AN*G-BNE

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.

das

Thanks for the report! I flew OS2/OS1 in Y back in 2005, and always wanted to try it out in J....but won't get a chance before the service is discontinued.

A few questions -

1) I noticed on my flight there was a "chef" for the J class cabin - does this make the service any different, or is it just a different uniform?

2) On my flight all the food was double-catered in KUL for both sectors. Did you notice this?

One thing to keep in mind on the return flight is that at least in Y, the first meal is a light meal, followed by a hot lunch service prior to arrival, I think because there is a full breakfast served prior to landing on VIE-KUL.

I look forward to reading the rest of your report.

HIDDY

"Of course, 15 seconds later, the reasons for the signs became quite smokingly evident - his toast caught fire in the toaster"

Nice one, serves the bugger right!!

Very informative report thanks.

AN*G-BNE

03 Dec 2006 Sunday
KUL-SYD OS1 Boeing 777-200 OE-LPA
Scheduled: 0600
Boarding: 0530
Gate: C02
Seat: 3D

Courtesy of this early morning departure, I had set my obligatory 3 alarms for 3.15am, and booked a wake up call with the operator. Another late night meant that it was close to 11pm by the time I got into bed, and fortunately, slept right up to when the phone rang: "Professor? This is your wake up call, Professor". Malaysians seem to take titles seriously - in hotels, out dining at restaurants, the staff try to get your first name, and thence forth, keep calling you as Mr xxx or Miss xxx or Dr xxx (first name, not surname, which is interesting in itself). Mind you, I never got my first name added - it was always just Professor - probably made the whole salutation too long to add my first name... I learnt many years ago, from earlier visits to Malaysia, that asking someone to just call you by your given name only is not only pointless, but is usually met with horror from the employee you are dealing with, and looks from the locals around that you've just committed some unforgiveable faux pas. So, I've given up...

Check out was precise and painless - though courtesy of some unplanned and unexpected purchases at Kinokuniya (my introduction to this fantastic bookstore chain occurred in Sydney a few days ago, and the KL store was even better and cheaper) and at the KL PC Fair, I was now lugging a third (27kg) piece of luggage, so the trip down to the lobby was not as quick as usual.

My 3.30am pre-booked taxi to the airport was already waiting when I finished checking out at 3.20am, so in I hopped into this MPV and off we went. At that time of the morning, there was no traffic at all, and with the taxi driver following the Malaysian Road Rules to the letter (drive as fast as you can, do not ever use your indicators, lane markings are strictly advisory only, posted speed limits are the mininum speed to travel at), the trip to the airport was completed in 45 minutes. The MPV had a large digital speedometer in the centre of the dashboard, presumably to reassure passengers that all haste was being made, and a peak of 153km/h was reached.

KLIA was, for all intents and purposes, deserted at 4.15am. No line at either the Economy or Business check-ins, and my pre-assigned boarding pass for 3D was quickly in my hand. No lounge invitation - just a hastily scribbled phrase on the boarding pass "Follow the sign Plaza Premium Lounge".

Off through immigration, and into the equally deserted departure area. The train to the C (international) gates arrived not long after, and I was the sole passenger on that train.

At the Plaza Premium Lounge (which was the only lounge open at that time of the morning), the lounge dragon took a photocopy of my boarding pass, presumably to bill Austrian at a later date. I joined the only other guest in the lounge, and filled up on a bit of breakfast (french toast, hard boiled eggs, egg sandwiches). There was also a self serve refridgerator with canned drinks and alcohol, 3 internet PCs and a couple of loose network cables. While having breakfast, I pulled out my laptop and connected to the free KLIA-Wireless - a few other wireless signals were also evident (ThaiAir, Business, maxis). Watched OE-LPA pull in to gate C02 from Vienna, and shortly thereafter, a dozen or so people arrived at the lounge whilst waiting to re-board. Heard a couple of people muttering about the fact that they didn't dim the cabin lighting at all on the VIE-KUL flight, which made it hard to sleep.

At 0530, there was still no boarding announcement, and with the complete absence of any departure monitors in the Plaza Premium lounge, I decided to stroll over to gate C02. Sure enough, boarding had started, with business passengers (and *G) boarding through Door A (Door 1L on the plane), and economy through Door B (Door 2L on the plane). Typical KLIA chaos, with half the people in the Door A line being turned away and told to join the Door B line.

