Being a Malaysian, I’m always proud to fly with Malaysia Airlines, especially the stylish moon kite logo, which is one of the country’s national symbol.

Besides, it’s one of only five airlines in the world to have been awarded a 5-star rating by Skytrax, a United Kingdom-based consultancy, part of Inflight Research Services.

Most of the time, I prefer to fly with MAS due to its convenience, direct flight to-and-from KLIA, no hassle in transiting flights, hence void of waiting time and unnecessary multiple security checks as well as the exhaustion.

For that, I try to make a point and fly with MAS as I believe we should have supported local brand instead of the famous Singapore Airlines (SIA).

However lately, MAS continues to test my loyalty and that’s really frustrating, provided that I’ve been constantly flying with them for the past few years.

First of all, the reservation system is an initial blow to the customer experience. As far as I’m concern, each travel agent is allocated seats quota for certain popular destinations, therefore even though seats are available through online reservation, sometimes you’ll still find yourself on waiting list at the travel agent screen. That didn’t happen once, but a few times indeed.

However, upon check-in and flight status enquiry with the officer, I found out the flight wasn’t really that full actually. Vacant seats were significantly available on board. MAS should have at least optimize the reservation system to maximize the much needed load factor and increases the yield, which might have contributed to a better bottom line and enhances customer booking experience for sure.

Second, like it or not, in this ever competitive and liberalised era of aviation industry and open-sky policy together with the now everyone can fly low-cost carrier as in AirAsia, MAS as a full-fledged carrier should lived up to its expectation by providing excellent customer service too, especially when MAS is frequently being compared to SIA, which performs well when comes to servicing their passengers.

I’ve lost count on numerous occasions where I’ve seen simple request like a glass of water and blanket weren’t being entertained. Worse, some were being made to wait and only received what they asked for after a few rounds of request. (begging, maybe?)

There were also cases where passengers are being left without any food selection and didn’t get what they’ve requested earlier (for whatever reason!). Some might make a big hoo haa with the usual resolution like the team leader showing sincere apologize with some gifts as a show of appreciation towards their understanding, in which I think merely to shut them up for good. As for the rest, they’d prefer to remain silent. Who knows MAS might have lost another loyal customer in the long run, where customer retention should be given more emphasize rather than customer acquisition?

Now comes to the part that I’m really disappointed with, which is the MAS’s loyalty program - Enrich. The brand sounds great, but the experience tells me otherwise, compare to other loyalty programs.

Each time during the check-in, the enrich card must be presented, just to make sure the check-in system holds the membership number too. Subsequently, usually I’d confirm with the staff that my membership number has been captured.

Unfortunately, having done that too doesn’t guarantee your flying miles will be captured accordingly, either system glitch or human error, I have no idea, seriously.

Initially, I’m not that concern until it turns into a habit by MAS for not putting in the miles. Feeling discontent, I called up and lodged a complaint. Daily follow-up was made to coax them into action and finally the miles were updated, but not before unfriendly arguments were exchanged or otherwise, I need to fill missing miles claim form and expect at least 6 to 8 weeks for the miles to be credited to the account (including the original boarding pass and a copy of the ticket).

Since then, everything is doing fine with points are updated on time, at most 2-3 days after the traveling date. It’s only  recently when I face the similar problem and still thinking on the next best action to solve this once and for all. It’s not about the miles really, but it’s about doing the right thing. Other members might face the similar problem too and MAS should be made known of this as soon as possible so that they can find possible remedies, in which I believe they will.

Time to change? I do not know but most of my friends were telling me that were they given a choice, SIA is the one to go, doesn’t matter the hassle. Spacious seats, better food served, excellent in-flight entertainment, free poker playing cards and good looking stewardess (for guys) are among the typical reasons given.

But to me, as of now, I’d stick with MAS for destinations within Asia Pacific (AP), unless if there is no available seat on MAS, afterall, it’s either between I read or I sleep on board.

The food? As long as it’s good enough to fill my stomach, how good the food served on plane can be?

The excellent in-flight entertainment? Not enough of Astro or pirated DVDs at home?

Free poker playing cards? As if you can bet openly in Malaysia.

The lady? As if they’d fall in love with you.

Etc. etc.

In the end of the day, I’m taking this as an opportunity to show my patriotism towards the going-to-be 50 years old Malaysia. :-)

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