AN*G-BNE
Nov 30, 06, 4:31 am
Part One: BNE-(QF Y)-SYD-(OS J)-KUL
29 Nov 2006 Wednesday
BNE-SYD QF503 Boeing 767-300 VH-ZXE
Scheduled: 0530
Boarding: 0510
Class: Economy (N)
Gate: 24
Seat: 28K
First flight of this short trip to Kuala Lumpur for a 3 day conference. As per usual, didn't get a good night's sleep - I never do when I have an early morning departure the next day - too many worries about sleeping in and missing the alarm, even though my paranoia forces me to set 3 separate alarms the night before.
Set the alarm for 0400, with a taxi booked for 0430. Unfortunately, consistency prevailed, and was up at 0238. No chance of getting back to sleep then, so I responded to more emails, and changed my taxi booking to 0410. Decided to have an early morning shower, since I had the time.
Taxi arrived on time, and at that time of the morning, a quick and painless trip to the airport, arriving at 0430.
No OLCI possible, as this was part of an international itinerary. Boarding pass was issued painlessly, and it was then up to the FT corner of the Brisbane QP. Totally deserted though, so there can't have been too many FTers leaving Brisbane at 0430 today.
Had some raisin toast - they have new signs up I've never noticed before, saying that raisin toast should only be toasted in the small toaster - a standard 4 slice domestic toaster - instead of the usual commercial grade rolling toaster. Being the obedient sort, I did so, taking the last 2 empty slots. Another passenger came up behind me and whether out of ignorance or impatience, I'm not certain, but promptly proceeded to put his raisin toast into the commercial grade rolling toaster (I have no idea what those contraptions are called - so I've just made up a suitably descriptive name). Of course, 15 seconds later, the reasons for the signs became quite smokingly evident - his toast caught fire in the toaster, sending up some plumes of acrid smoke. Not sure whether to laugh or not, I debated offering him my glass of orange juice to pour over his, now suitably frazzled, bread, but eventually decided to just ignore it and leave him to his reasonably embarrassed efforts at putting out his toast.
At 0510, I walked out to the gate, only to be greeted with an announcement that Sydney ATC had put our flight on a 15 minute hold in Brisbane. So, I quickly SMSed my friend in Sydney who was going to meet me at the airport and went back into the lounge.
Boarding commenced at the revised time of 0525, and at 0545, we pushed back from the gate, with a revised arrival time of 0815 (Sydney is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane) - 15 minutes late.
Totally uneventful CityFlyer sector, except that it looks like a trayed breakfast is back - cereal, yoghurt, a bread roll and the usual Qantas/Berri
Fruit Frushion drink.
Depressingly, about 0745 (Sydney time), the captain came on to say that ATC Sydney had put us in a holding pattern, and we did not know when we would be released. So, another delay. I was hoping that my friend had indeed got my earlier SMS and wasn't going to be sitting around at the airport for an hour or so, waiting for me.
At 0822, we touched down, and I sent off another SMS (on the CityFlyer services, you can use your mobile phones once we touch down). Unfortunately, it wasn't until 0835 that we reached our gate and I was out - 35 minutes late.
I wasn't going to carry around my backpack (with half my clothes and computer) as well as my cabin roll-on all day, so it was off to the SmartCarte luggage storage service next to Carousel 5 at the Arrivals Hall. Being unattended, two other (French) tourists in front of me told me that they had already rung for assistance, and sure enough, a minute later, someone turned up. My single roll-on cost $8 to store for the day.
Then, it was into the Airport Link station to meet up with my friend, who unfortunately had been sitting at the station for the last 30 minutes. If that seems odd, since we were catching a train on into the city from the airport, if she had left the station, it would have cost an extra $20 - due to the gate access fees charged on the Airport Link.
