A Trip, There and Back in the Pointy End – EY, EK, LH F – BA, ET, SQ J , SK Y
Sep 14, 2015, 8:37 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
A Trip, There and Back in the Pointy End – EY, EK, LH F – BA, ET, SQ J , SK Y
This is a series of posts that are really long without too many photos. I hope people enjoy the planning and the journey.
Introduction
I use to work for a very large company in a global role that required frequent travel. I travelled on average 250-300Km a year, mainly in international business class and 90% of my travel was on Singapore Airlines. I even travelled an indirect path to make sure I could travel on Singapore Airlines. For example, to get from Australia to Houston, I use to travel MEL-SIN-DME-IAH. Sure it took 18 hours longer, but the service was so much better than other options flying across the Pacific. Hence Singapore Airlines became my baseline for all flights and carriers.
The high bar that Singapore set when you have travelled over 1.6 million kms on them leads you begin to expect that level of service every time you fly, I would read on Flyertalk some of the horror stories about service levels and wondered what they were writing about. Then I flew on United!
Joking aside, I just wanted to point that out the trip report below is coloured through the rose tinted glasses that most of my premium travel has been on Singapore Airlines. If I do comparison or have an expectation, it is because Singapore Airlines has led me to believe that their service level is normal, and everything else is an outrider.
I started with use to, as a couple of years ago, I quit my job and moved cities within Australia. Part of the deal with my wife on the move was I get a week away every year to travel as far as I can for as little as possible and as quickly as possible. The minimum service level of course being business class. It wasn’t to see places, but to experience getting from point A to point B, via (hopefully) C, D & E. And no I don’t say I have been to Denmark, just because I transited the airport for a couple of hours. But I will claim credit on my Flight Memory.
Which brings me to this trip report. This year, with all my status levels through soft landings running down to base metals due to lack of flying, I had to get very creative. So with a mixture of the remaining frequent flyer miles topped up with credit cards and a couple of cash flights, I have the following itinerary.
How this was booked will be covered below. But overall, this trip covers the highest cabin on each plane that I fly. This trip has a number of firsts. It is my first time on Etihad, SAS and Ethiopian. First time on a 787. First time in Africa.
The introduction has been written a couple of weeks before I take my first flight. I won’t be doing a full write up of each flight in real time, as I don’t have a laptop with me to upload photos or flights or airports, I will be able to get more details during the event rather than try and remember after I get home. I will try to give brief updates as I travel when I get access to the Internet.
I will edit the introduction to add links to each flight for those that want to jump directly to each section. So here is the table of contents
Booking
Day 1 – BNE – AUH – Etihad First on B787
Day 2 – AUH – LHR – Etihad First on A380
Day 3 – LHR – ARN – CPH – HAJ on BA Club Europe and SAS Plus
Day 4 – HAJ – FRA – JED – ADD on Lufthansa Business / First
Day 6 – ADD – NBO – On Ethiopian Business
Day 6 – NBO – DXB – BKK on Emirates First
Day 7 – BKK – SIN – BNE on Singapore Business
Hotels
Abu Dhabi – Mercure Abu Dhabi Centre
London – Sofitel London Heathrow
Hannover – Maritim Airport Hannover
Addis Ababa – Bole Ambassador Hotel
Bangkok – Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit
Introduction
I use to work for a very large company in a global role that required frequent travel. I travelled on average 250-300Km a year, mainly in international business class and 90% of my travel was on Singapore Airlines. I even travelled an indirect path to make sure I could travel on Singapore Airlines. For example, to get from Australia to Houston, I use to travel MEL-SIN-DME-IAH. Sure it took 18 hours longer, but the service was so much better than other options flying across the Pacific. Hence Singapore Airlines became my baseline for all flights and carriers.
The high bar that Singapore set when you have travelled over 1.6 million kms on them leads you begin to expect that level of service every time you fly, I would read on Flyertalk some of the horror stories about service levels and wondered what they were writing about. Then I flew on United!
Joking aside, I just wanted to point that out the trip report below is coloured through the rose tinted glasses that most of my premium travel has been on Singapore Airlines. If I do comparison or have an expectation, it is because Singapore Airlines has led me to believe that their service level is normal, and everything else is an outrider.
I started with use to, as a couple of years ago, I quit my job and moved cities within Australia. Part of the deal with my wife on the move was I get a week away every year to travel as far as I can for as little as possible and as quickly as possible. The minimum service level of course being business class. It wasn’t to see places, but to experience getting from point A to point B, via (hopefully) C, D & E. And no I don’t say I have been to Denmark, just because I transited the airport for a couple of hours. But I will claim credit on my Flight Memory.
Which brings me to this trip report. This year, with all my status levels through soft landings running down to base metals due to lack of flying, I had to get very creative. So with a mixture of the remaining frequent flyer miles topped up with credit cards and a couple of cash flights, I have the following itinerary.
How this was booked will be covered below. But overall, this trip covers the highest cabin on each plane that I fly. This trip has a number of firsts. It is my first time on Etihad, SAS and Ethiopian. First time on a 787. First time in Africa.
The introduction has been written a couple of weeks before I take my first flight. I won’t be doing a full write up of each flight in real time, as I don’t have a laptop with me to upload photos or flights or airports, I will be able to get more details during the event rather than try and remember after I get home. I will try to give brief updates as I travel when I get access to the Internet.
I will edit the introduction to add links to each flight for those that want to jump directly to each section. So here is the table of contents
Booking
Day 1 – BNE – AUH – Etihad First on B787
Day 2 – AUH – LHR – Etihad First on A380
Day 3 – LHR – ARN – CPH – HAJ on BA Club Europe and SAS Plus
Day 4 – HAJ – FRA – JED – ADD on Lufthansa Business / First
Day 6 – ADD – NBO – On Ethiopian Business
Day 6 – NBO – DXB – BKK on Emirates First
Day 7 – BKK – SIN – BNE on Singapore Business
Hotels
Abu Dhabi – Mercure Abu Dhabi Centre
London – Sofitel London Heathrow
Hannover – Maritim Airport Hannover
Addis Ababa – Bole Ambassador Hotel
Bangkok – Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit
Sep 14, 2015, 8:44 am
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Booking
For this year’s trip, I wanted to go to somewhere in Africa. Didn’t matter where, just wanted to go as I haven’t been anywhere in Africa before. To maximise frequent flyer points, I tried to select city pairs at the furthest end of any points table. I also had to try and book either around Easter or in the September School Holidays. Starting this process in February, it didn’t leave me much time for Easter and availability wasn’t the greatest so I started putting together some dates in September.
Starting in the middle, I was looking at Lufthansa to get from somewhere in Africa to somewhere in Europe so I could experience the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. Johannesburg or Cape Town are the best options from Australia, as I could use points on either Singapore or Qantas to get there, but I couldn’t find any Lufthansa flights in First in the time frame that I needed. I then looked in the reverse, ie, going to Johannesburg, but couldn’t find any flights. Looking at where Lufthansa fly, I found that I could get to Addis Ababa, with the benefit of it being in a different region which would leave me points for a future business class flight and the flight did a stop over in another country – all plusses for my flight map.
I always prefer day flights (whats the point of flying in first if you are just going to pretend to sleep). The flight Addis Ababa – Europe was overnight and I really didn’t want the overnight stop. The routing was Europe – Addis Ababa.
Okay – so how to get home. Using Kayak and ITA Matrix, putting in ADD – BNE, in Business it came up with some large numbers. My wife had some Singapore Airlines FF miles that were going to expire so I checked and there were heaps of flights available from SIN to BNE (which was strange as it was the end of the school holidays). So I could use them. Singapore has a region award scheme, so I could fly anywhere in South East Asia to Brisbane for the same number of points. I was looking up Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to Brisbane – which all had availability.
Putting in ADD – SIN, ADD – KUL, ADD – BKK into Kayak and ITA Matrix came up with lots of interesting options. The most expensive being ADD-SIN, the cheapest being ADD-BKK, on Qatar in Business leaving a few hours after getting off the Lufthansa Flight. Just to see what options there were, as a bit of a joke, I changed the setting to First, and slap the head, jaw drop – it was how much from Addis Ababa to Bangkok! And yup, it was the same amount of cash if I booked on the A380 or the B773ER! So I had my return sorted, arriving in Bangkok on Emirates and leaving a few hours later on Singapore.
Now to get to Europe. I had pretty much used up my Singapore FF miles getting home, but I had heaps of Credit Card points. My options from Brisbane were Chinese Airlines, but no real way of getting credit card points to a scheme I could book them.
Qantas, Emirates, Singapore and Etihad were the best option. Coming out of Sydney or Brisbane or Melbourne. Because I had pretty much set dates now from Europe to ADD to BKK to Home, I didn’t have a lot of freedom to pick dates from getting to Europe, plus I needed to keep the trip as short as possible. Qantas and Emirates didn’t have any availability. Then Etihad did the whole A380 to Sydney and B787 service to Brisbane announcement. With a huge number of Virgin Australia points I tried to see what I could get. OH! MY! GOD! I could see availability from Sydney to Abu Dhabi to London on the A380 on Etihad.
So now I have Australia to London in the schedule, I returned to the Europe to Addis Ababa segment. The Etihad flight arrived too late to catch the last Lufthansa flight to FRA, so I would have to overnight there. Lufthansa showed no availability for connecting through FRA on the Monday morning. The FRA-ADD flight was fine, I just couldn’t connect, but every other day of the week was fine. So Tuesday it was the day to travel which left all day Monday to get from London to Hannover. I could catch an early London to Frankfurt flight but it didn’t leave much time in the FCT and with the time zone differences left very early, so where else. Berlin? Yes, but didn’t give much time in FRA. Dusseldorf? No early flight. Hamburg, same. Hannover? YES. There is an early flight and if something goes wrong, I can still catch the later flight and make the connection to the international flight.
