From: ravi@cae.wisc.edu (Vijayaraghavan Ravi)
Subject: Re: Bad experience on Malaysia Airlines
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 19 Nov 92 17:51:07 CST

In article <1eeoalINNl9v@uwm.edu> mahadeva@point.cs.uwm.edu (Aruna Mahadevan) writes:
>
>Hello,
>
>I travelled to India from California during the month of October on
>Malaysia Airlines.  I had heard a lot about the *EXCELLENT* service on
>Malaysia and Singapore Airlines, but my experience was just the
>opposite.  The flight leaving from LA was delayed by almost 2 hours and
>no explanation was given.  Subsequently, all connecting flights were
>delayed by 1.5 to 2 hours with no explanations.  When I asked them at LA
>about my Hotel reservation in Kuala Lumpur, they were very rude.  As for
>the food, it looked like they had scraped off all the leftovers from the
>First Class and Business Class meals for us Coach class passengers.  The
>rice was dry, the vegetables weren't good, and we had the same food all
>through!  
>
>We landed at Kuala Lumpur a few hours later than scheduled, had to wait
>to get the transit visa from immigration and then get our hotel rooms.
>We were given vouchers for the transportation to/from the hotel and for
>breakfast.  There was a long line for taxis and there was this guy who
>kept sending off people from the back of the queue in the taxis that
>arrived.  So, after waiting around for a couple of hours, we decided to
>grab the first taxi that came along since there was no queue system
>anyway.  At the hotel, the manager claimed that he didn't have rooms and
>asked us to pay $10 for the taxi to take us to another hotel.  We
>refused to pay and demanded separate rooms for the three of us that had
>reserved our tickets individually.  After a while of trying to extract
>money from us, he relented and gave us rooms.  By this time, it was
>already 3 am and our onward flight was at 9am.  So we barely got 4 hours
>sleep.  
>
>The seat I had was very close to the business class.  I am a non-smoker
>and cannot stand smoke.  I had asked for a seat in the non-smoking
>section and was given this particular seat which was close to the
>smoking section of the Business Class.  When I complained about the
>smoke, I was moved to another seat - this time right next to the
>toilets!  I also gave them a written complaint about the smoke but things
>were not any better on the return journey.
>
>I have travelled by Air India before and found the service and food to
>be much better than this!  It's been a while but I think the flights
>were on time when I travelled on Air India last.
>
>Aruna
>

I have an even more interesting story to tell about Malaysian Airlines.
It took us 4 days to go from LA to Madras. Five hour delay at LA,
With a days delay at Hawaii, 10 hour  unscheduled stop over
at Kuala Lumpur and a five hour delay  at Penang.
The authorities at Kuala Lumpur are rude and treat you badly. 

THe service throughout was pathetic and they were discourteous. I
would strongly recommend that people dont travel by Malaysian Airlines.
The first time I travelled I didnt have any problems, but last
december it was pathetic. Spent 6 days of my 25 days vacation at
the Airports and in the aircraft. Ill elaborate on this later
when I have time.



--Shivakumar