29 Nov 2006 Wednesday
SYD-KUL OS2 Boeing 777-200 OE-LPB
Scheduled: 1840
Boarding: 1755
Gate: 51
Class: Business (J)
Seat: 1D
Upon getting back to Sydney domestic I left the Airport Link railway station and headed back to luggage storage to get my bag back. As in the morning, there was no one at the counter. Picking up the phone, it eventually connected to a SmartCarte representative on his mobile, who turned up a couple of minutes later. Bag back in hand, and a quick check of the contents later, and it was back down to the Airport Link station to catch a train to the International Terminal.
Train cost $4.70 for the 90 second journey, and a train arrived within 2 minutes of my getting back to the platform.
At the International Terminal, as I expected from past experience, OS/LH were down on check in row K - the furthest away from the train station.
Economy check in lines were out into the middle aisle, but there was no one waiting in the Business/Star Gold line. As usual, check in was handled by Menzies ground staff. With no luggage to check in and tag, I expected it to be quick and easy, and sure enough 45 seconds later, the Menzies lady wished me a pleasant trip, and handed by by *G card, my paper ticket (OS does not e-ticket this sector), lounge invitation and my passport. Luckily, I was alert (anyone notice what was missing) - and had to gently remind her of the fact that I was boarding pass-less. A slightly embarrassed giggle later, and I was handed by boarding pass, printed on the usual Austrian Airlines blue stock.
No lines at Immigration, and 2 minutes later, I was through Immigration and Security (all prepared, with laptop in hand).
Had a quick walk around the terminal, trying to spot a digital photo printing kiosk, but none to be found. So, it was up to the Air New Zealand lounge to await departure. The SQ Silver Kris lounge is right next door, but at Sydney, I much prefer NZ's lounge. This time, the NZ lounge was the busiest I had seen it for quite a while. Still, found a quiet spot, connected to the free wireless internet and had a glass of water (regulars who know me will know that the strongest thing I drink is orange juice) and some light snacks. Cleared some of my 70 new emails from the day, checked KVS (running under Wine on Fedora Core 6) to see if the loads had changed (Y and sub-classes had been 0 for several days now, J was still showing J5 C5 D5) and made a few phone calls.
At 1800, I decided to head off to the gate, and just as I was leaving the lounge, I heard the announcement over the lounge PA for OS2 boarding.
At the gate, the line was snaking out well past the gate lounge and into the central food court area. Knowing that Sydney Airport is pretty good at priority boarding for Business (and often Star Gold), making some polite excuse me type noises, I skipped past the line, going into the gate lounge. No visual display indicating separated boarding for Business class, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Just then, I heard one of the OS cabin crew calling out for Business class passengers, so I cut through the line, and made straight for her - ignoring all the death stares from the other passengers.
Boarding was entirely through 1L. On board, it looked like a full load in C - so if Sabre was showing C5 30 minutes before boarding, Y was most likely oversold and a few op-ups probably took place (interestingly, I caught a glimpse of the manifest in the galley later, and saw that there were very few status passengers in C - only noticed one other non M&M *G besides myself - appears on the manifest as xx*G, one SEN, and about a dozen FTLs. Was looking forward to trying out the new OS business class sleeper seats - they have a very traditional look, without the obvious pod, but looking closely at the mechanism, they do seem to behave very much like the TG new business seats.
Boarding went remarkably smoothly, and by 1825 it looked like we were all boarded. A first round of drinks, and it was time for pushback.
Pushback: 1840 (right on time)
Runway: 16R
Wheels up: 1859
Courtesy of a slow and long taxi, and being 5th in line to get onto 16R, it took 19 minutes from pushback to wheels up. A few hiccups in the AV system meant that we sat through the animated OS safety video in both English and German twice, and partway through a third time.
Once we were in the air, it took ages for the seat-belt sign to go off. Hardly had it gone off, when we hit some turbulence, and back on it went. So, with all that, the meal service took nearly 45 minutes to start.
