Melbourne to Singapore
British Airways First Class * Dinner - Refreshments
747-400 G-BNLB Seat 1A
525p-940p Flight time: 7:01
Pictures can be found HERE
Start with picture number 22
First Class check-in never takes long and by 4:15pm I was through immigration and on my way down to the International Departures Qantas Club. I’ve described this facility in numerous previous Trip Reports so this time I will simply say that it’s a miniature version of Qantas’ larger domestic club but with no windows and somewhat higher end food offerings. For example, whereas the domestic Qantas Club offered basic ham and cheese sandwiches on sliced rolls, the First Class facility offered an enticing array of little finger sandwiches along with larger salmon and asparagus “sandwiches” rolled up in a slice of white bread. There were also hot miniature beef pies along with some nice looking pastries.
Finger foods are a real weakness of mine and I’d like to think that I exhibited admirable discipline in refraining from all but a single asparagus/salmon wrap. After all, there’d be plenty to eat over the next 24 hours aboard BA 18.
When the boarding call went out for QF 009, a 5:10pm departure also serving Singapore and London, about 15-20 people got up and headed for the door. How big is that Qantas First Class Cabin, anyway? Fare bucket searches done earlier in the week showed plenty of First Class seats available on this flight, so I suspect that some of these passengers may have been riff raff from … that’s right – Business Class.
By now the lounge was fairly deserted so when the call finally went out for BA 18, I was the only one to spring into action. I soon found out why. Upon entering the aircraft, I discovered that I would be the only passenger in First – at least for the initial flight into Singapore. Personally, I don’t particularly care for this scenario because above all else, I've always found it a bit strange to have an entire cabin to yourself. Like drinking alone. There’s also the potential for some cabin crews to over-indulge you. I enjoy a good First Class service but I don’t enjoy being fawned over.
Professional bunch that they are, BA’s cabin staff did an excellent job of providing everything that I could possibly need or want without hovering around my seat in search of purpose. Cabin Service Director Leslie Beasley stopped by to introduce herself, followed shortly thereafter by Purser John Hale who hung my jacket and took my drink order. That drink, a glass of Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle Champagne, was delivered with the traditional plate of cashews by the beautiful and charming Jill. She returned moments later with the amenity kit and pajamas. Then John presented me with the menu for tonight’s flight. Soon, another crewmember arrived with a hot towel. It was truly a team effort!
Captain Steve Hill offered a congenial welcome aboard and informed us that flight time up to Singapore would be a short six hours and fifty-three minutes. Outside my window a cloud of black smoke wafted skyward as the tractor beneath us revved its substantial engine and began to push our 800,000-pound aircraft back from the gate.
Following the safety demonstration, Purser John returned to inquire as to my drink choice once we got airborne. Hmmm… let’s have a look at that wine list:
WINE LIST
CHAMPAGNE
Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle Champagne
A stunning Champagne with a classic toasty aroma and creamy, fresh lemon flavours – the finish is long and stylish
Alfred Gratien Cuvée Paradis
A remarkably luxurious deluxe cuvee Champagne produced from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes from, exclusively, grande cru vineyards. This was a big favorite in the Concorde Cellar
WHITE WINES
Chassagne-Montrachet 2002, Marie-Louise Parisot
The wines of Chassagne have a mineral complexity, not always apparent in other appellations, that combines well with the richness and depth of great Burgundy
Cullen Margaret River Sémillon Sauvignon Blanc 2003
The beautifully fresh and aromatic blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes has become the hallmark of the Margaret River region of West Australia – and a benchmark for the world!
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2001
Recently described in Wine Spectator magazine as “the greatest white wine Australia has ever produced,” this wine is utterly seamless, harmonious and seductive with a finish that just goes on and on
RED WINES
Domaine de Chevalier 1995, Grand Cru Classé, Graves
A deep garnet colour and a fine, soft fruit bouquet lead into an all enveloping, mouth filling black fruit flavour or great length and power
Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2001, Domaine du Pére Pape
You can almost taste the warmth of the southern Rhone Valley in this ripe, full-bodied, luscious and mouth filling red wine
Heartland Director’s Cut Shiraz 2001, Limestone Coast
This is an intense, black Shiraz with a minty white pepper aroma and chocolate and blackberry flavours
DESSERT WINES
Opitz Goldackerl Trockenbeerenauslese 2002, Austria
Austria makes some of the finest sweet wines in the world. The effervescent Willi Opitz, from his tiny vineyards in Illmitz near the Hungarian border, produces some of the very best in the country
Warre’s 1988 Colheita Port
Complex, sweet nutty flavours offer an admirable after dinner glass
As we taxied out to the runway, I noticed that all the mothballed Ansett aircraft appear to have been sold, or at least moved elsewhere. I was personally happy to see this as I always looked upon those mothballed aircraft as a sad reminder of the untimely fate that befell a once great airline.
