FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - London to Asia and Australia in Y, Y+, C and J with Qantas and Cathay Pacific
Old Dec 30, 2009, 5:18 pm
  #14  
matthandy
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kent, UK
Programs: BA Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,809
Sydney to Hong Kong – Qantas 747-400 – Premium Economy (Op-Up)

Flight: QF127
Carrier: Qantas
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Departure time: 12:00 pm
Duration: 8h 50m
Arrival time: 17:50 pm (local)
Routing: Sydney (SYD) – Hong Kong (HKG)
Class: Premium Economy (Op-Up)
Seat: 36K

Morning came and it was time to head to Hong Kong. My holiday felt like it was almost over. Little did I know that my friends in Hong Kong had planned a full itinerary to make the most of my last few days. I took a taxi from the hotel to Sydney airport at about 9am. The taxi driver tried to rip me off, I hate when they do that.

I checked in at the business class desks where there was a small queue. The lovely agent mentioned that the system was trying to charge me for overweight baggage but she ‘took care of it’. She tagged my bag as business and also gave me a priority pass for Hong Kong immigration ‘even though she wasn’t supposed to’.

I was through immigration reasonably quickly, despite having to fill out a departure card. Security was quick and then I was off to find the lounge. The signs weren’t great here but I found it eventually. I was welcomed by name at reception. Initial signs were that the lounge was decorated in a similar style to the lounge at Singapore, however, the lounge was quite disappointing. In my mind, this should have been the flagship business class lounge for Qantas and it just didn’t live up to the ‘class’ projected by the Singapore lounge. For a start, the views of the apron from the lounge were pretty poor and given the smaller size, the lounge was quite busy. Maybe I’ve just got grumpy? Or perhaps the buzz of visiting an airport lounge has started to wear off? No, as this buzz was back again in Hong Kong, it was just that I was disappointed with the Sydney lounge.


The bar


Seating area


The view of the city from my seat - shame that you can't see the apron


Food on offer

On the positive side, the food offering did seem to be quite extensive and I was also able to get a glass of champagne at this time in the morning.

Boarding started at about 11.20 and I made my way down to the gate. The flight seemed very busy, even the fast track queue was rather long. I joined the queue and noticed that a lot of people were receiving new boarding passes, good stuff. When I had by BP scanned I was upgraded to premium economy, again. So after booking three international legs in economy, I only spent 1 of these actually seated in the economy cabin. I love my BA silver card!

I boarded through door 2 and was offered the usual champagne, juice or water.


The Qantas Premium Economy seat


Pre-departure champagne


The cabin


The cabin


Legroom

At the time, and for quite a while the seat next to me was free, however, there seemed to be some sort of mix up as the people in the row behind me were having problems working out where to sit. It turns out that the person behind me was in the wrong seat, he should have been next to me so he promptly moved. Damn.

There was a short delay before we pushed back and took off. Hot towels and menus were handed out and shortly after drink orders were taken one by one with the drinks being prepared in the galley and then presented to each passenger on a tray. With one crew member serving one side of the cabin (16 passengers) this meant that there was quite a delay in receiving the first drink.

Lunch was served from a cart, again linens were laid for each passenger.


Beef main

Lunch consisted of a salad, main course, bread, cheese and biscuits and ice cream. Again, the quality of the food was excellent.

After dinner I needed to get out to go and use the loo. I discovered that despite the ample leg room, it was practically impossible to get out of the window seat without manoeuvring yourself around the aisle passenger. The gap was just large enough though for the aisle seat passenger to not bother to get up. It made the whole process somewhat awkward.

The blinds were drawn, which I found a little annoying as this was a day flight. I decided to watch a film on the IFE and chose ‘500 days of summer’ since I hadn’t really watched this properly on my Alice Spring flight. It was pretty good. I then watched District 9, which was a bit odd.

A few hours had passed and I was ready for the 2nd meal. The lights were turned on at about two hours before landing. However, there was no second meal listed on the menu. Was this right? The menu simply stated that a toasted sandwich snack could be ordered at any time during the flight. So, it’s almost a nine hour flight and only one meal is offered? I couldn’t understand this. Anyway, it turns out that the other passengers were discovering this also. The crew member serviving the cabin spent the next hour or so going back and forth to the galley preparing sandwiches. There were two to choose from and I ordered the roast chicken option. It took about five minutes to arrive but when it did I was very pleasantly surprised.


My roast chicken sandwich

It was actually a good quality toasted baguette and it was certainly a lot more filling than I had imagined.

A smooth landing into Hong Kong followed and then I completed the usual forms and made my way through immigration. My bag arrived soon after and I decided to try out the Airport Express rail service to take me to Hong Kong island. The service was very quick, taking only about 20 minutes to reach Central station. However, I’d planned to get a taxi from there but the queues were huge. The staff directed me to the free hotel shuttle bus but this took 25 minutes to arrive. I read in the local paper later on that there are big concerns the size of the taxi queues at Central station as it totally defeats the point of having a fast rail service from the airport. I couldn’t agree more.

I arrived at my hotel, The Renaissance Harbour View, by the convention centre and was given a message at reception from my friends who were expecting me.

Overall Impressions

The lounge in Sydney was a bit disappointing but perhaps my expectations were too high? The premium economy service was again excellent although not quite as personal as before, this probably had something to do with the fact that I had a person sitting next to me this time, rather than a spare seat. The food was again good but I was very surprised to learn that no second meal was made available, however, the sandwich substitute was really excellent. So, overall, a good flight which only re-affirmed my belief that I’d be happy to part with my own money and pay for premium economy if I flew Qantas internationally again.

This concludes my adventures on Qantas. Next, Hong Kong to Seoul and back to London on Cathay Pacific in Business. (The photos get better at this point!)

Last edited by matthandy; Nov 27, 2010 at 6:05 pm Reason: Update image location to resolve bandwidth issues
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