Check-in at this hotel was simple. Staff here was very polite, and I was given a room with a river view on a SPG floor. Most floors of the higher section of the hotel were SPG floors (lower floors have a separate set of lifts). The room was directly opposite the Millennium Hilton was near completion.

I picked this hotel for its ease to get to the major tourist sites. All one had to do was to walk out the hotel, take a right, and there's the pier for the river boat. There was also a free shuttle to a Skytrain station. Looking at the cliente of the hotel, it's certainly more of a tourist hotel...

Breakfast was pretty good. It'd a decent of range of Western and Eastern food and a range of tropical fruit. The first morning the staff asked whether I wanted to redeem 750 SPG points for the breakfast, I agreed. The breakfast was USD$10, but it might be a tad expensive, but I felt it was OK. I couldn't say I regretted it...

Check-out after a couple of days was simple. It took about 2 minutes... I thought of catching the shuttle and Skytrain to my next hotel, but I just missed one, and the next one wasn't another 40 minutes away... I gave up and caught a taxi instead...

When I got the concierge to tell the driver to take me to the Westin, he told something to driver, and we were on our way. At first, the journey seemed OK, but it gradually seemed that the driver didn't know where he was going. He went along Wireless Road, but that's about as far as he knew. He stopped about 3 times asking for direction, and left the meter running... When he finally arrived, I probably could have asked for change, but it could have been about 20B, which was less than NZD$1 - it wasn't worth it...

Being downtown and being a Westin, it's a slightly more business oriented hotel. However, the cliente seemed to be a mix of business and leisure. I was again put on a SPG floor in a rather large room. The room had a central console that controlled everything - lights, 'do not disturb', temperature, etc... It was quite cool, but it took me a few minutes to figure out it controlled the master light switch and it could disable the individual light switches in the room...

I picked this for its closeness to the shopping and to the nightlife (not to mention the FT madness of getting Starwood stays), and the rate was actually lower than the Royal Orchid...

Breakfast was slightly better (for the same price as the Royal Orchid), merely because it'd a slightly bigger range. More cooked options, more fruit and more pastries...

My thoughts exactly. I was in a window seat and kept losing stuff between the edge of the seat and the wall/window. The complete lack of storage is a really bizarre design flaw - surely most people like to have a certain amount of stuff within easy reach, eg iPod, book, toilet bag etc. There's not even really anywhere to put the amenity kit!

This hotel is directly opposite the Westin. I walked across the over bridge to the other side of the road with my luggage... This hotel is definitely more business oriented. There were definitely some tourists here, but nowhere near as many as the previous two... This hotel and the Westin were also close to the Skytrain (Asok station was right outside).

This Sheraton is part of the Luxury Collection, which Hotel Kamp that I also enjoyed so much also belongs... It didn't disppoint. Not that staff at the previous 2 properties were rude, but this hotel's professionalism and politeness was another level...

I was checked-in by an agent with excellent English (and very pretty too, I might add)... I was assigned a different room than original. She put a sticker on the room number in the welcome folder. My new room was at a lower floor than the original room, but it was quite large. I don't know what the definition of a 'junior suite' is, but I suspect this might be close to it.

She led me to the room and showed me the features. On the way up in the life, she told me it's the start of Songkran in Thailand, and asked me not to get offended when people splash water at me. I didn't know it was the Songkran until I arrived a couple of days ago. Next time, I might plan my trip better and not leave the city when it's the start of something big... I was early for DC's cherry blossom too. I blame this year's early Easter for that...

I digress... While the room was closest to the lift, I didn't hear any noises... The room overlooked Lake Rajada. The agent told me it's a bigger room with an excellent view (and it was good). The room also had a very nice bathroom, close to what Hotel Kamp had, and a walk-in wardrobe. (Hotel Kamp's wardrobe was almost a separate hallway in the room.) Regardless, I was quite happy with the room. I also had use of a butler. If I'd made use of it, I'd have some free laundry, shoeshine, making tea, packing luggage, etc...

I booked myself a Thai massage at the hotel spa. I was also given a note that with Songkran, the spa was giving a free hand treatment with every massage... Sweet...

Breakfast was the best among the 3 hotels. For the same price as the other 2 properties, this place had the biggest range and better quality food. Not only did it have Chinese and Western breakfast, it also had a small Japanese range.

Time for the massage. I never felt comfortable walking around the hotel with my bathrobe, so I went down there fully dressed. I was welcomed with the most polite staff. They asked me to take off my shoes, they really didn't have to be on their knees for that... They then served some very yummy ice tea with a hint of lemon and ginger...

I got the feeling that they don't have many male clients, and with me not a regular visitor, combined with the staff's broken English, it created some rather awkward but funny situations as I didn't know what to do when...

First, the hand treatment. They put some cream on my hands, and dunked them into a 'boiler' full of wax and perfume... Then, they put my hands in plastic bags and 'towel mitts'... Simmer for a few minutes, and I was done.

