I describe myself as a leisure traveller as I don't do much travelling for work. Ok, a couple of conferences a year and that's it. I am also a huge aviation fan and keen plane spotter. I go from airport to airport, sit by the fence and take photos of any aircraft moving in front of me. I do have my own website if you want to check out my photos:
airliners.megazine.net.
Last year I did a trip around South East Asia with my partner. We visited Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. During that trip I didn't have a chance to do much spotting apart from a few shots through the window. Seeing all those interesting aircraft around me it got me thinking - I could go by myself for a few days - why not?! I started looking at tickets, itineraries, airports, got tickets eventually. Then got my plans trashed by a flight cancellation and aircraft swap, but it's all sorted now!
Planning
I've settled on two goals for my trip - plane spotting at a few airports and to fly other interesting airlines and aircraft. As I never travelled by myself around Asia, I opted for destinations I am already familiar with. Having a stash of avios I decided to fly to Hong Kong and jump around from there. Some time in August / September last year I spotted a good price for BA flights to Chengdu, China. There was one offer from Italy which did not allow stopovers longer than 2 days and another one which did. I opted for an itinerary LIN-LHR-CTU-HKG-LHR-MAD-AGP combining those two air fares. I planned a longer stopover in Hong Kong and another one in London before completing my trip in Spain. That worked well for me as I wanted to fly the Airbus A330-300 Aer Lingus operates on flights to/from Malaga. So I had two trips planned in one go!
Having my trip to Hong Kong planned, I started looking at UuA availability to F on BA32 (return leg from HKG) and redemption availiability on CX to/from HKG. Chose my dates so I could try Cathay Pacific First class seat and their new Airbus A350. Then managed to squize in a stop in Phuket and Thai's B744
My trip looked good!
Post booking changes
A few weeks after booking my trip BA decided to cancel direct flights to Chengdu for commercial reasons. I really wanted to try the Boeing 787 in Club World! Another time it seems. I have checked my options and opted for BA39 to PEK connecting to KA901 flight to HKG. BA39 had award space in F, so I wanted to snap an UuA to First :-) Flight times were also close to my original itinerary.
I always wanted to try Cathay Pacific First Class seat. I know service is not the same as on a proper long haul flight, but hey - what avios are for? I booked an afternoon flight to Singapore which got an equipment swap to two-class A330. The only other flight with First was at 8am - not ideal, but decided to stick to F.
Week before the trip I decided to add a day trip to Taipei to fly their A340-300 on the way out and A350-900 on the way back. It should be fun!
Itinerary
Route: LHR ✈ LIN ✈ LHR ✈ PEK ✈ HKG ✈ TPE ✈ HKG ✈ SIN ✈ HKT ✈ BKK ✈ HKG ✈ LHR ✈ MAD ✈ AGP ✈ DUB ✈ LCY
Miles: 20372 (according to gcmap).
15.02, 18:30 LHR ✈ LIN 21:25, BA570, A321, C - PNR1
16.02, 11:20 LIN ✈ LHR 12:30, BA565, A319, C - PNR2
16.02, 16:20 LHR ✈ PEK 10:25, BA39, B77W, F - PNR2
17.02, 12:30 PEK ✈ HKG 16:15, KA901, A333, C - PNR2
19.02, 10:20 HKG ✈ TPE 11:55, CI602, A343, C - PNR3
19.02, 18:30 TPE ✈ HKG 20:35, CI923, A359, C - PNR3
20.02, 08:10 HKG ✈ SIN 11:55, CX691, B77W, F - PNR4
21.02, 20:30 SIN ✈ HKT 21:20, 3K537, A320, Y - PNR5
23.02, 10:55 HKT ✈ BKK 12:25, TG204 ,B744, C - PNR6
25.02, 16:30 BKK ✈ HKG 20:10, CX0712, A359, C - PNR7
26.02, 23:30 HKG ✈ LHR 04:45, BA0039, A388, F - PNR2
01.04, 10:50 LGW ✈ MAD 14:15, IB3715, A320, C - PNR2
01.04, 17:50 MAD ✈ AGP 19:00, IB8810, CRJX, C - PNR2
02.04, 12:20 AGP ✈ DUB 14:30, IE585, A333, Y - PNR8
02.04, 17:15 DUB ✈ LCY 18:50, BA4469, E190, Y - PNR9
Reisefieber
It's not long for my trip to begin. Thinking of it now I should have planned a bit more time in each spot. Now it looks like I'll be jumping from airport to airport. I hope to squeeze some sight seeing - I really want to see the view from Victoria Peak
without the fog!
My goal is to live blog from this trip, I will link report posts in the table of contents below. Feel free to ask me any questions or post any suggestions. Any sightseeing or restaurant recommendations are welcome!
Table of contents