MENU
Hors d'oeuvres from our Trolley
Prawns "Louis Armstrong"
Smoked salmon with sourcream
Buffalo mozzarella with tomato & basil
Grilled asparagus with fresh parmesan
Seared beef on Caesar's Salad
Vegetarian springrolls with sweet & sour chilli sauce
Soup
Creamy potato truffle soup
Main courses
Rack of lamb with creamy polenta and Mediterranean vegetables
OR
Pepper crusted salmon with wasabipuree and sauteed soy sprouts
OR
Springchicken with mushroom risotto and grilled vegetables
Assorted cheese & exotic fruit from our Trolley
Desserts
American chocolate cake
OR
Mascarpone cream with fresh strawberries
OR
Raspberry mint panna cotta
The entree came around on the trolley, with each guest choosing their own selection. I had the prawns (on the creamy side, but nice and fresh), seared beef (it was done medium, which was fine, though if I had a choice I would normally have it either well done or charcoal) and the spring rolls.
Soup came round on a second cart in tureens, dished out into bowls on request. While waiting for the main, I played around with the interactive entertainment system (no AVOD, just about a dozen movie channels, the obligatory flight tracker and 2 camera views - neither of which were working). Sent an in-flight SMS (US$1.95) to my friend in Sydney - mainly because I'm a geek and like to try these things out - but it took many goes to get it to accept one of my cards (I carry a couple of prepaid anonymous Visa cards with me for this sort of activity).
Then, orders for mains were taken, and my chicken risotto was quite pleasant - chicken was quite tender and not too dry, and the risotto was rich and fluffy.
I skipped dessert, as it was then 2140 (Sydney time) and I wanted to write up the trip so far before trying to get some much needed sleep (so here I am, typing this in - it is now 2210 and I'm stopping for the night. Good night all.
Back again... Woke up at 0130, so managed to get 3 hours + sleep. Quite comfortable seats, and easy enough to get into a sideways sleeping position.
Time for the pre-landing snack
MENU
Beef samosas with yoghurt mint dip
OR
Sweet curd souffle with berry ragout
Went with the samosas, which were quite good.
Just before arrival, Malaysia arrival cards were handed out. Most passengers declined, which indicated that the majority of the passengers were Vienna bound. We touched down at 2335, and were at the gate at 2339, 11 minutes ahead of schedule.
On the whole, good (steady and consistent) service in the C cabin, with 4 cabin crew serving 42 passengers. It will certainly be a shame to see OS pull out of the Australian market, as it is one of the few Star Alliance alternatives to South East Asia. Cabin interior is pleasant, and seats are quite as to be expected for a re-furbished business class. Certainly better than when I flew OS last year on the same SYD-KUL sector pre-refurbishment. Only gripe about the seats - the tray table is most unintuitive to store - it requires the table to be rotated to a particular angle, and there is no tactile feedback as to when that angle has been reached.
Kuala Lumpur: Crowne Plaza Hotel
With no bags to collect, it was straight through immigration and customs again. KLIA has priority lanes for first and business class passengers, but at this hour of the night, these were unattended. No matter, there was no line at all for either Malaysian passports or Foreign passports, though 5 minutes later, there probably would have been.
A taxi from KLIA to KL Central costs MYR 118.40 - this is a set rate which you pay at the taxi counter. Beware of the hundreds of touts around - I was approached by 4 different ones, offering "special" prices going up to MYR 350. (I was curious enough to offer my destination to them just to see what sort of prices they would propose.)
Got in around 0050 to the Crowne Plaza, and check in was smooth and painless. Booked a standard room, but received (without prompting) a Platinum upgrade to the Club Floor (still a standard room) with free Internet, and access to the Club Lounge.
Room was about typical for a top end KL hotel - as with many other top end places which have been refurbished recently, there is an opening between the bathroom and the main part of the room, so that you can enjoy whatever view there is of the smog (admittedly, it wasn't too bad in KL at the moment) while you are having a bath. I've often wondered whether twin rooms do not have this "feature", as I presume twin rooms are often shared by two unrelated (business colleagues) people.
There was a welcome plate of fruit (apple, mango, dragon fruit and pear) as well as a nicely boxed pack of 6 chocolates. Given the time, it was straight into the shower for a quick freshen up, and off to sleep.