Following a surprisingly long takeoff roll, we climbed swiftly into the late afternoon sky and reached 35,000 feet right over the border between Victoria and South Australia. The SkyMap indicated an agreeable temperature of –52C and as we leveled out, I reclined my seat a bit and began the trip with a glass of Grolsch beer. Alas, it wasn’t all that cold and so I traded it in for a glass of nicely chilled Sauvignon Blanc from Margaret River, one of the prime wine growing regions of Western Australia. As I sipped the flavorful wine and munched on the accompanying plate of canapés, I reminisced over the fine day I’d spent in Margaret River only last week. As both my wine glass and canapé plate were replenished, I resolved to return to South Western Australia as soon as possible.
Despite the 5:25pm departure out of Melbourne, the menu indicated that we’d be served a luncheon rather than a dinner for this flight into Singapore. Here is the menu transcript:
Melbourne to Singapore
LUNCHEON
Appetizers
Smoked salmon and seared scallops with watercress crème fraiche
Salad of vine-ripened tomato with Goat cheese
Soup
Chilled Vichyssoise with smoked haddock
Salad
Fresh salad leaves with your choice of Balsamic olive oil or lemon zest mayonnaise
MAIN COURSE
Roast Fillet of Veal
Presented with wild mushrooms and potato gnocchi
Pan-Fried Snapper
Served with saffron mash, garlic mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage with chorizo
Fricasée of Chicken
Topped with mushroom duxelles and rosti potatoes with cepe cream sauce
Confit of Duck Salad
Duck confit, foie gras and fresh beans with lemon olive oil
LIGHTER FARE
Bacon Roll served with tomato ketchup
Beef Satay
Chilled Vichyssoise with smoked haddock and a side salad
Fresh Pasta topped with your choice of lemon olive oil and cracked pepper sauce or tomato bolognaise sauce
A selection of sandwiches
A selection of cheese and fruit
Duchy of Cornwall biscuits
** ***** **
DESSERT AND CHEESE
White Chocolate Mousse
Complimented with raspberries and pistachio crème Anglaise
Prune and Armanac Tart
A Selection of Classic Cheeses
A Basket of Fresh Fruit
Chocolates
Your choice of:
Espresso, Cappuccino, Coffee, Decaffeinated Coffee, Tea or Herbal Tea
While I certainly enjoy and appreciate the space and comfort afforded me whilst sitting in the forward cabin, I especially look forward to and enjoy the meal service for this is where the best airlines shine and the pretenders fall behind. British Airways is unquestionably one of the finest practitioners of the art of fine dining aloft and I always look forward to the presentation of its First Class menus with considerable anticipation. Imagine then my surprise at being presented a menu offering exactly the same foods that I received on last year’s flight along this same route.
Like most airlines, I’m sure BA’s menus are cyclical and I just had the misfortune of hitting the same menu twice. On a positive note, BA does offer a good variety of foods up front and I now had an opportunity to try some dishes that I had bypassed on the last flight.
So, with a renewed sense of culinary adventure, I began with the smoked salmon and seared scallops, just like last year. Frankly, I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to get too excited about a plateful of goat cheese and tomatoes. Besides, I had fond memories of my salmon appetizer from last year’s flight and looked forward to reacquainting myself with it once again. While I love Vichyssoise, I wasn’t that keen on the addition of the haddock flavor so this time I went with a sensible salad. As for the main course… Hmm… chicken or snapper … snapper or chicken … make it the snapper, please, with a glass of the Montrachet.
The salmon and scallops appetizer was delicious as always, plated with generous portions of salmon accompanied by two large dollops of herbed cream cheese and three plump scallops. A fine beginning to any meal!
Given that so many airlines now offer salmon as a First Class starter, I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps salmon is becoming the new caviar – at least in terms of First Class inflight service?