HAJ – FRA – JED – ADD, now sorted.
Alright - how to get from LHR to HAJ.
Back to Kayak and IT Matrix. SAS were the cheapest and it went via Copenhagen.
So now I had a pretty good schedule with available seats. I draw up a budget with approximate costs and checked with my wife. She said yes, it looks good so I should book it. I waited a couple of days to just confirm that what I had was the best use of time, points and cost and started booking.
First thing to book is the flights BNE to London, as everything else had lots of availability. The interesting thing was if I put BNE-LHR in, there was no seat, but if I did two different searches – BNE – AUH, AUH – LHR, I could see the flights. I had been watching this every day for a week, there was availability on the Etihad Guest web site from Sydney, yet the day I start phoning them, the flight is gone! Noooo.
I was using Virgin Australia Velocity points for this, so I rang them to see if they could see anything. Nope! SYD-AUH was gone, on the Friday or Saturday. But BNE – AUH on the 787 was available on both days. But BNE-LHR wasn’t. Hmmm, I have never been on the 787, its product was supposed to be good, the cancellation fees weren’t that bad, so I booked it. While I had the choice of both days, I chose the Friday in case the A380 from Sydney became available in the future on that day or Saturday. I could change and the other flights wouldn’t be affected. However, Velocity couldn’t see any availability on the Saturday or Sunday from AUH to LHR, even though it was showing on the Etihad Guest site. I couldn’t book a straight through ticket. Or two separate tickets.
So I transferred 56,000 points from American Express to Etihad Guest, they transferred within a few hours and booked it direct. It was painless and quick. I had opened the account about 7-8 months ago, just in case one was needed to look up FF flights (eg. ANA and Qantas), while I had logged into it, I had never used it before. During this exercise when I transferred Amex Points into the account, meaning points were in the account for the first time, I transferred everything that I needed, but it gave me a welcome bonus, and then an additional welcome bonus. And then I was in the middle of an Amex bonus so got 25% extra miles. When making the booking, you can part pay by cash. I rounded the amount needed for the booking down to 50,000 miles. This only added about $60 for the 6000 points difference, but as the taxes were only around $28 I thought that it was a good use of cash vs points. This meant that I now had excess points in my account for future use.
While I paid two sets of taxes, rather than one, the number of miles needed for two tickets was roughly the same as if I had booked one and I now had a nights stop over in Abu Dhabi and First Class seats from Brisbane to London. I kept looking for availability from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on the A380 but it never opened up. Looks like I will just have to fly on the B787!
Next to book, with Lufthansa, all the points were already in my miles and more account, so using their web site, I booked the HAJ – FRA – ADD ticket. The hardest part was putting in my credit card details to pay for the taxes and fees – ouch!
Next the Singapore Airlines flight. The one I wanted on Friday night was no longer available. Is someone booking the same flights as me? Another change of plans. The flight on Saturday was still possible, so rather than connecting straight off Emirates, I had already decided to spend the night in Bangkok, in case something went wrong with the Emirates flight. So I moved everything back one day and now I had two nights in Addis Ababa. Considering Qantas, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines, the airlines I book with the most have always charged lots of fees to book Frequent Flyer tickets, this becomes the norm rather than something to avoid. I was totally surprised when I booked the Virgin Australia and Etihad flights, how little it cost (since then Etihad now have a per sector charge). While Singapore had announced that they were going to lower the fuel taxes, but with my Friday option already gone and it was the end of the school holidays I booked a few days before the fuel surcharges dropped. I worked out later that I would have saved around $8 to wait, so I was glad to book the flight I needed rather than waiting.
All the Frequent Flyer tickets have been booked, so now onto the paid tickets. Kayak was showing two ways of getting from ADD to BKK. The afternoon ADD-DXB, or ADD-NBO-DXB. Sure the indirect flight left mid-morning rather than in the afternoon, but as there was no chauffeur available in ADD, what difference did it make. But there were four things that made me choose the indirect flight. New Airport, New Airline, Nicer Plane and believe it or not, the deciding factor was – It was cheaper. So going via Nairobi was cheaper than flying on the direct service. Also the direct ADD-DXB flight was on an A330 vs the B777W out of Nairobi, which is a much better first class seat.
I tried booking the flights on Emirates.com direct, but it only ever offered the direct flight. Kayak was showing lots of on-line travel agents offering this deal, so in the end I decided to book with Expedia. The amounts matched between Kayak and Expedia. I kept thinking that the price was so low for two ~6 hour first class flights, but Emirates.Com was showing US$1900 for first class from NBO to BKK. With adding the ADD-NBO flight separately it all seemed to add up, so I booked it. At that point in time Emirates didn’t have a lounge in Nairobi. Sure it was a long stop over there, without a lounge. But IT WAS CHEAPER!
Emirates was showing on their web site that if I took the 3:40am B777W flight vs the A380 3am flight, I would get an additional 5000 miles, through there Miles Accelerator program. I am most likely going to just sleep on the plane at that time of the day and not go visit the bar, and while a shower just before landing would be nice, I can have one during my transit. So while booking on Expedia, the A380 and B777W options showed the same price, I chose the later flight, opted in for that months bonuses and booked on Expedia. So if anyone does use another vehicle to book flights, it is worth while checking on Emirates.Com to see if there are any Miles Accelerator bonuses available.
The only real problem with booking through Expedia was not being able to select seats. I could enter preference (front, back, aisle, window), but couldn’t select actual seats. I managed to find my Emirates booking and could change seats directly on that web site, but couldn’t change my Ethiopian flights. It booked me into the last row window in Business Class. Not ideal but I haven’t figured out a way to change it.
Last flight to book. Hmm, how to get from London to Hannover. I had a whole day to get there, and I had a maximum price of the SAS ticket, so I played around to see how many cities I could connect through to travel for the whole day. Reading some of the blogs and Flyertalk, I got the idea about using some Qantas points on British Airways for a intra-Europe flight. I then thought about flying out and back. I could have gone direct from LHR to HAJ direct on the Sunday night, but where is the fun in that. I looked to see if I could get from LHR to CPH to connect to the SAS flight. Yes that worked. In the end, I figured out I could get the morning flight to Stockholm, and then the SAS flight via CPH and if anything went wrong, I still had later flights I could catch which would still get me to Hannover. It worked out that the taxes and fees that Qantas charged on a business FF ticket was roughly the same as booking a Euro Traveller ticket direct. But at least I got lounge access, as I have no One World status.
There we have it, 7 tickets on 7 different airlines over 9 days.
Hello – Anyone there? Still with me? <Tap> <Tap> on Computer Screen.
I know I have gone into a lot of detail, but in the end, it is one of the major reasons I want to travel. What are the permutations available to get me to different places. Not to see the countries, but to see if it possible, and plan and gnash teeth when it works or doesn’t work out. I am a project manager by trade, and need to plan, over think and try to execute as best as I can.
My purpose for travel is not to see the cities I go to. But to experience the joys of planning and the thrill of a plan coming together. The FF miles and which cabins to travel in, are just a measurement of success. Besides, my wife won’t let me book family travels how I want to!
Anyhow, I hope that you are still with me. And can experience the whole process as I did.
Now how we are getting there is all done, I need somewhere to sleep. I have 5 stop overs to book, with no real concerns about what except to try and make it as cheap as possible.
This isn’t the order that I booked the hotels, but overall why I chose them. I thought about leaving it to the last minute to see if any sales or specials became available, but in the end, I had to have everything planned so decided to book as early as possible in case prices went up, or the A$ fell.
American Express Platinum card holders get free Accor Advantage Plus Le Club Platinum membership. I have never really used Accor hotels before, but they give some nice discounts. It is the only hotel status I have left (except for SPG Gold, but I avoid them where possible – long story. And THAT’S from me!). This is why a lot of Accor Hotels are in the list below.
Abu Dhabi – Mercure Abu Dhabi Centre
Here is was purely price. There were a lot of hotels to choose from. I decided that lounge access (only way to get breakfast) wasn’t important as I would go to the airport early and eat there. I tossed up getting a hotel in another location and spend some time after arriving on the road, but as I haven’t been to Abu Dhabi before settled for one in the city. Total Cost AED 349.84 or A$128.18. Interestingly, I couldn’t use my American Express to book this hotel.
London – Sofitel London Heathrow
Original plan was to stay overnight in the Yotel, something cheap and at the airport to allow for the early morning start the next day. Then Expedia sent me a link saying that as I had booked an airfare, I was entitled to cheaper hotel rooms. Looking at airport hotels, the Sofitel stood out being only about $30 more expensive than the Yotel. So I booked that for A$199.09, including breakfast & Internet. Don’t need breakfast as I leave at 7:50am and will have something in the lounge.
My original plan was to take the train upon arrival to get from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5. However someone asked the question on Flyertalk if they could get the chauffeur from the Sofitel to terminal 4, and the answer came back yes, as it isn’t terminal to terminal. :-0 So logged into the web site and entered the hotel address and it stuck, saying car booked.
Even though I booked the hotel via Expedia, my credit card statement showed that it had been booked through Hotels.Com.
I know that I won’t get any Accor points for the stay I sent the hotel an e-mail to get my number added to my booking. They responded saying that it had been done, but the booking still doesn’t show up under my account in the Accor web site.
