It is about time Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) stands on its own feet after reading the article ‘Malaysia Airlines bets on China, eyes 2019 IPO target’, (Malaysiakini Nov 15, 2016). In the past, minority shareholders have been suffering badly with poor results and its share price falling to penny stock status despite many rights issues and cash injections but hopefully the coming IPO and track record would be with some glory.

Not long ago , in an interview as reported in ‘Malaysia Airlines doesn’t need additional funding from Khazanah’, (Business Star News, Oct 11), the current chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Bellew when talking about MAS was quoted to have said MAS will not be needing any more money from government.

Hope this prediction will come to fruition as many before him have said the same old golden mantra only to come running back for more or just packing up and leaving MAS in a bigger mess then when they inherited it. I therefore wish him all the luck in the world to make MAS profitable again so no more taxpayer monies are burnt and these monies can be utilised for our health and education instead.

The CEO touched on lack of hotels and facilities in Malaysia for inbound tourism which in my opinion is incorrect as many hotels and apartments are running at below capacity.

While MAS is going about its business improving profitability and routes revenue, the management must pay immediate attention to its booking and enrich website and its call centre.

If one is to book tickets via this website, the displayed fare rules are incomprehensible to layman as it appears that one needs to obtain an English masters before being able to decipher what on earth the rules are saying. It almost seems as if the notes for travel agents have been posted online as fare rules.

Whereas other major airlines have simple and one liner fare rules which are much easier to understand, MAS rules are like a page out of a Leo Tolstoy novel. Convoluted, complicated and impossible to comprehend.

As for MAS Enrich website although the website is quite easy to manoeuvre, the pages takes almost eternity to load and one has to spend a lot of time when browsing around or redeeming. It also has weaknesses when one wish to change a password, the rules are not very clear and the attempt to change password always fails.

Emails to [email protected] never get replies on time and there has been instances of replies being received almost a few months later. How to enjoy the travel experiences in such manner when one has issues or queries that need clarification?

Call centre based in Fiji?

Then there is the MAS call centre, 1 300 883 000, if one chooses the English option, one is routed to a call centre which is perhaps based in Fiji and your linguistic and cultural experience will truly take off in the process. They do not understand our cities’ names or pronunciation and are not well-versed with flights and redemption.

A friend of mine spent almost an hour trying to redeem a flight with Enrich miles and after all that, the line got cut off and there was no other option except to start all over again.

MAS Enrich miles promotion is also pushing the truth a bit further as the discounts quoted are on its higher class fares. For example one can travel to and from London for 150,000 miles on Business Class a normal non exchangeable ticket but the current promotion after discount quotes the lowest Business Class at 180,000 air miles.

The hope is all these teething problems are ironed out quickly while the major issues are addressed as well as these types of everyday issues hits the passengers more than the issue of profitability and so on.

There is no point diversifying if the core business is not at the most tip top condition of efficiency.

In parting, heartiest congratulations and well done in tying up with a leading English side Liverpool as compared to a third rate team that MAS previously were in collaboration with as reported in ‘Liverpool FC boost for MAS’, (Business Star News, Oct 12). This tie up will definitely enhance and give mileage to MAS promotional activities.