170 on board
UC was half full at most
PE had 6 or so spare seats
Econ had whole rows free, pax had to be asked to move back to original seats for take off as they had all spread out before

We had a delay of 40 mins for take off but short flight time of about 11.45 hours, landed early and no queues at immigration at LHR!

Was a bit bumpy about an hour before landing over the Baltics, which is usual other that that very smooth

I dont recommend the duck breast off the menu.... but the prawn and asparagus starter was good, if a little mean on the prawn front (2 small prawns!)

Much better than the outward LHR to HK which was totally rammed.

Interestingly I managed to get upgraded on the outbound from PE using miles at the lounge (conceirge desk). This was despite both customer services desk and checkin saying the flight was full

A bit of persistence paid off and the lovely lady at concierge looked again, as its a 2 leg flight continuing to Sydney she put me in a seat which was only booked for the HK-SYD leg. She even called up to make sure the plane was catered correctly etc!!! Only cost £19 in additional tax so very happy all round.

On the return PVG-LHR I upgraded on the phone the day before the flight.