Hannover – Maritim Airport Hannover
For an early morning start, I needed an airport hotel. There were two to choose from, reading trip advisor, they were both described as basic but comfortable, so booked the one closest to the airport. Booked via Amex Travel Web Site, total came to A$145.95 for one night.
Addis Ababa – Bole Ambassador Hotel
Australian AMEX Platinum card holders get a $200 travel credit to use every year. It has to be used as a single booking and no refund given. (ie, if you used it on the Maritim booking above, you can’t use the spare $55 on another booking. Restricted to what was available that could be booked at the Amex web site, looking for hotels that were close to the airport and the total bill was over $200. I settled for the Bole Ambassador. This hotel also offers transfers from the airport and includes full breakfast. Total was A$368 - $200, meaning I paid A$168.
Bangkok – Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit
This is the hotel that I most agonised over. Accor Advantage Plus (which is free with my Amex Card) gives a free nights accommodation in AP. There are a lot of Accor hotels in Bangkok and all have positive and negative reviews on Flyertalk. I wanted a hotel that has a lounge, so I could get breakfast. But also close to a train line, so I could get a train out to the airport. I have been to Bangkok about 10 times with work and the family holidays so wanted to stay in a different area to see if it was worth while going back there with the family in the future. After spending a month looking at all the different options, I settled on a hotel, went to book it and couldn’t use my free night.
So ended up with my second choice. It was a close race, so I wasn’t too upset that the decision was made for me. With the free night, you can pay extra to get a corner room, or a slightly larger room etc. I decided in the vein of keep it cheap, and just see what my Le Club Platinum status will get me.
Total cost - $0
Starting in the middle, I was looking at Lufthansa to get from somewhere in Africa to somewhere in Europe so I could experience the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. Johannesburg or Cape Town are the best options from Australia, as I could use points on either Singapore or Qantas to get there, but I couldn’t find any Lufthansa flights in First in the time frame that I needed. I then looked in the reverse, ie, going to Johannesburg, but couldn’t find any flights. Looking at where Lufthansa fly, I found that I could get to Addis Ababa, with the benefit of it being in a different region which would leave me points for a future business class flight and the flight did a stop over in another country – all plusses for my flight map.
I always prefer day flights (whats the point of flying in first if you are just going to pretend to sleep). The flight Addis Ababa – Europe was overnight and I really didn’t want the overnight stop. The routing was Europe – Addis Ababa.
Okay – so how to get home. Using Kayak and ITA Matrix, putting in ADD – BNE, in Business it came up with some large numbers. My wife had some Singapore Airlines FF miles that were going to expire so I checked and there were heaps of flights available from SIN to BNE (which was strange as it was the end of the school holidays). So I could use them. Singapore has a region award scheme, so I could fly anywhere in South East Asia to Brisbane for the same number of points. I was looking up Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to Brisbane – which all had availability.
Putting in ADD – SIN, ADD – KUL, ADD – BKK into Kayak and ITA Matrix came up with lots of interesting options. The most expensive being ADD-SIN, the cheapest being ADD-BKK, on Qatar in Business leaving a few hours after getting off the Lufthansa Flight. Just to see what options there were, as a bit of a joke, I changed the setting to First, and slap the head, jaw drop – it was how much from Addis Ababa to Bangkok! And yup, it was the same amount of cash if I booked on the A380 or the B773ER! So I had my return sorted, arriving in Bangkok on Emirates and leaving a few hours later on Singapore.
Now to get to Europe. I had pretty much used up my Singapore FF miles getting home, but I had heaps of Credit Card points. My options from Brisbane were Chinese Airlines, but no real way of getting credit card points to a scheme I could book them.
Qantas, Emirates, Singapore and Etihad were the best option. Coming out of Sydney or Brisbane or Melbourne. Because I had pretty much set dates now from Europe to ADD to BKK to Home, I didn’t have a lot of freedom to pick dates from getting to Europe, plus I needed to keep the trip as short as possible. Qantas and Emirates didn’t have any availability. Then Etihad did the whole A380 to Sydney and B787 service to Brisbane announcement. With a huge number of Virgin Australia points I tried to see what I could get. OH! MY! GOD! I could see availability from Sydney to Abu Dhabi to London on the A380 on Etihad.
So now I have Australia to London in the schedule, I returned to the Europe to Addis Ababa segment. The Etihad flight arrived too late to catch the last Lufthansa flight to FRA, so I would have to overnight there. Lufthansa showed no availability for connecting through FRA on the Monday morning. The FRA-ADD flight was fine, I just couldn’t connect, but every other day of the week was fine. So Tuesday it was the day to travel which left all day Monday to get from London to Hannover. I could catch an early London to Frankfurt flight but it didn’t leave much time in the FCT and with the time zone differences left very early, so where else. Berlin? Yes, but didn’t give much time in FRA. Dusseldorf? No early flight. Hamburg, same. Hannover? YES. There is an early flight and if something goes wrong, I can still catch the later flight and make the connection to the international flight.
HAJ – FRA – JED – ADD, now sorted.
Alright - how to get from LHR to HAJ.
Back to Kayak and IT Matrix. SAS were the cheapest and it went via Copenhagen.
So now I had a pretty good schedule with available seats. I draw up a budget with approximate costs and checked with my wife. She said yes, it looks good so I should book it. I waited a couple of days to just confirm that what I had was the best use of time, points and cost and started booking.
First thing to book is the flights BNE to London, as everything else had lots of availability. The interesting thing was if I put BNE-LHR in, there was no seat, but if I did two different searches – BNE – AUH, AUH – LHR, I could see the flights. I had been watching this every day for a week, there was availability on the Etihad Guest web site from Sydney, yet the day I start phoning them, the flight is gone! Noooo.
I was using Virgin Australia Velocity points for this, so I rang them to see if they could see anything. Nope! SYD-AUH was gone, on the Friday or Saturday. But BNE – AUH on the 787 was available on both days. But BNE-LHR wasn’t. Hmmm, I have never been on the 787, its product was supposed to be good, the cancellation fees weren’t that bad, so I booked it. While I had the choice of both days, I chose the Friday in case the A380 from Sydney became available in the future on that day or Saturday. I could change and the other flights wouldn’t be affected. However, Velocity couldn’t see any availability on the Saturday or Sunday from AUH to LHR, even though it was showing on the Etihad Guest site. I couldn’t book a straight through ticket. Or two separate tickets.
So I transferred 56,000 points from American Express to Etihad Guest, they transferred within a few hours and booked it direct. It was painless and quick. I had opened the account about 7-8 months ago, just in case one was needed to look up FF flights (eg. ANA and Qantas), while I had logged into it, I had never used it before. During this exercise when I transferred Amex Points into the account, meaning points were in the account for the first time, I transferred everything that I needed, but it gave me a welcome bonus, and then an additional welcome bonus. And then I was in the middle of an Amex bonus so got 25% extra miles. When making the booking, you can part pay by cash. I rounded the amount needed for the booking down to 50,000 miles. This only added about $60 for the 6000 points difference, but as the taxes were only around $28 I thought that it was a good use of cash vs points. This meant that I now had excess points in my account for future use.
While I paid two sets of taxes, rather than one, the number of miles needed for two tickets was roughly the same as if I had booked one and I now had a nights stop over in Abu Dhabi and First Class seats from Brisbane to London. I kept looking for availability from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on the A380 but it never opened up. Looks like I will just have to fly on the B787!
Next to book, with Lufthansa, all the points were already in my miles and more account, so using their web site, I booked the HAJ – FRA – ADD ticket. The hardest part was putting in my credit card details to pay for the taxes and fees – ouch!
Next the Singapore Airlines flight. The one I wanted on Friday night was no longer available. Is someone booking the same flights as me? Another change of plans. The flight on Saturday was still possible, so rather than connecting straight off Emirates, I had already decided to spend the night in Bangkok, in case something went wrong with the Emirates flight. So I moved everything back one day and now I had two nights in Addis Ababa. Considering Qantas, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines, the airlines I book with the most have always charged lots of fees to book Frequent Flyer tickets, this becomes the norm rather than something to avoid. I was totally surprised when I booked the Virgin Australia and Etihad flights, how little it cost (since then Etihad now have a per sector charge). While Singapore had announced that they were going to lower the fuel taxes, but with my Friday option already gone and it was the end of the school holidays I booked a few days before the fuel surcharges dropped. I worked out later that I would have saved around $8 to wait, so I was glad to book the flight I needed rather than waiting.
All the Frequent Flyer tickets have been booked, so now onto the paid tickets. Kayak was showing two ways of getting from ADD to BKK. The afternoon ADD-DXB, or ADD-NBO-DXB. Sure the indirect flight left mid-morning rather than in the afternoon, but as there was no chauffeur available in ADD, what difference did it make. But there were four things that made me choose the indirect flight. New Airport, New Airline, Nicer Plane and believe it or not, the deciding factor was – It was cheaper. So going via Nairobi was cheaper than flying on the direct service. Also the direct ADD-DXB flight was on an A330 vs the B777W out of Nairobi, which is a much better first class seat.
I tried booking the flights on Emirates.com direct, but it only ever offered the direct flight. Kayak was showing lots of on-line travel agents offering this deal, so in the end I decided to book with Expedia. The amounts matched between Kayak and Expedia. I kept thinking that the price was so low for two ~6 hour first class flights, but Emirates.Com was showing US$1900 for first class from NBO to BKK. With adding the ADD-NBO flight separately it all seemed to add up, so I booked it. At that point in time Emirates didn’t have a lounge in Nairobi. Sure it was a long stop over there, without a lounge. But IT WAS CHEAPER!
