moet 96 no longer!
 

Now QF is serving moet 98. Half the wine of the 96, for those who care. And you thought it couldn't get worse? At least this is the case for the kangaroo route, and the QF steak sandwich is no longer available ex-LHR (but is offered for flights leaving Australia, I suppose Australian beef is a bit more popular than British beef for some mad reason).

upgrade came through
 

Well my u/g came through j to f lhr-bkk.
so looks like Ill have to take my fill in the f lounge on 31st.

with all the changes for the lounges and guests etc. can I take someone who is travelling j into the lounge with me?

That won't work either. The Concorde room no longer stocks the nicer champagnes and was serving Belle Epoque on my last 3 visits ... yes, the same champagne that AA serves in F ... never thought BA would stoop to match AA's service levels!!!!! Lots of cutbacks on BA in the past few months, in fact AA F is sometimes better than BA F these days!

Well, I survived my trans-Atlantic AA experience. They did indeed serve Belle Epoque, which I also enjoyed in the Concorde Room when departing the UK via LHR. The winner though was Cathay Pacific DXB-HKG - the Krug flew thick and fast, as did the JW Blue. I have to say that Cathay was the winner for the F experience. It won in every category - comfort, food, entertainment and ambience. QF was second (but only just; BA didn't do too badly at all on the sector I flew with them), BA third and AA last.

The AA F experience was a bit odd. The cabin in the 777 was very spacious, but the seats were very uncomfortable. The service was eccentric (more veteran cabin crew who seemed to have left their manners, along with their youth, in the last century (not that veteran status is a bad thing in itself, of course)), as was the food and entertainment system. It struck me as their domestic "F" product on steroids.

Cathay is leading the OneWorld airlines in the J and F service stakes, IMHO. And the service in the Pier F lounge in HKG is unbeatable! I didn't really want to sit down in the restaurant as I had some work to do, so the staff asked whether they could bring me something to my workstation. They asked me what I would like. I said just something like some noodles or dim sum, and some Chinese tea would be lovely thanks. I ended up being brought, with great aplomb, a bowl of wonderfully spicy noodles, some siu mai (dim sims) and char siel pau (BBQ pork buns), and a pot of tea. Talk about heaven on a stick. They also helped me get my dial up connection working and kept popping back to see if everything was OK and was there anything else they could get me.

Cathay also was the only airline which had all metal cutlery, which I rate very highly nowadays. It may have had something to do with the sector being flown. Certainly all those into/out of the US had at least a plastic knife (QF), or all plastic (AA and BA, even on the LHR-DXB sector). Plastic "cutlery" in F. Really! What do they think we are going to do with a metal eating knife? I still think it is one of the most idiotic overreactions in modern times.

CX is now using metal knives for US flights -- apparently the US government has very recently changed the rule banning metal knives. The CX knives are such a pleasure to use (not only metal but with a very nice twisted handle design). For some reason QF is still going with plastic (saving on dishwashing bills?).

The Moet runs out on the BKK SYD run.
 

Just did a First segment BKK-SYD.
I had 2 glases of the vintage and asked 5 hrs in for another and was told it had finished,.

Most people were asleep.

Were they just a lazy crew or does this happen often?

It seems to be policy, a new cost saving measure (or worse). Maybe QF has noticed that most people sleep on this leg and eat/drink little. On my flight BKK-SYD there was plenty of food but only half the normal wine complement was loaded ... explanation was that there was an error at the warehouse (needless to say all the cheap wines were available and all the more expensive wines were missing). Looks like all the flights are getting similar errors (or someone is stocking up early for the Christmas party!!!). I was going to let it slide, but either there is a lot of corruption going on or QF has decided to really cut its standards. Either way it looks like a letter or two is in order.

Howdy,

Flew in F last week, and in the F QF Lounge in Melbourne they had the Domain Chandon (from the Yarra Valley in Vic) with a nice label of Champagne in front of it.

They obviously used to serve the real stuff, but alas, not even the "real" Moet in there.

SIN F lounge was serving the real stuff, Pol Rodger, then something else - I guess whatever they had left over!.

