sydunipete

It was time for holiday planning again. Normally I'm an independent traveller but this time a Sicily tour looked quite appealing. So off I trotted to my local travel agent (who hasn't seen me in many years) and at the same time asked her about return business class airfares. I'd been hunting through Kayak, airline and retail websites for weeks now so I wasn't expecting her to find anything special, but she surprised me. Returned business class on Singapore and Swiss SYD - VCE and ZRH - SYD for under $6,000 (Aussie).

Apart from the price, the reason I chose this combination was it meant flat beds all the way, I am a fan of SQ, and I have been wanting to fly Swiss for many years now.

I suspect part of the reason for a keenly priced fare was that LX had just restarted ZRH - SIN flights using A340 aircraft. With SQ I was able to secure A380 flights and with my better half being a nervous flyer the smoothness and quietness of the A380 had something going for it. And maybe the A380 would go some of the way in compensation for also booking a flight on an ATR72. The look on her face when she saw the propellers where she thought jet engines should be was priceless!

So the trip looks like this:

SQ232 SYD - SIN A380 Business Class
LX179 SIN - ZRH A340 Long haul Business Class
LX1660 ZRH - VCE RJ100 scheduled, but A320 flown Short haul Business Class
AZ7675 VCE - CTA A320 operated by Air One Discount Economy
AZ7427 CTA - MXP A320 operated by Air One Discount Economy
EN8188 BGY - FRA ATR72 Air Dolomiti Economy
LH3756 FRA - SXB Economy (it's a bus!)
LX178 ZRH - SIN A340 Long haul Business Class
SQ231 SIN - SYD A380 Business Class

I'll compare SQ and LX long haul business class and make some brief notes on hotels and restaurants along the way. We managed a couple of special Michelin Star restaurants.

My other most recent trip reports are these:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-long-way.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...evitation.html

Enjoy the trip report and I welcome your comments or questions along the way.

sydunipete

SQ232 SYD - SIN A380-841 9V-SKC 11:15 - 17:40 (scheduled)

Hassle free check in with no waiting at the Suites or Business counters and only a short queue at Economy. But we were about 3 hours prior to departure. Our baggage was checked all the way through the Venice and boarding passes issued for the same. Express card provided which this time made quite a difference. The agent asked if I knew where the Silver Kris lounge was, when I replied "yes" he said "welcome back sir". 2 hours before departure (after doing some shopping for family in Europe) the small SQ lounge was still quite empty.



Newspapers, hot breakfast including English and Chinese options, beer, wine and limited spirits and a nice selection of cakes were all available. Free WiFi.



Although much smaller than the Air NZ lounge used by other Star Alliance carriers it still has good views of the tarmac if you get there early enough to secure a window seat. Just outside was TG 747/400 HS-TGW in Star Alliance colours which flew me back to Sydney on my last overseas trip.



Our A380 is parked on the opposite side of the East West runway waiting in the sun. The lounge had filled up by the time boarding was due to commence. Gate 61 is in a close cluster of 3 gates all with flights in various stages of boarding with the A380 queue in the middle. Couple that with a gate change for a VA flight from one side of the A380 queue to the other and a crowded gate area turned into a real bun fight.

Priority boarding was announced and the crowded gate area surged forward. Either priority boarding wasn't enforced, or there were so many business and star gold flyers it just seemed that way. But once on board there was a calm welcome, a friendly smile and an offer of champagne to provide a welcome change. Of course there was plenty of legroom.



Newspapers, magazines, hot towels offered. Menus, head sets and pillows were already in place. FAs took orders for a post departure drink using my name.

Take off to the South was a few minutes later then slippers and eye mask handed out using names - but no amenity kits. Post departure drink was poured in the galley and bought out on a tray (no trolley) and warm nuts provided.

sydunipete

The meal order was taken for the first sitting.

































The business class cabin was about 80 - 90% full.

First course was a well presented but hardly inspiring scallops and prawns.



