Originally Posted by matthandy

Welcome to my latest trip report. This one contains no less than 8 sectors in a mixture of economy, premium economy, regional business class, and long-haul business class on Qantas and Cathay Pacific. This was a mixed leisure and business trip.

My previous trip reports can be found here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...d-lhr-jfk.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...rld-777-a.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=866907

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=881262


This report is broken up by sector, with a post for each.

Routing

- London Heathrow (LHR) – Singapore (SIN): Qantas (QF), International Economy (Y), A380

- Singapore (SIN) – Melbourne (MEL): Qantas (QF), Premium Economy (Y+) (Op-Up), 747-400

- Melbourne (MEL) – Alice Springs (ASP): Qantas (QF), Domestic Economy (Y) – 737-800

- Alice Springs (ASP) – Sydney (SYD): Qantas (QF), Domestic Economy (Y) – 737-800

- Sydney (SYD) – Hong Kong (HKG): Qantas (QF), Premium Economy (Y+) (Op-Up), 747-400

- Hong Kong (HKG) – Seoul (ICN): Cathay Pacific (CX), Long Haul Business (J), 747-400

- Seoul (ICN) – Hong Kong (HKG): Cathay Pacific (CX), Regional Business (C), A330

- Hong Kong (HKG) – London Heathrow (LHR): Cathay Pacific (CX), Long Haul Business (J), 747-400


Background

2009 was an interesting year for me, professionally and personally. Anyone that has seen my previous trip reports will work out that I’ve spent quite a bit of time away from the UK this year. For the first months of the year I was on a project based in New York and flew back and forth from London many times during that period, always on British Airways. At the end of May, my assignment finished and I returned to the UK. As is always with work, there was no rest for the wicked and I was straight on to another series of projects, in the somewhat less glamorous locations of Matlock, Crawley and Woking (lucky me). This meant that there was little opportunity for me to book an extended holiday during the summer months, so November it was. My mother lives in Australia so this was the perfect time to spend some time with her and also take off to warmer climes as the UK started to get ready for winter.

I booked my flights around the end of August and began counting down the days. In the mean time I ended up re-joining the same company that I was involved with in New York, who were now implementing their new IT system in Korea. I was asked if I’d fly to Seoul to run some workshops with the business in December. My holiday was due to finish in Hong Kong at the start of December, and I had planned to fly back to London direct with Qantas. A trip to Seoul gave me the perfect opportunity to try out Cathay Pacific by flying direct to Seoul from Hong Kong, returning to London via Hong Kong on the way back. The ‘business’ portion of my travels would be fully paid up business class and, having seen the photos of Cathay Pacific Long Haul Business Class I’d been keen to try it out for a while. It did also mean that I’d be flying back from Hong Kong in lie-flat business class, rather than slumming it in economy! Work does have its benefits sometimes.

Booking

I'd originally booked to fly to Darwin, not Alice Springs, however, my mother decided to stay in Alice so it was a question of trying to work out how to change my flights while avoiding steep change fees from Qantas. Trying to change my flight turned out to be a bit of a nightmare initially. I looked at booking a separate itinerary on another carrier to route me from Darwin to Alice and then Alice to Sydney, forfeiting my Darwin to Sydney flight. However, the girl on the end of the phone for Qantas wanted to charge me Ł300 just to drop my Darwin to Sydney flight!! After a bit of exploring on the Qantas website I discovered that they will allow you to completely cancel an entire itinerary and use the value as credit towards another booking, provided that the point of origin and return was the same as the previous booking. So, having got through to someone a little more intelligent I proposed a new routing and was able to change my flights to include Singapore > Melbourne > Alice Springs and Alice Springs to Sydney for a charge of Ł156 (fare difference and admin fee). I’m not sure how this processed because I kept the same flight details, seat assignments and PNR for the whole itinerary. I then selected my seats online using the ‘Manage My Booking’ feature on the Qantas website.

My Cathay Pacific flights were all booked online also although the process was a little less friendly because my corporate credit card provider decided to block my transaction as I paying in Hong Kong dollars, useful. I wasn’t able to select my seats online but I quick phone call to the office in London allowed seat assignments to be made for each of the sectors.


