Comfortable: Malaysia Airlines A330-200 Economy Class

Not all of our travel has to be in premium cabins for us to enjoy it, such as our trip in Malaysia Airlines A330-200 economy class.

Booking Malaysia Airlines economy class

I’ve already done a deep dive into the booking process for this flight, but a quick summary:

We needed to get from Kuala Lumpur up to Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
On this route, there aren’t many nonstop options, and even fewer if I wanted to arrive at a reasonable time.
While business class would have been nice, I ended up booking economy instead because business class awards didn’t exist.

I unfortunately committed an award booking sin and first booked with expiring Singapore Krisflyer miles, then canceled and rebooked on AirAsiaX with cash, then I changed my mind and used Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles on Malaysia Airlines, then canceled and just paid cash for Malaysia Airlines. Yes, cancel fees can rack up when doing that but it’s great that many fares booked with points are cancelable–you can’t say that with cheap cash fares.

We paid about $300 USD for the one-way journey from Kuala Lumpur to Taiwan. The better option would have been to be patient with the flights booked with Flying Blue miles. The same flight would have cost just 43,750 miles + $247.60 USD for the four of us (spending about 43,750 miles to save ~$1,000). I would have been more patient if I wasn’t out of the country for nearly two weeks prior to the flight at that point.

I go into more detail on the mishap in the link above. But part of the problem I had was that I heard that missing a middle name on the ticket when one exists on the passport can cause problems with both AirAsiaX and Malaysia Airlines. The concern could be overblown–it’s never been a problem elsewhere–but I didn’t want to have a misconnection issue when we would be heading back to the U.S. the next day.

Even the best of us can make errors!

Earning Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles

If you reside in the United States, your best way to earn more Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles is to work the bank program transfers:

All major bank transfer programs can convert points over to Air France / KLM Flying Blue
Get the Air France / KLM credit card, which often comes with a decent sign-up bonus.
Consider buying Flying Blue miles, but wait for a bonus offer for doing so. An 80% bonus offer translates to a cost of 1.7 US cents per mile (good in this case but check your points and flight costs before committing).

While you could also credit your SkyTeam flights to Air France / KLM to earn miles, we wouldn’t consider this to be a quick method to earn more miles in their program.

First impressions of Malaysia Airlines A330-200 economy class

We arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at about 6:15AM local time. We had left our hotel about an hour earlier and took Grab for the entire journey. If we instead had a flight a bit later in the day, we likely would have taken the KLIA Ekspres instead.

The flight I booked included priority check-in services and checked bags, so we lined up in the Priority Counter line. Despite this line only having one agent, it moved quickly and saved a lot of time over the crowded economy line.

Right next to the check in counter for Malaysia Airlines is a LEGO exhibit where kids can relive their Malaysian vacation. And what kid doesn’t like a make-believe airport found inside a real airport?

We left extra time departing from KLIA simply because it took forever on arrival. While Jenn and Alex easily used the e-gates for immigration, 6-year-old Char was too short. It’s unfortunate that the camera doesn’t adjust to the height of the user. Thus, I had to wait with her in a line that took 90 minutes to clear. On departure, the e-gates are positioned lower, so she was able to use them without issue. Plus, the regular immigration line is far shorter on the way out in case that didn’t work.

Once in Terminal 2, Jenn and Char took a moment to pose with some rather large durian. Thankfully the display didn’t smell like the real thing.

After our visit to the Sky Suite Airport Lounge, we headed over to our gate. All the lights on the ceiling almost look like stars in the sky. If only the ceiling were painted black.

After clearing security at the gate, we hung out for a bit in the holding pen. I have to say that I prefer centralized security over security at each gate. It can feel a bit crowded in here especially knowing you can’t leave without clearing security again.

Onboard the Malaysia Airlines A330-200

Soon enough, we were able to board the plane. The Malaysia Airlines A330-200 economy class cabin is in a 2-4-2 arrangement, which works well for people traveling in groups.

Boarding Malaysia Airlines A330-200 economy class

Sometimes we like to take our seats in a box pattern (two rows of two passengers) but this time we took the whole row of center seats. This picture and the next shows how difficult it can be to be a parent taking photos. Here, Alex didn’t look at the camera…

…and next it was Char’s turn. Sigh.

The Malaysia Airlines A330-200 economy class seat

We aren’t going to spend as much time talking about the seat features on this compared to our normal business class reviews. These seats don’t have much functionality. But most of our travel is in economy when flying domestically within the U.S., so it’s good to offer up a comparison. Here, you can see an overhead view of the row of economy seats, which had ample padding for the 5 hour journey to Taipei.

Already at our seat were a few items, including some headphones, a pillow, and a blanket. For a medium-haul economy flight, that’s not a bad offering. However, my headphones weren’t functional. I opened them up and the wires looked completely frayed. Oh well, that’s what happens when these things get reused and not like these are quality headsets.

Plus, the flight crew came around to collect the headphones when the plane started its descent. I guess they really want to prevent people from taking these cheap things. Good thing AA doesn’t do this anymore but maybe this is who they copied?

Legroom isn’t spectacular as my knees were pretty much in the seat in front of me. But if you compare it to any other full-service airline’s regular seats without extra legroom, it’s about the same.

The seatback monitor had an operating system that felt right out of the 90s. It’s minimalist but at least it also has a touchscreen, making it I suppose more from the ’00s. Am I alone in calling that era the naughties (where naught = zero)?

Overhead is some lighting for your seat. No individual air nozzles here. But at least the cabin wasn’t kept too warm so it wasn’t bad. Having a blanket helps control cabin temperature to each person’s liking!

