Flight Number: QF97
Aircraft:A330-300
Route:Brisbane –Hong Kong
Class: Economy
Seat: 27D
Departure: Scheduled 1105 (
Actual 1107)
Landing: Scheduled 1750 (
Actual 1738)
Check-in:
Lined up at the Business class line, but it was busy so was asked by the Economy class agent for the flight, but wow some serious morning attitude. Ignored my question about seating and didn’t pass me an immigration card, no real big by just unusual.
Lounge:
Went up to the Qantas Business lounge (which funny enough still had all the Qantas Club signing) Basic, quite small and was starting to get a bit busy. Offerings exactly the same as the Domestic QP, but still helped myself to a bowl of muesli and fruit, did notice plenty of people swiping the pancakes. Lounge “dragons’ were anything but and did try and sort out my seating for my AF leg with no avail. Seemed though they had plenty on their hands with QF15 delayed for 5hours!
Boarding:
Used the gold status to enter via the J line so one of the first onboard. Unlike many other FT’ers I like boarding early, getting overhead room and then people watching...which in turn becomes more about praying that some of my fellow passengers are not sitting next to me.
A friendly, quite mature purser greeted me by name at the door and wished me a comfortable flight, if only I was doing it skybed style than I might of. Had been told before in the lounge that there was 70 seats open, don’t know if that was both cabins or just Y but had been told to stick with my current seating as the middle seat was still open. Thankfully it stayed that way. Crew seemed the typical mixed bag which you read on the QFF section of FT, some full of similes and very helpful with bags and passengers, others standing idle barely getting a forced simile in.
Legroom shot
During the flight:
Seemed to be a lot of passengers transferring to other flights Europe/Asia so the purser had an easy job walking around with landing cards he also then walked around greeting the two plats that I saw and asking if the needed anything special newspaper/glass of champagne..etc and thanked them for their loyalty which sounded quite genuine.
Newspaper (did sneak from the QPub...I know bad!) -Note dear old QF on the front page again and Headphones
IFE:
Exactly as I expect from my reading up of the A330 system. Slow to get going but otherwise good.
Would be nice to have the ability to have music playing while watching the new moving map (which I do like after many flights with the 744 one).
Moving Map
Watched a few top gear episodes and then Man on Fire, a fantastic Denzel Washington movie, however the rest of the selection weren’t as appealing and knowing that I’ve got another two QF legs this month I thought to control the amount of watching so just flicked through some of the other tv programs during the flight.
Top Gear
Lunch:
Mesclun Salad with Balsamic vinaigrette
(choice of): Szechuan style chicken with steamed rice and stir fried vegetables
Or Slow cooked pork withpaprika and lemon sauce and roasted potatoes
Belgian Chocolate Brownie
Cheese and crackers
Chocolate
Water bottles were distributed once crew were released. However we were told on the PA that no other bottles would be handed out and we should fill them up ourselves.
The FA’s came out ready to serve lunch, then hey presto they went back to the galley. So then about an hour after take off attempt number two was done and I selected the chicken, which was tasty and hit the spot. Accompanied the chicken by some sauvignon blanc which was nice for economy. (Sorry didn’t get its name) Did laugh when I saw the “Mesclun Salad,” which obviously means simply rocket with a bit of lettuce!
Rest of the flight:
Hit a bout of tubulance north of Darwin and a few pockets of it around the Timor sea which the captain turned back on the seatbelt sign, but otherwise compared to the next leg a very smooth flight. Crew did come around the cabin with water and apples which were great and of course the FT famous cup of hot chocolate – with two marshmellows!! (It’s preseason for rugby in Australia..so I’m sure they wont mind).
Went for a walk down to the back galley and asked the male steward for a coke which was given to me with a packet of mixed nuts and had a bit of a chat about flying and the change of QF97 to a redeye both ways. The little snack kept me going until the lights were turned on with just over two hours to Hong Kong.
Second meal:
Seasonal Melon salad with fruit juice
Cheese ravioli with a mushroom sauce
Chocolate
No choice for this refreshment, however it did taste a lot better than the photo portrays it. Interesting for Qantas to only have a western option but was good. Had a cup of tea with the ravioli (to get me in the swing of the English mass tea consumption). Do have to say that the fresh fruit was unbelievably cold!
Arrival:
Our American captain landed us into Hong Kong early, however by the time you taxi around to the gate it was roughly on time. Disembarked through the 2L, which seemed to surprise the FA manning that door as she got quite a fright when the ground crew knocked on the door! Left the plane and headed off to find the new QF business lounge
Transfer @ HKG
Qantas New Business Lounge
Well after quite a walk, maybe it was just me but not overly well signposted I finally find the escalator to head down to the lounge.( If memory serves me right it’s like literally below the old QF/BA lounge??) Walked in and greeted after initial hesitation and welcomed in. Wow its a lot smarter than the previous lounge and while some have noted that it doesn’t have any view at all, the decor especially the lighting I think makes up for it. With one of the BA flights cancelled till some time tomorrow the lounge was not very busy, quite a change from my last time there after the Australia v New Zealand rugby test in Hong Kong which was when the maintenance were having their strikes causing massive delays. Anyways enjoyed some Vietnamese spring rolls and a couple of glasses of the sparkling that was on offer, which somehow prompted me to do my OLCI for my BA flight, which went fine even got 9A (exitrow for the A319). It was only doing some surfing around the FT website which prompted to me that BA were still suffering extreme delays and cancellations – and what did you know that I looked on the departures for LHR to CDG and hey presto BA326 the last departure to CDG was cancelled. Damm! So off I went to the desk to ask about arrangements to put me on the next departure BA307, but the BA staff member denied that 303 was cancelled!??! His advice was just because the last departure was cancelled that it doesn’t mean the first flight in the morning is.... I tried to call QF to see if they could do anything, but other than my flight was cancelled said there was so many people needing rebooking they couldn’t even waitlist me, to be honest I had no idea how bad it actually was.
Back to the lounge, after this whole debacle I decided to increase to something a bit stronger and after a two Havana clubs and coke decided to hit the shower in preparation of my first AF trip.
Some pictures of the lounge:
And some of the shower - to be honest the best thing that lounge acess offers on these long haul flights in whY.