London to Singapore – Qantas A380 – Economy

Since the A380 was introduced in 2007, the first major aircraft launch in my life time, I knew that I’d have to get myself on-board in some way or another. Having obtained Silver status with BA (Oneworld) there was no way that I was going to give up my lounge access and the various other benefits by flying on Singapore Airlines, so when Qantas introduced their A380 onto the Kangaroo route between London and Australia I knew that was the option for me.

Flight: QF32
Carrier: Qantas
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800
Scheduled Departure time: 11.05 am
Duration: 12h 55m
Scheduled Arrival time: 08:00 am (local)
Routing: London Heathrow (LHR) T3 – Singapore (SIN) T1
Class: Economy
Seat: 80A

Getting to Heathrow

God I hate early morning starts. I knew that traffic around the M25 in the morning would be shocking having been stuck in it on many an occasion. I opted to be picked up from home at 7am, allowing two hours to get to Heathrow (it would normally take an hour). I got a call at around 6.50 from the driver to say that he was downstairs waiting for me. I dragged my slightly overweight suitcase (I had to pack both casual and work clothes for this trip, and cater for multiple climates) down the stairs and was met by the sight of my smartly dressed driver and a shiny silver E-Class Mercedes to take me to the airport. Traffic didn’t end up being too bad and I arrived at around 8.30, in time to see the Qantas crew making their way into the terminal to check in also.


Check In and Lounge

I’d already checked in online the day before however, I had bags to check in so had to check these in at the airport. Qantas moved to Terminal 3 at Heathrow at the end of October and this was the first time that I’d flown from T3 since the move. For Virgin customers, T3 is somewhat impressive as they occupy the main check in area which is brightly lit by purple lighting. The Qantas check in area is less than impressive, with low ceilings and a claustrophobic feel. The signage wasn’t great, with economy and business/first desks in different rows it is not immediately obvious where I was supposed to check in. I ended up trying to check in at the Iberia business class desks by mistake, oops. Having been turned away, with a slight red colour to my face, I found the Qantas business class desks and checked in with the surly check in agent. Although I was travelling in Economy, my Silver status with BA is equal to Oneworld Sapphire and Qantas Gold, allowing me to check in at the business class desks regardless of my class of travel, a nice benefit, especially with the queues that are often seen at economy check in desks. My bag was slightly overweight as I needed to pack clothes for Australia’s arid climate and Seoul’s frankly freezing one. This did not seem to be a problem and the weight of my bag was not even mentioned at check in. Upstairs and quickly through security and I managed to find my way out of the duty free maze (I mean shop) and started looking for the lounge. Again the signage here is poor. I don’t remember the exact details, but lounges are placed into groups, with signs pointing to each group, with no mention of the actual airlines until you get nearer to the lounges themselves. So in which group was the BA lounge? I took a gamble and went for the sign pointing towards the gates and was directed down a slightly battered back corridor towards a set of blue doors. These opened to reveal similar décor and lighting to that of the British Airways lounges in Terminal 5. No dragons working today, the friendly agent scanned my boarding pass and invited me into the lounge, warning me that no boarding announcements will be made. The lounge is rather long and thin which results in large open areas, unlike the T5 lounges which, despite being actually bigger, are segregated to create smaller, cosy areas. Overall, my first impressions were that the lounge was certainly in the same style as the T5 lounges but really lacked the atmosphere and ambiance. To me, it felt a bit like a stale doctor’s waiting room, with few windows, and lots of plain white walls. In fairness, I’m sure that it didn’t help that there were only about 20 people in the lounge when I first arrived.
I made my way through to the large open room at the very back of the lounge, plonked my stuff down and then proceeded to take a look at what was on offer for breakfast. Mmmm, bacon rolls, I grabbed one of these, as well as some toast and a glass of apple juice.


Famous BA bacon roll, toast and apple juice

This was certainly enough for me in the morning but there was much more to choose from should I have felt hungrier. The next couple of hours was spent using the free Wifi to check emails, taking some photos for this TR and speaking to friends and family.


