Arrived in LHR yesterday. Thought I would give a quick report on my experience of BR J.
BNE-TPE. Premium Laurel on A330-200
- lounge: Qantas club. An ordinary lounge that is completely outdated needing an update. Food wise only sausage roll and meat ball plus the usual cold salads you find in domestic Qantas club. But it's probably the best lounge in BNE. Not allowed in ANZ's koru club even though all star alliance.
- seat: angled lie flat at 2-2-2. Not that comfortable. IMO, they should use 77W for the BNE route. But I don't think they will as most airlines servicing AU (esp BNE) have all given us their inferior J products, so no competition for them to upgrade.
- food&drink: most review I read criticized heavily on BR's catering. I think it is a cultural thing. The taste is geared more towards Asian. Personally I feel it's much better than QF's catering for business class. Alcohol wise, they don't serve Dom anymore, but La Grande Dame 2004. Not bad still. But I'm amazed that Choya's plum liquor is available. Most airlines only serve this with their Japan route.
- Amenity kit: this is the best part! Rimowa! No other business class will give you this.
- Cost: 40000 LM one way. I used it as part of BNE-LHR at 87.5k LM (before the "devaluation"). It's not as easy to redeem now since BR closed it's inventory to partners. Usually this route will need to be T-14 to get J. So even though I paid slightly more miles I think it was worth it.
RRP: Normally you can buy this for just under $3000 rt, which is one of the cheapest J fare out there.
TPE-LHR (via BKK), Royal Laurel on 777-300ER
- Lounge: EVA's infinity lounge in TPE. It has a very futuristic Tron like decor and lighting. Not to everyone's taste but I don't really care. Nice shower and nice food. Good selection of Taiwanese stuff but not Western. The lounge is small consider it's their flagship lounge. But EVA has 4 lounges (infinity, star, garden and another one I can't recall the name) all next to each other in TPE. So I think everyone gets allocated to one as I have to show the invitation card upon entry. My card says "infinity lounge" so I ended up there.
- Seat: Reverse herringbone in 1-2-1 configuration. Full flat and very private. It's not very comfortable to sleep tho as you can feel the bumps and gaps on the seat. I put my blanket on it and sleep on top of the blanket. That makes it more comfortable.
- Food and drink: the main meal between BKK-LHR is pretty good. It's 6 course meal: appetizer, soup, salad, main course, cheese plate, fruit plate, dessert plus ice cream! The fruit/cheese plate comes in a trolley where you can pick what you want. So I think it is pretty good for business class standard. There was also in flight snack which included some pies, instant noodle, prawn skewer, salad.....etc. I was so full that I didn't order any. I don't know how others can report that they actually stayed hungry with EVA. Drink-wise is the same as BNE-TPE.
- Amenity kit: another Rimowa scored! On top of that , you get a pajama! The quality is quite good. Definitely better than QF business pajama and about the same as my JAL first pajama.
- Cost: 75000 LM, TPE-LHR. Award space is scarce now but it's there. Definitely better than QF's but still hard to find now. About 2-3 days per month.
- RRP: you can get BNE - Europe/USA on BR for about $5500. The cheapest J out there. About the same cost as MH but much better product (especially now MH has grounded 2 of their A380). If I have to pay for revenue ticket, EVA will definitely on top of my list.
Some of you might ask, what about the service? Well, I personally feel the service has been pretty good but definitely not in the realm of SQ/NH. (JL was also pretty good but that was F) but I would say better than QF and EK. I've also read some bad reports about their service, but I suspect it's language barrier. I can speak mandarin so it was never a problem. I'm the type who likes to be left alone but expect service when called. I can say the flight attendant appeared within 1 minute of me buzzing them, comapre to 15 minutes with QF. This is J we are talking about.
Overall, I will definitely fly with them again (if I can find award space). It will be hard now that Ex-BNE is T-14, plus most transit time will be > 8 hrs, and all other routes are hard to find too.