Emirates was showing on their web site that if I took the 3:40am B777W flight vs the A380 3am flight, I would get an additional 5000 miles, through there Miles Accelerator program. I am most likely going to just sleep on the plane at that time of the day and not go visit the bar, and while a shower just before landing would be nice, I can have one during my transit. So while booking on Expedia, the A380 and B777W options showed the same price, I chose the later flight, opted in for that months bonuses and booked on Expedia. So if anyone does use another vehicle to book flights, it is worth while checking on Emirates.Com to see if there are any Miles Accelerator bonuses available.
The only real problem with booking through Expedia was not being able to select seats. I could enter preference (front, back, aisle, window), but couldn’t select actual seats. I managed to find my Emirates booking and could change seats directly on that web site, but couldn’t change my Ethiopian flights. It booked me into the last row window in Business Class. Not ideal but I haven’t figured out a way to change it.
Last flight to book. Hmm, how to get from London to Hannover. I had a whole day to get there, and I had a maximum price of the SAS ticket, so I played around to see how many cities I could connect through to travel for the whole day. Reading some of the blogs and Flyertalk, I got the idea about using some Qantas points on British Airways for a intra-Europe flight. I then thought about flying out and back. I could have gone direct from LHR to HAJ direct on the Sunday night, but where is the fun in that. I looked to see if I could get from LHR to CPH to connect to the SAS flight. Yes that worked. In the end, I figured out I could get the morning flight to Stockholm, and then the SAS flight via CPH and if anything went wrong, I still had later flights I could catch which would still get me to Hannover. It worked out that the taxes and fees that Qantas charged on a business FF ticket was roughly the same as booking a Euro Traveller ticket direct. But at least I got lounge access, as I have no One World status.
There we have it, 7 tickets on 7 different airlines over 9 days.
Hello – Anyone there? Still with me? <Tap> <Tap> on Computer Screen.
I know I have gone into a lot of detail, but in the end, it is one of the major reasons I want to travel. What are the permutations available to get me to different places. Not to see the countries, but to see if it possible, and plan and gnash teeth when it works or doesn’t work out. I am a project manager by trade, and need to plan, over think and try to execute as best as I can.
My purpose for travel is not to see the cities I go to. But to experience the joys of planning and the thrill of a plan coming together. The FF miles and which cabins to travel in, are just a measurement of success. Besides, my wife won’t let me book family travels how I want to!
Anyhow, I hope that you are still with me. And can experience the whole process as I did.
Now how we are getting there is all done, I need somewhere to sleep. I have 5 stop overs to book, with no real concerns about what except to try and make it as cheap as possible.
This isn’t the order that I booked the hotels, but overall why I chose them. I thought about leaving it to the last minute to see if any sales or specials became available, but in the end, I had to have everything planned so decided to book as early as possible in case prices went up, or the A$ fell.
American Express Platinum card holders get free Accor Advantage Plus Le Club Platinum membership. I have never really used Accor hotels before, but they give some nice discounts. It is the only hotel status I have left (except for SPG Gold, but I avoid them where possible – long story. And THAT’S from me!). This is why a lot of Accor Hotels are in the list below.
Abu Dhabi – Mercure Abu Dhabi Centre
Here is was purely price. There were a lot of hotels to choose from. I decided that lounge access (only way to get breakfast) wasn’t important as I would go to the airport early and eat there. I tossed up getting a hotel in another location and spend some time after arriving on the road, but as I haven’t been to Abu Dhabi before settled for one in the city. Total Cost AED 349.84 or A$128.18. Interestingly, I couldn’t use my American Express to book this hotel.
London – Sofitel London Heathrow
Original plan was to stay overnight in the Yotel, something cheap and at the airport to allow for the early morning start the next day. Then Expedia sent me a link saying that as I had booked an airfare, I was entitled to cheaper hotel rooms. Looking at airport hotels, the Sofitel stood out being only about $30 more expensive than the Yotel. So I booked that for A$199.09, including breakfast & Internet. Don’t need breakfast as I leave at 7:50am and will have something in the lounge.
My original plan was to take the train upon arrival to get from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5. However someone asked the question on Flyertalk if they could get the chauffeur from the Sofitel to terminal 4, and the answer came back yes, as it isn’t terminal to terminal. :-0 So logged into the web site and entered the hotel address and it stuck, saying car booked.
Even though I booked the hotel via Expedia, my credit card statement showed that it had been booked through Hotels.Com.
I know that I won’t get any Accor points for the stay I sent the hotel an e-mail to get my number added to my booking. They responded saying that it had been done, but the booking still doesn’t show up under my account in the Accor web site.
Hannover – Maritim Airport Hannover
For an early morning start, I needed an airport hotel. There were two to choose from, reading trip advisor, they were both described as basic but comfortable, so booked the one closest to the airport. Booked via Amex Travel Web Site, total came to A$145.95 for one night.
Addis Ababa – Bole Ambassador Hotel
Australian AMEX Platinum card holders get a $200 travel credit to use every year. It has to be used as a single booking and no refund given. (ie, if you used it on the Maritim booking above, you can’t use the spare $55 on another booking. Restricted to what was available that could be booked at the Amex web site, looking for hotels that were close to the airport and the total bill was over $200. I settled for the Bole Ambassador. This hotel also offers transfers from the airport and includes full breakfast. Total was A$368 - $200, meaning I paid A$168.
Bangkok – Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit
This is the hotel that I most agonised over. Accor Advantage Plus (which is free with my Amex Card) gives a free nights accommodation in AP. There are a lot of Accor hotels in Bangkok and all have positive and negative reviews on Flyertalk. I wanted a hotel that has a lounge, so I could get breakfast. But also close to a train line, so I could get a train out to the airport. I have been to Bangkok about 10 times with work and the family holidays so wanted to stay in a different area to see if it was worth while going back there with the family in the future. After spending a month looking at all the different options, I settled on a hotel, went to book it and couldn’t use my free night.
So ended up with my second choice. It was a close race, so I wasn’t too upset that the decision was made for me. With the free night, you can pay extra to get a corner room, or a slightly larger room etc. I decided in the vein of keep it cheap, and just see what my Le Club Platinum status will get me.
Total cost - $0
Sep 14, 2015, 8:45 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Total Cost
So how much is my 9 days away costing in the end. To fly Etihad First from Brisbane to London, British Airways Business from London to Stockholm, SAS Plus from Stockholm to Hannover, Lufthansa Business from Hannover to Frankfurt, Lufthansa First Class from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Business Class from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Emirates First Class from Nairobi to Bangkok and Singapore Airlines from Bangkok to Brisbane?
BNE – AUH – EY First - $84.70 + 141,000 Virgin Velocity Miles
AUH – LHR – EY First - $92.62 + 50,000 Etihad Guest Miles
LHR – ARN – BA Business - $114.37 + 26,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer Points
ARN – CPH – HAJ – SK Plus - $228.10
HAJ – FRA – JED – ADD – LH Business / First – $415.14 + 62,000 Lufthansa M&M Miles
ADD – NBO – DXB – BKK – ET Business / EK First - $3449.50
BKK – SIN – BNE – SQ Business - $328.95 + 46,750 Singapore Krisflyer Miles
Total Airfares = $4713.38
Total Hotels = $641.22
Total = A$5354.60
BNE – AUH – EY First - $84.70 + 141,000 Virgin Velocity Miles
AUH – LHR – EY First - $92.62 + 50,000 Etihad Guest Miles
LHR – ARN – BA Business - $114.37 + 26,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer Points
ARN – CPH – HAJ – SK Plus - $228.10
HAJ – FRA – JED – ADD – LH Business / First – $415.14 + 62,000 Lufthansa M&M Miles
ADD – NBO – DXB – BKK – ET Business / EK First - $3449.50
BKK – SIN – BNE – SQ Business - $328.95 + 46,750 Singapore Krisflyer Miles
Total Airfares = $4713.38
Total Hotels = $641.22
Total = A$5354.60
Sep 14, 2015, 8:46 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Changes to flights
Whenever I have booked flights 6+ months ahead of time, I generally get a lot of changes, to schedules, to plane type, just about everything. So for the first few months, I would watch the flights on a semi regular basis, using Expert Flyer to monitor the flight times, how many people are in the same cabin as I, etc.
I have been very surprised, with 7 different airlines that the number of changes have been so few. In fact the changes have been so minimal it makes me worry more.
So for all my flights, these are the changes I have had.
For SAS, between ARN and CPH, my plane changed from an A321 to an A320. It meant the reserved seat in the middle of the plane at the exit row no longer existed. While the system changed me from a window to an aisle in row 2, I caught this in time and changed to seat 1A.
For Ethiopian, my flight number changed from ET302 to ET304. No other differences in time or plane model.
That’s it. For booking September flights in February, that’s all the changes that there have been.
Singapore Airlines did change the A330 to an unrefurbished B772, but changed it back again a couple of months later. As the cabin layout was the same, no changes of seats occurred between all the swaps.
I have been very surprised, with 7 different airlines that the number of changes have been so few. In fact the changes have been so minimal it makes me worry more.
So for all my flights, these are the changes I have had.
For SAS, between ARN and CPH, my plane changed from an A321 to an A320. It meant the reserved seat in the middle of the plane at the exit row no longer existed. While the system changed me from a window to an aisle in row 2, I caught this in time and changed to seat 1A.
For Ethiopian, my flight number changed from ET302 to ET304. No other differences in time or plane model.
