The ground crew in Taipei was the most efficient bunch of people I've ever seen. Thinking that the flight back to Kuala Lumpur couldn't be as bad; I was proven otherwise. As if the scare of flying to Taipei wasn't bad enough, the flight back from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur was even worse!
First of all, the air steward on board was downright rude. Even at budget airlines, I have not seen an air steward who looked like we owed him money and boss the passengers around. Perhaps he was having a bad day, perhaps it was that time of the month for him, or perhaps he had tendered his resignation and decided that he doesn't care about his job anymore. But I certainly did not pay to get onboard and be treated like his bitch, or to look at him scowled at other passengers. Thank goodness this flight has in-flight entertainment that I could distract myself with.
Then there's a huge negligence of aircraft safety.
I am no expert in flying an aircraft but I do know a thing or two when it comes to safety. I know that it is important for the cabin lights to be dimmed when a plane take-off or land, especially at night. This is part of the many aircraft safety measures. However, this did not happen during my flight back from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur on 6 January.
As we were approaching Kuala Lumpur International Airport, there was a routine announcement of dimming the cabin lights and for the cabin crew to be seated for landing but the lights were never dimmed! It was bright as day in the cabin and before we knew it, the plane was plunging, there was a loud thud, the plane swerved a little, a few yelps of shocked was heard in the cabin, and when I looked out of the window, we were already on the runway!
This experience is downright unpleasant, especially coming from a carrier, which was supposed to have bucked up on their safety measures and servicing after those unfortunate events! My recent experience told me that someone is definitely sleeping on the job and is still not taking the necessary action to right the wrongs! If our flight were to have crashed that day and all the passengers were injured in some ways, who would they blame? The light switch malfunctioned? Or a poltergeist turned the lights backed on?
We're talking about a flying aluminum tube with hundreds of lives onboard, who paid good money to get to where they needed to go and is hoping reach their destination safely! Both mentally and physically! And yet, these people at the Malaysian Airlines (MAS) are showing no effort of improving at all and are treating our lives like a cheap joke!
For those who are wondering why am I ranting about all these on my blog, which quite possibly has no view at all, instead of writing to MAS directly, you'll be surprise to know that if you pay a visit to their website, there is NO PLACE for you to file your complains (if any).
Even if this was submitted to them, I can foresee that there is a very high chance, I will not even hear back from them. So why bother when I can at least attempt to warn everyone else across the globe? Of course, if someone from MAS happens to see this, even better! I sure would love to hear how they are going to spin this one or compensate me for the mental torture they put me through!
~ © 20150115/20150224 ~
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Monday, February 23, 2015
Trust in Malaysian Airlines (MAS)?!
With the list of air disasters which happened to Malaysian Airlines in 2014, one would expect the airline company to take a long hard look at the corporation and start to buck up on its air crafts' service and maintenance. Are they really doing it?
With the mysterious disappearance of MH370 and the ill-fated MH17, one would have expected Malaysian Airlines (MAS) to buck up on its air crafts' service and maintenance and improve on their services, so that they could regain the confidence of all flyers across the globe. But the question is: Are they really taking it seriously?
Trusting that the Malaysian national carrier has got to be better than what the public generally said them to be after the two unfortunate incident, I booked a two-way flight to Taiwan on MAS for my year-end trip. Let's just say that I regretted it the moment I boarded the flight.
On 24 December 2014, I headed to KLIA to catch the red eye flight to Taipei, Taiwan. It was Christmas Eve and everybody was in a festive mood. Needless to say, the passenger were all smiley and happy and can’t wait to get on the flight.
First of all the flight was late. It wasn't delayed for hours, just a 15-20mins late in arrival and boarding. Taking the prep work needed to get the aircraft ready for a 5 hours flight into consideration, I think a 15mins delay is still acceptable, for me at least.
However, when I boarded the flight, I really couldn't believe my eyes! For a quick few seconds, I thought I have boarded a local budget airline for a domestic flight, although I clearly paid for something far better. The aircraft looked cramped and there were clearly NO in-flight entertainment unit instilled!
Ok, so maybe I was expecting too much. It has been almost 6-7 years since my MAS flight to Melbourne. But clearly, I wasn't the only one who was surprised by the condition. I overheard a family which was filing into the aircraft trying to find their seats commenting on why there is no "TV" available at all the seats. The same question which crossed my mind!
