Originally Posted by number_6
There are no arrivals lounges at any Australian airport. BA uses the QF lounges, and if you have access to any departure lounge, you can use the showers there. The BA horizontal bed has several disadvantages to the QF flat but not horizontal bed; it is smaller, narrower, harder to get into/out of, has less storage space and doesn't have a massage function. Many people prefer the QF bed over the BA bed; it is newer technology and pretty cleverly done. But it all depends on how you sleep.
Oh, very interesting. I hadn't heard that before about the chair/beds.
Looks like who/what I fly is more or less completely out of my hands. Last night we decided to drop Tasmania from the itinerary (wrong time of year to go with no flowers blooming), giving us more time and segments to play with.
So I went back to trying to leave Hong Kong after five days instead of the original planned four which was forced down to two to get into Australia in business class.
So, after literally 20-plus checks for routing from HKG to anywhere in Australia in business, finally managed one (after five day stopover in HKG) as yet partial HKG-KIX-CNS-... And that's where it's left. Arrive at 4:55am, and the next day isn't loaded into the system yet so I'll have to call back tomorrow to try to get from there to MEL. Of course I'll see if a more direct routing can happen on that day also, rather than flying all over the west side of the Pacific for a day and a half, burning up segments.
The AA rep was very impressed with my inventiveness and research coming up with alternative routings, and said she definately would write a report on the lack of business award availability despite my extreme flexability.
Thank you very much everyone.
Steve