Next, I was led to a different room and was given a foot massage. After that, I was asked to change into a loose pyjama... The massage wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, I wasn't twisted into various impossible positions, but it was certainly relaxing and I did sleep a lot better from then on. No more waking up at 3am each morning...

The whole thing took just under 2 hours (including the hand treatment). Got back to my room for a quick shower, and it's time to go.

Check-out was by the same agent from the previous day. She then led me to the front door and told concierge to get a taxi to the airport. (Each time when you get in a taxi, make sure the hotel give you a card with the taxi's registration written on it. The card should also have the hotel's details written in Thai, in case anything happens.)

With the Songkran, the outside of the taxi was covered in white paint. On the way to the airport, we saw quite a few people with heavy duty water guns (not just pistols) and buckets. It looked like fun, and next time when I get a chance, I'd certainly try it. It certainly helps to cool down from the daily 36C heat...

The driver was in a hurry today. We went on the expressway. I don't know what the speed limit is in Thailand, but he was going about 140kph in a little Toyota... When you don't have a seatbelt going at 140kph, it's best not to focus on the dashboard and just look outside...

we must have been at the SGS at the same time! I *loved* this place, especially the pool, and the staff.

Songkran was fun - there was a massive 'streetfight' going on in Silom, where the whole street was blocked off and people were sitting on the back of pickup trucks loaded with big drums full of water going all out splashing anything and anyone as hard as they could; it was crazy (and fun!).

Went through security to check-in� There were a number of agents working so there was no queue at all. The only waiting was for the agent waiting for me to dig up my ticket and passport�

I was relatively early for my scheduled flight. The agent volunteered to put me on this earlier flight. That worked out well because I wanted to head into town after arriving in HK. Rather than going into town at roughly 11pm (or even later), I could go into town at about 9pm.

BKK, like most NZ international airports, wanted passengers to pay departure tax at the airport. Handed over my 500B, and off I went to Immigration. As usual, I managed to pick the slowest queue. To be fair, it was the shortest queue when I arrived, it was just single or adult passengers, no families. At first, I thought the immigration officer was just stuck with that passenger, but he was slow with everyone� I was perhaps the fifth person in that queue, and it took some 15 minutes to go through�

I had a quick look around the shops, nothing too exciting, and nothing especially cheap. Then I went to look for the CX lounge. The airport map was utterly useless. It didn�t tell me where any of the lounges were. I�d a walk around, but couldn�t see a CX lounge. I did find the CX first lounge though, so I went in to ask where the business lounge was. They told me it was directly opposite from this first lounge. No wonder I couldn�t find it, I was looking at the wrong side of the terminal.

The business lounge wasn�t large, and it was rather full. I probably should have gone into the bigger QF lounge, which was also closer to my gate. I didn�t know whether the staff at the CX lounge was understaffed or just lazy � empty plates, glasses and cans were everywhere. They eventually came around to go a clean-up, but it wasn�t enough. Food and drinks-wise, this lounge was like the CX lounges at HKG. There wasn�t as much of it, but the lounge here at BKK was smaller too. If you�ve a choice at BKK between the QF lounge or the CX one, go to QF.

There were also 3 computers at this lounge, one computer wasn�t working, and one was occupied by a kid, so there was only one left with plenty of people wanting to use it. Unfortunately, I managed to crash it when I was checking my Hotmail� With that, I left the lounge and headed towards the gate.

I took my time getting there and by then, boarding has started. Unlike the BA chaos, CX have separate queues for premium cabins and economy passengers and separate doors through to the plane. Load was light for this flight � roughly 30%. For some reasons, I always get to sit with someone when the flight was light. The CSD told me as soon as the doors were closed that I could go and sit somewhere else. I picked somewhere with no one behind me so I could recline as much as I like.

This flight was a 777 with their new regional business seats and as many have reported, they were horrid. It was uncomfortable, it didn�t recline much and for some reasons, they stuck a piece of plastic underneath the seats so you couldn�t put your feet or anything underneath the seat in front of you � perhaps there were too many electronics stuff under there�

Service was up to the usual high CX standard. The CSD went around and introduced herself. Not just the CSD but some of the FAs also took the time to learn the passengers� names. The CSD came around and handed out surveys for pretty much everyone in the business cabin. It was somewhat odd that only one or two passengers didn�t get the survey. The survey was some 10 pages long and it asked questions on pretty much the entire experience, from check-in to in-flight service and catering. The only aspect wasn�t covered was the lounge, which I put down some of the issues the BKK lounge had. The survey also came with a nice looking pen that we were allowed to keep.

