Review: Malaysia Airlines First Class Lounge Kuala Lumpur Airport

So, did you end up ordering off the a la carte menu or not? 🙂

With MH (I believe) eliminating F from its fleet, and not so many OneWorld partners flying planes with F to KUL (is BA the only one?), should MH dump the F section altogether rather than deliver a product which is a dreary as MH's prospects?

Nice report! Whatever happened to the Chopard toiletries in first lavs?- I swear the shower and bathroom were also a different darker color scheme last month - or did I get too much champagne? 🙂

I was just in KUL in August. Since we were flying regional J on MH to HKG (flight 432 none the less, which you were next to) we had access to the MH lounge in the main terminal. Entrance is right next to the model planes and all the candy stands. I honestly think the J lounge was nicer (minus the food offerings of course). The J lounge had a great mix of stuff (fruit, rice, fish, curry and a noodle bar). I wasn't there long but was actually pretty impressed.

Interested to see the report on the MH 737. The product is 'ok' for a 3-4 hour flight (like DPS or HKG) but there's obviously much better to be had in Asia. The Satay though.... my favorite part!

I love your blog and your detailed reviews but this review came off a little too "bitchy" and entitled for my enjoyment. I don't travel in style like you so maybe it's just me but compared to what the "normal" folk have to deal with, I would take a nap in that room without question. It sure as hell beats sitting in the terminal squished between people. Also, poking fun at peoples lively hood isn't something we should be joking about.

Just my 2 cents but thanks for everything you do!

I fully agree with your comments re food offering both in the main sitting area and the restaurant. The club sandwich is probably the worst I have ever had. In my experience, 4 times in a year, service is typical malaysian - more miss than hit but overall, it seems to me that there is noticeable lack of senior staff which enforce some consistency in the service. The situation is even worse at the J lounge though. Bathrooms are poor (terrible in the J lounge) and the shower towels are AA quality or worse.

your shower room looks much different to the one I visited beginning of November. It was more like a shared shower room with three cabins in it. It was quite dirty and at that time there was only cold water.
To be fair they anounced that already at the the shower desk.

The nap room looks totally fine to me from the picture...
If that is hideous, what is the nap room (aka cabana) in BA's CCR?

@ Tom -- Hah, I'd say the BA Cabanas are a bit nicer, which is saying a lot.

@ Patrick -- Certainly appreciate the feedback and you reading. Ultimately when I write a review I feel it's more useful to compare the lounge to other comparable lounges (other first class and oneworld lounges) rather than the gate area. In other words, I think it's more useful to say "unlike X lounge, the food wasn't very good," rather than "unlike in the gate area, there was free food and drinks." But certainly see where you're coming from.

@ jfhscott -- As the airline continues to shrink, rumor has it that MH may completely stop operating out of the satellite terminal, and instead just condense all their operations to the main terminal. At that point the regional lounge would become the new shared lounge for all premium passengers.

@ Damon -- After eating way too much earlier in the day, nope!

Can't help but think there's some graft involved in keeping this lounge open at all. Let's see, no real user base with First Class all but abandoned, a less than stellar experience, massive yet ineffectual staffing...it all says someone's got a vested interest in keeping this open without a good business case as to why.

There is no such thing as the "tarmac". It's called the ramp.

Interesting review.

@Matt D - The regional Golden Lounge does get very full though. Our review is at: http://milesdownunder.com/2015/01/review-malaysia-airlines-regional-golden-lounge-kul/

I flew JL from KUL-HKG about a month ago with my girlfriend (both AA Plat) and after experiencing the joy of the CX Lounges a few days before the Golden Lounge was pretty shocking. We were on the biz class side but were so disappointed by the Golden Lounge that we left and went to the Cathay regional lounge.

The space is enormous... but like awkwardly large. The people cant fill it and it just feels vacant. The whole place is run down and the food looked like it had been sitting out forever. The stuffing was coming out of chairs we sat down in and when we went to take showers the hot water was disconnected so the cold shower certainly woke us up.

