A flight a day ...

JessicaTam

JessicaTam

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It has been a while since I posted a trip report, so this seemed opportune. I have 28 days leave and so I thought I would do a bit of a status run before my BA year ends.

Now you would realise that I am good at starting trip reports, but bloody hopeless at finishing them. Well this time it's different. I have not packed a camera so all photos will be on my phone and able to upload straight away. It will also be a bit light on detail, so I make sure I post each day - even if just a few words.

This is what 29 flights in 28 days looks like:
Screen Shot 2023-04-29 at 1.46.36 pm.png

It ticks off a few things:

I will be travelling on the (current) world's longest commercial flight SIN-JFK.
I am going to the Monte Carlo Grand Prix - don't ask how much the ticket for that was!
And I am hosting the SIN lounge crawl on the King's Birthday long weekend.
 
Once again I packed light, and leaving out the camera saved a bit under a kilo. So 8kg in the main bag and about 2 in my satchel. That covers Europe, North America and Asia.

As a bit of a breakdown, the bag weighs 2.6kg empty and laptop and cables about 1.4. so that leaves 6kg for clothes and toiletries (and a bit of a goody bag for Nice. ;) )

My bag is not very full so room for QR PJs and amenity kits.

I am flying with QF, MH, SQ, BA, QR and AA. 5 flights are in Y, the rest in J. SQ is points, and the rest revenue. All up a bit shy of 2,500 BA Tier Points (TPs). That will get me about half way to BA GFL (Gold for Life - equivalent to QF life time WP). Oh, and a couple of high speed trains.

And no, don't ask.
 
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JessicaTam said:
I am going to the Monte Carlo Grand Prix - don't ask how much the ticket for that was!
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Absolute bucket list item for me! Really keen to hear about your experience with this. I’ll be trying to find a sports bar (or similar) in Toyama to watch it and decipher the 日本語 commentary 🤣

Enjoy your trip - looks like it’s going to be a cracker!
 
My flight SYD-PER was interesting. Service was a bit hit and miss until I had a chance to catch up with the CSM. All the FA in the J cabin were new (to the J cabin). So the CSM had to watch them as well as do his own job. And some of them had only been in the job a few months. The result of a lack/loss of staff and a massive recruitment drive to replace them.

I am now in the Aspire lounge in PER Int waiting for my flight to KUL. If you head all the way to the end then up the stairs there is a lounge with a great circular view.
IMG_0256.jpeg

IMG_0257.jpeg
The dining area.

IMG_0258.jpeg
The food selection. Three hot options and a range of salads. Everything was freshened up often. The bar has a good range of drinks.
 
maia200 said:
Sounds amazing.....look forward to the TR.
Is the 8kg carry-on? I had read somewhere that AF were starting to weigh J carry on.
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Yes carryon. I don’t do checked luggage.

QF dom allows me 2 bags up to 14 total. And I have never worried with international airlines.

One day I might fly AF. I hear their F lounge is pretty good.
 
RooFlyer said:
True to your forecast, a bit light on TR detail :p .

Don't worry, I know exactly the time commitment to keep up with a TR on-the-road. 👍
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Actually the bus was just pulling away from the terminal so I was about to lose wifi. I am at the HH now so when I get to the exec lounge in a while more detail will be forthcoming.
 
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JessicaTam said:
So I have just done my first two MH flights. PER-KUL and KUL-TPE.
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Ok, time to add the detail that circumstances prevented earlier.

My flight from PER-KUL was a 737. The J seats recline a bit more than QF's equivalent. I was originally in 2A but ended up in 1C. Probably my least favourite 737 J seat. Struck in an aisle for 6 hours and no seat infront to put my bag or stretch out under. At least I had a shadow so I was sitting in 1A before takeoff. There was a couple in 2A/C so I don't know if that influenced my move. They could have had 1A/C! :( I think I managed to get an hour or two of shuteye.

As we were late out of PER I only had enough time to get from the arrivals to the departure gate. So no lounge visit this time. I am back there on Monday so I will get my fill then. KUL-TPE was an old A332. I watched a movie and then had a bit more of a nap. The staff on both flights were great. Attentive without being in your face.

IMG_0264.jpeg

When I got to TPE I saw that AU is now able to the e-gates. But preregistering required. I didn't want to take the risk of not being able to manage that today so I headed strait to the immigration queue. All up about 30 minutes. I have subsequently learned that any AU passport can register free at the airport. So I will probably do that on my way out. The passport needs 6 month's validity, so similar to SIN and HKG's systems.
 
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I had a choice of transport from TPE to HH SInban. A cab or Uber would have been about AUD50-60 and the MRT about $8. I stumped up TWD135 for the bus. AUD6.65 got me a fairly efficient coach trip that took an hour to get within 150m of the HH. I was a drizzly afternoon so I was glad to get close. The MRT is a bit further away.

IMG_0267.jpeg

I received a room on a high floor at the HH and a good size too. The exec lounge is well provisioned this evening with two sittings. I chose 1830-1920, the alternative being 1940-2030. I will see if they kick me out in half an hour. :D
 
A bit about the fare and booking. This is a complex routing with lots of moving parts. I definitely had help putting this together so thanks to the TA for that. 👍👏

But to break it down, the MEL-SYD legs were tacked on in Y. There is also a quick Y NCE-LHR return to get me the rest of my 4 ~. I might have a drink or two at LHR to help defray the cost. 😉

SYD//TPE was booked for me and that fare has since been “corrected”.

KUL-SIN-JFK-FRA and FRA-SIN-KUL were booked on SQ miles as soon as they came available. FRA-LHR-NCE was tacked on the end of the first one as a revenue fare. I hope to get a picture of a string of 5 BPs.

The rest is a rather convoluted QR fare that sees me in MIA and LAS twice along with a number of other US cities.

Oh, the fifth Y flight is from KUL-SIN at the start of the lounge crawl.

And why have I put such a massive SR together? Well simply because my BA year ends in July and I have had a lot of complications in the last twelve months that have prevented my usual pattern of travel. Next year I am back to normal picking up a steady stream of TPs* throughout the year.

I am Gold Guest List with BA, which is sort of equivalent to QF P1 (actually slightly better I reckon 🤣) To qualify 5,000 TP are needed and 3,000 to requalify. So I didn’t want to lose it as it is very difficult to get back. This year I will end up with about 3,500 TP which has additional benefits at that level. But there is a lot of info on BAEC elsewhere so that will do.

*Tier Points, similar to QF Status Credits
 

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