The benefits of flying on a commercial airline

It certainly appears to be that way. There is only 1 flight to Macau from Kuala Lumpur and one flight back. Miss either and you are in trouble! Also the flight there and back was relatively empty. Makes you wonder if they’ll be scrapping it any time soon.

In my case, a friend handed over her ticket to Macau for reasons of work so after gloating at my little bout of good luck, I quickly made plans and when the 23rd came around, I was there at KL Sentral, bright and early to check in at KLCAT (Kuala Lumpur City Air Terminal) and collect my boarding pass. Taking the KLIA Express will only take me 28 minutes to KLIA so I figured checking in early will save me lots of time.

It did. Too much time in fact, when I found that my flight had been delayed by about 3 hours.

Sigh… I was told it was due to bad weather in Macau/Hong Kong due to the Typhoon Nuri that had just lashed the city the day before. I don’t read the newspapers so I missed it. Bad me! Unlike previous trips, I did not even check the weather forecast this time. Bad planning. So point to note: Always check the weather forecast.

When I got to KLIA, and checked with a MAS ground staff, I was told that there were meal coupons to pick up. Yay! The coupons are valid at all food outlets before and after immigration, except McDonalds. I wonder why! I ended up using it at DeliFrance because I needed a coffee and it was convenient. The voucher value is RM15 - pretty substantial because there were set meals going for only RM13!

When we did eventually get on the plane, I had to do a double-take.

What? When? Where? WHY?!!

Apparently, MAS is in the process of changing their seats for their A330 planes and decided to take on a multi-coloured hue. Erm… no, doesn’t do it for me. Gives me a headache trying to see all the colours in one go. Sensory overload!

Its been a while since I flew on a commercial airline as opposed to a budget airline and I’d forgotten the little comforts you get flying commercial:-

• the pillow for your back and blanket for when you get cold
• the welcome cold towel
• the welcome juice
• the in flight hot food you don’t have to pay for before you eat

• the free flow of wines
• the drinks and juices that they bring around halfway through the flight
• the on board entertainment - it was a special flight and we had Kung Fu Panda
• the luxury of space - it was not a full flight and I could stretch out and snooze
• the luxury of not having to fight for a seat and have to contend with people booking seats for friends and relatives

It was a reminder of what flying should be like. Flying has gone from its hey days of luxury in the past to the commercial flights of medium luxury up till about the turn of the century when budget airlines took off, with no seating arrangements and no guaranteed food. Yes, with a budget airline anyone can fly, but can you fly comfortably? That’s the question.

I wish I could fly commercial all the time but finances do not allow it. Still, this little trip was a good reminder of what flying used to be for me and how I took it for granted and now miss it like hell!

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