Hi,

After spending 3 days in Australia and flying from BNE-CBR and down to MEL, it was time to leave Australia and start my journey back to Europe with a 2 day stop in Asia. The original itinerary was to leave 2 days later from BNE, but I managed to change my flight to this one (it was madness as all flights were full, in all three classes, I was lucky to grab this 3 days before the flight). After spending the last morning in the beautiful city of Melbourne, I headed towards the airport. Traffic was light and I was at the airport within 1/2 hour. After returning the car, I headed towards the International terminal. Check-in was already open for the flight. The check-in line for economy was already snaking 3 layers or maybe more. I proceeded to the Business/Qantas club check in area. There were only 2 agents working, one for Business and one for Qantas club, which I think is not acceptable since both counters had about 3-4 people already in line waiting.
Check-in area (taken earlier when I flew to Fiji)


After about 15 mins of wait, it was my turn. I was given my boarding pass and a Fast lane card. This time the fast lane card was useful as it was already crowded and even at the Fast lane, there were about 5 persons waiting. Luckily it moved fast since the two counters were open. I proceeded directly to the lounge. Entrance to the lounge (same Qantas lounge I used when flying to Fiji)

Counter

Seating area


Computer area

Close up of lounge chair

Food at lounge

I decided to take a shower, here are some shots of the shower room (very simple but functional)



The food offering at QF lounges are the same, and after a few visits, it gets actually rather boring. The best lounge so far is the one at BNE. This one in MEL is underground with no views. Internet access it also quite bad, it keeps dropping. The CBR lounge has one of the rudest "dragons" and not much choice of drinks. The lounge today was quite full as there were lots of flights leaving at that time, mainly to HKG continuing to LHR.
1 hour before boarding, I decided to leave the lounge and have a walk about the departure area. On my way to the gate area, I noticed a CX lounge, however, too bad the CX flight had just left and they were closing. It would have been interesting to see the offering at the lounge. From the outside, the CX lounge looked much better compared to the QF one. Here are some shots of the departure/gate area

Signs to the QF First class lounge

While waiting I spotted some interesting planes, especially the special CX livery, the 100th aircraft



View of the airport area (taken during taxing)

Malaysia Airlines (there are 2 MH company planes, I think one will fly to BNE and the other back to KUL (?))

And our Queen of the sky to Singapore




8 April 2008
AF8091 operated by Qantas
B747-400 Longreach
Seat: 11J
Dep. time: 1530 delayed until 1615
Arr. time: 2105

The boarding area was crowded with passenger. To access the aircraft, we had to take the escalator to a lower level. When the announcement was made for boarding, everyone rushed to the entrance of the escalator. When the turn came for First, Business and OW elite members, none of these passengers could access the escalator without being rude and push ahead. The one and only gate agent controlling this was strict, which was nice, but did not make it easy to push forward. At the bottom of the escalator, once there, the boarding pass was checked with identification and they only let premium class passengers to board while holding back passengers in economy. Boarding the plane from 1L


Greeting was done again at the door, passing through the F class and up the stairs to the upperdeck. Above there was no FA to greet you. View of the upperdeck




Skybed seats

Side storage

The cockpit door was open, so I managed to grab a shot

Some of the seat features, pull-out TV


Seat controls

Shoe holder (not that convenient)

Leg space

Menu and other printed materials

Seat controls inside the shell

Extra light inside the seat shell

with it "ON"

The flight was full in all classes including First. The flight was delayed for about 45 mins due to cargo loading and later slot timing. (I did notice that on certain days, the same flight is scheduled to leave one hour later, but arrive at the same time in SIN, weird, any explanation for this?) Pre-departure drinks were served.
We had 2 FA working on the upperdeck and flight time today would be approximately 7.5 hours. We pushed back after a SIA flight also headed to SIN. Taking off into the late afternoon sky

As soon as the seatbelt sign was turned off, the FA got into action. Amenity kits were distributed. Later, they distributed the Singapore Arrivals card to passenger getting off in Singapore as the flight was continuing to London. I was surprised that we did not receive any PJ's on this flight. I enquired about this and was told that it was not loaded on this sector. However, the FA was nice and managed to grab one for me despite only L's were available. Aperitifs were served and went for a Rum-Cola with nuts.


Soon after, dinner was served.

Only 2 main choices were available, Chilli chicken served with bak choi and Fish with some lentils. Here are the shots of the meal
Dinner tray with starters

and with cutlery

The starter was ok. Too bad again no garlic bread was offered.
Main dishes
Chili Chicken choice

Fish with lentils choice

I had my fish with a Riesling which was quite good. The fish was quite good, but again, I did not finish the lentils since I am not a big fan. I did have a taste of the Chicken and it was better than the fish option.
I had ice-cream for desert with a sweet digestive

And my last digestive, a Baileys on Rocks

which came with a nice white chocolate.
After that I finished watching the "Kite Runner" (which is a really good movie). After dinner, water bottles were distributed.
I decided to take a nap after that and turned my bed into the sleeping position. I guess those drinks did help, as I slept for a solid 4 hours. When I woke up, it was already dusk outside and the cabin was with some mood lighting


I took a walk around the cabin, a shot of the upperdeck stairs

Mini bar on the lower deck

Crew work area

Result from raiding the bar


There was no meal served before landing. So, it was lucky that I had something grabbed from the snack bar. The cabin was prepared for landing, and we landed on time in Singapore.

Overall, after 2 flights in J with QF, I still think that Air New Zealand has a much better product. Although our crew on this flight was much better compared to the inbound to BNE. Comparing QF to AF, I think that crew wise, they were about the same, but product wise, I think QF Sky bed is much better than the AF NEV seats. As usual, bags came out accordingly to class of travel/priority. I spend the next two days in both Singapore and Johor, Malaysia. Next trip.. AF back to CDG.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it.