Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-800 / B737-800

MA are currently in the process of rolling out new cabin interiors for their B737-800 aircrafts. The changes are significant! I have summarised these changes in my YouTube review video at Luxury Vegan Travel.

I flew the old design (thankfully) on this flight. I travelled in May 2023 from Phuket International Airport (HKT) in Thailand to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) in Malaysia and then again from KUL to Bangkok (BKK) in Thailand.

For reference, I sat in 6A on both legs of the journey.

Like most Asian airlines, the crew were nice. However, as I flew economy and sat near the window I didn’t get to speak to them as much as I wanted to. The flight from HKT to KUL was about 60%-70% full and took about 95 minutes. The crew handed out a packet of peanuts on boarding and later a snack which was a sandwich and tea/coffee. The snack also came with a bottle of water and in my case a small apple juice. The sandwich was pretty bad! Thankfully as it was a short flight and I had a large breakfast, the peanuts, apple juice and water were more than enough to get me through until I reached my hotel (The St. Regis Kuala Lumpur). You can also checkout the review of this hotel on my YouTube channel at Luxury Vegan Travel.

The seat was fairly comfortable but the tray table is quite low when opened. As such, I had to sit in a very careful position otherwise the tray table would rest on my legs and be at a slight angle which may cause drinks to spill.

The old design also has a 9” LCD display which is very clear! There was also a decent selection of entertainment options!

I visited the toilet about 35 minutes before landing and it was clean!

My return flight was slightly longer – about 130-135 minutes. Again, a packet of peanuts were handed out at the beginning. During this flight, a full hot meal was served. I had selected a vegan meal for both legs. On this leg, I was served vegetable pasta. Sadly, this was not heated up very well and was luke warm. I know you can ask the crew to reheat this but as the flight was about 90% full I didn’t want to bother them. Luckily, I had saved my peanuts from earlier and so had those with a can of coke! Again I had a large breakfast and so would be okay until I reach my hotel Le Meridian in Bangkok – again – you can watch the review on the YouTube channel.

One thing I should mention is that I am 99% blind and I always seek special assistance at the airport to get from the Check in counter to my seat on the plane. However, disappointingly there was no option to request this online and so you have to get in touch with MA. Also, as I can see very little I normally request a window seat and no other airline has ever requested payment from me to choose a seat to help meet my needs based on my disability. MA was the first airline asking me to pay for this request. That was shocking.

I do want to try their Business Class and First Class at some point but am reluctant to do so based on the upcoming changes and after-sales experience described in the above paragraph. There are so many more alternatives and amazing airlines and service out there.

I last flew Malaysia Airlines in 2013 and that was a terrible experience. Despite having booked the special assistance in advance, no one turned up which meant by the time someone did – I missed my connecting flight and had to wait at KL for some several hours in an empty waiting room with only 1 voucher that entitled me to 1 sandwich, 1 packet of crisps and 1 drink. Anyway, this was better but was also 10 years later.

Overall, I would rate them on the lower end based on my experience regarding the booking of the special assistance, paying to choose my seat despite being disabled, the poor quality of food and now the ‘green washing’ whereby they are using sustainability in rolling out cost-cutting changes.