L-R: Dato’ Rashid Khan, MAS' Commercial Director, Nora Talib, AeroMobile's Senior Commercial Manager & Matthew Willsher, Maxis Chief Marketing Officer, sealing the partnership

Are you one of those individuals who are irritated by people speaking on their hand phones in public places or on trains and coaches? Well if so, then you may not be too happy with the latest service offered by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) – in-flight mobile system.

The national carrier said that this new service, which offers voice calls, SMS, emails and GPRS services, is to “enhance your travel experience and still keep in touch with loved ones while airborne.”

Offered in partnership with Malaysian-based Maxis Communications Berhad and UK-based AeroMobile Limited, the service is available to Maxis post-paid customers on board the Boeing 777-200 aircraft across Europe, Australia and the Asian region including China and Japan.

To ensure the non-interference with both aircraft systems and ground based mobile communications systems, the in-flight mobile system installed on MAS aircraft has been specifically designed to allow the safe use of dual band, tri-band and quad-band GSM mobile phones, including Blackberry®-type devices.

It is not cheap though to use this service. Voice calls (both incoming and outgoing) are RM15 (US$4.60) per minute, data (sent/received) RM100 per MB, and RM3 per SMS sent (incoming SMSes are free).

However, the three partners said the rates are comparable to those charged globally for this service, adding “it is anticipated that as the service develops, rates will progressively decrease.”

Travellers do not have to pay any special subscription to use the in-flight mobiles service, but just ensure that their international roaming services have been activated beforehand.

As a footnote MAS requests passengers using this service to switch their phones to silent mode and to abide by the usage guidelines and etiquette rules so as to avoid inconveniencing others on board.

Still on MAS, the airline has also introduced a new feature, “Manage My Booking”, on its website to enable its passengers to effortlessly change their itinerary, such as travel date, time and booking class without having to call the airline’s 24-hour call centre.

Kick starting this feature with passengers travelling on domestic, Singapore and Brunei routes, it is currently only available to tickets purchased online via its website. Some alterations may require a change fee and/or a fare difference charge. There are plans to expand this feature to more destinations.

• Photo courtesy of Malaysia Airlines