Have you tried the "salted peanuts" on board Malaysia Airlines (MAS)?

If you have not, you should. The "salted peanuts" are really good!

I know I have written about Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and talked about its service before in this blog. Like all things in life, we have to be fair with our comments. If we feel there are certain things lacking then we should voice out our concern and perhaps even suggest ways that can help to improve the situation. Likewise, if there are things which are done well, we should be generous with our praises and that is exactly what I am going to do in this posting.

My views on Malaysia Airlines’ food are still the same - unpalatable! However, I reiterate my admiration for the cabin crew and their inflight service. On our MAS flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur recently, we were served with some refreshments. The refreshments consisted of drinks (juices, sodas, beer, wine or water) and packets of salted peanuts. The cabin crew who attended to us was one Lee Siok Choy (I hope I got his name correctly) whom I noticed was very good in his job. He would made cheerful remarks to the passengers while serving them. It wasn’t so much of what was said, it was more of the way he interacted with the passengers that made them feel at ease. He was also very attentive and efficient. Before the food cart was pushed towards our section of the aircraft, he was already taking orders for food (you know the standard “would you like the fish or the chicken?” Initially, I doubted that he could remember all of the orders but surprisingly he remembered them and directed his colleagues to serve the right food to the respective passengers. Ashley, Jennifer and I ordered the Noodles (Vermicelli or “Bee Hoon”) with beef while Douglas had chicken. It was a mistake to order the Noodles as it didn’t taste good at all. As a matter of fact, Ashley threw up on board the flight, not sure if it was caused by the food but I suspected it may have something to do with it. The only consolation was the mango ice-cream which was very good. The mango ice-cream was from Australia.

I didn’t realise at that time that our cabin crew Lee Siok Choy was observing that we were not eating the food except for the salted peanuts which by that time I had already consumed four (4) packets. Lee Siok Choy has a very keen eye, he saw that both the passenger in front as well as Jennifer have empty mineral water bottles in their seat pockets. He immediately offered to fill up the bottle for them which they happily accepted. When the time to serve the snacks came, we were given the option of either “chicken or vegetable pie”. Sounds palatable? Well, the pies came in a cardboard box and it was nothing like the chicken pie or vegetable pie that we know very well. We have been frequently served with this “snack” whenever we flew with MAS. Naturally, I declined the “snack”. Lee Siok Choy was shocked that I declined the “snack” and asked again and again whether I am sure about it. He said to let him know if I changed my mind. Anyway my decision was firm.

As the plane was about to land and being the observant person, Lee Siok Choy offered to give me a few packets of the salted peanuts which I have been eating to fill my tummy. That was a very nice gesture which I truly appreciated. I must add here that all of the cabin crew on board that particular flight were friendly and helpful but to me, Lee Siok Choy stood out. He has got some good people skills and I believe would make a rather good Mediator. So, Lee Siok Choy, if you are reading this post and you are interested to be a Mediator, please let me know!

Dealing with queues

Inspite of the growing crowd, only 2 counters were opened!

It would be nice if more counters were opened 

Passengers patiently queuing up

A few weeks ago, my family and I visited Sydney. As some of you know, Sydney will be our new home this coming December. For this particular trip, we took Malaysia Airlines (MAS), our national carrier. I must say it has been years since I flew with MAS. With so many airlines to choose from, consumers tend to have an upper hand here. For me and my family, it is purely economics. We will fly with whichever airline that can give us the best deal. It so happened that MAS has got the best deal, so MAS it was.

When we arrived in KLIA, we found ourselves in a sea of crowd. You see, MAS has got a common check-in counter. Unlike Air Asia, where you go to the specific counter (based on your destination) for check-in, everyone has to queue in a common line in order to check-in with MAS. What made it even more challenging was there were only 2 counters opened at that time. I thought they would open more counters to cater the growing crowd. It took us close to an hour before we could checked in and that was after MAS decided to open a couple more counters. However, I must add that the counter lady was very polite and patient. Even though she was a ground staff, she definitely represented MAS in a positive light, a lady with the “golden smile”.

The plane that took us to Sydney was a Boeing 747-400 or commonly known as a “jumbo jet” which at one time was the prime airship. I have not flown in a Boeing 747-400 for ages, so can you imagine when we took our seats. The seat I was assigned to was wobbly and you could see that the plane had aged quite a bit. However, to make up for that rather unfortunate experience, again I must say that the cabin crew (though most of them were fairly mature which in my opinion was a good thing) had provided “golden service” throughout the flight. 

When we arrived in Sydney International Airport at about 8.00am Sydney time, we were once again faced with large crowd of people queueing up at the Immigration Counters. It was time like this that many of the foreigners in the queue wished they were holding Australian passports! The line at the Immigration Counter for Australian passport holders was a breeze. Inspite of the long queue, I was rather surprised that the line moved rather quickly. From my observation, it took an average of less than 2 minutes to check and stamped the foreign passenger’s passport PROVIDED that the passenger does not chat and crack silly jokes with the Immigration officers. How did the Immigration deal so quickly with the queue? Simple! Open more counters. As a matter a fact, at one time, the Counter that was handling Australian passport holders even chipped in to deal with the increasing foreign passengers.

Personally, I think our national carrier, MAS should spent a little bit of time to find effective methods to deal with long queues. Passengers would love to have something wonderful to remember about their trips and it wouldn’t be pleasant if all they remembered were waiting and queueing and waiting and queueing.............