I refer to the Malaysiakini articles Horror flight: MAS regrets incident and Disappointing response from MAS

I would like to recount my personal experience flying with MAS from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur three years ago.

I was so excited to take my wife back to see my parents and to see Malaysia for the first time for the new year. We booked business class tickets on MAS for the direct flight back to Kuala Lumpur, which was to go on to India.

So, naturally besides a lot of Malaysians traveling in the flight, there were also a lot of Indian nationals traveling home for the new year.

When we boarded the flight, the flight attendants first took us to the wrong seats and then when other passengers boarded, they did not control certain passengers who had seated their children wherever they liked.

Only when the rightful passengers with the proper tickets decided to point things out, did the attendants take action.

The one thing that took the cake was that in business class, one is given the choice of different types of food. They ran out of most of the selections and the one that I specifically wanted was all gone.

The attendant then tried to insist on me selecting the remaining choice but I opted for instant noodles instead.

The head attendant then came by and tried to apologise to me and blurted out, "I am sorry sir, but you know those Indians-lah! They like to eat those types of food. That is why the other choices ran out."

I told him to firstly not make such an ignorant statement which could be construed to be racist and secondly, if the airline was indeed sorry, he would have gotten me food from first class instead.

But since MAS isn't Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines, this was probably expecting too much. Class and efficiency is a hard thing to teach.

I still go back to Kuala Lumpur twice a year but have not traveled with MAS ever again. The ineffective and shoddy service leaves much to be desired.