Malaysian airlines

thelad95

I'm planning a long haul flight this summer and the cheapest option that keeps popping up is by far Malaysian airlines. There's something at the back of my head that keeps bugging me though given the recent accidents they've had like am I being insane and irrational?

Would anyone know is the fact that they're cheaper down to reputational damage or lower quality?

weisses

thelad95 wrote: »

I'm planning a long haul flight this summer and the cheapest option that keeps popping up is by far Malaysian airlines. There's something at the back of my head that keeps bugging me though given the recent accidents they've had like am I being insane and irrational?

Would anyone know is the fact that they're cheaper down to reputational damage or lower quality?

If you can give an example of any plane from a commercial airline that is able to fly to its destination after being struck by a surface to air missile then I would fly with them

If not ... irrational would be a Good description

Beefy78

There's no issues with quality. I flew on one of their 777s to Australia and back a couple of months before the missing plane. I had absolutely no complaints.

In the meantime they've flown literally thousands of flights. If they're cheap and are going where you want to go then book them.

BoJack Horseman

Flew with them to NZ.
Very good airline.
Preferred their 777s to airbus planes I've flown long haul on.
Food was way better than on Aer Lingus.

Dohnjoe

Reputational (extreme luck in both cases)

Ironically, due to the high profile of each case they would probably be one of the safer airlines to fly (large incidents typically result indepth reviews and post-mortems of all procedures, safety and so on)

keeponhurling

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

Food was way better than on Aer Lingus.

Clodagh McKenna will be interested to hear about this.....

rainbowtrout

I flew with them from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumper (same flight route taken down over Ukraine) in 2013. I had no complaints, decent service, cabin crew were nice.

Any flight could have been taken down over Ukraine. I think they were extremely unlucky after MH370 going missing 4 months earlier.

keeponhurling

I think the issue was that some other airlines weren't flying over that airspace, as it was deemed too high risk for their liking.
British Airways was one example.

Of course the missile wasn't their fault, but being there in the first place met have been avoided

rainbowtrout

Very true. But there are no flights flying over Eastern Ukraine now. Or Syria or Iraq for that matter. Very clear looking at FlightRadar24.

LizT

I've flown with them twice since the accidents, they have been an absolute pleasure to fly with. Friendly staff, good food, good entertainment options on board. Plus they worked out way cheaper than most other airlines I priced for a similar route.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Flew with them one week before the first incident. They were the cheapest back then too. Found them to be fantastic. Food was decent and the crew were really nice. Long haul flight too.

Couple of planes flying over western Ukraine, and one sneaky fecker flew right over Syria.

IrishAlice

I wouldn't fly with them personally. I know it's completely irrational but I just wouldn't be able to relax.

Same goes for Air France flying to South America.

The One Doctor

weisses wrote: »

If you can give an example of any plane from a commercial airline that is able to fly to its destination after being struck by a surface to air missile then I would fly with them

An A300 can do it. Pity it wasn't a passenger airline.

Zonda999

I flew with them in 2013 and thought they were excellent. They've almost completely pulled out of Europe in the last couple of years and the Heathrow route is the only one left, which i assume is where the OP's flight option is going through. If so, they use an Airbus A380 on this route and its the nicest long haul economy class I've every experienced, quite roomy and the planes are very new and up to date, remember the food being very good also.Kuala Lumpur airport is also a breeze to get through I thought. If I was going to South East Asia again and they were even close to being the cheapest, I'd definitely fly with them again.

anto9

For me no ,i would not fly with them.Maybe if they could give a good explanation of why one of their planes went AWL ,with a full load of passengers and crew ,i might .

Ogogo

I have flown with Malaysia several times before and after said tragedies and I have to say that I think they are a great airline.

Had 1 delayed flight a few years ago and they were very prompt in providing a hotel room at the airport to relax / refresh get dinner etc (the delay was only a few hours). I have had much more significant delays with other airlines who had a "Thats just tough" attitude.

I am not an airline expert but the aircraft appear to be well kept, the staff always seemed to be professional and friendly to me.