Main food bar


Main dining area


Smaller seating area in the middle of the lounge


The bar in the smaller seating area in the middle of the lounge


A view of the bar in the large room at the end of the lounge


A view of the bar in the large room at the end of the lounge, from my seat

The lounge started to fill up about an hour before boarding and among the people that joined me in the main room was a rather annoying survey lady. She was going around to each of the passengers and asking them if they’d like to fill in a survey for her. Strangely, she was quite rude about it. Apparently, the survey was in two parts and if you thought that you may not do the second part after the flight then you shouldn’t bother with the first part because you’d be wasting her time. I didn’t think that it was appropriate to be bothered by some rude marketing lady in an airline lounge and I’m surprised that BA allowed her to operate in their lounge (she didn’t work for BA). She didn’t approach me and if she had I’d have told her to go away.

It was soon time to head to the gate, of course, I’d missed the ‘board now’ message having spent too much time ear wigging on the group next to me who were being hassled by the survey lady. A dash to the gate ensued which turned out to be rather a long way away. Boarding was almost finished and I made my way on to the air bridge. Qantas use two air bridges from what I can remember, one for first and economy, the other for business (and possibly premium economy?). Economy and first board through door 2 left on the main deck. I was greeted by the CSM (customer services manager) and pointed in the direction of my seat, 80A. This was situated in the mini cabin at the back of the A380, right by door 4L on the main deck. The location of this seat meant that I had massive amounts of leg room and no seat directly in front of me. As it turns out, I had no one sitting in the two seats next to me either, pretty much the only spare seats in economy. Lucky me. On the seat were headphones, a pillow and a blanket (which was noticeably thicker and higher quality than normal), I don’t remember if an amenity kit was provided but I suspect it might have been.


The legroom for my seat, 80A, door 4ML is visible in front


The view from 80A looking into the middle economy cabin and galley

From this position I was able to observe the crew going about their duties during the flight. This included grabbing the oxygen bottle from the emergency kit beside the door to help someone that was out of breath. It was also interesting to note that a lot of the cabin controls were touch screen. The lighting for all three economy cabins for example could be dimmed by using the touch screen panel above the crew seat.

We were slightly delayed pushing back, I believe that some people had got lost between check in and the gate so their bags had to be offloaded. We then pushed back and had a short wait before making our way on to the runway. I’d heard that the A380 was a very quiet plane, even during take off and I must say that it lived up to these claims. The roar of the engines was noticeably duller than that of a 747 and we smoothly took off on our way to Singapore. During cruising, the noise of the engines was much quieter than expected and in fact the crew commented that during their rest break, it is more difficult to sleep because they are able to hear everything around them.


The view after take off

After take off menus were handed out. Lunch and breakfast were on the menu as well as a list of the available drinks options. Lunch took a little while to arrive, but in my position, I was served almost first in the cabin. The meal was offered with a choice of soft and alcoholic drinks. What was a surprise to me was that sparkling wine was on the menu, so I ordered a bottle of this. I was presented with a mini (200ml) bottle of Jacob’s Creek sparkling white which went down very nicely! The meal was a three course affair, with a choice of lamb or chicken for the main. The food was truly excellent and despite not really liking the salad starter, I finished everything else on the tray. Afterwards, Mars ice creams were handed out and I almost asked for another one.

It was then time to check out the IFE. In economy, each seat is equipped with an on-demand enabled 10.4” wide screen TV with a huge selection of films, TV and audio programmes to choose from. I found that I wasn’t really able to sleep, given the time of the flight (despite it being dark outside) so I passed the hours by watching the latest Harry Potter film, Terminator Salvation and one other film that clearly didn’t take my fancy because I can’t remember it. I also ended up watching a lot of family guy, with 5 episodes available, which could be played as one or watched individually.


Family guy on the huge IFE screen, with a green tea

Breakfast was served around two hours before landing into Singapore and consisted of a hot omelette. It was ok, nothing special and certainly didn’t compare to the quality of the previous meal. The sun had started to rise outside and we were treated to a prolonged sunrise in the last couple of hours of the flight.


