Australia with Malaysian

[OGR]

Hi all flying to Melbourne in late March with Malaysian.

1) are Malaysian any good ? Flying economy in one of the extra legroom economy seats .
2) flying from Heathrow 10:25am to KL 2 hour wait then on to Melbourne . Is that a good sequence in peoples experience or better to leave night time ?

We will have a few days to recover before doing anything once we arrive

Thanks

[Kenty]

Not flown with Malaysian but the A380 with Emirates is definitely the best way to go.
Good thinking to leave a few days getting over Jet lag and we do the same,
i don't drive for at least 2 days after a long haul flight - A few suggestions for 'jet lag'
days, you can visit the Apostles by bus and get great views of the great ocean road.
A bus tour to Phillip Island and a tram to St Kilda, nice lunch and walk round.

We really liked Melbourne, i'm sure you will!

[anonymous-user]

I wouldn't touch Malaysian, they quoted me 6 months for a refund on fully flexible ticket had to do a credit card charge back in the end.

That aside, in my opinion Singapore are the best for that route, followed by Qatar, Emirates and Cathay, in that order. I haven't flown with Eithad so can't comment on them, but Malaysia are down at the bottom of the list with Qantas and the Chinese carriers.

[OGR]

Thanks for replies …. Already booked Malaysian I’m afraid …

I think (hope) most economy are the same … I know Emirates are a bit stand out …

Thanks for tips on what to do for 2/3 days my son is needed on the Wednesday after arriving Saturday evening so hopefully ok

More replies welcome

[Tagteam]

I flew business with Malaysian , and thought they were excellent . Not up with the best , but almost there and way better than BA (but most are now)

[OGR]

Thanks again

Any views on whether to sleep on first leg , in effect from mid morning to mid night or the through a night from KL to Melbourne ?

My son is racing so am hoping to upgrade to biz class for him ….

Thanks again

[Jader1973]

It is 24 hours of travel + however long you’ve been up before you set off.

10:25am departure means at the airport for 6:30, so up even earlier depending on where you live.

Arriving at about 10pm Melbourne time, then an hour (?) through immigration and customs and then you’ve got to get to wherever you are staying.

You’ll be absolutely fked no matter what you do. Accept that and just go with the flow.

[pitlane]

Jader1973 said:

You’ll be absolutely fked no matter what you do. Accept that and just go with the flow.

This, don't overthink different travel times etc, when you can sleep on the flight, it never goes to plan if you do that!

Go with the flow, sleep when you can, relax.

Malaysian are fine in my experience. The plane to KL will be modern, pay as use Wifi etc so you can work if needed.

The plane from KL will be tired, less chance of Wifi etc.

Melbourne to PI (guessing from your OP) roads are easy enough, but the latter half of it is all single carriageway roads. If it's a big event then book accommodation ASAP as there is very few hotels around, mostly houses for rent. Enjoy!

[anonymous-user]

I've lived in Malaysia for 25 years, flown MAS many times, never had a problem. I prefer the non stop flight to Europe stopping in the Middle East is a pain.

[djc206]

I don’t have the best experience with Malaysian but putting that to one side and answering your other questions:

You can’t really beat jet lag on a trip like that and unless you’re like a dog/cat and can sleep anywhere in any position it’s unlikely that you’ll get quality sleep onboard. It’s best to just write off the day after you get there and not try to do too much. One positive is malaysian use the new A350 on the KUL route which is a nice quiet aircraft.

Someone above has written a 10:30am flight means arriving at the airport at 6:30am. Er no it does not. Absolute earliest 7:30 and personally I’d aim for around 8am. T4 isn’t great so you don’t want to be there for 4 hours. There is a Hilton at T4 which isn’t a bad shout for the night before your flight if you don’t live close by, saves adding an early start to a very long couple of days.

The way I try to combat jet lag is to have a shower and change of clothes and a meal appropriate to the time zone after a long haul flight. Try and trick your body into thinking it’s a new day. My problem is I’m impartial to a couple of glasses of wine/G&T’s when flying, if you have more sense than me avoid the booze and stick to water, it’ll make you feel much better. I don’t know whether you have lounge access at KUL through oneworld status/priority pass or similar but it might be worth investigating the options if not.

Safe travels.