We landed roughly on time, but it was a long walk and train to Immigrations. HKG is still one of my favourite airports. Everything is clean and tidy and nicely organised. Despite the long walk, there was still a slight wait for the luggage. We came out at Arrival Hall B. It took me a while to locate a sign to the Regal Airport Hotel. While it wasn�t too far, it was just a good 3-5 minute walk, since Arrival Hall B and the walkway to the hotel was at opposite ends of the airport�

(The Regal Airport Hotel segment will be posted 'when I check-out' of the hotel.)

Woke up probably earlier than I needed to this morning (not the first time in this trip), especially given the airport was literally a short walk away. When I headed downstairs at 6:30am, the lobby was quite busy with people checking out and checking in. Among the people checking out was a crew from Thai Airways, they were all quite pleasant to each other despite the early hours, and some of them seemed to be meeting for the first time... Most of them were busy puffing away at the sofas near the counters though.

After arriving at the 'wrong' Arrival Hall last night (i.e., having to walk the entire width of the terminal to get to the hotel), the CX check-in counters were located at the 'wrong' end of the terminal, so I'd to walk the entire width of the terminal again to get to the counters at the far end of the terminal. If this was CX's home terminal, which I assumed they'd get preferential treatment here, why didn't they pick counters in the middle of the Departure Hall...

Got to the 'check-in with hand luggage line' (aisle C), and while one agent was busy with another customer, the other just ignored me... So I stood there for about 30 seconds and with no service forecoming, I walked off... The next aisle (B) had the premium passenger lines. Was checked in by a very polite agent, but she wasn't able to give me my return boarding pass. I was slightly surprised by that, especially when I'd no checked luggage, it's not like the flight was the next day or anything. She said I'd to get out of Immigration and Customs to get my boarding pass. Perhaps she didn't know people would be so weird to sit in a metal tube for the whole day and not go anywhere...

The check-in hall was buzzing with activities at this time of day already, but it was very quiet at airside. Shops were in various stages of opening and there didn't seem to be that many early flights...

The flight was leaving at Gate 3, so the Wing it was. Presented my invitation to the lounge agent, and after a brief walk around, I discovered I was their customer of the morning.

Talked to the agent upstairs to see whether I could get my return boarding pass, and after a few minutes of keyboard tapping, she asked whether the first row would be OK, fine by me...

Went to the Noodles Bar for some hearty breakfast. It's quite tasty, if the serving was a bit small. The pan-friend pork bun and the Chinese soya milk (not sure what the English name is) were served warm and I needed 2 servings, plus some dim sums from the buffet section to quiet my stomach. Who knew sitting in metal tubes being fed all the time could make one hungry...

A few more suits arrived at the lounge, but there were at most a dozen customers at this hour of the day. After some email checking, my attention span ran out so I left the lounge and walked around the shops. BTW, I got an email from home that my 'lost' luggage had arrived...

I didn't do any shopping, but I planned my purchases for tomorrow when I leave HKG for home. I didn't want to buy them now and only to carry them back here tomorrow. Flights at this hour seemed to have relatively light load, there was a CX flight to SYD at my neighbouring gate. That flight was an Airbus something-or-rather (not too hot on plane-spotting), but there were 150 passengers at the most, and I was being generous... It was probably closer to 100.

It's time to board my flight, again with separate queues and separate doors for first/business and economy passengers. I didn't ask for any seat assignments for any of my CX flights as there seemed to be a reputation for CX to swap planes in the last minute from previously advertised. However, none happened during my trip, and this flight was served by a 747. I got a seat upstairs and the load was about 50% upstairs. Yet again, I was stuck with someone next to me when there were plenty of empty seats about. Pre-departure drinks, newspapers were offered and gladly accepted. For some reasons, I was especially hungry and I had 2 of their Kiwi Delight drinks even before the doors were closed...

Anyway, just before the doors were closed, I moved into an empty row at a window seat. The CSD came around and introduced herself and welcomed each individual passenger. The menu was also offered at the same time.

After levelling out, breakfast was served. It was all laid out on a trolley for your selection. Lucky I'd a decent amount of food at the lounge, as the breakfast (regardless of which choice) was swimming in oil. I didn't what type of oil they used, but it surely couldn't be good for you...

As it turned out, the window seat wasn't that flash and the IFE screen would flicker every few seconds, so I moved across to the aisle seat - my 3rd seat of this flight... Since this was a long-haul aircraft, the seat was the better long-haul seat and the IFE also had AVOD. With AVOD (and probably it being morning), I was able to watch the whole movie without falling asleep for once...

With very favourable winds, we only needed some 3:45, instead of the 4:15 advertised in today's programme... Hmmm, I wondered how long the return flight would need...

Went through security with quite a few passengers as they connected to various AA flights... Shaped like DFW, gates were housed in a circle. Gates and airlines were grouped by alliances. CX share the area with AA. Star Alliance have their own area, and so do Sky Team.

I wanted to get back the 747 I arrived in, but I knew my return flight would be in an Airbus 330... I asked the Transfer Desk whether they could move me to the 747 flight which also departs earlier than mine... She told me that flight would stop at Taipei and would make it back to HKG later than mine... Hmmm, OK, I guess I would stick to my programme...

