Which airlines?

While waiting for the outcome of my 2nd attempt at getting an Australian ETA, I noticed that Malaysia Airlines's business class ticket was at about two third of its usual price. A bit of background for context:

I used to travel to Australia via Air Asia X because it was significantly cheaper. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, all airlines were basically grounded because people were not allowed to come to Malaysia and we could fly domestically only in certain cases (e.g. when I flew to Penang for my dad's funeral).

However, when domestic travel was allowed, Air Asia proved to be unreliable for many people. For example, someone purchased ticket in the morning but later in the afternoon, they were informed that the flight was changed to another date! I can't fly with such capricious airline because any changes would involved me discussing with my sister about the suitability of the date and then changing the connecting flight ticket(s) (there's no direct flight to Canberra) and possibly changing the return flights as well. Too much hassle and stress.

I also noticed that Air Asia X was selling tickets for flight to Melbourne, with fine prints indicating that it was subject to approval by the Melbourne Airport authority @@.

I then considered Malaysia Airlines (MAS), Qantas Airways and Scoot. I settled for MAS because it's ticket price is either competitive or cheaper and it requires only one connecting flight since it has direct flight between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne. The other two have an additional connecting flight in Singapore.

Next issue: night flight. I always have problem with sleeping in airplane. My tailbone hurts. The last trip or so, I took a small cushion with me to help ease the problem. I considered taking a day flight and staying over a night at an airport hotel but all such hotels at Melbourne and Sydney had horrible reviews and were expensive too. Might as well use the money to upgrade flight to business class on a night flight. According to Ban's mum, the seats in that class were "very, very, very comfotable".

So, although I was still waiting for the outcome of my visa application, I went ahead to buy the significantly discounted business class ticket because the first change of date is free of charge.

I also considered which flights to take for the return trip. I thought of flying with Qantas: CBR-MEL, MEL-SIN. The SIN-KUL leg can be with any airline. The important consideration is that if the Australia domestic flight is late such that we miss the connecting international flight, Qantas will get us the replacement flight f.o.c. That's the benefit of flying the same airlines on both flights. If different airlines, I usually aim to have about 3 hours buffer in between flights to account for late arrival.

However, this flight route takes longer time (due to the stopover in Singapore) and is more expensive than taking MAS flight for the international leg. Then by chance, I spotted something from a screenshot that Ban's mum shared with me: it's possible to purchase CBR-KUL flight on MAS website whereby the domestic flight CBR-MEL is operated by their partner Qantas Airways. I found out from others on the internet and confirmed with MAS customer service officer that MAS will be responsible to getting us replacement flight should we miss the connecting flight due to late arrival of the domestic flight operated by their partner Qantas, if we purchase these tickets via MAS website. MAS is the primary carrier in this case. Great!

Once I got the visa, I proceeded to purchase the connecting flight (Melb to Cbr) as well as the return flights and that's when I encountered a problem.

(to be continued)