While waiting for the flight to take off, I heard one of the impatient passengers asked the air steward why there are no in-flight entertainment units available, which the steward explained that our plane was "switched" last minute due to some unforeseen circumstances and he is sorry for the inconvenience caused.
So you would think that this is a fair enough explanation, right? I mean, MAS is doing their job and getting their passengers on a safer craft. This should be something to applauded, right? Wrong.
As we waited for the flight to take off, nothing happened. Moments later, the captain came on to announce that we are having some technical problem and it will take awhile longer before we could take off.
Really?! Even after switching from an aircraft that (I assume) is supposed to provide better comfort for the passengers to a lighter aircraft that does not even have an in-flight entertainment unit and is supposedly NOT suffering from any "unforeseen circumstances", the aircraft is STILL having technical problems when it comes to taking off?!! This is the point that I started to question how often they run their service maintenance on all the aircraft!
In my head, the worse scenes from a lot of disaster movies are playing in a loop! What a way to treat your passengers on Christmas night! Good job MAS!!! The only thing I hoped during that whole flight was to reach Taipei safely and to be able to tell my mom, who warned me so much about flying with MAS, that I have arrived safely and I was wrong.
As if the scare of flying to Taipei wasn't bad enough, the flight back from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur was even worse!
~ © 20150115 ~
With the mysterious disappearance of MH370 and the ill-fated MH17, one would have expected Malaysian Airlines (MAS) to buck up on its air crafts' service and maintenance and improve on their services, so that they could regain the confidence of all flyers across the globe. But the question is: Are they really taking it seriously?
Trusting that the Malaysian national carrier has got to be better than what the public generally said them to be after the two unfortunate incident, I booked a two-way flight to Taiwan on MAS for my year-end trip. Let's just say that I regretted it the moment I boarded the flight.
On 24 December 2014, I headed to KLIA to catch the red eye flight to Taipei, Taiwan. It was Christmas Eve and everybody was in a festive mood. Needless to say, the passenger were all smiley and happy and can’t wait to get on the flight.
First of all the flight was late. It wasn't delayed for hours, just a 15-20mins late in arrival and boarding. Taking the prep work needed to get the aircraft ready for a 5 hours flight into consideration, I think a 15mins delay is still acceptable, for me at least.
However, when I boarded the flight, I really couldn't believe my eyes! For a quick few seconds, I thought I have boarded a local budget airline for a domestic flight, although I clearly paid for something far better. The aircraft looked cramped and there were clearly NO in-flight entertainment unit instilled!
Ok, so maybe I was expecting too much. It has been almost 6-7 years since my MAS flight to Melbourne. But clearly, I wasn't the only one who was surprised by the condition. I overheard a family which was filing into the aircraft trying to find their seats commenting on why there is no "TV" available at all the seats. The same question which crossed my mind!
While waiting for the flight to take off, I heard one of the impatient passengers asked the air steward why there are no in-flight entertainment units available, which the steward explained that our plane was "switched" last minute due to some unforeseen circumstances and he is sorry for the inconvenience caused.
So you would think that this is a fair enough explanation, right? I mean, MAS is doing their job and getting their passengers on a safer craft. This should be something to applauded, right? Wrong.
As we waited for the flight to take off, nothing happened. Moments later, the captain came on to announce that we are having some technical problem and it will take awhile longer before we could take off.
Really?! Even after switching from an aircraft that (I assume) is supposed to provide better comfort for the passengers to a lighter aircraft that does not even have an in-flight entertainment unit and is supposedly NOT suffering from any "unforeseen circumstances", the aircraft is STILL having technical problems when it comes to taking off?!! This is the point that I started to question how often they run their service maintenance on all the aircraft!
In my head, the worse scenes from a lot of disaster movies are playing in a loop! What a way to treat your passengers on Christmas night! Good job MAS!!! The only thing I hoped during that whole flight was to reach Taipei safely and to be able to tell my mom, who warned me so much about flying with MAS, that I have arrived safely and I was wrong.
As if the scare of flying to Taipei wasn't bad enough, the flight back from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur was even worse!
~ © 20150115 ~
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