Went upstairs to the lounge, and it seemed pleasant enough, and maybe slightly bigger than the BKK lounge. This lounge also have free wireless Internet, (just as the HKG lounges), but my laptop has died a long time ago... The lounge would have a very good view onto the tarmac, but the windows were strategically frosted at eye level when you sit down, so you couldn't see anything... Smart...

Just as the HKG lounges, this one was maintained with absolute efficiency, everything was clean and tidy. I could have stayed longer if I haven't read all the offered magazines that I was interested in or perhaps it was the guy who wouldn't blow his nose and preferred to sniffle every 5 seconds...

The Departure area was buzzing with quite a few AA flights leaving to New York, LA, San Jose and somewhere else I couldn't remember... I've never been to this terminal (1) before, so I decided to explore. The range of shops on offer wasn't that impressive, but to make the trip slightly less weird, I bought something. At least I could say I went there to shop and not to just earn air miles and enjoy flying. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Still had plenty of time left, what to do...? As I walked further and further away from my gate, I ended up using many of the moving walkways. I could now say I've the wonderful achievement of using every single moving walkway at NRT Terminal 1. Could you say that?

On the other hand, that almost got me into trouble. I didn't realise the terminal was actually really big. I started to hear boarding calls from my flight, and I was at the UA side of the terminal... Man, was it a long (and hurried) walk back to my gate... By the time I got there, it was 'final call' already... But the credibility of 'final call' had somewhat gone out of the window for me. Various airlines and airports cried wolf by announcing every single call a 'final call'. Even at NRT, I've heard at least 5 'final calls' for the same flight here this afternoon...

Anyway, by the time I got there, I was the last business passenger to board, but there were still a handful of economy passengers queuing. (Separate queue and separate doors again.) Wow! Business was full, with many suits. Perhaps it's a good 'commuter' flight for people finishing a day's work in Tokyo.

This flight had the old long-haul business seats and the older IFE system. With a full flight, it wasn't practicable for the CSD to introduce herself to every passenger individually, and certainly pre-departure service was rushed. I hate it when people take over your overhead storage space. I know that space is shared, but I'd to put my bag about 4 rows behind me. It's just stupid when you leave the plane and had to go against the flow. At least with the bulkhead seat, I was able to put my legs up a bit.

If you're still reading this trip report (thanks!), you'd notice that I don't pay too much attention to the food and drinks in flight. From memory, dinner on this flight wasn't too exciting either. The only stand-out things from these Japanese flights were small bowls of cold udon that weren't available on any other CX flights, and the smoked salmon. It was yummmm... (I've a soft spot for salmon, particularly smoked salmon...)

Now flying against the wind, our scheduled flying time of 4:45 took well over 5 hours. We were about an hour late by the time we arrived at HKG. With our late arrival, CX had already arrived connecting passengers (mainly to MNL) to be met once we arrived.

This time, our walk back to the main terminal wasn't as far (still needed a train ride though), and without checked luggage, I was able to get back to landside in minutes. Again, I was at the 'wrong' Arrival Hall, so I'd to walk all the way across the airport to get to the walkway to the hotel...

I considered going to the Sheraton in Kowloon during my 2 nights here. While it's certainly easier to get into town than from the airport, it also meant waking quite a bit earlier for both mornings to catch my flights, plus the Sheraton was quite a bit more expensive than this hotel. $1400 versus $2200, plus the expenses to get to the airport each day - I only needed the room to sleep, wash and somewhere to leave my luggage...

The Regal Hotel was certainly very nice. Nice big open area, marble floors, fountains, etc... Check-in was a bit slow though. When I first arrived, they only had 2 agents working, and the queue was getting longer. It didn't help when people didn't care about the clearly labelled signs and just waited where they wanted. Gradually, a couple more agents started working the desk and I was waved towards it. I was certainly glad the agents took the people from the queue and not those that just decided to 'queue anywhere'. Those that belong to the Regal loyalty programme could check-in at a secret location on the top floor of the hotel (level 9).

When I tried to check-in, the hotel couldn't find my booking... Uh-oh... I was slightly when I first booked through my agent that all I got was an email from her (although it did have a confirmation number) and nothing 'official' from the hotel. The Regal chain only have a basic web site even if you could book through it, the web site rates were very high. My TA assured me that all would be OK.

Luckily, it was just a matter of mistaken identity. My booking was under my shortened name, whereas I gave him my complete name for check-in... My room was on the 'executive level' (level 8) on the North Wing. There's the North Wing and South Wing. My room looked into the hotel courtyard. Photos from the hotel web site showed there're rooms that looked into the airport terminal and tarmac, that would have been cool. On the other hand, it's dark when I got there, and little light when I'd leave the room each day anyway...

