Daver6 World Tour 2016

[Daver6]

 

[Daver6]

Following Boston we had two nights in Singapore. Flights were QR - DOH - SIN all meant to be on the A350. Upon check-in in BOS I noticed our boarding pass had different seats to what I had preselected. Talking with the agent, it became clear the aircraft had changed to a A330 and the seats were not flat beds. Ironically, they have an old F cabin (used for J) with a few rows. I asked to be put on those seats and could see on EF that were free. The agent told me there was nothing to be done and take it up in DOH.

MrsDaver6 being SG we first checked out the BA lounge in BOS. No windows and not overly appealing. QR use the AF lounge which we went to next. Pretty disappointing lounge. Place was really hot and food and drink offerings were poor. A sub-standard QR lounge experience. In fact, BOS airport is pretty average.

Uneventful flight and up to the usual high QR standard all round. Straight to the lounge in DOH and so begun the long process of getting better seats. I also desperately wanted a shower so went to put my name down. For such a large lounge they really don't have sufficient showers for the peak times.

So cut a long story short with the seats, after spending much too much of my lounge time at the counter, we eventually got put in the old F seats. Having to wait ages for the shower coupled with that really soured the lounge experience for me. Also, even in the old F seats, they are pretty disappointing compared to the new J seats on the A350. Also, no flight internet and the in-seat power didn't work. Thankfully the crew were amazing and food and drink as good as ever.

We arrived early in the morning to Singapore and headed straight to our hotel. The Hilton. Went to the EL to check-in and breakfast had just finished. We checked in but our room wasn't ready. Also, no upgrades, the hotel was legitimately full. The staff really looked after us while we waited about an hour for the room to be ready. I was glad to be receiving genuinely great service from a Hilton hotel again after the disappointments in the US.

We only had two nights in Singapore and were pretty jet lagged. We hung out at the pool and generally just relaxed and ate.

We decided to check out the one Michellin star hawker stall in China town. You can see the queue in the video below. We decided to eat elsewhere. Wait time was roughly three hours!

[video=youtube_share;IWklal7bgjI]https://youtu.be/IWklal7bgjI[/video]

 

[Daver6]

After Singapore it was home on CX via HKG. CX use the Dnata lounge in SIN. It is an ok lounge, but nothing special.

This was my first J experience on CX and have to say I was a little under-whelmed. Boarding was handled really poorly for the flight to HKG. Most people were pushing to get on even before the boarding announcement. When an announcement was made it was really unclear who was meant to go there. How some of the passengers treated the airline staff was disgraceful. Some DYKWIA was shouting out his MP status and he shouldn't have to stand in line. Bloke turned out to be in Y too.

On board in J another guy was giving a crew member a really hard time before he was moved from his preferred seat as someone needed the bassinet. It was embarrassing how they treated the crew like slaves. That aside, the CX regional J seats were ok, nothing special.

In HKG we had a few hours to burn so headed to the noodle bar in the Wing lounge first. Yum! I was hungry and some noodles hit the spot. A shower followed and we decided to give the QF lounge a miss. I know others rave about it, but I didn't find it that special. We were pretty tired so just headed to the Pier lounge as it was near our gate.

Finally, onto CX for the flight home to Perth. I think QR have spoilt us. The seat, service, food and drinks are second to QR. No dine on demand. No pyjamas or slippers either. Having said that, the everything was good, just not QR good. Perhaps the aircraft was looking a bit tired too. The J cabin to Perth was maybe 40% full.

After some sleep we arrived in PER and the world tour completed. We had an amazing time. A big thanks to everyone who answered my endless questions leading up to this trip.

 

[VPS]

Just catching up from the beginning - not sure why I missed it but excellent thanks