Amenities in Malaysia Airlines economy class

In addition to the pillow and blanket at each seat, the kids also received some goody bags for being on the flight.

Inside each pack is a bunch of activities, stickers, and colored pencils. I always appreciate when airlines offer up some goodies for kids.

The food in Malaysia Airlines economy class

Our flight departed at 9:15AM and took off at 10:00AM. I will base all the times off the later timestamp.

At 10:30AM (30 minutes after takeoff), the flight attendants asked what the kids would like to eat first. There were three options:

Chicken rendang with rice
Beef bolognese
Chicken sausage

Additionally, if you order online in advance, you could additionally choose waffles or some Malaysian noodles. It’s nice to have the ability to pre-order food in economy because if you sit in the back like we did, there’s no guarantee the food will still exist. It seems like they go out of their way to give food to the kids first regardless of pre-order to make sure they get their preferred choice.

First up is the chicken rendang, which was on the spicy side as you might expect. But it pairs well with the rice and the yogurt to help mellow out the spice level. This isn’t the most flavorful version of chicken rendang we’ve had, but it’s not bad. There was more sauce than there was chicken though. Some fruit comes with it to finish off the meal nicely. Not pictured is a cinnamon roll that comes later during service.

Next up, Alex chose the beef bolognese, which he thought was good. The flavor is a bit basic, but if you happen to be craving pasta like he was, this is good enough to hit the spot. And in terms of quantity of meat in the dish, this is a better option than the chicken.

For Jenn, I preordered the Malaysian noodle dish, which is more of a dark noodle that’s hard to see from this picture. In case you’re trying the squint your eyes, the lightly-colored strands on top are slices of cooked egg on top. My notes aren’t complete on this dish, but I believe that’s chicken on top. Overall, Jenn was satisfied with this one and it works if you’re looking for something not spicy. But this is something that’s only available in advance.

Last up, I preordered the waffles though I didn’t have intentions of eating it myself. Rather, I ordered it because I figured the kids might want something safe as a backup and if they didn’t, I would take this. I was correct–Char indeed preferred this over the other options–so I was glad to have selected it. As you would expect, this is sweet and perhaps a bit overly so. Not only does it come with dippable sauce but it also has an apple compote on the side. Only take this if you have a big sweet tooth.

To drink, we had the choice of coffee, tea, water, and juice. You’ll see the family here enjoying their breakfast on the plane. Overall, not bad at all for economy food!

Wi-Fi and Entertainment

What’s nice about Malaysia Airlines is that Wi-Fi is actually free for all to use. I’ve been paying attention to the internet costs of U.S. and European airlines but not so much the Asian carriers. Thus, it was a pleasant surprise to see it’s free here. Just connect to the in-flight router and you’ll end up on this splash screen.

From there, click the dropdown box at the top and you’ll see the option to connect for free. You will need to provide an email address but that’s about it. A pretty simple process and it’s nice being able to stay connected.

If you’d rather watch something on TV, there were 120 movies loaded on our flight. That said, I didn’t find all that many that appealed to me. Plus there are only 4 that are part of the “Family” category, which seemed a little limiting, though there are 12 animated films.

As for TV shows, there is variety but again it was hard to find things that appealed. Some of that is me–I’m not exactly into foreign shows–but even if you found something you like, there aren’t many episodes within a given series.

The only other thing that’s on here is music. I don’t have anything against listening to music on a plane but it does remind me of flying back when airlines would only show one movie on the flight and the only alternative you had was listening to music.

Service

Since we’re in economy class, we have to temper our expectations of service during the flight. Overall, it felt functional and pleasant. You’re not going to get personalized service in economy but all you really need is a good service flow, frequent-to-occasional drink service, and enough trash service so things don’t pile up. And in that regard, Malaysia Airlines met expectations.

That said, this crew also checked in on the kids and made sure they got their food first, which is appreciated. Thus I’d say overall we were satisfied.

You could add on Malaysia Airlines lounge access for a fee

Before I end the article, I should point out that if you’re an economy passenger without oneworld Emerald or Sapphire status, you could pay for lounge access. We had the offer of 279 MYR ($68 USD) per adult or 140 MYR ($34 USD) per child.

While we haven’t been in the lounge before, I can’t imagine paying that much for access. I lost all of my oneworld status from AA and Finnair, so my only option would have been to pay. (Usually status matches do not confer alliance benefits until after you satisfy the terms of the match to extend status.)

Arrival to Taipei, Taiwan (TPE)

Our flight arrived into Taipei at about 2:25PM without any issues. Once we landed, we proceeded through customs and immigration, which took a little bit of time, but it wasn’t too bad. Since we were arriving from Malaysia, we needed to re-clear security on arrival before going through immigration. (If we were arriving directly from the United States, we wouldn’t need to.)

After clearing immigration, it was a short wait for our bags and then we were on our way. We’ve been to Taiwan many times, so we knew the drill at this point.

Recommendation: Yes, if using Flying Blue miles

You wouldn’t normally expect to use Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles to book this flight as Air France is in SkyTeam and Malaysia Airlines is in oneworld. But, Air France has a few quirky partners you might not normally expect (like Qantas). If you book the flight with Flying Blue miles, the flight seemed cheaper than what other oneworld airlines were charging. And on top of that, it looked like Air France offered a 25% discount for child awards on this flight (that doesn’t seem to be the case on all their partners).

As for the flight itself, it’s good if you consider that this is economy but came with hot food and free Wi-Fi. Sure, the entertainment system wasn’t good, but if you have Wi-Fi, you can find something else to do with your time that you want to do instead. The seat was comfortable enough for the whole journey so it worked out pretty well.

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experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children