There're separate escalators leading to the Club level on level 9, but I didn't really leave the room to explore the hotel each night - I either didn't have time (I went into town one night) or I was too tired...

The room had a king size bed, a bottle of free water, plus a well-stocked bar with extortion prices (a medium bottle of Evian was HKD$68)...

I'd no problems with the room. However, the TV refused to work one night. While I could switch it on, it couldn't get onto the hotel network. A call to the front desk and an engineer promptly came up. Of course, each time you call support, the equipment in question would work fine in front of them. After less than 30 seconds, the engineer got the TV working fine. Perhaps he just reset it with the remote via some secret combination...

Check-out was also a long affair. While it was early in the morning, there was a queue of 6 people or so, plus several people were using express check-out. Airline crews have a separate check-in/out area. At least this time, people were queuing, unlike check-in. After waiting for a few minutes, I was checked out in seconds, and on my way to the airport and my final flights of this RTW...

It�s time to head home� 3 flights to take me back to Wellington, as supposed to 2 under normal circumstances, but it wouldn�t be right to go home the most direct way now, would it?

Again, I�d to go across the entire terminal to the CX aisles. Today, I went straight to the business check-in desks. There were enough agents and I�d to wait a couple of minutes before an agent became free. Not that I minded or not that there was a queue me or anything, it�s just early and customers already at the counters seemed to have complicated tickets, like me.

The agent checked me in, but she could only give me boarding passes for my first two flights. My final flight to WLG wasn�t open yet. I also asked for an upper deck seat for my second flight (on BA), but she couldn�t see any free seats, so she gave me my pre-assigned seat and asked me to check when I got to SIN. At least she could check my luggage all the way to WLG though�

Today�s gate was 67, so the Pier it was. Unlike most people, I preferred the Pier than the Wing. Since the Wing was open, it always seemed too noisy or the temperature never seemed right. Anyway, I decided to walk over to the Pier instead of taking the train. I�d done this walk before and it didn�t seem to take that long as this time. It took some 10-15 minutes before I even saw the 60�s gates�

Checked-in at the Pier and there were only a couple of others there. Breakfast was the same affair as yesterday at the Wing � pan-friend pork buns and warm soy milk. After some dim sums and fruit, I went over to check my email. Over this time, only a couple more people came in the lounge.

I almost forgot I�d to do some shopping and with the Pier being miles away from the shops, I took the train back to the main concourse. Hurriedly did my shopping and caught the train back and by the time I got back to the Pier, boarding calls already began. Fortunately, Gate 67 was right next to the Pier�

Boarded onto a 777, I wasn�t sure what sort of seats this plane had. It wasn�t exactly the same as the regional seats that I didn�t like from BKK, but it wasn�t any of the long-haul business seats either� While all my CX flights had Studio CX, only my 747 yesterday had AVOD. Load was just under 50%, with majority of the business passengers connecting from LA, and they just made the flight too� The flight also had a handful of youngish American consultant-type people. While most of them were OK, one of them thought he was the man. He would order the FAs to hang up the jacket for him, do this do that� Even if he didn�t know one was supposed to shut off all laptops, he would have heard the announcements; he would still have his laptop opened (not to mention his table out) while we were taxiing away� When the FA asked him to put it away, he would either ignore them or just respond with a �yeah yeah OK��

This flight also had the outside camera, but this one was positioned behind the front landing gear. We�d quite a long taxi and it�s interesting to see how the pilots steer such a big aircraft and hardly had the front wheels off the centre line on the tarmac. One of the other consultants was obviously impressed with the camera, so he yelled half way up the cabin to one of his colleagues � �Look at the camera, how cool is that? It�s so cool!!!� Hmmm, yes, it�s cool�

It went without saying that pre-departure drinks and newspaper were offered. The CSD also came around as soon as the FAs were allowed out of their seats to welcome us and offered menus. This flight wasn�t the first one I noticed, but the CSD didn�t introduce herself to every single passenger, only most of them. I didn�t know what the differences were; I didn�t have any status with CX, only QF. Perhaps I�d some status with OW and/or I bought the flight with a CX number rather than an AA code-share. (As a side-note, I should have bought some of these flights as AA code-shares as I would have got more miles under QFF.)

There was one Western breakfast or some Chinese dim sums. I took the dim sums. They were anything special, they were airplane food after all. I kind of deliberately filled up at the lounge as I wanted to avoid any more oily food from CX.

The flight was quite bumpy, and breakfast service actually stopped a couple of times. With a row to myself (at last), I took the other seat�s IFE because if I used my own, it seemed very crowded with the table out too� I fell asleep after failing to find anything exciting on TV. When I woke up, it was just about to get ready for landing. Of course, that all important American consultant took some 10 minutes to shut down his laptop. Perhaps he�d a laptop with a super-computer in it� This time 4 FAs just happened to come around together to ask him to shut down his laptop. The FAs handled the situation (and his whole flight) very well, I could imagine some other airlines� FAs would have told him to put his laptop somewhere the sun had trouble reaching�

The outside camera was back on. We watched the landing gear came out and with a buff of white smoke, we landed roughly on schedule.

