travelbag

hi
we are flying london to auckland and booked flights through a travel agent.
we have been told we can not choose our seats ,
is this true we are flying with malaysia
our seats will be allocated when we check in at heathrow
we do intended to get to check in early,we have been told 3hrs before departure
does anyone know what the best seats in economy are
hoping for an up grade but guess that's not likely to happen

JamesA

My tip would be to call Malaysia Airlines in your home country and see if you can gently sweet talk them. If you go to the Malaysian Airlines website you can find seat plans, the seats with best legroom would be the Emergency Exit rows, or failing that at the back on the 747-400 on either side as the aircraft narrows instead of hacing 3 x 4 x 4 seating it goes down to 2 on each side for the last few rows, so if 2 of you together they are nice, but, they are close to the toilets and galley, that is a minus on having people queuing next to the toilets but is made up for having just 2 seats and a bit of extra space, plus near the toilets and the galley, easier to get a drink.

http://hq.malaysiaairlines.com/mys/e..._b747-400p.htm

That shows 60 A and C and 61 A and C and 60 H and K and 61 H and K where just 2 seats together.

Rows 38 and 48 ABC and HJK shows as emergency exit row plus 28 HJK

I would also post this question onto the Asia Board on this forum as you may got more answers and tips

JamesA

I was about to suggest that you also enroll in their frequent flyer programme as you will pick up lots of mileage for that journey and worth having those airmiles.

It then occured to me that would you should do is call Malaysia Airlines direct, tell them that you are booked to Auckland and that you would like to enroll in their frequent flyer scheme for airmiles ( costs nothing ) and could they kindly send you 2 forms ( or however many you are ), they will take down your details to post the form to you so you can apply for membership and get those airlimes, once they have taken down the information 'then' ask if any chance they could allocate you seats for the flight!

Regardless of whether they can or not 'get that membership' and often you get a temporaray card with the form, post back the form and call Malaysia Airlines again and ask them to insert your temporary membership number into the booking system, at the very least you get the airmiles and also you can be certain beyond a doubt that if there is any upgrading to be done because of being full then their system will bring up first of all their senior 'Gold' Card members, then whatever the next level down is, and then anyone else with membership, you may have only 'just joined' but simply being in the system with that 'Frequent flyer/whatever' membership number puts you ahead of everyone who doesn't for any upgrade chance.

Call them tmorrow!

JamesA

Their programme is called 'Enrich', you "can" enrol online but by calling them it's a nice into into the seating request thing.

Their London numbers is:
(0) 870 607 9090

travelbag

hi james,
thankyou for your help,i have got a temporary Enrich card for myself and my hubby.
so i telephone Malaysia airlines on the number you gave me
and ask if i could put our card numbers in to the booking system
which they did also they booked us on the two seats at the back of plane 61H
so we will will be near the galley,so when i can not sleep(which i found impossible when i flew from usa to london) i will be able to get a drink and talk to people who gather there.
my husband manages to sleep as normal
lucky him
but as it's such a long flight i guess i will sleep sometime.

we are looking forward to our first visit to NZ,and seeing our daughter and her family who emigrated to NZ last january .
you have helped make the flight easier
THANKYOU James

JamesA

Pleasure....you have seatbacks TV's on those flights which are great, Malaysian Airlines are excellent, KL Airport is very nice.

I would still make sure you arrive in plenty of time and when checking in smile and mention you have pre booked seats otherwise they might not notice it on their screens.

Have a great trip, I am sure you will have a great time in NZ, many years since I was there ( I live in Thailand so have flown with malaysia quite a lot within Asia and They are great! ).

pykiwi

Malaysia airlines is an excellent airline and I really recommend it. I've flown them numerous times from London to NZ and have never been able to pre-book flights, so I always check in a little earlier than needed. I prefer aisle seats especially on flights leaving Heathrow at 10pm, so that you can get up and down throughout the evening. Otherwise you have to climb over sleeping people sitting next to you.

travelbag

hi PYKIWI,
thanks for your comments yes we are getting the flight that leaves LONDON at10pm,do you know the earliest you can check in for that flight?what time do you recommend.
when i telephoned airline they told us what seats we had for that flight.
we are at the back of plane just 2 seats together so i will just have to keep changing seats with hubby.
as he is likely to sleep ,i think should have aisle seat ,because i will be walking about alot
there is one more thing PYKIWI prehaps you could help us with.
we are changing planes at KL and then getting flight to NZ the change over is about 2hrs ,have you done this ?
is that enough time to have a quick shower at KL airport before boarding airline again.
i am worried about changing planes at KL,is there likely to be other people like us going to NZ and not stopping for a stop over,
will we know what to do when we get to KL airport???

pykiwi

Hi
I've stopped off in Kuala Lumpur about three times enroute to NZ. Most of the stop-overs are 2 to 3 hours long. It's a very modern airport and it's almost impossible to not catch your connecting flight, as everything is signposted and as soon as you get off, you can check the screens for the boarding gate for flight to NZ. There will be loads of NZlanders returning home from London, so you will definitely not be on your own. I'd imagine if you are leaving at 10pm at night, you'll be getting to KL just on dusk (if I recall correctly) and the airport is not too busy at that time. I am not 100 per cent certain whether or not there is a lounge to take a shower but I am pretty sure there is. I think you will have to pay to use it. Don't know how busy those types of facilities are. But it's a really straightforward connection. Not like some airports where you have to leave the building or walk for miles and miles to get to the next boarding gate.

pykiwi

sorry forgot to say about check in times. I think I've checked in as early as 6pm. That was a few years ago though, so not sure if you can still do that.

travelbag

thanks for your reply,
its great to know that it will be easy find our way at KL airport and find our connecting flight

good to know there will be plenty of NZlanders returning home and will be catching same connection.
i will be sure to speak to some of them on the flight and will get tips on where to visit while we are in NZ

thanks for your help i will now stop worrying about catching connecting flight.