That’s it. For booking September flights in February, that’s all the changes that there have been.
Singapore Airlines did change the A330 to an unrefurbished B772, but changed it back again a couple of months later. As the cabin layout was the same, no changes of seats occurred between all the swaps.
Sep 14, 2015, 8:50 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Technology
As you could guess, creating an itinerary this complex required something to help me group it together. Something that I could use to make sure I didn’t leave before I arrived on a connecting flight. Or find that I had two days in a location with no hotel. So I looked around for software that would help me build an itinerary similarly to what you would get if you booked through a travel agent. There were lots of options, but in the end I settled on Trip It.
You give this web site access to your e-mail account and it scan it on a regular basis looking for travel confirmations. Or e-mail itineraries from the registered e-mail address and it will pick out key information and create an itinerary for you. It also has apps for various devices you can keep reviewing your plans.
The free version is pretty good, but it does keep nagging you to upgrade to the Pro release. If gives a one month free trial, which I have been waiting to close to my departure date to see if it is worth while keeping. I will update through the trip report any benefit of the Pro upgrade. At the start of the month I got a special offer saying you have been with us for 6 months, so have two months free instead of one. So I signed up to see if there are any benefits in the lead up to the trip, as well as the trip itself. I can’t see the benefit of “Pro” on a straight out and back trip, but lets see what it is like on a complex journey.
Overall, I have been impressed on how it collects information for all the different e-mail formats that come in. It built a pretty clear trip plan from just the e-mails and only needed minor editing on the web site. The iPad app is also good as it build little maps of the plane journeys that you are going to take.
And bigger maps
Also with tags next to each flight showing if they are okay or not.
I also have a new Apple Watch, a lot of airlines have interfaces with their apps on the Apple Watch so I will see how useful this is as far as reminders go or help in airports. I have downloaded every airlines app and hopefully this will help in my travels for on-line checkin or other requirements. Along with the Apple Watch, I have an iPhone 6 and an iPad. I also have USB battery charger in case I need to charge items on planes, or I don’t have the correct 3-pin plug convertor in country.
So there you have it. My Plans, How, Why and What I booked along with the technology that will hopefully make the trip a bit easier.
Sorry to make the introduction so long, but I hope you can get my sense of excitement when booking this. If there is anything that you would like to know, please ask, otherwise I will do updates in a couple of weeks, once I have started the trip and then a full write up of each leg once I get home.
You give this web site access to your e-mail account and it scan it on a regular basis looking for travel confirmations. Or e-mail itineraries from the registered e-mail address and it will pick out key information and create an itinerary for you. It also has apps for various devices you can keep reviewing your plans.
The free version is pretty good, but it does keep nagging you to upgrade to the Pro release. If gives a one month free trial, which I have been waiting to close to my departure date to see if it is worth while keeping. I will update through the trip report any benefit of the Pro upgrade. At the start of the month I got a special offer saying you have been with us for 6 months, so have two months free instead of one. So I signed up to see if there are any benefits in the lead up to the trip, as well as the trip itself. I can’t see the benefit of “Pro” on a straight out and back trip, but lets see what it is like on a complex journey.
Overall, I have been impressed on how it collects information for all the different e-mail formats that come in. It built a pretty clear trip plan from just the e-mails and only needed minor editing on the web site. The iPad app is also good as it build little maps of the plane journeys that you are going to take.
And bigger maps
Also with tags next to each flight showing if they are okay or not.
I also have a new Apple Watch, a lot of airlines have interfaces with their apps on the Apple Watch so I will see how useful this is as far as reminders go or help in airports. I have downloaded every airlines app and hopefully this will help in my travels for on-line checkin or other requirements. Along with the Apple Watch, I have an iPhone 6 and an iPad. I also have USB battery charger in case I need to charge items on planes, or I don’t have the correct 3-pin plug convertor in country.
So there you have it. My Plans, How, Why and What I booked along with the technology that will hopefully make the trip a bit easier.
Sorry to make the introduction so long, but I hope you can get my sense of excitement when booking this. If there is anything that you would like to know, please ask, otherwise I will do updates in a couple of weeks, once I have started the trip and then a full write up of each leg once I get home.
Sep 15, 2015, 7:14 am
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Sep 15, 2015, 7:18 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
I am aiming for thorough and hopefully people will pick up some tips along the way as well.
Sep 15, 2015, 7:25 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Update #1 – Changes to flights
I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! If you tweak the nose of Fate, she is a cruel mistress and gets her revenge. Hours after writing that I had no major changes to my flights, I get an e-mail from Expedia saying that my flight from Dubai to Bangkok had been downgraded to Business Class!
That’s right, just 17 days before the flight they have changed the plane to a two class 77W. The best part was the text from Expedia that said “…Emirates has done their best to find an alternative that offers minimal disruption to your trip….”
So a change from First to Business is the best they can come up with considering that there is a flight to Bangkok 40 minutes before this scheduled flight or one 5 hours later, both which offer first.
The best part was a link in the e-mail that said, to automatically accept the change, just click here! No where in the e-mail did it say there would be a refund or any other option. Sure I paid for First, I am just one click away from accepting what every you want! NOT!
Looking at Expert Flyer it confirms it is now a two class 77W. Also the A380 at 3am is F2A0, but 3 seats (including one blocked) are available to choose. I am booked in “A”.
Decision – Ring Expedia or Ring Emirates.
It is an Emirates Ticket, and so I decide to ring them first to see what they can offer. They confirm that it is now a 2 class plane and immediately offer, I mean no question asked, just immediately offers this solution, (as I said it is showing F2A0) the 3am flight (rather than 3:40am). And to make it sound like a win on my part, he adds “… and it’s a 380 as well!...” in a tone of voice indicating that I should put a picture of one in a corner of the room and start bowing towards it.
He then states very confusingly, that he has to send it off to head office to get confirmed and I should get an e-mail in 1-3 hours. I ask him what happens if it doesn’t get confirmed, how will I know, do I have to ring back? He tried to stress that it was just a formality, but with F2A0 seats, I wasn’t too sure. I them asked about seat assignment, (once I get an e-mail just go onto the web site and book it myself), car transfer (it will move to the new booking automatically once changed), miles accelerator points (too bad out of luck!)
So if I don’t hear back in 3 hours then ring again? Yes, please do so, we are open 24x7.
During the conversation, I am refreshing my booking on the Emirates app on the iPad to see what is happening. Sure enough a few minutes later, I see that I am now on the 3am flight in business class. WHAT – BUSINESS CLASS. Another refresh, now First class in seat 1K.
Another refresh, I now have seats in both business class in row 8 and first class in row 1, and can book cars from the airport and back to the airport in Dubai. But my car booking in Bangkok has disappeared.
Finally an e-mail comes through from Emirates saying I am in First from Nairobi to Bangkok but it has the wrong Ethiopian flight, it has the original 302 flight number. Expedia has picked up that my flights have changed and send another e-mail letting me know all the changes, which are correct, then half an hour later send another e-mail saying that I have gone from the 3am flight back to the 3:40am flight into business.
I walk away at this point from the iPad, muttering about what deity I had offended and just hoped that time will sort everything out. Later When I check on Emirates app, it shows everything is okay, and I can even change the seat to 2K, which Expert Flyer had been showing as blocked. The next day online it shows my fare class as First Flex rather than just First, and even now has the correct Ethiopian flight number, and indeed, my car booking has transferred over to the new flight.
In the mean time, TripIT has been scanning all the confusing e-mails coming in and rather than editing existing flights or sending me a link and say this needs manual confirmation for the changes it has added them all to my itinerary. So according to it, I am on both ET302 and ET304. It has ET304 listed twice, EK720 listed 3 times and EK384 and EK376 and a blank entry as well. So a fail on its part for being too automated. Manual editing required to fix up. It does send me an e-mail saying I have conflicting plans, but still if I have to edit it myself, what’s the point of the automation. In this case e-mailing the final solution would be better than letting it scan my e-mail.
At no point did TripIt or Emirates (my skywards number is in the booking) e-mail me saying there had been a change. If it wasn’t for Expedia, I would never have known, or maybe its systems are just faster with noticing the change.
Checking on both Expedia and Emirates today shows everything is listed as confirmed and looks okay. It does seem strange that Emirates made a change 17 days before the flight, but at least the solution was relatively easy to get. I gave myself more anxiety by refreshing my booking and could see all the changes happening as the system worked through it, rather than just wait the few hours for it to happen. After confirming myself through Expert Flyer what the flight times and how empty they were, I would have been better off leaving technology alone, and coming back once the e-mail arrived showing everything confirmed.
That’s right, just 17 days before the flight they have changed the plane to a two class 77W. The best part was the text from Expedia that said “…Emirates has done their best to find an alternative that offers minimal disruption to your trip….”
So a change from First to Business is the best they can come up with considering that there is a flight to Bangkok 40 minutes before this scheduled flight or one 5 hours later, both which offer first.
The best part was a link in the e-mail that said, to automatically accept the change, just click here! No where in the e-mail did it say there would be a refund or any other option. Sure I paid for First, I am just one click away from accepting what every you want! NOT!
Looking at Expert Flyer it confirms it is now a two class 77W. Also the A380 at 3am is F2A0, but 3 seats (including one blocked) are available to choose. I am booked in “A”.
Decision – Ring Expedia or Ring Emirates.
It is an Emirates Ticket, and so I decide to ring them first to see what they can offer. They confirm that it is now a 2 class plane and immediately offer, I mean no question asked, just immediately offers this solution, (as I said it is showing F2A0) the 3am flight (rather than 3:40am). And to make it sound like a win on my part, he adds “… and it’s a 380 as well!...” in a tone of voice indicating that I should put a picture of one in a corner of the room and start bowing towards it.