I was the second person to leave the plane, I�d trouble figuring out where to go as arrivals and departure seemed to on the same level and passengers didn�t get separately until quite late in the piece. I asked the information desk where the QF lounge and was directly to keep going and head upstairs� When I found the lounge, I was only the second person there�

4 regional flights, but on a variety of aircrafts and seats.

Check-in = 7/10 (little idea of my OW seat preference)
Lounge = 9/10
Boarding = 10/10 (separate queues and separate doors every time)
In-flight catering = 7/10
IFE = 7/10 (only if every flight had AVOD)
In-flight service = 9/10
Seats = 7/10 (long-haul seats are better, avoid Airbuses)

Total = 56

The SIN lounge was new, being just opened in February. It�s quite big and new. There was still a faint smell of fresh paint around the place. With hardly anyone around, there was no food, only chips and drink snacks. There was also a row of computers, plus 3 �office cubicles� with printers available for use. With no one around, I asked the agent at the door whether she could find me an upper deck seat on this flight and even a boarding pass for my flight to WLG. A few seconds of tapping on the keyboard, she found me 64A, I gladly took it, but the WLG flight still wasn�t open�

The lounge would have quite a good spot for watching people at the check-in area. Unfortunately, the seats facing the window were all too low to see anything interesting. You could only see the road outside the terminal�

Food gradually came out. It wasn�t a big range, and it�s all cold food. There was a Singapore style noodle plus the usual selection of sandwiches and fruit. One could never have too much fruit while travelling, so I took the chance to catch up on this food group.

Instead of sitting down after stuffing my face, I went downstairs for a walk. There were as many moving walkways for me to repeat my NRT achievement. While there was a good selection of shops, they�d nothing I wanted. Tiger Airways were launching a new direct flight to Mumbai, and were giving away caps as a promotion. I probably would have got 4 or 5 caps if I didn�t tell them I already got one. As there were no space to leave your luggage at the lounge (you could pay to leave your luggage at one of the shops), I didn�t take go to Terminal 2. The number of airlines was smaller than Terminal 1, so I thought it wouldn�t be as big� Terminal 1 was nice, with a nice fountain, and a stage near some bars. There�s also the Cactus Garden outside, and it�s not a bad place to waste a couple of hours. Anywhere near 5 hours (like I�d) would be a bit much.

I went back to the lounge, and tried out a variety of different seats. A TV was showing golf and another one was showing Asian MTV � none of them exciting enough, but it�s good enough to put my feet. A few more passengers drifted in, including a father and daughter. The teenager wasn�t wearing very much and she wouldn�t stop walking back and forth in front of me. She was even �stalking� me outside the toilets a couple of times� It also didn�t help when her old man sat down on the sofa next to me� No matter where I moved, she would follow. I didn�t know what she wanted� 

When I was getting my boarding pass earlier, I saw some papers at the counter the flights today and their loads. They all looked pretty full, and it seemed most flights would have lucky people for op-ups� I decided to have a shower a good hour or two before the flights from LHR arrived. There were 20 shower rooms, I wouldn�t think there would be a queue even during rush hour.

After my long shower, there were quite a few more people at the lounge. Even with the more people, there was still plenty of room at the lounge. Compared to other lounges, e.g., CX HKG lounges, this SIN lounge is right up there. I�d even rank this better than the QF first lounge at SYD.

I left for the gate well ahead of time. It was a slight walk, but I still arrived early. Security for the gate wasn�t even open. People already started to queue when I got there. There was a rather dodgy looking around. I was standing against a column with my luggage, he�d nothing but a magazine and a paper bag with a small package. The more I stood there, the closer he got� He was probably innocent, but I would give him a look and he�d back off a little. Once I looked away, he�d get closer� The flight at an adjacent gate opened, and some seats opened up, so I left him standing there for the seats. I watched him for a couple more minutes and he disappeared�

My flight also opened, and we went through security. I always got ready (i.e., wallet, mobiles in my bag) before joining the queue. Pretty much all the people that were queuing before the gate opened had to be stopped because they�d something in their pockets. Why wouldn�t they get ready when they were queuing? It�s not like they�d better things to do while standing around.

Most passengers on this flight came from LHR. There were plenty of families and small children. Some of them were grumpy and tired. This just made the gate area especially busy� Babies crawling everything, crying, children arguing, fighting� Finally the air bridge opened� Boarding calls were made for families and they needed it. Some people still tried to get through early though. It�s not going anywhere without you� Another call was made from the back of the aircraft. Some premium passengers were confused as there was no call for them. I waited, and most of the premium passengers also waited for the call. The last call was just a general call, so we just queued� Boarding was through the one door.

