MAS codeshares with JAL to reach Vancouver

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has established a new codeshare agreement with Japan Airlines (JAL) that offers its passengers another transit option for Vancouver. Travellers on MAS can book through to and reach the Canadian city by transferring to JAL flights taking off from Narita airport and carrying the MAS code. Both carriers are members of Oneworld.

MH9770 will depart Narita at 1805 daily and arrive at Vancouver at 1000 local time the same day. Meanwhile MH9769 will leave Canada at 1300 and land in Japan at 1630 the following day. JAL codes for these legs are JL018 and JL017 respectively. The service will be operated by JAL’s 199-seat B767-300ER, consisting of 24 business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, and 175 economy seats in a 2-3-2 arrangement.

Passengers connecting to and from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) should however be aware of the significant layover time in Tokyo. MAS offers one four-times-weekly service and a daily flight from KLIA to Narita, but the former, MH92, arrives in Tokyo at 1830 – 25 minutes after MH9770 has departed. The daily flight, MH88, takes off from the Malaysian capital at 2335 and arrives at Narita 0715, which for passengers planning to make the transit would mean more than 11 hours of layover.

Meanwhile, the return leg from Narita back to KLIA allows passengers to choose between flight MH89 which departs Narita at 1030 or MH93 that takes off at 2140. Considering that flight MH9769 from Vancouver reaches Tokyo at 1630, MH93 therefore represents the more attractive connecting choice, but it is still a good five-hour wait at the airport.

The other possible transit points are Manila (connecting to Philippine Airlines), Taipei (Eva Air or China Airlines), Shanghai (Air Canada) and Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific). Given that Cathay is also a Oneworld member and the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is a superb transit hub, the latter makes more sense. In fact, it might be a better choice time-wise to take MH72 and reach HKIA at 1300, and change to CX838 at 1625 for Vancouver, or take MH78 to get to HKIA at 2300 for CX888 that departs two hours later.

For more information, visit www.malaysiaairlines.com

Valerian Ho and Clement Huang