Sunrise over Asia

Before we landed I was able to get a snap of the forward economy cabin.


The forward economy cabin

Arrival into Singapore was smooth although the landing did seem a bit bumpy.


Descent into Singapore

Disembarkation didn’t take too long and we were out through door 1 on the left hand side. I was then able to get a proper glimpse at the big bird.


The Qantas A380


The Qantas A380

Singapore airport at this time in the morning seemed very quiet so I was quickly through immigration, no questions asked. I then collected my bags and jumped into a waiting taxi and made my way to my hotel, the Singapore Marriott.

Overall Impressions

The Qantas A380 is an amazing achievement. The plane itself is very quiet and I believe that it is also pressurised at a much lower altitude than other aircraft which makes for a more pleasant in flight experience. I certainly felt able to drink and get to the point of being slightly drunk without feeling rough, which is definitely a plus! The IFE was amazing with an excellent choice of the latest films and TV programmes. The food was also excellent. Little touches such as a large cotton covered pillow, a very good quality blanket (no static in sight), the comfort of the seats and the snack bars dotted around the cabin made for a top notch economy flight, certainly the best that I have experienced to date by far.

Originally Posted by matthandy

Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was not exactly on my list of places to visit I don’t mind saying. However, being asked to travel there for work essentially meant that I was able to check out this part of Asia for free so how could I refuse. I love expenses.

I’d been given a few negative impressions of Seoul from colleagues that had recently travelled there:


No-one speaks English

Not completely true. English is well spoken in hotels, some more upmarket restaurants and shops in tourist areas. I did struggle to communicate with taxi drivers but soon learnt a few key phrases such as ‘take me to’, ‘here’, ‘stop’, ‘receipt please’. Additionally, most taxis offer a telephone interpreter service. A lot of restaurants also have English menus, some with photos, to make life easier for those of us that cannot speak or read Korean.

For English speakers, Korean seems relatively easy to pronounce and I was able to learn a few key phrases and pronounce them well enough to be understood first time with ease.

It’s cold

True! It’s very cold in winter. I visited in December and most days started at -10 and didn’t get much better. Even short trips from the main street to the office were unpleasant.

It’s expensive

In a lot of cases yes but it varies depending on where you go and what you drink, especially where this includes imported alcohol such as wine. Most places that I went to I’d have to expect to pay at least London prices. However there were surprises on both sides of the scale. Four of us went to an upmarket Italian restaurant and ended up paying Ł15 for a glass of wine (we thought it was for the bottle)! On the other side, we went for an Indian meal and had three courses each, plus wine and were able to keep it under Ł25 a head (it also turned out to be the best curry I’ve ever had).

There’s nothing to do

If you like eating, drinking and shopping then there is plenty to do. During the day, there doesn’t seem to be a great deal, apart from visiting local palaces or the DMZ. However, I’m not fully convinced and I suspect that if I’d had the opportunity to spend the day with a local I’m convinced that Seoul has a few treasures tucked away.


What Did I Do?

I spent most of the time working! The time difference did not help. Most days started at about 8.45am with breakfast in the hotel. The aim was to arrive at the office between 9.30 and 10. At 12.30 lunch was taken. Almost always this involved a sit down meal at a local restaurant. The etiquette was that if you were invited out, the host paid the bill. This was an excellent way of getting to know my Korean colleagues. At 6pm the UK came online so the rest of the evening (usually until 9.30) was spent on conference calls or video conference and answering emails. Usually, this was swiftly followed by a meal, some drinks and perhaps a spot of karaoke.


The Flair Bar (we were regulars here!)


Ricky! One of the bar staff at the Flair


My colleagues and I indulge in a spot of karaoke (in private rooms)

At the weekend I spent a lot of Saturday in bed (recovering from a 4 hour karaoke session which ended at 4am the night before). A spot of shopping at one of the duty free outlets and then a curry, and a bottle of wine and a DVD at a colleague’s apartment.


View from the hotel on Saturday night


View from my hotel on Sunday morning

I decided on Sunday that I’d like to do something touristy so decided to visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace as well as the National Folk Museum. It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for photos.