June lounges

[serfty]

Off to KUL for a lounge meet up.

Starting MEL.

Flying MH, economy but had access to Qantas First Lounge as a oneworld emerald.

I was surprised to see Qf93 to LAX cancelled, but seems QF155 to AKL was enough to keep the first lounge open tonight.

Start through security et al with my OLCI BP.

Some mussels, udon pork and cheese washed with bubbles (Pommerey)

Took one for the team to visit on the Plaza Premium lounge.

Basic, especially after QF, but ok, I guess. It uses the old UA space.

Had a call just now from MH agents at the airport, wanting to know if I was travelling. I guess at Y0 loading they were interested. Off to.gate.

 

[serfty]

Boarded, front row (standard Y) has 15cm more room than QF on 330's.

Due to land 15 minutes early.

 

[serfty]

Landed and at gate 5 minutes late.

Fortunately KLIA 1 Satellite, so strait to Golden lounge using my BP for a flight to SIN 10 hours later.

Onto Wifi and in time for 8:30am (^:30am in KUL) work online meeting.

90 minutes later I had finished that and a few other tasks before having a shower, followed by nasi lemak for breakfast.

A bit more work then through into Malaysia and off on the KLIA Espres and monorail for a hopefully early checkin.

 

[serfty]

Was able to use the train wifi to VPN in time work for some minor issues. Reliable all the way much better than it had been in the past.

Then to the monorail, missed one by 30 seconds so waited 10 minutes for the next to Chow Kit.

Half an hour later I was able to get an 11am check in.

Into the room,set a few things up to charge (don't you hate it when you go to use a powerbank and find you forgot to recharge after that last trip).

 

[Bundy Bear]

Into the room,set a few things up to charge (don't you hate it when you go to use a powerbank and find you forgot to recharge after that last trip).

first time flyer rookie error.

 

[serfty]

first time flyer rookie error.

Given I have over 2000 RPT flight, not a rookie error. Maybe CRAFT [© @drron ]

 

[serfty]

Repacked a backpack for stuff I would/might need on my quick trip that evening to SIN and back.

About 12:10pm, headed off, past the Chow Kit wet markets - they were extremely busy with lots of different odours emanating.

Continued on past multiple restaurants though to Kampung Baru MRT.

It's quicker back to Sentral this way than using the monorail but the 1.5 Km walk over lumps and bumps with seemingly random traffic coming from all angles make the toting of bags complicated. (A flat piece of footpath around here seems merely a suggestion to put up a stall or otherwise ride/park a motorcycle.)

I was through Sentral and back at KLIA 1 BY 1:30PM.

 

[serfty]

Upon arrival, I was surprised to find my MH flight to SIN was departing from a satellite (C gate).

I want to the Golden Lounge and as I entered the platinum area there ware about 6 staff waiting near the restaurant entrance. However, I has a little more work stuff to complete, so I said 'back soon' and went through to the lounge area for 30 minutes.

Back to the restaurant where I had a chicken roulade which was fine washed down with a large glass of Leroy Duval.

After that, it was back to the lounge where I did some surfing until 30 minutes before my scheduled flight.

I arrived at the gate to find no-one boarding - there were crewing/engineering issues. In the end boarding was 25 minutes late, followed by another delay. Eventually we pushed back 40 minutes late. In flight this was compounded further with a one loop holding pattern followed by a wide loop to the east before landing. I was off the aircraft an hour later than anticipated.

 

[serfty]

As my flight in was late only had a couple of hours. After clearing immigration at T2 I went strait back up to check in as OLCI seemed confused. Even at the counter they had problems. Perhaps my four bookings 1)MEL-KUL-oSIN,KUL-MEL; 2) KUL-SIN; 3) SIN-KUL; 4) SIN-KUL upset something.

Finally got airside again at T2 then made my way to T1 using airside T2-T1 train.

I arrived at QF First just as QF2 had been announced as boarding and it was mayhem.

Holding back a bit in the lounge area I waited before heading to the restaurant are (which is 80% of the lounge space) and tried a chicken dish that was new to me. Also had a "QF2" coughtail. I began to think it's a bit moot for those transiting on QF2 as they don't have enough time for the tangerine ball of ice to melt (otherwise it's basically strait booze).

Off to the QR lounge which was crowded as there was a QR flight departing 9pm. It cleared out about 8:15pm. Had some smoked salmon and a "medium rare" steak which was good. Topped off with some cheese and then time to head to T2 for my gate.

[aside]

• Unusually both QF and QR asked to see my passport on lounge entry.

[/aside]

It is a longish walk from QR lounge to T1-T2 train, so I did the much shorter walking QR->T1-T3 (train) ->T3-T2 (train 'through' Jewel) - that took 13 minutes.

I arrived just as boarding started so strait on to the the aircraft. Nicely welcomed as Emerald. It was an uneventful flight; in Business offerred Satay or chicken sandwiches. Tried the satay but I was pretty full so did not eat much.

At KLIA 1 , disembarked at a B gate in the main terminal near the guts - Immigration had several hundred non Malay PAX queued up but was able to use the "Business" priority queue with only about 10 PAX. That became 8 PAX as two were sent to the larger general queue as they could not produce a J boarding pass.

I noted while waiting that Australian passport holders could use for auto gates. In checking found that ones needs to pre register within 3 days of arrival so not this time but I took a note of the URL and will pursue.

I missed an Espress by 5 minutes but rather than wait 25 minutes for the next, I took a 5 minute longer ride "Transit" service, still arriving at Sentral 10 minutes earlier than the Espress would have. Waited another 5 minutes for a Grab ride share and 15 minutes later and MYR15 was back in my room.

Sleep beckoned.