I do however appreciate the little niggly voice - but its in all reality irrational. If its going to upset you that much and you cant drag yourself onto the plane just stump up the extra few Euro and choose a different airline - but I cant see another airline being any safer for any practical reason I can think of.

wotswattage

The One Doctor wrote: »

An A300 can do it. Pity it wasn't a passenger airline.

Big difference between what hit the DHL plane:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Fliegerfaust_STRELA.jpg/320px-Fliegerfaust_STRELA.jpg

and what hit MH17:
http://i.imgur.com/9flMK4q.jpg

Not sure if I'd fly Malaysian myself, but if I were faced with a several hundred euros difference in price on a journey I'm sure i could be convinced

Zonda999

I'm not surprised a few people are saying they wouldn't fly Malaysian and after talking to few people about that in the last couple of years, I can see there's plenty in that position. Flip side of it is some fantastic fares on Malaysian for those who are happy to fly with them. Was looking at fares to Thailand in late June/early July to Thailand a few days ago and Malaysian were coming in at under €600 ex Cork/Heathrow which really is a very low fare for such a long haul trip like that in peak European season

colossus-x

What's that saying about bad things happening in 3's...

FalconGirl

anto9 wrote: »

For me no ,i would not fly with them.Maybe if they could give a good explanation of why one of their planes went AWL ,with a full load of passengers and crew ,i might .

I'd be the same. Than incident was so bizarre. In an age of devices and tracking from phones/performance of engines being two examples I really believe someone knows something about that flight.

fatknacker

People who freak out about airlines and vow never to fly with them because they crashed in the past remind me of Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman.

Ice Maiden

anto9 wrote: »

For me no ,i would not fly with them.Maybe if they could give a good explanation of why one of their planes went AWL ,with a full load of passengers and crew ,i might .

Would they definitely know though? And how would that incident have a bearing on subsequent flights? The crew is part of the airline I guess.

AvyStreet

IrishAlice wrote: »

I wouldn't fly with them personally. I know it's completely irrational but I just wouldn't be able to relax.

Same goes for Air France flying to South America.

Same here. That Paris - Brazil accident just gives me an irrational fear any time I think of going to Brazil.

AvyStreet

fatknacker wrote: »

People who freak out about airlines and vow never to fly with them because they crashed in the past remind me of Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman.

Definitely.

Stinicker

Speaking as someone who was supposed to be onboard the doomed Malaysian airliner MH17, I can say that after everything I would fly with them again if the opportunity arose. Malaysia Airlines MH17 was "apparently" shot down by a Russian BUK missile. I myself wrote about my experience that day here.

These two incidents were terrible but Malaysia Airline are still statistically a very safe airline. Their A380 was for a long period taking a massive detour around most of the Middle East just to be safe but seems to have resumed flying Turkey-Iran down the Indian Ocean and eastwards back towards Malaysia again now as the situation has stabilised.

This precaution was taken due to the Russian Campaign of lobbing cruise missiles in from Naval Destroyers based in the Caspian Sea into the Islamic State in Syria. The Russians however seem to have eased off and instead they are just bombing the ISIS with longrange supersonic Nuclear bombers based north of the Artic Circle in Russia. Malaysia Airlines were tracking west over Saudi Arrabia into southern Egypt before heading west well away from the Dangerous Sinai Peninsula before emerging into the Med and tracking north to their European destinations. This extra journey saw Malaysian having to impose luggage limits of 7kg carry-on only on their Boeing 777 services to Amsterdam and Paris before they withdrew both services last month. The A380 service was unaffected due to its longer distance range capacity and was able to fly the long way arouind to avoid areas of danger.

My advice is that Malaysian are a decent Airline with 30kgs luggage, very friendly staff and the A380 is a sweet machine to fly on. Also their passenger loads hasn't been great since the two incidents in 2014 so its nice to have an empty seat etc instead of a full load. Kuala Lumpur is a great airport for tranfers and much more civilised compared to the jungles in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Airports.