BAD CONNECTION

On January 29 I was travelling from Incheon (ICN) to Jakarta (CGK) via Kuala Lumpur (KUL) on MH067 and MH725.

Flight MH067, scheduled to arrive at KUL at 1645, was delayed by about one hour. When I arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport, the Malaysian Airlines representative presented me with a new boarding pass and told me that I would have to take the next flight to Jakarta – MH727, scheduled to depart four hours later at 2205, instead of my original flight MH725 (scheduled to leave at 1805).

However, as I was in business class, I had disembarked the aircraft first and realised there was still a chance to make MH725. I ran to the train and headed to the gate for MH725 – which luckily was also slightly delayed, and I was able to take my original flight to Jakarta in a timely manner.

I felt this was quite a disappointing system from Malaysian Airlines. I was the only passenger from MH067 transiting through MH725 so it would hardly have caused a delay to help me catch my flight. Secondly, how come Malaysian Airlines automatically put me on the later flight (MH727) without first checking the status of flight MH725? Had I followed their instructions, it would have ruined the business meeting I had arranged for the evening of January 29, as flight MH727 wouldn’t have arrived in Jakarta until 2305.

I still cannot believe the attitude of MH employees, who simply said: “You can’t make the flight. The gate is located in the other terminal. Dinner will be in the Golden Lounge…” when they could have simply called and checked the status of flight MH725 and responded to me with the facts of the situation.

I wrote to Malaysian Airlines a month ago about this matter, and I still have not received any kind of apology. Jung Hyup Kim, Seoul MALAYSIA AIRLINES RESPONDS: Malaysia Airlines wishes to explain the situation encountered by passenger Jung Hyup Kim on January 29, 2017.

As the flight he was travelling on, MH067, was retimed to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 1745, one hour later than scheduled, his onward connection to Jakarta had to be rebooked due to the required minimum connecting time rule of one hour.

His original connection, MH725, was scheduled to depart at 1805, leaving only 20 minutes for him to catch the flight. As he had also checked in a bag, it would be difficult to transfer his luggage in less time than the normal transfer process of one hour, particularly as both aircraft were parked at different terminals in KLIA.

As per standard airline procedure, check-in needs to be done an hour prior to departure time to allow for the finalisation of aircraft weight and balance documentation. In any transfer process, Malaysia Airlines does not only consider passengers’ connectivity to the next flight but also the connectivity of their baggage. The airline deeply regrets the disruption to Mr Jung’s travel plans.