This was followed by a very good beef curry. Highly recommended.



The dessert was a hard and bland Tiramisu. I wish I had chosen the macadamia nut ice cream and fruit. This was then followed by a cheese and fruit course.

The wine service was very slow. My glass always ran out and I was waiting for more. The french red was ok but nothing great.

The cabin, despite being large is also quite private.

sydunipete

Everything was presented well and brought out on a plate without a trolley in sight, except for the drinks. Lunch was finished at 14:00 Sydney time (2 1/2 hours after take off). Bottled water handed out. Toilets were always clean but amenities almost ran out even before the meal.





The TV screens are large but highly reflective making it hard to watch dark scenes on a daylight flight. The noise cancelling headsets were great and provided terrific quality sound.



With 3 hours and 26 mins to go we passed over the West Australian coast.



There was great service after the meal as well. There was always somebody up and down the aisle offering food or drinks. Maybe this is the difference with a daytime flight?

A small dinner was served about 2 hours out. Noodles with fish, prawns and scallops were flavoursome but again wine service was small and slow.The meal was served from a trolley but presented nicely (no foil or glad wrap).



Kris World was excellent and was turned off about 15 minutes prior to landing and it reset itself after an announcement by the Captain about 15 mins before that.

I've noticed a decline in Skiytrax ratings of SQ lately, but on this flight at least it was the same SQ it always was, except perhaps for the frugal wine service and average wine quality. It was a great aircraft (A380) a good seat for daytime, but excellent when it comes time to sleep.

Landing due at 17:25
Landed 17:27
Gate 17:30 (Gate A10 Terminal 3)

We were reasonably quickly through immigration despite having the longest queues I've seen in Singapore. But still short by any other standard.

sydunipete

We had a couple of hours to sample the delights of Changi Airport.

First we went to the SilverKris Lounge in T2. It's pretty dated now and fairly small. There was a good selection of hot food and it was tasty. The only beers available were Heineken in cans and Tiger on tap. There was plenty of soft drink and a small lonely tray of wine tucked in a corner. WiFi was good.

Interestingly lounge monitors did not display LX179 flight details, but terminal monitors (outside the lounge) did. I put this down to LX179 being a new flight as we were in about the second week of this flight recommencing.



We then went to SilverKris lounge in T3, jut to ensure a thorough TR for FlyerTalk. It's much bigger and more modern. The food was similar but with a much bigger selection and the same drinks as in T2. Whatever happened to the old bar, complete with bar tender who could whip up a Singapore Sling. This was a few years ago now and I think it was the old dark T2 lounge.

Arrived at gate T2 E22 just as boarding commenced. Priority boarding was available but didn't make a big difference. A quick headcount in the lounge area made me think this was a pretty full flight.

First impressions of the cabin are it is very light and bright, although not necessarily spacious. Everything is clean, neat and precise. The Swiss have a saying "tik tok". Just like a fine swiss watch, everything is precise. This flight was no exception.

Instead of sticking your boarding pass in your coat pocket, each seat has a timber coat hanger with your seat number on it.



Headphones (NOT noise cancelling), blanket, pillow, a refresher wipe and amenity kit were in place. This flight the amenity kit was a small tin that could later be used as a pencil case or similar.



Business Class 100% full. Champagne, orange juice and water offered. My TV screen which was much smaller than SQ had a vertical orange strip on it which later cleared up after take off when the system was rebooted.

Shortly before doors closed the purser asked over the PA if there was a doctor on board. No doctor volunteered themselves and from my seat I could see a passenger had had a fall before boarding and took a few minutes to decide to offload. The FA's provided comfort and some basic first aid.

Menus were then handed out and main course choice taken. Announcements were made in English, German and French then a Chinese pre-recorded announcement was played before the safety video in English was played. All before leaving the gate.