I went upstairs and some people were already there. I took my window seat, and it�s a pretty good seat. Since it�s the last row, there�s no one to skip over to get out. It�s also a bassinet seat though. While it faced backwards, just as all window seats, you couldn�t really see the toilet or the gallery. There wasn�t much light or noise coming through either. One slight down side was I couldn�t use as much of the side bins as possible. Half the space was occupied by the plane. You could use several bins, since you were the last row, but none of them would be big enough to store a normal sized luggage.

Pre-departure drinks were offered, along with a menu. We were looked after by a couple of �experienced� FAs. They seemed to be getting along very well, laughing and joking all the way. The service wasn�t bad at all, but it wasn�t as attentive as the flight from SFO. It�s my first time on a backward seat, and it took me a couple of seconds to figure out which way we were going as first pushed back before going forward.

Dinner wasn�t bad, and I might have a fish of some sort (couldn�t remember). Dessert was a very nice cheese cake. For some reasons, it took them ages to get the plates away (they might have forgotten). I like to finish dinner, use the facilities, brush my teeth and go to sleep on overnight flights. With a clear passage to the aisle, I just took my plates out with me. A FA just happened to walk past and she took it off me and just put them on where they put the newspapers before take-off.

The flight wasn�t long, only 7 hours or so. I missed half a movie again, and I woke up about an hour before landing. BA really need to take a look at their breakfast. It�s nothing more than fruit (or cereal) and bread. It�s ridiculous.

During the flight, the captain warned that MEL�s runway is under construction work (probably for the Airbus 380), so we might be under heavier braking than usual, that�s assuming we wouldn�t get hindered by possible fog. Luckily, we were quick enough to beat any fog and there wasn�t any extra braking that I noticed when we landed�

We left the plane quite quickly, even from upper deck. It�s just past 4am, and it seemed we were the first flight in. There were a few staff milling around, taking things easy on a Saturday morning� It seemed I was the only one with a connecting international flight, as I headed to security by myself�

Check-in = 6/10 (only LHR, the Connection Centre was good, but the power hungry agent at T4 was the worst behaviour I've ever seen)
Lounge = 7/10 (Molton Brown was nice, but need more availability, only counting LHR and SFO)
Boarding = 3/10
In-flight catering = 5/10 (have they heard of 'breakfast'?)
IFE = 7/10 (only if every flight had AVOD)
In-flight service = 8/10
Seats = 7/10 (BA marketing are good at selling the seat)

Total = 43

I was the first passenger to come through this morning. Shops were barely open, the only customers at the eateries were staff from other shops. I headed down the stairs to the QF lounge, and found it wouldn�t be open until 5:15. It wasn�t even 5 yet.

I went back up and had a look around the few shops that were open. Prices weren�t that exciting and there wasn�t anything I wanted or could get at WLG at lower prices anyway. I went to gate, the good thing was there weren�t armrests between the individual seats, so I put my feet up. Even though I wasn�t trying to sleep, it was good to put my feet up straight�

Gradually, passengers for other flights began to arrive. Most flights were to Asia, and while the terminal began to get busy, most people were still not much more than walking zombies�

I headed back to the QF lounge (which CX also use), and was the first customer in. First thing was to get my boarding pass. Unfortunately, the lady there couldn�t get on the system, so she offered to take my ticket and passport so she could do it later while I head for a shower. She asked whether I was a Qantas Club member, and I said yes, and asked whether she wanted my card, but she was friendly and trusting and she gave me the towels and a plastic bag so I could return the used towels to her.

There weren�t that many shower suites here at MEL, and each was quite small. With one�s hand luggage inside, it�s difficult to move around without knocking something, and a seat was just out of the question. A stool tucked underneath the sink could be useful when required though.

After a nice hot shower, I went back to reception, but she still couldn�t print my boarding pass, so I hit breakfast instead. It was the usual QF lounge affair (they seem to have the same breakfast no matter which QF lounge you go) � oatmeal, cereal, pear or peach (from a can) and toast. Occasionally, you get pastries but not in this case. Passengers slowly began to come in, but most seemed to be for other flights. This lounge calls every flight that departs from the terminal, including non QF or non OW flights. There wasn�t a clear first class section, but there was a section with slightly better furniture and a �subtle� sign showing first class. At this hour, no one really cared where you sit, and reception certainly didn�t care. After going through a newspaper with dawn slowly breaking, the tarmac gradually became busier. The lounge and the my gate (9) had a good view of the tarmac. Flights came in and there was even the occasional queue to take off. The QF flights that flew the same route (LHR-SIN-MEL) began arriving, but again there didn�t seem to be many connecting passengers. There were a couple of CX customers from HKG that connected to my flight though.

On this Saturday morning, the lounge never got busy. Passengers were a good mix of leisure passengers and the business type, most likely going home. As I headed back to the gate, I finally collected my boarding pass and passport.

