Back to Kota Kinabalu

From : Kuala Lumpur
To : Kota Kinabalu
Date : 25/9/2010
Airline : Malaysia Airlines
Flight No : MH64
Aircraft Type : Airbus A330-300
Gate : A10 or G10
Scheduled Time of Departure : 2115
Actual Time of Departure : 2130
Flight Time : 2 hours 30 minutes
Actual Flight Time : 2 hours 10 minutes

I'll be flying on MH64 today, a flight bound for Seoul, Incheon International Airport in South Korea with an hour transit at Kota Kinabalu International Airport. There are 5 Korean flight attendants on today's flight. At the end of year 2007, there were 30 Korean nationals working as flight attendant for Malaysia Airlines.

Our boarding passes for today's flight. Seats 23H and 23K for us.

That's the seat map of MAS European made Airbus A330-300.

The European made Airbus A330-300. It has a capacity of 294 with 44 seats in Golden Club Class and the remaining in Economy Class. This picture was taken at Beijing Capital Airport.

This is the Golden Club Class. Obviously no where quite as spacious as the Boeing 777-200ER. This picture was taken by someone else years ago. The Golden Club Class seat cover is red in color now.

Boarding commenced at 2100. This is the safety card for Airbus A330-300 and the shorter Airbus A330-200.

This picture was taken 15 minutes after boarding commenced. As you can see, it is going to be a full flight today. More than half of those onboard today are Koreans.

Drop-down LCD screen ...

Safety briefing ...

A very delicious entrée today. It's Garoupa fish.

Mom bought something from the in-flight duty free shopping ...

MAS did not bill us until 20 days later ... I was hoping the crew lost the receipt so we do not have to pay haha ...

This is the seat control located on the side of the armrest. While there is no individual screen on this plane, headphone will still be distributed on longer flights as you will need it to listen to the audio of the programs being played on the main screens and drop-down LCD screens. There are also a few radio channels featuring some of the top hits from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Middle-east, USA, UK and India.

MH64 will cease flying to Kota Kinabalu from January next year after almost 20 years serving this route. Kota Kinabalu will get its own dedicated flight to the South Korean capital starting next year with 4 flights a week on the newly built Boeing 737-800. Presently, MAS is flying twice a week between Kota Kinabalu and Seoul.

Anyway, while the Boeing 737-800 is much smaller than the Airbus A330-300 currently deployed on this route, the newly built Boeing 737-800 will have individual screens in all seats featuring audio-video on demand (AVOD). So in a way, this is actually an upgrade.

From January next year, there will be a total of 10 flights a week from Kota Kinabalu to Seoul and vice-versa.

• Malaysia Airlines - 4 weekly flights vv.
• Korean Air - 2 weekly flights vv.
• Asiana Airlines - 4 weekly flights

No wonder there are so many Koreans in Kota Kinabalu nowadays eh ? Asiana Airlines is the second largest full-service airline of the Republic of South Korea, by the way.

Upcoming trips :

• 28 October 2010 > MH81 to Kuala Lumpur
• 30 October 2010 > MH64 back to Kota Kinabalu
• 11 November 2010 > Silk Air MI391 to Singapore
• 15 November 2010 > Silk Air MI392 back to Kota Kinabalu