Here ends the first part of my trip report - more to follow after my return.
29 Nov 2006 Wednesday
BNE-SYD QF503 Boeing 767-300 VH-ZXE
Scheduled: 0530
Boarding: 0510
Class: Economy (N)
Gate: 24
Seat: 28K
First flight of this short trip to Kuala Lumpur for a 3 day conference. As per usual, didn't get a good night's sleep - I never do when I have an early morning departure the next day - too many worries about sleeping in and missing the alarm, even though my paranoia forces me to set 3 separate alarms the night before.
Set the alarm for 0400, with a taxi booked for 0430. Unfortunately, consistency prevailed, and was up at 0238. No chance of getting back to sleep then, so I responded to more emails, and changed my taxi booking to 0410. Decided to have an early morning shower, since I had the time.
Taxi arrived on time, and at that time of the morning, a quick and painless trip to the airport, arriving at 0430.
No OLCI possible, as this was part of an international itinerary. Boarding pass was issued painlessly, and it was then up to the FT corner of the Brisbane QP. Totally deserted though, so there can't have been too many FTers leaving Brisbane at 0430 today.
Had some raisin toast - they have new signs up I've never noticed before, saying that raisin toast should only be toasted in the small toaster - a standard 4 slice domestic toaster - instead of the usual commercial grade rolling toaster. Being the obedient sort, I did so, taking the last 2 empty slots. Another passenger came up behind me and whether out of ignorance or impatience, I'm not certain, but promptly proceeded to put his raisin toast into the commercial grade rolling toaster (I have no idea what those contraptions are called - so I've just made up a suitably descriptive name). Of course, 15 seconds later, the reasons for the signs became quite smokingly evident - his toast caught fire in the toaster, sending up some plumes of acrid smoke. Not sure whether to laugh or not, I debated offering him my glass of orange juice to pour over his, now suitably frazzled, bread, but eventually decided to just ignore it and leave him to his reasonably embarrassed efforts at putting out his toast.
At 0510, I walked out to the gate, only to be greeted with an announcement that Sydney ATC had put our flight on a 15 minute hold in Brisbane. So, I quickly SMSed my friend in Sydney who was going to meet me at the airport and went back into the lounge.
Boarding commenced at the revised time of 0525, and at 0545, we pushed back from the gate, with a revised arrival time of 0815 (Sydney is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane) - 15 minutes late.
Totally uneventful CityFlyer sector, except that it looks like a trayed breakfast is back - cereal, yoghurt, a bread roll and the usual Qantas/Berri
Fruit Frushion drink.
Depressingly, about 0745 (Sydney time), the captain came on to say that ATC Sydney had put us in a holding pattern, and we did not know when we would be released. So, another delay. I was hoping that my friend had indeed got my earlier SMS and wasn't going to be sitting around at the airport for an hour or so, waiting for me.
At 0822, we touched down, and I sent off another SMS (on the CityFlyer services, you can use your mobile phones once we touch down). Unfortunately, it wasn't until 0835 that we reached our gate and I was out - 35 minutes late.
I wasn't going to carry around my backpack (with half my clothes and computer) as well as my cabin roll-on all day, so it was off to the SmartCarte luggage storage service next to Carousel 5 at the Arrivals Hall. Being unattended, two other (French) tourists in front of me told me that they had already rung for assistance, and sure enough, a minute later, someone turned up. My single roll-on cost $8 to store for the day.
Then, it was into the Airport Link station to meet up with my friend, who unfortunately had been sitting at the station for the last 30 minutes. If that seems odd, since we were catching a train on into the city from the airport, if she had left the station, it would have cost an extra $20 - due to the gate access fees charged on the Airport Link.
29 Nov 2006 Wednesday
SYD-KUL OS2 Boeing 777-200 OE-LPB
Scheduled: 1840
Boarding: 1755
Gate: 51
Class: Business (J)
Seat: 1D
Upon getting back to Sydney domestic I left the Airport Link railway station and headed back to luggage storage to get my bag back. As in the morning, there was no one at the counter. Picking up the phone, it eventually connected to a SmartCarte representative on his mobile, who turned up a couple of minutes later. Bag back in hand, and a quick check of the contents later, and it was back down to the Airport Link station to catch a train to the International Terminal.
