I had just came back from a wonderful weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, whereby I spent 4 days in that city.I will blog about my experience of touring the city in later posts. What i can say about Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh in particular is that it is a vibrant country and a city rich with historical pasts which help rendering its current developing status and its bright future as one of the powerhouse in ASEAN. Im not going to be surprised if one day Vietnam will turn into an economic force similar to China as during my stay there, I could really feel the energy and drive of its people to move forward and despite the sufferings that they have endured during the war you will notice that there was no regret or sorrow instead proud feel of their pasts.
Flight: MH 758
Sector: Kuala Lumpur-Ho Chi Minh
Duration: 1h 45m
Service: Lunch
Equipment: Boeing 737-400
Load: 98%
This flight was full of families (mostly elderly people) on a shopping trip to Ho Chi Minh (HCM). HCM is very popular with Malaysian for its high quality and cheap textile. The same textile sold in Malaysia would have cost double or triple of its price in HCM. The flight was full to the brim. MAS offers 3 flights daily from Kuala Lumpur to HCM.
MAS 737-800 in new livery...not our plane unfortunately...
this is ours...with bags being loaded into its cargo hold....
passengers boarding....
..suddenly it started to drizzle outside...
..up-up and away....
Lunch service was started about 30 minutes after take off. For regional ASEAN flights, MAS has introduced light meals served in meal box, no serving tray is used. Though sounds practical for short duration flights, the waiting time to be served may take some times especially those who are seated at the back as two trolleys were used for serving whereby one will move from the front end of the plane and the other from the middle.Being nearest to the galley it seems unlogical to be served the last. In my previous flight i had experienced the last few rows being served directly from the galley and i believe this should be the practice.
Two choices were offered, Fried Rice with Chicken Satay and Noodle with Beef, i chose the former.
included in the box were Ferrero Rocher chocolate, fruit cake and mineral water. Basically i was disappointed with the meal. The meal was tasteless. The satay looks like it had been steamed instead of grilled over charcoal. The fried rice was bland, in colour and taste. One would wonder whether such a meal is a testament of aggressive cost cutting measure adopted by our national carrier which claimed to be a "5 Star" airline? Not only the portion is small, the menu must also be periodically revised as i noticed the same menu had been served in intra-ASEAN flights for the past 2 years.
Fruit juices, soft drinks, tea and coffee were offered from the cart which moved from the front. Another act which can be considered as distasteful and unprofessional is that the crew in this flight decided to hold the serving of coffee individually but decided to do it once the meal service and the cart had been re-stored in the galley. Being a major player in the service industry, MAS should well be informed that one of the thing that any service will try to eliminate is waiting. For a simple reason waiting will irritate people's feeling more even in a short flight whereby service has to be stopped once descend is initiated. One thing that i would gladly request for MAS to improve in their onboard service is try to reduce or limit serving time and your passengers will be happy.
about to land at Tan Son Nhat International Airport...
...landed...
world war hangar...
view of the airport, the terminal is small but they do have separate terminal for domestic flights
Rating: Service-3
Catering-1.5
Sector: Ho Chi Minh-Kuala Lumpur
Duration: 2 hours
Service: Late lunch
Equipment: Boeing 737-400
Load: 98%
The return flight was equally full to the brim.I noticed that most of the passengers were transiting via KLIA to Europe or other Asian destination.
Ho Chi Minh airport view...
our plane at SGN (the airport code for HCM)...
boarding process..
take-off leaving the wonderful HCM away...
Menu offered were similar with the inbound flight but the Beef Noodle had been replaced with chicken. This time i chose the better choice-the Chicken Noodle.
noticed something different? Ferrero had been replaced with some cheap Cadbury chocolate..cost savings at its best!
Usual juices, soft drinks, tea and coffee were offered. I requested for ginger beer and was properly given one whole can of the same-i was delighted.
Service in this flight felt much faster without any particular reason. The crew were friendly without being to nosy.
Rating: Service-3.5
Catering-2
I do hope MAS will improve on the issues stated above not only to stand true to its acclaim 5 Star status but also as the flag carrier of Malaysia. Kay-2011
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