You’ll need to fly Malaysian Airlines Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu Flight Flight MH3018 if you’re going to Borneo. Once you get a flight from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu, which will almost certainly be Air Asia’s AK236, the flight from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu is about 2 hours after you land, so you don’t have a whole lot of time between flights. Check-in online and if possible take carry-ons which will save you time. Our flight from HK to KK (BKI) was delayed 30 minutes but we made it quite easily.
You get off, getting through customs was quick, then don’t leave the airport, go up to the 3rd floor departures, show them your boarding pass and you won’t even see the check in counters. We thought that was a good thing since they wouldn’t be able to weight our over weight carry-on bags, but it wasn’t (more on that later). The flight was scheduled at 14:55 and the boarding pass told us to be at the gate to check in an hour before, which is ridiculous, as nobody, passengers and crew, shows up until about 10 minutes before.
You could show up at 14:30 and you’d be fine, so grab some lunch or do whatever. They check your boarding pass before you get on the plane, that’s about it as far as security goes, so again, and this is important, check in online so you don’t need to go the counters when you land. Anyway boarded about 5 minutes before departure, and took off a few minutes before.
Last time I flew Malaysia Airlines was about 5 years ago and vowed I’d never fly them again because they were absolutely shit and this was before the missing plane debacle. No choice this time and it’s less than an hour so no worries. Malaysian Airlines Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu is a tiny little two propeller plane that seats about 30 in a 2-2 configuration. We got on and the overhead compartments wouldn’t fit our carry on’s, one had to go under the seats in front of us, and one in someone elses seat. The overhead compartments are barely big enough to fit a backpack let alone a carry-on.
This is no problem as it’s an hour flight, but if you have big carry-ons like we did, maybe you’ll have to check those in. Quite a few empty seats so you could stuff your bags underneath an empty seat, but not sure what they do if the plane is full. You get served a small pack of nuts and juice on Malaysian Airlines Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu Flight MH3018, which is fine since it’s less than an hour. The legroom is actually ok, about the same as you get on most larger planes economy class.
There’s not much to do at Kota Kinabalu Airport and the shops are a bit crap, few restaurants, we had some Dunkin Donuts and Mary Somebody’s Chicken, was wasn’t fab. Good little experience, it’s actually MAS Wings, which must be the budget or domestic arm of Malaysia Air. Only one crew on board and she was nice enough. It’s about a 55 minute flight so not much can go wrong. Anyway, happy to take Malaysian Airlines Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu MH3018 flight again.
For more information about this flight you can ask us on Twitter. For more information about our Borneo trip, visit our Borneo Destination Guide.