There was plenty of room on board, the staggered seat configuration worked very well, and later when laid 180 degrees flat the bed was extremely comfortable. I had read criticism that the seat was too firm and that the staggered layout created a small footwell when sleeping. I found the seat fine and there was plenty of room in the footwell for my size 15 plates of meat.





The seat also has a mood lighting option. Small lights illuminated the storage compartments making it easy to find things through the night without turning on the full reading light above you. A great idea!

Push back was about 10 mins late (maybe due to the offloading) and take off was at 23:30. It took 30 mins before the entertainment system came on and I found the flight info to be very good. Better than SQ. For example as you were approach a city information about that location would pop up on the screen.





The flight information would rotate between English, German, French and Chinese with lots of different graphics.

Meal service started from the rear of the cabin with 2 trolleys. 1 for food and the other for drink.















Entree was served on a plastic tray. Salmon and prawns which was really very tasty. It matched very well with the Swiss red (Pinot Noir) which was light but pleasant.



The polenta main dish was superb. I was worried because polenta can go gluggy and is not always nice when it's not fresh straight from the pot. What damage could a plane do to polenta? Well the answer in this case was not much. It was great and is recommended. (Sorry - no photo, it was looking too good not to eat straight away!)

Wine service was a little slow, but was more generous than on SQ.

Dessert was good and very well presented.



Meal service was done by 0100 (Singapore time) without being rushed. Bottled water handed out then I slept until 01:30 Zurich time (about 5 hours).

The tray table is a bit of a test first to find the button to eject it from the arm rest and second to get the angle right to fold it back in. But once you've been shown it all works well.

There was a small snack selection and even a hot meal available through the night and I had a good chat with an FA in the galley area.

On the IFE the choice of movies was good, but not as extensive as SQ.

There were only 2 toilets for business and I think first class. There was nearly always a queue. I don't know what these things are. I'm not a user of "product".



I do know what these things are:



Even after everything I ate on the SQ flight, in the lounges and for dinner on this flight I was hungry when breakfast service started about 2 hours prior to landing.

Plastic tray, no linen table cloth then a cold selection buffet of yoghurt, cheese, cold meats, bircher muesli, breads, bakery items plus coffee and a range of juices. Then a choice of an omelette or dim sum which were quite good and all together was more than sufficient to start the day.





It was all cleared away efficiently with about 70 minutes remaining. While eating breakfast the first rays of sun started to penetrate the cabin. Unfortunately forward and downward looking cameras were not working on this flight. Maybe somebody left the lens caps on.

Landed at 06:07 when it was a balmy 6 degrees (C) outside. Long taxi but at gate at 06:14.

In summary this was a very competitive product with SQ.

Seats : SQ's are definitely larger, but I can sleep very well in both
Cabin service : On SQ there are no trays - everything is brought out dish by dish, but the wine service was frugal. On LX they used plastic trays some of the time.
Food : LX takes this by a reasonable margin
Amenities : I still like an amenity kit, so this goes to LX
Metal : I do like the A380. Very quiet and smooth gives it to SQ

So for me, I'd be happy flying with either (until you read about my return trip on LX later in this thread).

sydunipete

Sorry, I don't know why some of the images are appearing at a much higher resolution, thus making the text scroll off the side of the screen. Can anybody help?

FlyIgglesFly

Yes. I was actually looking at this earlier today and it was not the case. It seems a few pictures of yours were too large and skewed the whole report. Maybe resize them?

sydunipete

Zurich seems a very easy airport to transit. No queues at customs. We didn't have much time here between out flight from Singapore and the next hop to our final (for now) destination.

We proceeded to the LX D lounge were we grabbed showers. They are just outside the lounge, but the lovely lounge angel gives you the key upon request.

I didn't get to sample the delights of the lounge, just check mail on the free WiFi and checkout the exceptional beer collection ready for my return leg. 06 something was too early in the morning for a beer, even for me. Mind you it was 2pm Sydney time. Hmmm.

