Comparing GA, SQ and MH: Introduction

Comparing GA, SQ and MH: Introduction
Comparing GA, SQ and MH: Garuda Indonesia DPS-CGK
Comparing GA, SQ and MH: Singapore Airlines CGK-SIN
Comparing GA, SQ and MH: Malaysia Airlines DPS-KUL
Comparing GA, SQ and MH: And the Best Economy Class is…

As everyone would have known, Skytrax awarded Garuda Indonesia the honour of having the World’s Best Economy Class. I am not sure on what basis Skytrax gives out awards on and while I agree some of their ratings for certain airlines, I just cannot help but think they are just ‘selling’ these awards since many of the airlines get a ‘best’ in some category or the other. According to Miriam-Webster’s definition, the best means to be ‘better than all others in quality or value’, and ‘excelling all others’. If different airlines get a ‘best’ in different categories, what is the value in that? And thus I would just compare 3 South-East Asian airline on their 1-2 hours short haul international routes to determine which one truly is ‘better than all others in quality or value’.

The 3 flights were chose because I took them myself within a span of a 2 month period and they were more or less similar in terms of price and distance travelled. And they were all on a dual-aisle widebody jet. Garuda Indonesia uses its A330 for some short routes like DPS-CGK and CGK-SIN on certain days and times while Singapore Airlines uses either their regional 777 or new A330 on the CGK-SIN route. Meanwhile some departures on the Malaysia Airlines DPS-KUL route could be on their 777-200 which usually flies to Tokyo and Los Angeles from Kuala Lumpur.

For all 3 flights I would be seated in Economy and my rating on each of the 3 aircraft will be on the following: 1) Check-in Process, 2) Boarding Process, 3) Seat Comfort, 4) Quality of Food, 5) In-flight Entertainment, 6) Service by Cabin Crew and 7) In-flight Ambience. I would place equal weight on all the 7 criteria as I believe they are all essential to the flying experience and finally do a simple summation of the scores to determine my rating of the best economy class.