Tim_T

Sydney was great. We really liked the feel of the city, even in winter. We will come back and explore more in the future. The intercontinental hotel was great as well.

Enjoying Singapore now. I've just walked most of next months F1 route!

Tim_T

SIN to LHR
BA 747 seats 64AB 63A

After a great few days in Singapore (what a great city) at the Conrad (lovely and well located hotel) it's back to the airport. They have a premium check in area at Singapore which we used. Very quick and easy. A bit of a line at immigration, took maybe 15mins, before we were thru and heading up to the qantas lounge (based on recommendations that it is better than the BA lounge). Food is good here, buffet style with a hot and a cold area. Large bar with wide selection of drinks.

billinghamn

Enjoy your trip back to LHR Tim_T!

Tim_T

Decided to move to the BA lounge as the qantas lounge was getting very very lonely. It's huge and had emptied out as the qantas flights left.

BA lounge is not a patch on the qantas. Two hot food items and a few sandwiches. It does have an ice cream bar however, and some uk newspapers. Mind you it's taken me 5 mins to read them and after 3.5wks away nothing much has changed. I did notice that 3 of my local towns made the Royal Mail best postcode survey.

Not looking forward to the drag home. 13hrs to London, hang around for 3hrs then 1hr to Manchester and a further 3hr drive up the motorway. Whilst I love living in the lakes, we could do with Carlisle becoming a BA hub (or virgin, or infact anyone will do).

Tim_T

Thanks billinghamn, if only it was just LHR!

billinghamn

Yes that is a bit of a drag isn't it! I've got to do the LHR-MAN domestic connection as well, but I only have about a 25 min drive to get home. As you say the lakes is a lovely place to live, but there's always a downside!

Tim_T

Boarding was easy. Fast track set up but it was a little confused with unclear line. Settled into seats and left gate on time. Long take off - you could tell the bird was heavy, followed by a big loop around the airport during the climb. This offered great views if Singapore and I was able to make out the flyer and marina area.

Have the amenity kit changed again or did I get a "special" one? No razor but shaving cream and a pen. Eye masks and earplugs also provided. I do think BA is poor on the soft product side, especially on overnight flights. No pyjamas (I had kept my first pjs), rubbish blanket/semi duvet, and small pillow. Whilst I find the seat comfortable, especially in a z layout, this lets it down in my view. I also dislike the lack of easy access storage space, especially in bed mode. Another annoyance is the sliding drawer, tv screen and foot rest, all of which for you seat neighbours are connected to your seat right by your sleeping head. This can lead to a rude awaking if your neighbours are not the most careful.

Dinner was an ok selection. Steak, trout, ravioli and a chilled salad. As I had eaten in the lounge I went for the salad. It filled what was left of a hole.

Movies - every flight has had the same selection so I'm now having to try something different. Gave up after an hour and went for the sleep option. A bit annoyed that 2 members of the CC stood talking to 63B for 15mins after lights out. I also gave up my favourite 64A (and 63A) to the women in my family, I guess that's part of being a dad / husband.

Routing saw us go up over Malaysia, then India before heading over the southern Black Sea and turkey before crossing Europe over Vienna and Cologne. This route appears to miss most of the "hot spots" and had a few kinks in the path.
Breakfast served at 1.5hrs before landing , and had more options than typical overnight flights, inc a turkey sandwich option.

Overall not the most warm of crews. I don't know what it is about BA but they always appear to clump around the cabin in the night with heavy feet. Never noticed this on qantas or cathay pacific. I did get some sleep and I think the overall seat/crew/meal was very similar to CX, some aspects better some worse.

I have a decision to make on landing - go landside and use the arrivals lounge or stay airside, use domestic transfer, and the CW lounge. Following advice from the wife, elected to use domestic transfer. Here's hoping it quiet at 5:30am!

Tim_T

Half an hour from stepping off the plane to north galleries lounge. Not too bad. The multi stop uk domestic transfer was ok as we arrived when they went from one person to two persons manning the two uk / non uk lines. Security fast track was the slowest of the 4 lines open, due in part to people that appeared to be surprised when they reached the belt and had to put their bags, jackets, liquids, laptops in trays. I'm still amazed that the fast track line gets these people. Perhaps that do it on purpose, buying a refundable ticket and going thru security really really slowly to annoy others!

Tim_T

LHR to MAN seats 1ABC

After a couple of hours in GC north where I enjoyed a shower, boarded our final flight of our trip and the last hour of the 51.5hrs of flying. Rammed flight which is fairly standard at this time. Departed late as someone didn't make the flight and their bag had to be removed.