I actually really liked MH in my one experience with them a few years ago but the Golden Lounge really, really needs some attention.

@ Lucky I think you summed up nicely the place. It has been like this for the last 2 years. As mentioned, service here can be at times a hit or miss - typical attitude. When service was good, it really goes overboard especially if you there are less than a handful of guests in the lounge, they will be hoovering over you.
As far as I know the staff especially those working in the dining room are all trainees from some culinare school/course. Normally there are 2-3 real staff but most of them are mainly trainees.
As for food, the reason why the selection in the buffet area is so limited is because you are supposed to just request for everything and they will bring it over (even items from the Business class section). I understand it is ironic since if you have never visited the Business class section you have no idea what is available for order. I suspect they also prefer guests to eat at the dining area (since there is another buffet area there) and the outside buffet is more for small snack type food.
It looks like they have switched the champange again.
I guess for now the lounge situation is not the main attention until they get the flight operations in place.

Lucky I visited this lounge even before their poor financial situation and the airplane crashes. The quality was the same, and no different. And still very annoyed that you have to ask for champagne specifically from a waiter even in the first class section.

I peeked into the business class section and it seemed like that was more lively and with hotter/better food from turnover.

I agree with the description of the MH lounge - very underwhelming in KUL, surprisingly good in LHR. The KUL business class lounge is atrocious - dirty, crowded, very dated furniture and very cheap (bad quality) food offerings. Very limited alcohol offerings due to an indifferent bar staff. The First Class lounge at KUL was cleaner, but with the same disappointing food and beverage offerings. Pity since the inflight dining and service in premium classes are actually quite good.

I agree with this review. While service on board MH flights is generally very very good and does reflect the 'Malaysian Hospitality' (=MH) spirit, the lounges in KUL - and all other airports in Malaysia - do not match that service quality. Not at all. Poor F&B offerings incl. un-chilled white wines and beers if you're unlucky, sluggish staff, even unfriendly response when asking for something that's on the menu card displayed at the counter. For that reason I time my departures from KUL well, try to avoid spending more time than necessary at the lounge (if at all) but go straight to the gate and board the plane.. it's a shame though because things used to be very different a few years ago, especially after the last refurbishment of the lounges a few years back. I used to enjoy my stay in the biz class lounge back then, it was a great product with motivated staff. But the grumpy or even arrogant attitude of MAS ground staff seems to have become the norm at KUL incl. the lounges. Sadly so, for all flyers not only premium passengers!

I am dealing with a delayed CX flight now and pretty much agree with the review. The MH F lounge is underwhelming but since it's 37C outside, at least the A/C works well and there was actually a MH lady who did fill up my champagne a few times.

Honestly, the CX lounge is pretty underwhelming too but sadly even 3 bottles of mid range booze beats out MH F (sans the Cattier champagne which is pretty good).

Overall, the KL lounge experience in general is really disappointing.

The F side showers and toilets have been updated since 2014... IIRC it now has a darker interior and generally better fittings with Cartier toiletries. That hideously out of place chair no longer exists (per picture) and at least there are linen hand towels and are way cleaner than BA's shameful excuse in LHR First lounge.

Whilst the dining room is no SQ private room, I enjoyed extremely prompt yet unobstructive service. Certainly miles ahead of the BA LHR first lounge (which us lowly emeralds access)

Recently visited the international J class lounge, after a gap of about 10 years. The deterioration was shocking. Physically the space looked about the same as before, but fittings, food, service has all gone downhill. Shower rooms were of a standard I would expect in a second-grade suburban gym - broken showerheads, not thoroughly cleaned, etc. Very disappointing. At least the quiet reading room was still well maintained although all the cupboards were filled with MH logs and other paperwork. Much work needs to be done. Oh, and the last minute equipment change from the newly refurbished A330 to one of the old ones did not help my experience.

needs a good manger ,food drink cheap,just look at others idiots