He then states very confusingly, that he has to send it off to head office to get confirmed and I should get an e-mail in 1-3 hours. I ask him what happens if it doesn’t get confirmed, how will I know, do I have to ring back? He tried to stress that it was just a formality, but with F2A0 seats, I wasn’t too sure. I them asked about seat assignment, (once I get an e-mail just go onto the web site and book it myself), car transfer (it will move to the new booking automatically once changed), miles accelerator points (too bad out of luck!)
So if I don’t hear back in 3 hours then ring again? Yes, please do so, we are open 24x7.
During the conversation, I am refreshing my booking on the Emirates app on the iPad to see what is happening. Sure enough a few minutes later, I see that I am now on the 3am flight in business class. WHAT – BUSINESS CLASS. Another refresh, now First class in seat 1K.
Another refresh, I now have seats in both business class in row 8 and first class in row 1, and can book cars from the airport and back to the airport in Dubai. But my car booking in Bangkok has disappeared.
Finally an e-mail comes through from Emirates saying I am in First from Nairobi to Bangkok but it has the wrong Ethiopian flight, it has the original 302 flight number. Expedia has picked up that my flights have changed and send another e-mail letting me know all the changes, which are correct, then half an hour later send another e-mail saying that I have gone from the 3am flight back to the 3:40am flight into business.
I walk away at this point from the iPad, muttering about what deity I had offended and just hoped that time will sort everything out. Later When I check on Emirates app, it shows everything is okay, and I can even change the seat to 2K, which Expert Flyer had been showing as blocked. The next day online it shows my fare class as First Flex rather than just First, and even now has the correct Ethiopian flight number, and indeed, my car booking has transferred over to the new flight.
In the mean time, TripIT has been scanning all the confusing e-mails coming in and rather than editing existing flights or sending me a link and say this needs manual confirmation for the changes it has added them all to my itinerary. So according to it, I am on both ET302 and ET304. It has ET304 listed twice, EK720 listed 3 times and EK384 and EK376 and a blank entry as well. So a fail on its part for being too automated. Manual editing required to fix up. It does send me an e-mail saying I have conflicting plans, but still if I have to edit it myself, what’s the point of the automation. In this case e-mailing the final solution would be better than letting it scan my e-mail.
At no point did TripIt or Emirates (my skywards number is in the booking) e-mail me saying there had been a change. If it wasn’t for Expedia, I would never have known, or maybe its systems are just faster with noticing the change.
Checking on both Expedia and Emirates today shows everything is listed as confirmed and looks okay. It does seem strange that Emirates made a change 17 days before the flight, but at least the solution was relatively easy to get. I gave myself more anxiety by refreshing my booking and could see all the changes happening as the system worked through it, rather than just wait the few hours for it to happen. After confirming myself through Expert Flyer what the flight times and how empty they were, I would have been better off leaving technology alone, and coming back once the e-mail arrived showing everything confirmed.
Sep 15, 2015, 9:01 am
#11
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: JNB
Programs: Flying Blue, Miles and Smiles, Hhonors, ICHotels
Posts: 1,307
Your Project Management skills have been tested with this one.
Going to look forward to the updates. Hope that you have no more nasty surprises. I would be pissed if I was downgraded from F to J. Glad you caught that one in time.
Safe Travels.
Going to look forward to the updates. Hope that you have no more nasty surprises. I would be pissed if I was downgraded from F to J. Glad you caught that one in time.
Safe Travels.
Nov 2, 2015, 9:04 pm
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Journey Complete
Sorry it has taken so long for updates to start. I have been home for a couple of weeks now. I wasn’t well to start with. Not sure if I left with the bug or picked one up during the trip. I did have a sore throat before I left, but it went away, maybe it was having such a good time with all the alcohol that I was drinking that it wasn’t until I stopped that it remembered what it was there for, which was to make my life a misery.
I also had to go back to my day job, which is running the house and getting the kids back to school after the term break, so it has taken me a couple of weeks to start the write up. Hopefully, I can now get the entries going one every couple of days or so.
I also had to go back to my day job, which is running the house and getting the kids back to school after the term break, so it has taken me a couple of weeks to start the write up. Hopefully, I can now get the entries going one every couple of days or so.
Nov 2, 2015, 9:31 pm
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
Day 1 - Leaving Brisbane BNE - AUH
Two days prior to my flight, I received a phone call from the local agency handling the chauffer booking. Asking if I could get picked up at 5:45pm for my 9:35pm flight. I only live 20 minutes away from the airport, or 30 with traffic. I was never asked or told why it was so early, but in Australia at that time, the Border agents were going on strike from 7-9pm, so I assume, it was just to get me through passport control before the strike started. They were going to have a skeleton staff on, so likes could get very long.
I often find when you have plenty of time, pre-booked cars turn up early. It is only when you need to be at the airport in a hurry do they turn up late. Sure enough, the car arrived at 5:35pm, but I was ready for it, and we left around 5:40. It was a very nice car, the driver was chatty and I asked him what it was. He was very proud of his Audi A8 Diesel, which was new and he is an intendent driver. We talked about the current problem with Volkswagen Group diesels.
Just before 6pm, I was saying good bye to him and his car.
I had been dropped off next to the doors that led to the Etihad check in. Brisbane airport isn’t that busy at this time of the day, so not many people around. However, even though it was 3.5 hours before the flight, there were still a number of people in the business and economy queues. As I walked in, one person rushed in front of me to the first class counter and had a discussion with the person there. I didn’t catch what they said, but watching her actions afterwards, she rushed back to a group of people by some luggage trolleys and they started to line up in the first class line behind me. Not sure what it was about, but I assume they pleaded some case where they didn’t want to line up behind all the business class or economy passengers. Maybe they had Virgin Status or something. Otherwise if they deserved to be in the first class queue, why not just line up.
There was a tiny wait, maybe 3-4 minutes as check in hadn’t opened at that stage. I said that is okay as I was why more than 3 hours in front of the departure time. But put my documents on the counter. I then noticed that my apple watch had a funny symbol at the top of the dial which I hadn’t seen before. Looking closely I noticed that it was a red phone with a line through it. I quickly checked my pockets and found – or rather didn’t find, my phone! I then interrupted the check in person and said I need to speak to the Etihad Check-in Supervisor or Station Manager immediately. She didn’t act / react, so I said again, I need to speak to the Supervisor, I have left my phone in the Etihad Chauffeur car. She then moved slowly 4 feet to her right where the supervisor was, who then came over. I explained that I think I have left my phone in the car, could I try and ring it to find it.
She gave me her mobile, which I rang and the driver said that he had just found it and was on his way back to the airport.
Checkin took a little longer than normal, as the agent kept on flipping through my passport. She eventually asked where my visa was. I said I didn’t think I needed one when staying for a few days and she asked to see proof of my onwards travel. I passed over a paper copy of my next days trip so she could enter the details and link the bookings. She then asked if I wanted to check my bag all the way through to London. No was my answer. Carryon luggage was weighed, and tagged as cabin baggage.
Checkin was then completed, and I was given my boarding pass, Express Card and told where the lounge was. Overall the agent did her job, but nothing really special or fast. There was no warmth or welcome to Etihad First Class. Okay my nerves were shot, hands shaking etc, so maybe I wasn’t in the best frame of mind, but I didn’t find her helpful. Then as I started to head outside to wait for the driver, he was walking across the floor towards me with my phone.
Total time from drop off, checkin, found I had lost my phone, had my boarding passes and got my phone back – 11-12 minutes. BUT IT FELT LIKE A LONG TIME!
If I didn’t have the apple watch, I would have found out when I went through security that I couldn’t find my phone, but it certainly saved time to find out so quickly that my phone was out of range.
To leave Australia (and to arrive as well) the government requires you to fill out a form. I generally have a bunch at home ready to fill out so I don’t have to do it at the airport. There have also been times on the plane when they haven’t had any forms to hand out and everyone if filling them out while waiting in line. Brisbane airport has a Google and Apple app, including an Apple Watch app that allows you to pre-fill out your departure card. This means that you only have to enter your name and passport details in once, and every time after that you only have to enter your current departure flight details.
The app then creates a QCode which you can go up to the machine in the departure hall. Hold your phone (or Apple Watch) up to the scanner, it prints out your departure card and all you have to do is sign it, before proceeding to passport control. I think that Brisbane is the only airport in the country that offers this service.
My hands were still shaking after the near miss with the phone, and I needed to get through security before the 7pm strike, so I rushed through this next section.
You find the machine just before you head downstairs to passport control. Biggest problem is getting to the machine as everyone dumps their luggage trolleys in front of it and the airport doesn’t do a great job in keeping the area clear.
The problem with using the apple watch is that every time you drop your hand, the screen goes blank. There are instructions to tap the watch face to get it active, but every time I tried it would turn off before I could get it to scan.
So in the end, I gave up as there was someone else wanting to use the machine as well and I didn’t want to waste any more time and used the app on the phone which worked perfectly. Apple watch app fail. After using the watch with other apps on this trip, I think the developers need to pass the Q-Code over to passbook. Passbook codes stay active even when the arm goes to the resting position.
Premium or Status passengers are given Express Pass cards which is a fast track through security and passport control. If the lines are long, it is worth it, but a lot of the times I have been through Brisbane airport the lines aren’t that much longer in the normal queue. As was the case this time. I had the pass, but there was no line at security.