The D lounge was small, but well equipped with the beer and a range of wine and spirits. There was a cold breakfast buffet and an hour of free WiFi. There was a good view of airport gates and surrounding country. But of course I take a photo of the beer.



We made out way to the gate which was close to a 20 minute walk including customs (no queue), duty free and a long walk down A pier to the other end of the airport at gate A85. I was expecting a bus to the cluster of RJ100s I could see sitting on the tarmac.



But to my surprise the Jetway lead us to an A320. The priority boarding avoided a long but well behaved queue.

Leather seats in typical Euro business configuration. Refresher towlettes and bottled water handed out then newspapers and a delicious swiss chocolate (before breakfast!) Push back at 7:38. My jacket was not taken for storage and there was no hook on the bulkhead seats.



After a rapid ascent a trolley was prepared and breakfast was served to 6 rows of business class which was only about 50% occupied.

A small dish of strawberry yoghurt, a croissant, tea or coffee and juice. Simpled but enough for us.



I'm not sure I'd be too happy though if I paid for business class for just this leg, but no sooner had I finished my coffee and we began our descent with 20 minutes before landing. 10 degrees Celsius in Venice.

A bit of a tip : if you can get a seat on the right hand side of the aircraft. I'm told 99% of the time flights approach Venice from the south and the right hand side gives you lovely views on approach of Venice and the canals.

Terminal at 08:37 (Tik tok)
Luggage received at 08:47
On a private speed boat transfer to our Venice hotel at 09:15. There's a walk of a couple of hundred metres from the terminal to the boat and ferry terminal. But it's flat and paved and sort of under cover. There's a water bus and I noticed a sign for water taxi's for 110 Euro. I suspect there would be a surcharge for any hotel not on the grand canal, or not with a private wharf or just about any other reason the taxi driver can think of. But it's a lovely way of entering the city.

stickyfingers85

Can you fix the large pics please?

Can't read the report until you do...

sydunipete

I managed to fix the extra large pictures.

I've got no idea why just a few were supersized. On my computer they all have the same resolution, they all uploaded to ImageShack the same way and I included them in this thread the same way.

Anyway all should be good from now.

sydunipete

This isn't meant to be a Lonely Planet chapter on Venice, just a couple of random notes.

We loved our hotel. Locanda Sant'Agostin. It's possible to get a room with a tiny balcony overlooking a canal. Here's the view from our room.



It's in a very quiet location. The only challenge is it's a few hundred metres from the nearest vaporetto stop. So you either need to schlep your bags quite some distance including the usual Venice bridges, cobblestones and getting lost or you get a private speedboat transfer. There is a wharf just outside the hotel visible in the above photo.

It's a very small family run hotel. So don't expect Hilton international style. But do expect real people providing great service in a beautiful spot.

http://www.locandasantagostin.com/

We tried some Michelin star restaurants and highly recommended restaurants. I can suggest just two.

Osteria Da Fiore is very near the hotel.

http://www.dafiore.net/en/

The food is very Venetian, the service was a bit stifling and it wasn't the meal we enjoyed most during our trip BUT if you can secure the outside table you've got it made. The balcony had room for just one small table for two. It's over a canal, visible from a bridge - so people stop and take your photo like you're a rock star or something and gondolas go past from time to time.

An indoor table would make this an ok night. The outside table was superb.

Here's a photo of the balcony:



Their wine list is very good, including a bottle of Franciacorta to get the night started.

Finally the best meal we had was at Algiubagio.

http://www.algiubagio.net/

Fantastic spot on Fondamente Nuova, brilliant wine list, modern Italian food (not necessarily Venetian) and worth a repeat visit. Not cheap, but very stylish.

sydunipete

It's random! Now some different photos are supersized.

I'll manually resize all photos over the next day or two before continuing.

sydunipete

I've manually resized all the photos, Image Shack was broken so I've moved image supplier to FlyerTalk and then replaced all the images.

So it should all be good. Sorry about that.