Train cost $4.70 for the 90 second journey, and a train arrived within 2 minutes of my getting back to the platform.
At the International Terminal, as I expected from past experience, OS/LH were down on check in row K - the furthest away from the train station.
Economy check in lines were out into the middle aisle, but there was no one waiting in the Business/Star Gold line. As usual, check in was handled by Menzies ground staff. With no luggage to check in and tag, I expected it to be quick and easy, and sure enough 45 seconds later, the Menzies lady wished me a pleasant trip, and handed by by *G card, my paper ticket (OS does not e-ticket this sector), lounge invitation and my passport. Luckily, I was alert (anyone notice what was missing) - and had to gently remind her of the fact that I was boarding pass-less. A slightly embarrassed giggle later, and I was handed by boarding pass, printed on the usual Austrian Airlines blue stock.
No lines at Immigration, and 2 minutes later, I was through Immigration and Security (all prepared, with laptop in hand).
Had a quick walk around the terminal, trying to spot a digital photo printing kiosk, but none to be found. So, it was up to the Air New Zealand lounge to await departure. The SQ Silver Kris lounge is right next door, but at Sydney, I much prefer NZ's lounge. This time, the NZ lounge was the busiest I had seen it for quite a while. Still, found a quiet spot, connected to the free wireless internet and had a glass of water (regulars who know me will know that the strongest thing I drink is orange juice) and some light snacks. Cleared some of my 70 new emails from the day, checked KVS (running under Wine on Fedora Core 6) to see if the loads had changed (Y and sub-classes had been 0 for several days now, J was still showing J5 C5 D5) and made a few phone calls.
At 1800, I decided to head off to the gate, and just as I was leaving the lounge, I heard the announcement over the lounge PA for OS2 boarding.
At the gate, the line was snaking out well past the gate lounge and into the central food court area. Knowing that Sydney Airport is pretty good at priority boarding for Business (and often Star Gold), making some polite excuse me type noises, I skipped past the line, going into the gate lounge. No visual display indicating separated boarding for Business class, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Just then, I heard one of the OS cabin crew calling out for Business class passengers, so I cut through the line, and made straight for her - ignoring all the death stares from the other passengers.
Boarding was entirely through 1L. On board, it looked like a full load in C - so if Sabre was showing C5 30 minutes before boarding, Y was most likely oversold and a few op-ups probably took place (interestingly, I caught a glimpse of the manifest in the galley later, and saw that there were very few status passengers in C - only noticed one other non M&M *G besides myself - appears on the manifest as xx*G, one SEN, and about a dozen FTLs. Was looking forward to trying out the new OS business class sleeper seats - they have a very traditional look, without the obvious pod, but looking closely at the mechanism, they do seem to behave very much like the TG new business seats.
Boarding went remarkably smoothly, and by 1825 it looked like we were all boarded. A first round of drinks, and it was time for pushback.
Pushback: 1840 (right on time)
Runway: 16R
Wheels up: 1859
Courtesy of a slow and long taxi, and being 5th in line to get onto 16R, it took 19 minutes from pushback to wheels up. A few hiccups in the AV system meant that we sat through the animated OS safety video in both English and German twice, and partway through a third time.
Once we were in the air, it took ages for the seat-belt sign to go off. Hardly had it gone off, when we hit some turbulence, and back on it went. So, with all that, the meal service took nearly 45 minutes to start.
MENU
Hors d'oeuvres from our Trolley
Prawns "Louis Armstrong"
Smoked salmon with sourcream
Buffalo mozzarella with tomato & basil
Grilled asparagus with fresh parmesan
Seared beef on Caesar's Salad
Vegetarian springrolls with sweet & sour chilli sauce
Soup
Creamy potato truffle soup
Main courses
Rack of lamb with creamy polenta and Mediterranean vegetables
OR
Pepper crusted salmon with wasabipuree and sauteed soy sprouts
OR
Springchicken with mushroom risotto and grilled vegetables
Assorted cheese & exotic fruit from our Trolley
Desserts
American chocolate cake
OR
Mascarpone cream with fresh strawberries
OR
Raspberry mint panna cotta
The entree came around on the trolley, with each guest choosing their own selection. I had the prawns (on the creamy side, but nice and fresh), seared beef (it was done medium, which was fine, though if I had a choice I would normally have it either well done or charcoal) and the spring rolls.
Soup came round on a second cart in tureens, dished out into bowls on request. While waiting for the main, I played around with the interactive entertainment system (no AVOD, just about a dozen movie channels, the obligatory flight tracker and 2 camera views - neither of which were working). Sent an in-flight SMS (US$1.95) to my friend in Sydney - mainly because I'm a geek and like to try these things out - but it took many goes to get it to accept one of my cards (I carry a couple of prepaid anonymous Visa cards with me for this sort of activity).
Then, orders for mains were taken, and my chicken risotto was quite pleasant - chicken was quite tender and not too dry, and the risotto was rich and fluffy.
I skipped dessert, as it was then 2140 (Sydney time) and I wanted to write up the trip so far before trying to get some much needed sleep (so here I am, typing this in - it is now 2210 and I'm stopping for the night. Good night all.
Back again... Woke up at 0130, so managed to get 3 hours + sleep. Quite comfortable seats, and easy enough to get into a sideways sleeping position.
Time for the pre-landing snack
MENU
Beef samosas with yoghurt mint dip
OR
Sweet curd souffle with berry ragout
Went with the samosas, which were quite good.
Just before arrival, Malaysia arrival cards were handed out. Most passengers declined, which indicated that the majority of the passengers were Vienna bound. We touched down at 2335, and were at the gate at 2339, 11 minutes ahead of schedule.
On the whole, good (steady and consistent) service in the C cabin, with 4 cabin crew serving 42 passengers. It will certainly be a shame to see OS pull out of the Australian market, as it is one of the few Star Alliance alternatives to South East Asia. Cabin interior is pleasant, and seats are quite as to be expected for a re-furbished business class. Certainly better than when I flew OS last year on the same SYD-KUL sector pre-refurbishment. Only gripe about the seats - the tray table is most unintuitive to store - it requires the table to be rotated to a particular angle, and there is no tactile feedback as to when that angle has been reached.
Kuala Lumpur: Crowne Plaza Hotel
With no bags to collect, it was straight through immigration and customs again. KLIA has priority lanes for first and business class passengers, but at this hour of the night, these were unattended. No matter, there was no line at all for either Malaysian passports or Foreign passports, though 5 minutes later, there probably would have been.
A taxi from KLIA to KL Central costs MYR 118.40 - this is a set rate which you pay at the taxi counter. Beware of the hundreds of touts around - I was approached by 4 different ones, offering "special" prices going up to MYR 350. (I was curious enough to offer my destination to them just to see what sort of prices they would propose.)
Got in around 0050 to the Crowne Plaza, and check in was smooth and painless. Booked a standard room, but received (without prompting) a Platinum upgrade to the Club Floor (still a standard room) with free Internet, and access to the Club Lounge.
Room was about typical for a top end KL hotel - as with many other top end places which have been refurbished recently, there is an opening between the bathroom and the main part of the room, so that you can enjoy whatever view there is of the smog (admittedly, it wasn't too bad in KL at the moment) while you are having a bath. I've often wondered whether twin rooms do not have this "feature", as I presume twin rooms are often shared by two unrelated (business colleagues) people.
There was a welcome plate of fruit (apple, mango, dragon fruit and pear) as well as a nicely boxed pack of 6 chocolates. Given the time, it was straight into the shower for a quick freshen up, and off to sleep.
Here ends the first part of my trip report - more to follow after my return.