Security in Brisbane. Laptops & liquids Out, iPads stay in the bag. Shoes and Belt stay on. Through metal detector. BEEP! Shoes Off, Belt Off, which go through X-Ray on their own. I go through Nude-o-scope! On my way.
Through passport control, but normal line faster as they have many servers to the single queue.
Immediately past security on the right there is the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme) counter. While it has Tourist in the title, anyone, including citizens that have goods worth more than A$300 that are taken out of the country can get the sales tax (GST) back. It has to be something that can be taken out of the country. So a service like a meal or hotel room can’t be claimed. There are a few other rules, like the $300 has to be on a single invoice, but you can have multiple invoices. If it is over $1000, it must have your name on the tax invoice. But any resident that has purchased something 60 days before leaving can get the GST back. If returning to Australia you need to declare it if the item takes you over your duty free limit, but otherwise you get phones or watches tax free. If you need to pack it in your luggage and it can’t be carried on the plane, there is an office before you check in where they will inspect the goods so you can check them in. You still have to visit the booth to get the refund. This is government run and there is no cost to get the GST refunded, so you get it 100% refunded.
Further details here https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Ente/...ou-a-traveller
TRS have an app which allows you to enter all the invoice and personal details before getting to the airport. In Sydney and Brisbane there is a special line where if you have the app, you can by-pass the often 30-40 minute wait. Again the app creates a QCode which speeds up the claim considerably or at least it does in theory.
I went down the special line for those with the app and find that there is one person in the normal line. (This will become a theme of this trip). I was here well in front of the 7pm deadline before they went on strike. The Customs agent called the person in the normal line before the special line, but I was okay with that as I still needed to calm my nerves from the close run think with the lost phone.
I get called up and pass over all the necessary items, (invoice, boarding pass, passport etc.) and my phone with the QCode. She tries to scan it, and tries and tries. And eventually it works. No time was saved by having the app. I chatted to her as there was no one in line waiting and she said that for a single invoice the app is more trouble than it is worth. But if you have multiple invoices it does saves time. Technology fail! But my Apple Watch was now 10% cheaper!
I also discussed the upcoming strike. She explains the workers side of it, and she convinced me that what they were asking for was reasonable. What had been reported in the media was, as per normal not the full story. I thought that some of what management were asking for was okay, but could see their side as well. We had a good talk and then someone else came up wanting their GST back, so I left and headed through the maze of shopping to get to the open plan area and followed the signs to the Air New Zealand Lounge.
I need to start by saying that Air New Zealand plan to completely revamp the lounge in Brisbane. So this review in 2015 will be out of date very soon. They are opening an expanded and new lounge in a different location, not just put in new carpet and chairs. This should open in 2016. In the mean time, they have something that according to my notes is described in one word as Yuck.
When checking in at the front desk of the lounge, they had a list of all Etihad passengers, including 3 people in first, which matched what I had seen in ExpertFlyer.
There as an Air New Zealand flight that left an hour late, so maybe that is the reason why, but there were lots of people in the room, and they started vacuuming the floor. Maybe the scheduled time is after the last Air NZ flight before a lot of Etihad passengers turn up, but why not clean the place after the Etihad flight leaves? Rather than while people were there and having to step over the trip hazard power cords and listening to the vacuum for 30+ minutes.
This includes the sparkling wine they have on offer which is Dulcet Methode Traditionelle.
Maybe I am being a bit harsh. I did feel that the best thing going for it was that it was somewhere quiet to wait for the next two hours. But it had a small selection of food, including cold cuts, scones, mushroom soup and a Thai Green Chicken curry and rice. Cookie jars were scatted around the room.
Wifi was free and fast. Passwords were scattered around the room. There were windows, but they overlook the back of the airport at a car park. There was a delayed Air New Zealand flight, which left and then they took all the hot food away. I thought – ohhh maybe the good stuff comes out just for the Etihad passengers. But no, nothing replaced it. All the hot food was gone over an hour before the scheduled departure time. So if you want something hot to eat in the lounge, come before the last Air NZ flights leave. They left the containers which held the hot food just to show people that they had missed out on something.
I did try the Thai Green Chicken curry before it was taken away which was spicy and nice. They also have a good selection of wine, beer and spirits.
I got bored and boarding time was scheduled soon, so left the lounge to stretch my legs before the overnight flight.
I have to say in my defence that I know there are some blurred photos coming up. I feel embarrassed to take photos in public so often will try to take the photo quickly and not with my good camera. I am not part of the Selfie Generation. I have included the blurred photos, as they are readable, and help with the narrative.
As you can see at this time of night, there aren’t too many flights leaving from Brisbane airport, and the other flight to Dubai, is a looong way away from our boarding gate.
There she is, my first 787!
They have done a good job at making the waiting area, open, bright and airy. Not many people around.
Boarding was called at around 8:50pm. This was the shot only a couple of minutes before it was called. As you can see, not many people lining up. At the right of this photo, was the line for economy class, and on the left with no one waiting, was where First, Business and Status people boarded from. I was around when the stated boarding but not near the area. However, I still managed to be the third person on board and the first in the front two cabins.
Whoo Hoo! Here we go!
I know it is covered in paint, but I touched the side of the plane as I boarded to see if I could tell the difference between a metal side and the carbon fibre. Nope. It felt like metal to me. I also forgot in my excitement to get to my seat to look out for the Grand Entrance. Missed it completely. I meant to look for it on the way out, but forgot then as well. So much for one of the selling points of the 787.
I was welcomed on board and escorted to my seat. Okay, I wanted to get to my seat and rushed through, but walking through the mini business cabin, my first impression was, where are the oars for the slaves? Gee it looked cramped.
Yes, I am here. There were no accidents with the kids, wife, dogs, family etc. No sudden crisis that needed to be attended to. I am here and going to take off soon. Let me tell you, a kid in a lolly shop had nothing on me. I was the first one here and wanted to take as many photos as possible, so bounced around trying to see as much as I could. I was just a little excited!
A couple of Shots of the Mini Business Class Cabin
And at the end of the flight.
And the First Class Cabin and Seat
Single Seat
And Ottoman
View from aisle
I often find when you have plenty of time, pre-booked cars turn up early. It is only when you need to be at the airport in a hurry do they turn up late. Sure enough, the car arrived at 5:35pm, but I was ready for it, and we left around 5:40. It was a very nice car, the driver was chatty and I asked him what it was. He was very proud of his Audi A8 Diesel, which was new and he is an intendent driver. We talked about the current problem with Volkswagen Group diesels.
Just before 6pm, I was saying good bye to him and his car.
I had been dropped off next to the doors that led to the Etihad check in. Brisbane airport isn’t that busy at this time of the day, so not many people around. However, even though it was 3.5 hours before the flight, there were still a number of people in the business and economy queues. As I walked in, one person rushed in front of me to the first class counter and had a discussion with the person there. I didn’t catch what they said, but watching her actions afterwards, she rushed back to a group of people by some luggage trolleys and they started to line up in the first class line behind me. Not sure what it was about, but I assume they pleaded some case where they didn’t want to line up behind all the business class or economy passengers. Maybe they had Virgin Status or something. Otherwise if they deserved to be in the first class queue, why not just line up.
There was a tiny wait, maybe 3-4 minutes as check in hadn’t opened at that stage. I said that is okay as I was why more than 3 hours in front of the departure time. But put my documents on the counter. I then noticed that my apple watch had a funny symbol at the top of the dial which I hadn’t seen before. Looking closely I noticed that it was a red phone with a line through it. I quickly checked my pockets and found – or rather didn’t find, my phone! I then interrupted the check in person and said I need to speak to the Etihad Check-in Supervisor or Station Manager immediately. She didn’t act / react, so I said again, I need to speak to the Supervisor, I have left my phone in the Etihad Chauffeur car. She then moved slowly 4 feet to her right where the supervisor was, who then came over. I explained that I think I have left my phone in the car, could I try and ring it to find it.
She gave me her mobile, which I rang and the driver said that he had just found it and was on his way back to the airport.
Checkin took a little longer than normal, as the agent kept on flipping through my passport. She eventually asked where my visa was. I said I didn’t think I needed one when staying for a few days and she asked to see proof of my onwards travel. I passed over a paper copy of my next days trip so she could enter the details and link the bookings. She then asked if I wanted to check my bag all the way through to London. No was my answer. Carryon luggage was weighed, and tagged as cabin baggage.
Checkin was then completed, and I was given my boarding pass, Express Card and told where the lounge was. Overall the agent did her job, but nothing really special or fast. There was no warmth or welcome to Etihad First Class. Okay my nerves were shot, hands shaking etc, so maybe I wasn’t in the best frame of mind, but I didn’t find her helpful. Then as I started to head outside to wait for the driver, he was walking across the floor towards me with my phone.
Total time from drop off, checkin, found I had lost my phone, had my boarding passes and got my phone back – 11-12 minutes. BUT IT FELT LIKE A LONG TIME!
If I didn’t have the apple watch, I would have found out when I went through security that I couldn’t find my phone, but it certainly saved time to find out so quickly that my phone was out of range.
To leave Australia (and to arrive as well) the government requires you to fill out a form. I generally have a bunch at home ready to fill out so I don’t have to do it at the airport. There have also been times on the plane when they haven’t had any forms to hand out and everyone if filling them out while waiting in line. Brisbane airport has a Google and Apple app, including an Apple Watch app that allows you to pre-fill out your departure card. This means that you only have to enter your name and passport details in once, and every time after that you only have to enter your current departure flight details.