Normal programming has been resumed!

sydunipete

Scheduled 0905 - 1045

Checkin was with AirOne and we were in a queue of 3 people waiting for checkin to open 2 hours before the flight. Our bags were very slightly over the 20kg limit, but no problems. If you had a large looking (it was very subjective) hand luggage that too got weighed. The girl in front of us in the queue had problems and had to remove stuff from her hand luggage. From what I could see it weighed 10kg at the start of the process.

There was a very short queue at security, but this was about to change. By the time we boarded out flight the queue for security was so long it extended outside the security area). Once through we were in duty free land and a small collection of shops and bars. I bought what surely must the the worlds cheapest airport cappuccino at 1.60 Euro. It wasn't large, but it was very good.

No free WiFi at the airport. 1 hour costs 2.50 Euro which I guess makes up for the cheap coffee.

We went to the gate 15 minutes prior to boarding time, because there was nothing else to do in the terminal and already a long and orderly queue had formed. Once boarding started the queue dissolved into a melee. People cut in from all angles but it was all to no avail as we boarded a bus to take us to the waiting plane.

The bus took us plane-side then the real fun began. There was no announcement as to which door to use, so people sitting at the front of the plane boarded through the back door, and vice versa. So in the aisle of the plane there was a scrum of people, hand luggage (most of which was so large it must have been snuck past the check-in agent) trying to get past each other and find their designated seat. Sigh.

Once in our seat I noticed the seat pocket was unclean and the contents inconsistent. Placement of magazine, shopping book and safety brochure seemed to be random with some seats getting a full set and others none.



Flight was 90% full and seat pitch was less than average for short haul economy. (I am 6'4".)



Announcements were made in Italian and English.

Doors closed a few minutes after and take off was at 0921. Snacks and drinks were available for purchase (8 Euro for a sandwich, drink and coffee) but not many people took advantage of this.

We had a beautiful view of Sicily including Mt Etna on the left hand side of the plane.

Landed at 1042, at terminal at 1052 and luggage received at 1114.

sydunipete

We did an organised tour of Sicily and generally loved the place. It certainly isn't the first thing you'd see in Italy, but it is historic and picturesque with great food and wine.

Some random comments:

Forget Catania. It's a dirty, noisy, crowded tourist city without any redeeming features that I could find. Sorry if you like Catania but I didn't. It's like Rome without the good bits. There you go, I've now just offended the Romans as well as the Catanians.

The rest of Sicily was beautiful, especially the internal parts of the Island. The Greek and Roman monuments here are much better preserved than in Greece or other parts of Italy.

The highlight of Catania was the Una Palace Hotel with a great rooftop bar and restaurant with excellent views of Mt Etna. They serve an ala carte breakfast for only 10 Euro above your normal included breakfast and you get to try unlimited Sicilian delights including the best granita we had on the Island. Maybe there is one redeeming feature in Catania! Service was slow and the waiters had that knack of walking right past you without even seeing you even when we were the only people in the restaurant. Still - it was a lovely day, a great view and we enjoyed the breakfast. It's a must.

Near Modica we found a superb hotel with the biggest hotel rooms I've had in Europe. It's a few kilometers out of town, but great rooms, good meals and a superb bar. Hotel Poggio del Sole.

Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa topped this with even bigger rooms. It's near the centre of town in Palermo and is a very upmarket hotel. The hotel makes the best Ceci (chick pea) soup I've ever had.

We found a magnificent restaurant in Taormina - La Capinera. Good winelist, superb food and a spectacular setting. It's an absolute must.

Taormina view:



View of Mt Etna from Catania Hotel:



Sunset near Mt Stromboli:



Smoke and lava flow on Mt Stromboli:



Rocky outcrop near My Stromboli:



View from the Island Panarea:



Restaurant (Da Pina) on Panarea:



Etna:



Cefalu:



Temples:





Stairs with flower pots arranged each day. Good exercise and very beautiful: