Malaysia First Class to Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia Airlines Sydney to Kuala Lumpur

While the LAX-SYD flight was free, I had to figure out how to get home.  Rather than another boring SYD-LAX nonstop, I decided to take the scenic route home with using AA miles for Malaysia First Class from Sydney to Tokyo via Kuala Lumpur on their A359 and A380.  My only other experience on MH was when Mrs. SFO777 and I flew Malaysia's A380 First Class from KL to London a few years ago.   Malaysia has had issue of late, between losing two planes a few years ago to an apparent revolving CEO door and confusing and at times rather strange directions.  Like despite have First Class cabins on many plane, MH announced in December that they were eliminating "First Class" and replacing it with "Business Suites".  No idea what the rationale is but for all intents and purposes and based on my experience today, it is still First Class just with a different name.    Malaysia's beautiful A359 at the gate in Sydney.

Yo Qantas, another airline with Wifi... unlike you.

Malaysia's First Class on the A359 is a single row 4 seat cabin.    Not the most luxurious First Class cabin, with pretty bland and boring decor.

Since I was the only First Class passenger today, I had no problem taking pics.

And the Business Class cabin, starting at Row 2.

Since the A350 is not as wide as other long range twin engine planes, the suites are as spacious as other First Class suites.  More like Business Class Plus.

My god, who picked the color scheme on this one?

Today's menu...

Considering Malaysia has great and unique cuisine, I was surprised to see a mostly Western menu.   

On the other hand, the wine list was quite respectable.

The Malaysia First Class amenity kit...

... meh.

IFE was pretty good with a reasonable selection of movies, from Hollywood and Asia.

Good storage space throughout the suite.

We pushed back on time but then returned to the gate to resolve a minor technical issue and then headed back out 45 minutes later.

On our way to KL.

Right after take-off, my personal flight attendant, Elyana closed the curtains to wall off the cabin from the masses in Business and Economy.  And as the only passenger in First, it was pretty much a private experience.

Elyana was well intentioned but her service lacked some of the typical refinements of more experienced cabin crew.   My satay starter was excellent but she neglected to bring my champagne until after I was done.

And then she brought both the Champagne and Shiraz at the same time.  LOL.

Both were excellent.

I had asked for the caviar first and then the seared tuna after.   I'm guessing that it got lost in translation, as she and presumably Purser Aaron decided to serve both at once.  It was an impressive display of food, so much so that Elyana decided to take a picture of it as well, after she saw me take one.

The tuna was

While the caviar was OK, the tuna was bland and pretty much tasteless. 

For my main, I made the mistake of going with the Braised Brisket of Beef.  Lots of fat although the sauce was good and made the brisket palatable.   Overall pretty disappointing. 

Next up was the cheese plate, which was quite good.  With a couple more glasses of the wonderful St. Hallatt 2013 Old Block Shiraz.

And finally, delicious Hokey Pokey ice cream.

While Elyana made my bed, I headed to the lav to change.

Reasonable comfy bed and I was able to sleep for nearly 4 hours.

And a smooth touchdown at KUL after nearly 8 hours.   

Overall quite a pleasant flight.  Service was well intentioned but just a little unpolished compared to the flawless service on my connecting flight to Tokyo.