Now that it�s light outside, I headed to the window to have a proper look of the tarmac from my gate. While I saw some construction activities outside my gate earlier when it was dark, now I could clearly see there would be no way they could park a plane there. There wasn�t even an air bridge at the gate. The only possibility would be a bus gate.

Gate 11 which was next to Gate 9 had a 733 parked next to it. 11 looked more like an gate for US flights, with extra dividers. While the departure board still showed gate 9 for my flight, I sat at Gate 11, expecting my flight to move over to 11.

With about 10 minutes before scheduled boarding, the announcement came that the flight would indeed depart from Gate 11. It didn�t look like a full flight, with about 100 passengers at most. When we sat down and the gate agent prepared the necessary paperwork, the occasional passengers would rush up to the gate and expecting to board. It turned out that the departure board has already shown the flight as �final call� (another crying wolf)�Even when the agent had her immediate area roped off, people would still go around it and wanting to board. When you see quite a few people sitting down and the door to the air bridge closed, you are either way too late or boarding hasn�t begun yet�

There was a passenger connecting from HKG with CX and for some reasons her bag wasn�t tagged to go to WLG, only to MEL even though she�d a boarding pass for this flight already. I couldn�t figure out how that managed to happen (wouldn�t that be some security problems?). She asked the gate agent whether she could locate her luggage and have someone put it on this flight. Perhaps she should have gone through customs and immigration before getting her boarding pass� Her boarding pass looked like a QF one, and not a CX one.

Boarding time came and went. Announcements and apologies came through that it was because of the late incoming flight. The plane has been sitting there for well over an hour now. I was there�! It doesn�t take that long to prepare a 733, even if it�s a token international flight.

Boarding finally began and it was a free for all. For a small flight, I didn�t really care. Including myself, there were only 3 passengers in business today. A fourth came up after levelling out, and it was clear he was a QF staff. At first, I thought he might not get the full business service, but he did� Didn�t worry me, just interesting to note.

Unlike the trans-Tasman flight that started this trip, a printed menu was offered. This time, there�s a proper breakfast compared to BA � a cooked option rather than just fruit. The CSD also introduced herself to each of the passengers when she offered the menu.

Normally, the QF CSD would look after the business class and the rest of the crew would look after economy. At this flight, a young FA took care of business and the CSD took care of economy with another FA.

Before breakfast was served, the FA asked whether I would like a DVD player instead of the movie showing at the main screen. I took the opportunity having turned it down at my first flight. While she gave us the movie catalogue and asked for a selection, she ended up giving each of us the entire movie library but with our first selection pre-loaded ready to go.

This was as close to AVOD QF could get at these flights. It also served a good opportunity to finally catch up on 3 or 4 movies that I�ve watched during various flights of this trip but have fallen asleep to.

Arrived at a brilliantly sunny and calm WLG, marked with a very smooth touchdown. (Although after I walked out of the terminal, there was a definite nip in the air that wasn�t there when I left 3 weeks ago.) While WLG wasn�t a big airport, there was a relatively long walk through various air bridges and walk ways before getting to Immigration. As I was the first one to leave the plane, I almost led the passengers to a wrong way as the walk way kept pointing to Departure, but nothing about Arrival. There was no staff around to ask, but with the only other door locked, there was only one way to go.

I collected my duty-free that I bought when I was leaving WLG. Although my original receipt was with my lost luggage, I explained the situation to the shop and with my boarding pass, they gave me the goods. By the time I got to Luggage Reclaim, bags just started to arrive. This flight followed closely from a QF flight from SYD and another one from NZ, so it was quite busy. With all my bags, I went to get a trolley, and with I was just getting used to recognising my suitcase. By the time I recognised it, it has already went past me and half way down the other side of the belt, so I chased after it.

No sniffing dog today, but I did have some food to declare. Joined the red queue (for things to declare), the officer asked what it was, and it was just candy. I always pack any food with my hand luggage for easy retrieval. I showed the officer the food, and he was quite happy, and he handed my customs form to another officer. He was more interested with the places that I�ve been to rather than the food. He didn�t ask me anything that was outside what I wrote on the form, although he did seem extra interesting with my Thailand stop. Perhaps that was due to the recent Bali happenings�

As all passengers were required to do, all bags went through x-ray again for a search on food. Having found nothing that they didn�t know about already, I was allowed to go.

Arrival hall was full of people, and it was good to see the family again after a 3-week whirlwind trip around the world�

Check-in = 7/10 (only once at WLG at the start of the trip, and I never the NZ agents doing it, the SIN and MEL ladies were very good though)
Lounge = 8/10 (SIN was very nice)
Boarding = 4/10
In-flight catering = 7/10
IFE = 7/10
In-flight service = 8/10
Seats = 7/10 (First class was nice, Skybed was better than BA's flat bed and CX long-haul, the 733s were bearable, but not worth the money)

Total = 48