The app then creates a QCode which you can go up to the machine in the departure hall. Hold your phone (or Apple Watch) up to the scanner, it prints out your departure card and all you have to do is sign it, before proceeding to passport control. I think that Brisbane is the only airport in the country that offers this service.
My hands were still shaking after the near miss with the phone, and I needed to get through security before the 7pm strike, so I rushed through this next section.
You find the machine just before you head downstairs to passport control. Biggest problem is getting to the machine as everyone dumps their luggage trolleys in front of it and the airport doesn’t do a great job in keeping the area clear.
The problem with using the apple watch is that every time you drop your hand, the screen goes blank. There are instructions to tap the watch face to get it active, but every time I tried it would turn off before I could get it to scan.
So in the end, I gave up as there was someone else wanting to use the machine as well and I didn’t want to waste any more time and used the app on the phone which worked perfectly. Apple watch app fail. After using the watch with other apps on this trip, I think the developers need to pass the Q-Code over to passbook. Passbook codes stay active even when the arm goes to the resting position.
Premium or Status passengers are given Express Pass cards which is a fast track through security and passport control. If the lines are long, it is worth it, but a lot of the times I have been through Brisbane airport the lines aren’t that much longer in the normal queue. As was the case this time. I had the pass, but there was no line at security.
Security in Brisbane. Laptops & liquids Out, iPads stay in the bag. Shoes and Belt stay on. Through metal detector. BEEP! Shoes Off, Belt Off, which go through X-Ray on their own. I go through Nude-o-scope! On my way.
Through passport control, but normal line faster as they have many servers to the single queue.
Immediately past security on the right there is the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme) counter. While it has Tourist in the title, anyone, including citizens that have goods worth more than A$300 that are taken out of the country can get the sales tax (GST) back. It has to be something that can be taken out of the country. So a service like a meal or hotel room can’t be claimed. There are a few other rules, like the $300 has to be on a single invoice, but you can have multiple invoices. If it is over $1000, it must have your name on the tax invoice. But any resident that has purchased something 60 days before leaving can get the GST back. If returning to Australia you need to declare it if the item takes you over your duty free limit, but otherwise you get phones or watches tax free. If you need to pack it in your luggage and it can’t be carried on the plane, there is an office before you check in where they will inspect the goods so you can check them in. You still have to visit the booth to get the refund. This is government run and there is no cost to get the GST refunded, so you get it 100% refunded.
Further details here https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Ente/...ou-a-traveller
TRS have an app which allows you to enter all the invoice and personal details before getting to the airport. In Sydney and Brisbane there is a special line where if you have the app, you can by-pass the often 30-40 minute wait. Again the app creates a QCode which speeds up the claim considerably or at least it does in theory.
I went down the special line for those with the app and find that there is one person in the normal line. (This will become a theme of this trip). I was here well in front of the 7pm deadline before they went on strike. The Customs agent called the person in the normal line before the special line, but I was okay with that as I still needed to calm my nerves from the close run think with the lost phone.
I get called up and pass over all the necessary items, (invoice, boarding pass, passport etc.) and my phone with the QCode. She tries to scan it, and tries and tries. And eventually it works. No time was saved by having the app. I chatted to her as there was no one in line waiting and she said that for a single invoice the app is more trouble than it is worth. But if you have multiple invoices it does saves time. Technology fail! But my Apple Watch was now 10% cheaper!
I also discussed the upcoming strike. She explains the workers side of it, and she convinced me that what they were asking for was reasonable. What had been reported in the media was, as per normal not the full story. I thought that some of what management were asking for was okay, but could see their side as well. We had a good talk and then someone else came up wanting their GST back, so I left and headed through the maze of shopping to get to the open plan area and followed the signs to the Air New Zealand Lounge.
I need to start by saying that Air New Zealand plan to completely revamp the lounge in Brisbane. So this review in 2015 will be out of date very soon. They are opening an expanded and new lounge in a different location, not just put in new carpet and chairs. This should open in 2016. In the mean time, they have something that according to my notes is described in one word as Yuck.
When checking in at the front desk of the lounge, they had a list of all Etihad passengers, including 3 people in first, which matched what I had seen in ExpertFlyer.
There as an Air New Zealand flight that left an hour late, so maybe that is the reason why, but there were lots of people in the room, and they started vacuuming the floor. Maybe the scheduled time is after the last Air NZ flight before a lot of Etihad passengers turn up, but why not clean the place after the Etihad flight leaves? Rather than while people were there and having to step over the trip hazard power cords and listening to the vacuum for 30+ minutes.
This includes the sparkling wine they have on offer which is Dulcet Methode Traditionelle.
Maybe I am being a bit harsh. I did feel that the best thing going for it was that it was somewhere quiet to wait for the next two hours. But it had a small selection of food, including cold cuts, scones, mushroom soup and a Thai Green Chicken curry and rice. Cookie jars were scatted around the room.
Wifi was free and fast. Passwords were scattered around the room. There were windows, but they overlook the back of the airport at a car park. There was a delayed Air New Zealand flight, which left and then they took all the hot food away. I thought – ohhh maybe the good stuff comes out just for the Etihad passengers. But no, nothing replaced it. All the hot food was gone over an hour before the scheduled departure time. So if you want something hot to eat in the lounge, come before the last Air NZ flights leave. They left the containers which held the hot food just to show people that they had missed out on something.
I did try the Thai Green Chicken curry before it was taken away which was spicy and nice. They also have a good selection of wine, beer and spirits.
I got bored and boarding time was scheduled soon, so left the lounge to stretch my legs before the overnight flight.
I have to say in my defence that I know there are some blurred photos coming up. I feel embarrassed to take photos in public so often will try to take the photo quickly and not with my good camera. I am not part of the Selfie Generation. I have included the blurred photos, as they are readable, and help with the narrative.
As you can see at this time of night, there aren’t too many flights leaving from Brisbane airport, and the other flight to Dubai, is a looong way away from our boarding gate.
There she is, my first 787!
They have done a good job at making the waiting area, open, bright and airy. Not many people around.
Boarding was called at around 8:50pm. This was the shot only a couple of minutes before it was called. As you can see, not many people lining up. At the right of this photo, was the line for economy class, and on the left with no one waiting, was where First, Business and Status people boarded from. I was around when the stated boarding but not near the area. However, I still managed to be the third person on board and the first in the front two cabins.
Whoo Hoo! Here we go!
I know it is covered in paint, but I touched the side of the plane as I boarded to see if I could tell the difference between a metal side and the carbon fibre. Nope. It felt like metal to me. I also forgot in my excitement to get to my seat to look out for the Grand Entrance. Missed it completely. I meant to look for it on the way out, but forgot then as well. So much for one of the selling points of the 787.
I was welcomed on board and escorted to my seat. Okay, I wanted to get to my seat and rushed through, but walking through the mini business cabin, my first impression was, where are the oars for the slaves? Gee it looked cramped.
Yes, I am here. There were no accidents with the kids, wife, dogs, family etc. No sudden crisis that needed to be attended to. I am here and going to take off soon. Let me tell you, a kid in a lolly shop had nothing on me. I was the first one here and wanted to take as many photos as possible, so bounced around trying to see as much as I could. I was just a little excited!
A couple of Shots of the Mini Business Class Cabin
And at the end of the flight.
And the First Class Cabin and Seat
Single Seat
And Ottoman
View from aisle
Nov 2, 2015, 9:37 pm
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: BNE Aust
Programs: SQ *G, QF S, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Advantage Platinum
Posts: 685
And the Double Seats
Double Seats at the front, Toilets, left and right and galley at the very front. Fluffy blanket at every seat – very nice.
I tried to take some pictures of the curved wall, but they haven’t turned out well. You can’t really see the curve, but you can when walking past it.
The doors are manual like Singapore Air and not automatic like Emirates. But even with them open, if you sit back in your seat you cannot see anyone walking by or anyone in the cabin. You also cannot see anyone else’s IFE, but they do glow on the ceiling.
In regards to the rest of the front section of the plane. The two toilets are massive. Easily the biggest I have seen not on an A380. (Sorry no photos or descriptions on how they were used.) Very easy to change clothes.
There is also a walk way across the cabin in front of row 1, which is behind the curtain but in front of the galley. This means you can get to both toilets without going through the galley, or disrupt the people working there. This is where they now have the Etihad Diamond Logo and not in the cabin itself.
The Galley is easily the largest I have seen. Lots of room, for people to move about without squeezing past each other. It is also a long way away from row 1.
People started to turn up so I settled into my seat and the service began.
Double Seats at the front, Toilets, left and right and galley at the very front. Fluffy blanket at every seat – very nice.
I tried to take some pictures of the curved wall, but they haven’t turned out well. You can’t really see the curve, but you can when walking past it.
The doors are manual like Singapore Air and not automatic like Emirates. But even with them open, if you sit back in your seat you cannot see anyone walking by or anyone in the cabin. You also cannot see anyone else’s IFE, but they do glow on the ceiling.
In regards to the rest of the front section of the plane. The two toilets are massive. Easily the biggest I have seen not on an A380. (Sorry no photos or descriptions on how they were used.) Very easy to change clothes.
There is also a walk way across the cabin in front of row 1, which is behind the curtain but in front of the galley. This means you can get to both toilets without going through the galley, or disrupt the people working there. This is where they now have the Etihad Diamond Logo and not in the cabin itself.
The Galley is easily the largest I have seen. Lots of room, for people to move about without squeezing past each other. It is also a long way away from row 1.
People started to turn up so I settled into my seat and the service began.