Uneventful flight. Landed 15mins late. Now off to find the car a drive home.

billinghamn

Glad you got back safely Tim_T - hope your drive home is equally uneventful. We are about to start our trip back from SFO, so looking forward to seeing good old Blighty again.

BA5E

Thoroughly enjoyed the last parts of your TR, glad you enjoyed SYD and the weather was good for you, they have been having an amazing winter. Love the QF F lounge at SYD, it is so nice and airy, and the staff are always happy and obliging, gosh 6 champagnes, did not realise there were so many, thought only 4, perhaps they have upped their numbers I agree entirely the QF lounge in SIN is lovely big and spacious and so nice to have a hot and cold buffet selection, we used the hot selection this year, and so nice to have it cooked while you wait, yes the bar area is lovely, and if you had Ronaldo on duty he is so happy and pleasant. Hope you got home safely after your long flight having to add on the MAN bit. Welcome back to blighty^

Tim_T

Thats it. 51.5hrs, 25,000 miles and 3.5 weeks. Home to a sunny lake district, or at least it was for about an hour. I made the mistake of applying lawn feed to our grass before I left, its now about a foot tall and would make good silage. Washing machine also now going full tilt.

This trip was mostly done on points - BA Avios, Virgin miles, HHonors, and Priority club, which all helped to keep the cost down and the luxury up. Yes it was a bit of a hassle with availability, but this actually added some additional interest "forcing us" to go via Hong Kong rather than out and back via Singapore. It does prove it can be done, but you need to plan well in advance and be as flexible as possible. Our biggest problem was 3 seats as availability for 2 seats is much much better.

Best lounge
Probably the FIRST lounge in LHR T5. General feel and food selection were most to our taste. The Qantas lounge in HKG and SYD were also nice, as was the CX Bridge.

Best seat
BA FIRST. I was not keen on the CX seat comfort and look but the storage areas were very good. I would rank the CX on par with the BA CW seat, whilst storage and access was better, comfort goes to BA.

Best crew
LAN. Hands down the most friendly and warm.

Best meal
BA FIRST again, however LAN came close.

Best hotel
They were all good and it would be difficult to pick a winner.
HKG Interconti. Great view from room and also the bar, pleasant staff, location good with easy access to the metro but too busy around the hotel and too much building work going on nearby.

Auckland Hilton. Staff were amazing. I mucked up my booking and booked for a day earlier than I turned up. They emailed me to ask where I was, and then moved my booking forward 1 day without charge. Other interactions also fantastic. Location is nice, but hotel not as "grand" as the others and in winter most restaurants were not open. I expect a summer night here would be fantastic

Sydney Interconti. Another good view - bridge view but could have been a bit higher. Location good for exploring but staff not as warm and food choices around the hotel a little more limited.

Singapore Conrad. View of the city. Access to exec lounge which was great and the food selection was excellent through out the day. Again a good location for exploring with easy access to the MTR and many restuarants within 2 mins walk. This would probably be the winner as my HH Diamond got us lots of benefits and saved a heap of money (our bill for 4 nights was zero 0!)

Best city
Probably Singapore. Lots to do and a great feel. Feels "foreign" but still familiar. Sydney was also great. I love the feel of the city but found there was less obvious sights once we had seen the bridge and opera house. Hong Kong was intense. Very busy with lots of people, noise and smells. We did find that people tended to just walk into you here and were a little rude. The concept of queuing was not evident in Ocean Park. Some great "big hitter" sights, and the vista over the harbour was excellent, but the heat and humidity just sapped the life out of us (even as regular August Florida visitors!). Auckland had a lovely laid back feel but lacked obvious sights to see.

This was a very different vacation for us. Whilst we do tend to go for 3 weeks, we have never gone East or so far South. We normally go for the more familiar USA, especially Florida or Hawaii. Infact, whilst on this trip I've booked our next trip on Avios for next summer - back to Florida ! We will go back to New Zealand again as I have family there. I'm already thinking how I would do it.

Thanks to all those that have read this live report. I hope it has been interesting and may have helped with your planning for future trips. I now have to start packing for a business trip to Nevada and California next week.......

Jamier45

Thanks for the great TR Tim_T. A great read as it was written 'differently' to normal TRs and me also being an engineer this is probably how I would write mine.

Thanks again!

SaraJH

That was a great read, glad you enjoyed it all. Thank you for taking the time to write this report.

Fly'nAAgain

Very nice read!

I had a similar experience in the Qantas lounge whilst on a SIN transit some time ago but I stayed. The quiet was fantastic until some other travelers arrived, set up camp right behind me and started a party