3E was already occupied when I boarded, but 3F, and the 3HK pair remained vacant. I could tell from my neighbours body language that he had his eye on one of those, and as soon as Door 1L closed, he was off like a flash into 3K. Unfortunately, the owner of 3K boarded right at the end through 2L, but quite happily settled for 3F, which still left an empty seat next to me. C wasn't quite full, in fact, all the E seats (middle of the middle in a 2-3-2 configuration) remained empty, except for 5DEF, which were occupied by a family of 3.

The internal decor of OE-LPA was totally different to that of OE-LPB. Same seat mechanism, but OE-LPA has the obvious individual pods, a-la the TG and LH style. The pods though, were lined in this tacky looking wood lookalike laminate, and combined with the almost purple seat upholstery and the lime green amenity kits, this gave the whole C cabin of OE-LPA the feel of a cheap 60s roadside diner.

Speaking of amenity kits, I forgot to describe the contents in the first part of my trip report. A fragrant aromatheraphy massage ball, pair of earplugs, some eyeshades, some lip-balm and a pair of socks, all in this lime green bag with a purple drawstring. It's a great bag though - I've put the other ones I've had over the years from Austrian to very good use after the flight.

Pushback: 0559
Wheels Up: 0603

We were told that breakfast would be served right after takeoff, with lunch to be served 2 hours out of Sydney.

True enough, after an uneventful takeoff (the nose camera was showing on the big projected screen during takeoff), breakfast was served.

MENU

FRUHSTUCK

Frische Fruchte

Ruhrei mit Toast au fromage und Grilltomate
ODER
Spiegeleier "sunny side up"

Marillenkonfiture
Croissant & Brotvariation

MITTAG ESSEN

Vorspeisen

Tartar vom irischen Raucherlachs
ODER
Filet vom Rind mit gegrilltern Spargel, Fenchel und frischem Parmesan

Suppe
Tom Ka Gai - Cremige Kokos-Huhnersuppe mit Chili und Koriander

HAUPTSPEISEN

Lamm Curry Masala mit Cous Cous und pikantem Gemuse
ODER
Crevettenspiess im Zucchinimantel auf Zitronen-Pfeffer Rissotto
ODER
Penne con Rucola mit sonnengetrockneten Tomaten und frischem Parmasen

Kase und frische fruchte vom Wagen

Nougat Parfair
ODER
Topfenstrudel mit warmer Vanillesauce



I had the eggs, sunny side up, and for some inexplicable reason, I was expecting them to be fried. They turned up microwave poached, with the texture of molten rubber, dressed in enough chives to fill a herb jar. Fortunately, the accompanying hot buttered toast was good, and I managed to eat most of the egg flavoured chives.

I thought I'd try to read for a few minutes before catching up on some sleep. However, as it turned out, none of the overhead lighting was working - reading lights which were on could not be switched off, lights which were off could not be switched on, and the cabin lighting was stuck on full the whole time. Rebooting the control station didn't appear to have any effect. Anyway, my reading light was off and unable to be switched on, so I gave up that effort, put on my eyeshades, put the seat into full lie-flat sleeper mode and got snug. The lack of sleep this week (3 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 4 hours, 3 hours) finally caught up with me, and I had a nice 4 hour nap on the plane before the sounds of the lunch service woke me up.

I had the soup for the entree, and the lamb curry for the main. Both were quite good, and well portioned, which was a relief after the egg fiasco of the morning.

After the meal, arrival cards for Australia were handed out. Returning to Australia always produces visions of little, extremely cute beagles in their red "Quarantine Services" coats, whenever the I answer the questions about food, fruit and other such items on the quarantine declaration. Only one tick in the Yes box - for some food (biscuits) I was bringing back from Malaysia, otherwise no other questionable imports in my luggage.

Landed at 1640, and reached the gate at 1644, just one minute ahead of schedule. Couldn't tell you what the service was like, since I slept most of the way.

Immigration clearance was a breeze. even with the triple beep that I always get when my passport is scanned, instead of the normal single beep - usually just causes a slightly raised eyebrow as the immigration officer reads the message on the screen. One day, I'll ask someone to tell me what the message says exactly (I have a pretty good suspicion, but that's not for a public forum).