Flew BA - they had Perrier Jouet..

Stuart

Found elsewhere...
 

Qantas wins awards for its wines.

Sure, it was J wines and this is a FIRST thread, but it was interesting all the same.

Dave

How dare you take a Qantas Board thread like this off topic in such a way? You should know better ;) . Around here, when we go off topic, we go all the way :eek: .

Note that the BA Board is erupting with comments about the lack of Krug in F. Sorry - don't know how to post a link to it.

Krug has been gone from BA F for a long time (at least 6 months, maybe longer). Occasionally stocked in the LHR Concorde Room, but maybe 1 day per week and even then you have to ask and possibly they have to know you before it is trotted out from under the counter (never on display any more). BA did drop Krug once a year or so ago and brought it back after much customer dis-satisfaction ... but it lasted only for a few months until the next round of cuts. Given the price of Krug I don't blame them, it isn't cost effective (most people don't appreciate it or realize that it costs 50% more than Dom). Even CX has started to aggressively rotate it with Deutz Cuvee William (luckily I happen to like the Deutz very much and consider it every bit as good as Krug though lighter and cheaper). Obviously BA considers Deutz to be out of its price range and has chosen to go with Belle Epoque -- the same champagne served in J by AA!!!! Perhaps a very appropriate choice, as my last few F meals on BA have been worse than the J meals on AA. It is sad to see the decline and fall of BA this year but their F revenue stream seems to have evaporated (F is full of upgrades from J this year, conspicuously so and AA is more likely to have empty F seats than BA now).

I am writing from the lounge at the Sheraton Southgate MEL after my first trip on QF and my first trip to Oz. I have a small wine collection. I thought those who posted about the poor quality of QF wines in FC must have been too severe. I was wrong. I was really unimpressed as to the wines F serves its premium passengers.

QF 108 JFK-LAX (This was a scheduled 7:15 PM departure that became a 9:55PM departure--Long story)

Moet 1998

WHITE
Penfolds ReserveBi Eden Valley Reisling 2001--I would not rate this in the 90s
Fermoy Estate Reserve Semmilon 2002--THis is the kind of wine that we never see in the US. It was like eating fesh cut grass. Diffrent and I liked it. Maybe worth a 90 rating
Coldstream Hills Resereve Chardonnay 2000--Again, I would not rate this in the 90s

RED-I did not try the reds
TarraWarra Pinot Noir 2001
Saltram No 1 Shiraz 2000
Henschke Lenswood Abbots Prayer Merlot 1999- I wish I had tried this as I later read an article that Parker rated it 91. A local dealer sells this for $51US.

Desert
De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon 2001- Actually this was pretty good. Maybe a 91/92 I liked it. Not overpowering as some of these can be.

QF 94 LAX-MEL
I was shocked to see that QF actually held the flight for us at LAX. I was all set to demand FC travel via SQ/CX etc. In addition, a QF representative met the flight and personally escorted me and another connecting FC passenger from the arriving to departing terminals, taking us to the head of all of the lines, etc.(Could he failed to have noted I was on an award ticket?:))

Moet 1998

WHITE
Mesh Reisling 2002- Just OK. By now I was exhausted.
Fermoy Estate Reserve Semillon 2002 - I did not try it again
Pipers Brook Vinyard Estate Chardonnay 2001. I thought the chardonnay
on QF 108 slightly better. Neither can compare to the Rothburgh Chardonay I had on a Continental Business First flight, which I would rate a 92/93.I don't remember the vintage.

RED
TarraWarra Pinot Noir 2001
Wolf Blass Brown Label Classic Shiraz 2000
Lindemans St george Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
Note that I did not try the Reds. On my trip home next week I will try them

DESERT
The same good De Bortoli

Vulcan, IMHO to you, I would definitely try the reds on your return flights (after missing this one on the outbound), IMO this Henschke is beautiful ^

Good advice, the Henschke is the one good wine left on QF (sadly not served on my last 4 QF F flights). The De Bortoli is also quite good but less rare.