As you can see, I am new here in terms of posts, although I admit to being an avid reader of the forum and have picked up lots of tips from following all your comments.
I have just returned from a trip to Hong Kong with the other half to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary and had such a great BA experience that I could not resist posting it here. Hope this does not bore too many of you!
We booked Club World return and 5 nights at the Mandarin Oriental – I have always wanted to stay at the MO since being treated to lunch there by our HKG office manager on my only previous visit 11 years ago. (I was booked by the company into a lowly 3-star in Wan Chai on that occasion). Hubby’s last visit was in 1978 so he was keen to see the changes.
Our travel agent made all the arrangements and we were booked on the BA27 and BA28 (777-300). We paid the £240 to book seats 10J and 10K for both legs as we felt those would be best for us.
Travelling out on 5th April, we spent an hour or so in the Galleries South lounge which was not too busy at that time of the evening. When we were called to the gate we trotted over but found that there was a rather large queue milling about. Although there were a couple of staff at the gate the sign still said Please Wait. After around 15 minutes the crew arrived and went down in the lift. We managed to find our way to the Fast Track queue and hung around for another 5-10 minutes until there was finally an announcement that First and Club passengers could now board.
Once on board however, we were offered champagne and started to relax. After a late take-off, the rest of the flight was very smooth and comfortable and following a light dinner (if it was not so close to midnight we would have chosen differently from the menu), tried out the IFE. I was a little disappointed with the screen as, being quite short I seemed to be looking at it from the wrong angle and the picture appeared to be in negative. If I hauled myself up in the seat it appeared normal but once I slipped down again the picture was distorted, so I gave up on that and settled down to sleep. Got a good 6 hours sleep with the earplugs and eye mask cutting out any light and noise. Breakfast was great – didn’t have the full English but my neighbour’s looked really good.
Despite the late take-off, we arrived around 45 minutes ahead of schedule and sailed through immigration at HKG really quickly. Bought our Octopus tickets at the MTR desk right outside the arrivals exit and found a train already waiting for us.
Check-in at the MO was very impressive – very personal service with the charming young gentleman who checked us in taking us up to our room (upgraded to a Harbour Room as they had been told it was our anniversary), and then bringing us a complimentary welcome tray of green tea. Later on, as I was in the shower, we were brought champagne and chocolates as a gift from the management. After settling down at our harbour view glassed-in balcony, in our bathrobes, and drinking the whole bottle we decided to order room service instead of going out!
As we were staying over the Easter weekend, we also came back to our room the next day to find another gift – a beautiful chocolate chick from the Mandarin Oriental cake shop, sitting atop another box of chocolates and complete with milk and white chocolate eggshell surrounded by a row of little sugar coated eggs all with different chocolate fillings – absolutely delicious.
Hong Kong was as fantastic as you would expect and we had a wonderful time.
On Easter Sunday we made a journey to the Sai Wan War Cemetery in the east of the island to take some photographs for the Commando Veterans Association. Our visit coincided with the Ching Ming festival, where the Chinese pay tribute to their ancestors. The road up to the various cemeteries was closed off to cope with the crowds and we joined a vast queue of people all walking slowly up the very steep hill to honour their dead . It was a very moving experience.
On our last day the weather had changed from overcast to full sun and, as we were feeling quite hot & tired by then we used the In-Town check in facility and hopped on the airport express during the afternoon. Although our flight was not due to leave until around midnight we just headed for the lounge and relaxed. The Qantas Business lounge was much better than we had been led to believe and we found a quiet spot in the “No mobiles” zone.
The lounge was very close to the gate for our flight so when the flight was called we did not have far to go. There was quite a queue for the Economy section but there was no-one ahead of us at the Fast track queue so we walked straight up. When we handed over our boarding cards there seemed to be a little hiatus with much muttering and clicking on the keyboard. The young lady wrote something on the boarding cards and handed them back explaining that, as the flight was full they had had to change our seats. My initial reaction was disappointment as we had enjoyed 10J/K on the way out. However, she explained we had been moved to 1E/F!!
As lowly Blue members and fairly in-frequent long haul flyers we never expected that we would ever have the chance to experience First so this was a very welcome surprise. I hope the real F passengers were not too put out by us CW upstarts filling up their cabin – every seat was occupied!
The suite was very comfortable although, again as I am quite short, my feet couldn’t quite reach the footstool until I had reclined the seat a fair way. We had originally decided to forgo dinner and sleep as it was so late, however we changed our minds as we wanted to make the most of our – probably - only First experience. I stuck to the champagne so cannot comment on the wine, although hubby did have one of the whites (cannot tell you which) and a rather large glass of port with his cheese, which he enjoyed. Although the seat itself was very comfortable sleep was, unfortunately, disturbed by the fairly frequent turbulence which shook us awake from time to time. We were too tired to take full advantage of the extensive breakfast menu but it all looked pretty good, from sneaking a peek at the breakfasts being enjoyed by the passengers in the window suites.
We arrived at T5 Satellite C so had to take the train to immigration but the queues were not too long and we were through pretty quickly. My sister was collecting us later that morning to drive us to Gatwick for our onward flight home (to one of the smaller British isles) so we took advantage of the T5 Arrivals lounge. A lovely hot shower, a neck & shoulder massage and a breakfast in the First dining room finished off a very memorable celebration.