Unfortunately, the Star Alliance priority tagging didn't work for me, and my bag appeared about half way through the process. Still, there were no lines at customs and quarantine (and no beagles either!) and with the current policy of x-ray scanning all luggage, my bags went for yet another dose of radiation. Whatever they saw didn't cause any concern - no questions at all, even with the "food" box ticked yes, and I was straight out into the Arrivals hall. Wasn't sure if I was eligible to use the Qantas transfer service to the domestic terminal, as I had arrived on a Star Alliance service, and I recall reading in the QF forum that the Qantas transfer was now only for Qantas / OneWorld transfer passengers. Oh well, never hurts to try. So, I made my way over to the domestic transfer area, where there was no line at all (one QP/Business counter and three Economy counters). I went straight over to the QP/Business counter and presented my QP card. Even though I knew my travel agent had booked me on the lowest possible, completely unchangable O class fare, I feigned ignorance and asked if it was possible to switch to the earlier service to Brisbane. As expected, the answer was a no, which didn't worry me at all - I wasn't expecting any different given my fare basis. I wasn't even counting on being able to use the Qantas domestic transfer service, so anything was a bonus.

So, the bag was checked in, and I was given a boarding pass with seat 49A (ugh). Interestingly enough, the service message area of the boarding pass, right under the "FFLYER SILVER XXXXXXXX/ OW RUBY" message was the text "BAG SEEN/ACCPTD. SEAMLESS ETKT". Does that mean something in terms of eligibility to use the Qantas Domestric Transfer service?

A long wait for the bus later, and only when the transfer lounge was filled to capacity did they open the doors to allow us to board the bus to the domestic terminal.

Up in the QP, I asked the QP lounge dragon if there were any seats further forward. A few key presses later, and I had a buikhead 34D boarding pass in my hands - much better than the original. The 3rd day of the Ashes test was on, so I settled in front of the TV, together with about 20 others - the seats around the TV had been re-arranged cinema style.

Unfortunately, according to the display monitors, all flights to Brisbane were late. So, it looked like a long wait in the Sydney QP. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if I should ring up anyone in Sydney to see if they wanted to join me in the QP for a few hours, but I resisted the temptation.

03 Dec 2006 Sunday
BNE-SYD QF548 Boeing 767-300 VH-OGV
Scheduled: 1915
Boarding: 1855 (Scheduled)
Gate: 5
Class: Economy (O)
Seat: 34D

Spent my 90 or so minutes in the QP having some hot soup and snacks (fried dim sims and re-heated sausage rolls were the fare on offer today), and watching Australia inch ever closer to England's 1st innings total. Both QF546 (the flight half an hour earlier) and QF548 boarded at the same time - around 1900. I was one of the last onboard, and we pushed back ontime.

Push back: 1915
Wheels up: 1922

Right after take-off, the captain came on the PA, and advised us that we were in for a pretty bumpy trip up to Brisbane, with the seat belt signs most likely on for the majority of the second half of the flight, up past the NSW Central Coast and up into Brisbane. This meant that the dinner service would be very abbreviated - a single tray with a bottle of water, and no drinks service. Quite soon after take-off, the flight attendants came around with trays - and a rapid delivery of trays to passengers. Dinner was a Chicken Cacciatore, a bread roll, a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. Speed eating was the order of the day - most passengers seemed to want to make sure that they weren't cheated out of their dinner by the weather, and scoffed it down in record time.

Around Tamworth (half way through the flight, the trays were collected. Just then, the captain came back on, and advised that Brisbane Airport was closed due to the storm, and we had been placed in a holding pattern over Tamworth. 5 (I think) loops later, and we resumed our flight into Brisbane, by which time, we were already supposed to have been on the ground. A bit of a bumpy descent followed, and then onto the runway at 2018, and the gate at 2022 (scheduled 1945). Upon disembarking, Brisbane Airport seemed chaotic - and looking at the arrival monitor, it looked like quite a few delayed flights were coming in then. The car park and taxi rank were equally chaotic, and the traffic in the roads leading to the airport was more remniscent of Monday morning peak than Sunday 8pm. Lots of debris on the roads - leaves, branches and the like.

So, that ends this trip report - hope you enjoyed it.

Next trip? Nothing more scheduled for 2006, but there's always the possibility of something coming up at short notice.

AN*G-BNE

I suspect it is just a different uniform for show - outside the meal service times, the "chef" was in regular OS uniform, and serving in the Y cabin. Certainly, nothing "chef" like in the J service.

Actually, no - that didn't seem apparent to me.The SYD-KUL sector seemed to be served using Australian products, at least as far as the juices and soft drinks went. Not sure how to tell with the rest of the food though - any hints?