The main course of Snapper was excellent as well. The saffron mash added a nice warm flavor to the fish, though the cabbage with chorizo tasted more like just cabbage. Perhaps chorizo with cabbage next time… A basket of warmed rolls including garlic bread made a nice accompaniment to this meal.
Plates were cleared, my water glass was replenished and it was now time to consider the dessert options. Now where did I put that menu, anyway? Ah, there it is, behind the High Life magazine.
Twenty years ago, I would have eaten the appetizer, soup, salad, entrée, cheese and dessert. I might have even had seconds on the entrée. These days however, my metabolism no longer requires – much less effectively deals with such large amounts of food. Quite frankly, I was just about full.
But not entirely full. I looked over the menu and chose to go with a plate of cheese along with a glass of port. In years past, the question would have followed - what kind of cheese would you like? Anything in particular or a bit of each? For this flight, what I received was a plate bearing wedges of English Stilton Blue Cheese, Brie and I think Fountain’s Gold. While all the cheeses were delicious, I discovered later that this cheese course is now pre-plated. Additionally, there was no selection of crackers from which to choose. What I was offered instead was somewhat of a cross between a hard bread and a cracker. It was good, but not as good as a proper cracker. Even so, all three cheeses were delicious – especially the Brie which was much more flavorful than most Bries I’ve had in the past. Even the new port tasted a little better than I remember it from my flight out. But then, it was another month older now, wasn’t it …
I’m sure this new “lite” cheese service is the result of cutbacks and I’d love to know just how much savings BA might realize over the course of a year. After all, American Airlines once saved over $40,000.00 per year simply by removing a single olive from its salads.
Out my window, the sun shone brightly – still high above the western horizon. In recent years, I’ve flown this flight a couple of months later in the year, in April, and the sun has always been setting just as I finished dinner. I noted on the SkyMap that we were about 300 miles southwest of Alice Springs. For the most part, the skies were clear and I reminded myself to raise my window shade every now and then in case we were treated to a particularly gorgeous sunset.
Turning my attention to the movie selections, I decided to watch that sordid tale of military discipline gone awry –
A Few Good Men. Alas, the selected channel, 10, was instead showing a documentary on golf and great Cricketeers of yesteryear. Boring. The rest of that month’s IFE movie selections I’d already seen or had no interest in. Alright, where’s that personal movie selections list?
In addition to the nine or ten movies offered via its standard IFE system, BA also offer First Class passengers an additional twenty-five movies in mini-cassette format. A list of these movies is presented at the beginning of the flight and, once I’d located it, I spent the next ten minutes hemming and hawing over what to watch. Perhaps all that wine and port had rendered me indecisive. Interestingly, all four movies based upon Tom Clancy’s books were available. I’ve always liked Harrison Ford’s portrayal of lead man Jack Ryan the best. Ben Affleck was just too young (not to mention irreverently hip in his interpretation of the role) and Alec Baldwin was just too arrogant. I finally decided on
Patriot Day and spent the next two hours comfortably reclined while enjoying a second glass of port as well as the movie.
For many, the best inflight entertainment can be found on the SkyMap, augmented by occasional glances out the window – just to see what it all looks like. Our route of flight took us on a northwesterly track across Australia, crossing the northern coastline at a point about 300 miles west of Darwin. It was at this point that the sun finally set, and while the sunset itself was nothing special, the lingering afterglow was quite pretty. Continuing on a northwesterly heading, we passed almost directly over Denpasar and were treated to a spectacular display of distant lightning over the South Java Sea.
Our descent into Singapore was routine, though as always I quite enjoyed the view of the city, the harbor and all the ships as we turned for our final approach into Changi. After a nice landing, we braked with surprising vigor before turning towards our stand at C-23. The time was 9:40pm and the temperature was listed as 32 degrees with high humidity. I was thankful for the air-conditioned jetway as well as the nice, cool terminal building.
In a perfect world, I would exit the flight here and head into Singapore for the evening. Awaiting me would be a comfortable bed in a nice hotel. After a leisurely couple of days in Singapore, I would then continue on to London – preferably aboard a daytime departure.
The reality of it however is that I faced an hour and a half layover in Singapore, with BA 18 scheduled for an 11:20pm departure to London. BA award travel, as per Alaska Airlines earned awards, allows but one stopover. On this trip, that stopover would be London. Resolving to make Singapore the stopover on my next BA award, I headed for the sanctuary of the First Class lounge where a hot shower and a cold beer awaited.