MH A330 Incheon to Kuala Lumpur in business class

During the MH Deepavali sale, I saw that business-class return tickets from Penang to Incheon, South Korea, were RM3000 per person. After a bit of thought (around 5 seconds), I grabbed tickets for Ash and I for a spontaneous holiday with RJ.

1.) It credits 360 tier points to our BA status, getting us BA Silver / Oneworld Sapphire after our family holiday to Paris next year. This is quite a big deal, as it allows us to access any Oneworld business-class lounge, even on Economy class, along with Priority Check-in and Priority Boarding.

2.) We've never been to Seoul.

3.) RM3000 is REALLY cheap for business class seats. Especially since MH has recently overhauled their dated cabin.

The plane we flew on was the A330-300, with the new business class seats. These seats can be both very good or very bad, depending on the location within the cabin.

1K, also known as the "Throne" seat, is by far the best, featuring copious amounts of storage space, excellent leg room and privacy.

1A, 1D and 1G are close runner ups. They have the same amount of leg room but less storage and privacy.

You can see the massive amount of leg room here :

And after becoming a full-flat bed:

MH business class's signature dish is the satay, and you can request for multiple servings if you so wish.

The starter of Scallop Salad was pretty decent too.

That was followed by garlic bread and bun:

Unfortunately, after this is where MH screwed up. Ah well, it wouldn't be MH if they didn't screw up somewhere!

I ordered a Beef Kalbi with rice dish from the Chef on Call menu, but they gave me a vegetarian option instead. Thankfully, the very nice stewardess managed to scrounge up a Halibut dish for me, which was ok.

The yucky vegetarian option:

The replacement Halibut dish:

Ash's Beef Tenderloin dish was excellent though, so do go for that if you fly from Incheon.

Haagen Daaz ice cream for dessert:

Overall, it was an excellent flight, with attentive and polite service from the cabin crew, a lovely full-flat bed and decent food. I'd hesitate to pay full price for MH, especially if its Asian rivals are selling for around the same price. But when it's only half the price of CX or SQ, it really is a no-brainer.

Why British Airways Executive Club might be the best Frequent Flier program for not-that-frequent fliers (residing in Malaysia).

There are a couple of caveats that apply:

A.) If you own, or are able and willing to apply for Maybank 2 Cards Premier, you would be better off with Cathay or SQ. You can earn around 1 mile per RM1 spent, but they only transfer to Enrich, Asia Miles or Krisflyer.

B.) If you fly to Australia a lot, Qantas would serve you better as it would be easier to move up the tiers. Qantas miles do not expire as long as you have activity in your account in an 18-month period, making them a good
alternative.

The reasons:

1.) As long as there is some activity in your Avios account, the expiration date of ALL Avios will be pushed back another 3 years.
This is the #1 reason why you should consider BAEC for your FFP. Almost all other FFP miles will expire 2-3 years or so from the date they are awarded. For many Malaysians, it could be very difficult to accumulate sufficient miles for an award flight before they expire.

"Activity" could be anything. You could fly Penang to KL on MAS and credit that measly amount of miles (202!) to your BAEC account and that would work.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/collecting-avios/avios-expiry-rules

2.) They are part of the Oneworld alliance.
As Malaysians, more likely than not we'll be flying MAS or another Asian airline like Cathay, JAL or Qantas. Being part of Oneworld means that you can credit miles from flights of partner airlines to your BAEC account.

Unfortunately, notable omissions include SQ, Thai, ANA and EVA, which are all part of Star Alliance. However, SQ has been quite expensive of late and EVA is not that convenient for Malaysians. ANA is not that much better than JAL. 

We fly MAS quite a lot and their business class is an excellent product for the price. Just recently we managed to snag PEN-KUL-ICN return tickets for only RM3k! This also contributed a whopping 360 tier points to our BAEC tier level.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-it/information/partners-and-alliances/oneworld

3.) Their award chart is decent

They are on par with Cathay and  cheaper than SQ or MAS. JAL has by far the cheapest award chart in OW, but unless you fly a lot your miles might expire before you get to redeem a flight. And if you're flying enough to make JAL worth it, then you shouldn't be reading this post :P.

BA also has by far the CHEAPEST short-haul award flights, starting at only 4500 Avios for trips of less than 650 miles. By comparison, MAS charges 9000 EnrichMiles for <500 miles while Cathay charges 10000 AsiaMiles for <600 miles.

This makes BAEC ideal for short hops around Europe or Japan, as these flights tend to be short distance but rather expensive.

4.) You can set up a Household Account

BAEC allows you to add your kids/parents/grandparents to your account and claim their miles as your own. Perfect for family holidays.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/household-accounts

5.) You don't have to fly BA
This one is non-intuitive. BA is generally regarded as having terrible service and seats in Economy. However, just because you're on the BAEC does not mean that you have to fly them! You can spend the miles on any OW partner airline.

However, you can get a 15% discount on miles required by flying BA during offpeak seasons, which can be useful.

6.) If you do fly BA, you can upgrade from Business to First for very little.

Although BA Economy and Business class is generally regarded as quite terrible, the First class has gotten very decent reviews.

A one way upgrade from Business to First only costs 31,500 to 35,000 Avios for Kuala Lumpur - London Heathrow; not bad at all!

7.) BA will hold your tier status for a year if you have a baby

Lastly, if you do have a new baby, you can submit a request to BA to extend your current tier level for another year. This is a nice touch since it is unlikely that you will be travelling as much with a newborn.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/terms-and-conditions/conditions-of-use#maternity

For in-depth discussion and analysis of the program, these 2 threads contain excellent information:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1812055-your-guide-executive-club-attaining-status-earning-avios-2017-edition.html

and

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1812259-your-guide-spending-avios-2017-edition.html

All charts credit to Prospero on the Flyertalk forums.

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