KUL-MXP

Sat 13/9/25 

We would be taking a 8 day trip, starting from Milan to the Dolomites, staying at Funes valley in South Tyrol province; followed by  Belluno province, staying at Padola; then to Malcesine in Verona province at the East of Lake Garda before returning to Milan on the same day as our flight back was scheduled at 11pm.  This was our second time to Italy after our first visit 10 years ago in 2015.

For this trip, we booked our tickets through Qatar Airways, part of the OneWorld alliance. In this trip, we transited at Doha (DOH)  before arriving to Milan Malpensa (MXP), Italy. We bought our ticket about 1.5 months (early August) before the departure date (Mid September). Our return trip ticket cost RM 12541 per person. This was a last minute plan, after an additional public holiday on 15 Sep was announced by the government.

As usual, our trip has always coincided with the school holiday season, so it was busy at KLIA. Our flight was delayed from 9.30am to 10.30am which was updated on the Qatar airways app before we left home, so we decided to take a Grab ride to KLIA since we have ample time. We arrived at KLIA at 7.45 am, traffic was normal this morning. 

After checking in and immigration clearance using the MyBorderPass app, we made our way to the Plaza Premium First lounge at landside, before boarding the aerotrain. We ordered smoked salmon egg benedicts, latte and capuccino for breakfast. The lounge did have a buffet too which we took a croissant, mushroom and tomatoes. We waited for about 30 minutes for our order to arrive at 8.40am

smoked salmon egg benedicts

Since the Plaza Premium First lounge was very busy, we decided to go to MH's Golden Lounge at the airside, after taking the aerotrain. We went to the Platinum side where there were less people so we had a bit of time to relax and enjoyed some cut fruits before it was time for boarding. We waited quite a bit at the gate, before finally getting to board the aircraft at 10.20am  and departed at almost 11am.

relaxing at Golden Lounge satellite

We have pre booked our in flight meal of braised beef short ribs with herb jus and also our seats of choice. I chose the oriental soup for appetiser (too hot, didn't manage to finish it) and ice cream for dessert (it was great!). As usual, I had karak chai and arabic coffee with dates for the pre departure drink. We were given the Diptyque amenity kit and pajamas (but I only took the slippers). There was no more Laderach chocolate this time around.

karak chai

salmon appetiser

hot soup

braised beef short ribs with herb jus

ice cream vanila and green tea

I chose seat 5A of the Qsuite on the port (left) side facing rearwards this time as I wanted direct access to the window. It felt a bit funny during take off when facing rearwards. 

seat 5A facing rearwards

We arrived Doha at 12.40pm. We still had about 3 hours before our next flight to Milan at 3.50pm so we quickly made our way to Al Mourjan lounge to have our prayers, rest a bit and have some meal. We also checked out the quiet area where there is a sofa so you could lie down flat here, better than the 'dentist' chair of the quiet room at Al Mourjan Garden lounge. You have to book the quiet area though. It was not busy at the time so we managed to book ourselves there.

salmon with feta cheese at Al Mourjan

quiet area enclosure at Al Mourjan lounge

departure display in the quiet area enclosure

Our flight to Milan departed on time at 3.50pm. I chose seat 2K, seated on the starboard (right) side to see the Italian alps. But since it was already dark when we approached Milan, I couldn't see anything.

2K seat on the A350

This time, I had hot tea with mint leaves and honey to ease my stomach (I had too much milk today) for the pre departure drink. I had the lobster for appetiser and pan seared cod fillet with lemon cream sauce for dinner (didn't manage to finish the fish as it was too dry). 

mint tea and arabic coffee with date

cheese and tomato for appetiser

lobster

pan seared cod fillet with lemon cream sauce

cheese cake with ice cream

snack and fruits in the flight

We landed Milan on time at 9pm but were met with the snakingly long immigration queue. I think we queued for more than an hour before getting our passport stamped and finally picking up our rental car (Sixty, at the airport parking) at 10pm. Our car was a Fiat 600 hybrid with CarPlay. The rental cost RM 3600 for 8 days.

our rental car Fiat 600

We then drove to the nearby Ibis Malpensa airport hotel, about 15 mins away which I booked through the ALL Accors app for EUR 48.25 after points redemption (RM 244) with breakfast for 2 pax. We would only make our way to Funes valley the next day, a journey of about 4 hours.

Ibis Malpensa room

We opted for 15 day Maxis roaming for RM99 per person to be able to live stream EPL matches on our local app in Italy.