More Malaysia Airlines Website Issues

With a dose of sarcasm the wonderful user friendly and robust website of Malaysia Airlines has done it again.

When trying to book a KUL-SIN return ticket and selecting some of the promo fares its not allowing me to book due the following error:



Seriously how hard can it be to hire some IT staff who know how to develop and maintain a website?

Is it any wonder that they are losing money!

Malaysia Airlines Online Check-In Woes

For some time now I've been experiencing issues with Malaysia Airlines online check-in system whereby its not possible to print your boarding pass using a Macbook (Safari) or Ipad.

What should happen is that when you press the button to print a PDF file is downloaded which you can save or print. It seems that some people find that the print button doesn’t work and nothing happens when its selected. Whilst there are options to send the boarding pass to the phone or email, neither on them send the full boarding pass but rather a cut down version with just a bar code.


I've now installed Firefox and tried it on Windows 8 via Parallels Desktop and these work ok so it's a likely a compatibility issue with Safari.

It would seem that I'm not alone as this blog article highlights the same problem and the latest from the author is that he is still having the issue.

The is just one of many annoyances and downright poor user functionality that exist on their website.

For example:

• When logging to their FFP (Enrich) I'm not able to see my bookings
• If I log on using my website ID I can see my bookings but I cant check in from here
• Unbelievably I will need to write down my booking reference or ticket number and then go to another page to check in.

Why are so many clunky steps needed?

Please take a look at the Singapore Airlines site and use that for some inspiration in this area.

Singapore to KL on MAS and what a disaster it was!

The Man in Seat 12A is back!

As regular traveller I’m well used to flight delays and even the odd cancellation with some of the less well run airlines such as Tiger Airways.

Following a long break from Malaysia Airlines mainly due to cost issues I managed to secure a reasonably priced SIN-KUL return ticket oleaving on the Friday 18:15 flight (MH608). After arranging an early finish I was feeling chuffed because would be home in time supper and I managed to get my usual seat.

Upon arriving at the gate despite the screens showing on time I found out that the nice new shiny b737-800 had a delay of 20+ mins.

Things then took a turn for the worse when the take off was aborted whilst speeding down the runway due to a technical problem.

After parking up for a while we moved to another gate where were kept on the plane for a further 1 hour and occasionally told that they were trouble shooting a technical problem before they decided to offload us.

On the positive side I had lots of legroom in the emergency exit row

I couldn't help look at the SQ/Silk air flights leaving and wish I had travelled on them like I usually do.

 
Nobody thought to stop the delayed 19:15 flight or even move people to the silk Air fight at 20:00 and to make matters worse the 21:15 flight was almost full so people with MAS connections were prioritised over others.

When I challenged one of the cabin steward's I received as to why we were not updated and the other flight held etc I received a rather condescending response which was met with some comments I’m not proud off.

Upon being dumped back in the terminal a complete lack of information from the ground ensured that the situation was a complete shambles. The ground staff at the gate didn’t want to make an announcement and seemed completely clueless.
 

Unhappy passengers

   
Some people were being rebooked on the 21:15 flight others were told that the flight is going at 22:00 and some were given food and beverage vouchers. After a period of time we were all asked to just go to the food court and show our boarding pass to get a brink and a sandwich.

Again chaos occurred because they don’t sell sandwiches and many people were asking can I have this or can I that

With budget airlines you almost expect a poor service but with a full service carrier such as Malaysia Airlines I expect better.

Fortunately the late night inbound flight which stays in Singapore was used to take us back to KL at approx. 00:40 and the men with spanners were due to work on the broken plane overnight.

Upon boarding the old 737-400 I realised that Seat 12A exist and the cabin crew said that the ground crew should have move my seat.  Fortunately for me that even with the crew of the original flight travelling as passengers there were spare seats for me to take.

So after leaving leaving my office at 16:55 I arrived back home in KL at 02:45 due to a 6:40h delay.

On Saturday I curiously checked the Changi website and found that the early morning flight from SIN-KUL was cancelled. I guess there the plane wasn’t fixed and/or there wasn’t a crew available.

Well done MAS you screwed up my evening as well as a plane full of people on Saturday morning.