Malaysia Airlines recently launched its mobile services for its customers and it was named flymas.mobi. Came across this at first in newspapers but then when Nuffnang did a promo for this, I decided to dig further on this new service. In their advertisements, they used the iPhone to promote this.. it looked more like they were promoting the iPhone itself rather than their flymas.mobi service. Anyway, it did state in their blog that it works on many mobile device.
All major operating systems and manufacturers are supported including Blackberry (RIM), the iPhone, Android Google phone, Symbian (Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson) and Windows Mobile (HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson). flymas.mobi supports any screen above 128 pixels.
And so I decided to load this on a Windows Mobile powered device and see how well it goes =). If you do have the need to have a larger image of the site, simply click on the thumbnails.
Launching flymas.mobi on the Opera browser would bring you to the main menu, pretty straight forward and light in graphics. The site loaded up fast and that’s a good thing. This brings out the menu of options ranging from flight booking, my booking, check in, flight status, flight timetables, contact numbers , tracking baggage, and the latest deals from Malaysia Airlines. At the bottom would be the share feature which allows you to inform your friends about this service, the frequently asked questions, legal stuff and privacy policy. Nothing mentioned about the flight booking security standard though. Let’s dig deeper into the site one by one.
Book Flight
To book a flight, one has to get though 5 different pages on the mobile site. First would be of course, selecting the departure and arrival destination, date, return or one way journey and the number of tickets. Tapping on the sub menu would bring out a drop-down list of the choices available. I chose Sydney =P. The flight time would then be displayed on the screen together with the price. I’m not too sure why the time and the MHflex did not display out well on my phone. Bug detected perhaps? Anyway it did not cause any serious problems, just a little glitch there. The next page would bring out the final price of the ticket and then if you would like to purchase the ticket, simply press purchase or to hold the ticket, press hold. I’m not sure what does the hold function do but then I stopped at that page because I did not really want to book a ticket. Perhaps MAS could sponsor me to Sydney? hehehe..
My Booking
This page allows passengers to allocate their seats positions according to the MAS website. I did not have any bookings with me to test this out.
Check In
Users would be able to check in for their flight using this system. Minus the paper, saves the Earth. However, currently the mobile check in service is only available for domestic flights departing from Alor Setar, Langkawi, Penang, Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Sandakan, Tawau, Miri, Sibu, Bintulu, Labuan; all flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore; all flights from Singapore to Langkawi, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. If I’m not mistaken, passengers would have to snap a picture of the bar code and it’s good to go.
Flight Status
This handy feature allows users to check on their flight status in real time. Select the departure date, destination or the flight number and submit.
Timetable
This section is for users to find out more about the timetable of the flights. I found this section somewhat similar to the flight booking area. However the process is easier and more detailed because the time is stated.
Contacts
Have an important question to ask about flights and not knowing who to contact? Search for the nearest MH office and a whole list of MAS offices around that area would be listed out together with their addresses and phone numbers respectively. But I noticed that all of them uses the same phone number! haha.
Baggage Tracer
Haha! Missing luggage! Track them down here by keying in the relevant details.
Deals and Offers
Here’s something interesting. You’ll be able to check on the latest deals on MAS flights on the go without having to go to the main site which is heavily loaded with graphics. An advantage if you do not have a fast connection like me.
Overall, I found the site to be quite user friendly and fast. Surprisingly fast on my rusty EDGE connection.I’ve yet to really book a ticket from this service though. Other than the minor bug at the flight booking area, the other sections loaded fine. This site loads in Bahasa Malaysia too if you prefer it in another language.
flying with MAS, on the go~
