Royal Brunei Airlines
Economy Class (Y)
BI685: BWN-MNL (Bandar Seri Begawan to Manila T1)
25 January 2018
Airbus A320-200
V8-RBT
Seat 27C
Departure: 06:13PM
Arrival: 08:18PM
Since I already had my boarding pass, I quickly made my way through immigration and security. It was very quick and painless. Took a total of perhaps 10 minutes. BWN is a very small airport, with only a single terminal and maybe 10 gates. It's actually smaller than my home airport PVD (Providence, RI), which is a bit of a change for me. Since I was a bit early, I strolled around the terminal and looked for a souvenir to buy. There's not a ton of food or shopping options here, so I wouldn't plan a long layover if you can help it. Since I was flying economy, I did not have lounge access. BI doesn't belong to an alliance, so my Oneworld Emerald status was of no use here.
BWN Departure Area
It's pretty basic here. A few shops and a cafe, but not much else. There's more stuff to do landside.
V8-RBT
The bird I'd be flying on the second leg of my journey. Sorry for the potato quality. It's the best I could get, given the arrival traffic passes between departures and the outer windows.
Livery Porn
You don't see a B788 in Royal Brunei livery too often, so I made sure to snap a few pictures. I really like the BI livery. It's clean, simple and understated.
787-8 with BWN terminal in the background
There's a second 787-8 hiding behind that A320-200
In-flight Service
On-board service was courteous and prompt, as usual. The J cabin had a total of two pax and the Y cabin was less than 50% full. I had 27ABC all to myself, so I was able to lie down and stretch out after dinner. The flight began with the usual prayer, followed by a hot meal service. This time the choice was roast chicken or a prawn and noodle dish. I opted for the chicken. Though this was the same model plane as the previous flight, the layout was slightly different.
This time, they played a movie for us for the majority of the flight. Instead of a Hollywood hit, they played an hour long Brunei tourism industry commercial about how to spend a couple weeks in Brunei. Honestly, I'm not sure how one could possibly find enough things to do to fill a two week long trip to Brunei. But I believe it would involve venturing into the Malaysia and Indonesia portions of Borneo. Either way, my attention span is far too short to consider such a long trip to Borneo.
Food
The meal was quite good, as I'd come to expect from Royal Brunei. Thumbs up once again. This was roast chicken with rice and vegetables, a salad of celery, cucumber and tomato, a warm roll and two pieces of chocolate.
Goodbye Brunei
Overall, I had a very nice visit to Brunei. It's a charming and sleepy little country, but I definitely enjoyed my short time there. Arriving in Manila would be a rude awakening after the Bruneian tranquility.
