probably try out Sri Lankan airlines long haul next time as they also have quite a cheap J offering. Qatar is also on the list of possibles.

 

[Chrizztofa]

May be a bit late to this thread but hope you've enjoyed your trip so far.

I don't know what you've tried, but my experience with the lounges in Asia are:
BKK - CX lounge is much better than the Louis Tavern lounges MH use. Haven't tried the JL lounge there though.
KUL - Found both the J lounges at the main terminal and satellite terminals to be decent. Tried the CX lounge there once but it was noisy and crowded in comparison.
SIN - The QF and BA lounges are well regarded but tend to be open later in the day (14:00 onwards). I've also tried the CX Skyview lounge and found that ok. Note these lounges are in terminal 1, which can be a bit of a trek (15 minutes walk/train) from the MH gates in terminal 2.

I flew QR to Europe last year and found they were quite good for the price. Be aware that the J product can vary significantly between aircraft types though. The 787 uses the reverse herringbone seats (similar to CX J) but the 777-300ER and A340-600 have 2-2-2 seating. The A340-600 in particular was quite tight in the footwell and it was hard to climb over my seatmate next to me.

 

[miniyazz]

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with you about the Bangkok lounges. I was trying to find a BA one which is meant to be there but couldn't. I'll try to look out the JL one on the way back.

The KUL lounge in the satellite building has four 'beds' available (basically glorified sofas, with no bedding except a blanket on request) but that is better than most J lounges and it was a secluded area with dimmed lighting. The J lounge in the main building and the CX lounge didn't have that facility. I used it twice and got a reasonably decent 6-7 hours sleep on both nights of my trip.

The lounge at Manila - MH have an agreement with a third party operator, as do quite a few star alliance airlines from the look of it. It was small, crowded, mediocre food and pretty limited (no power sockets without going into the computer room for example). I tried to get into the Qatar lounge but that is also run by a 3rd party who wouldn't let me in. The JL lounge is meant to be better but as JL only have a couple of flights a day they are not open for long and were closing up as I arrived - maybe on the way back. However flying to Manila was very cheap - $391 return in J from BKK, which gives 240SCs. In addition it was cheaper to get to LHR via Manila than flying 'direct' to LHR from BKK so a compete no-brainer for those with the time to do so.