[ocrx8]

I did this flight earlier in the year, it’s an A350 to KUL followed by an A330 to MEL. Extra legroom seats on the LHR-KUL leg well worth it, I found sitting by the window noisy so you might be better off with an aisle seat if you’re sensitive to noise. I don’t care what the stats say, the A380 is infinitely superior from a passenger perspective and it’s a real shame Malaysia have retired theirs (you can see them parked up at KUL).

A330 on the second leg feels very tired and outdated. However, both flights had great service and the food was actually very good. Expectations were certainly exceeded. Good luck!

[OGR]

All thanks . Yep I’m hunkered down for a 24 hour sh*t fun…!!

@pitlane not sure what PI is ?

We’re staying in Melbourne- where my so e will be racing. We’ll have a few days from Saturday evening to catch-up ..

Thanks all

[ffc]

OGR said:

Hi all flying to Melbourne in late March with Malaysian.

1) are Malaysian any good ? Flying economy in one of the extra legroom economy seats .
2) flying from Heathrow 10:25am to KL 2 hour wait then on to Melbourne . Is that a good sequence in peoples experience or better to leave night time ?

We will have a few days to recover before doing anything once we arrive

Thanks

We flew LHR to KUL MH3 in the front row of the extra legroom seats in November and they were fine. The service was good and the flight was fine IMO. Having said that it was only 2/3 of your journey. We did the same route in Business Class in June and it was better (Obvs) but the seat layout is weird. It you can get your son one of the solo seats in business he'll have a lot more room.

Edited by ffc on Wednesday 28th December 19:38

[Imasurv]

We’ve not flown Malaysian before, but in terms of flight times and jet lag etc, we’ve always flown to Australia with the intention of arriving there in the evening, that way you leave the airport, go to your accommodation and straight to bed. We have tried not to sleep on the Australia leg so were able to sleep when we get to our accommodation and we have found that this works pretty well for us, being a bit tired on the following day but not suffering much from jet lag. Coming back the other way is not as easy for some reason!

[peter tdci]

OGR said:

@pitlane not sure what PI is ?

Phillip Island?

[captain_cynic]

Malaysian are absolutely nothing special. If there isn't much of a price difference with Singapore, fly with Singapore.

KLIA is a decent airport, but not a patch on Singapore Changi.

As for beating jet lag, there's only one sure fire cure. Arrive ready to go to bed. As others have said, after 24 hours you'll be exhausted no matter what. Best to arrive at a local bed time. Say mid afternoon to early evening. This gives you time to get though customs, check in, have some dinner and relax before passing out and you wil wake up tomorrow adjusted to your new time zone.

[OGR]

peter tdci said:

OGR said:

@pitlane not sure what PI is ?

Phillip Island?

Ah ok no not heading there

Thsnks

[anonymous-user]

ocrx8 said:

I did this flight earlier in the year, it’s an A350 to KUL followed by an A330 to MEL. Extra legroom seats on the LHR-KUL leg well worth it, I found sitting by the window noisy so you might be better off with an aisle seat if you’re sensitive to noise. I don’t care what the stats say, the A380 is infinitely superior from a passenger perspective and it’s a real shame Malaysia have retired theirs (you can see them parked up at KUL).

A330 on the second leg feels very tired and outdated. However, both flights had great service and the food was actually very good. Expectations were certainly exceeded. Good luck!

I did the exact same flight in November and I would 100% agree with this. The A330 feels old compared to the A350, especially the inflight entertainment that feels several generations behind the A350. It was so laggy and horrible to use that I didn't bother in the end.

One thing I will say is that there is literally nowhere to get anything to eat at Kuala Lumpur airport. There are lots of "coming soon" signs for numerous food options, but when I was there they looked like they were a fair while from being completed.

A330 aside, it is very similar to every other airlines economy flights to Australia.

[OGR]

Cheers again all

[StevieBee]

I did Auckland with Malaysian a few years back. London City to Amsterdam (KLM) then to KL and onto Auckland.

I found them to be excellent. They come round every now and then with this Satay Snack thing which is delicious.

As for trying to avoid Jet Lag, I spent the best part of a day researching and looking for the best combination of flights to minimise this. In the end, I just went 'sod it' and booked the best value flight combo and sucked it up when I got there and when I returned. I can't say it was particularly debilitating.

If you do a connection in KL, buy lounge access and pack a change of clothes. They have really nice showers there. Fresh clothes a splosh of Lynx does make a difference!

One really good bit of advice I took (from these pages IIRC) for long-hauls was to pack your slippers in your hand luggage and wear these on the plane. Not special ones - the ones you use at home.