First DONE4 trip report

[djfuzz]

Hi all

Thanks to some terrific advice from these forums and the coincidence of the Oneworld tenth anniversary sale with our honeymoon, we finally took the plunge and booked an ex-ICN DONE4. My wife is starting off as a QFF NB, and I have taken Dave Noble's advice and started an AA platinum challenge - so we should have Sapphire status after arrival into JFK and she will have Emerald towards the end too.

The itinerary is ICN-NRT-JFK-SFO-DFW-LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-SYD-MEL-AKL-MEL-HKG-DAC-HKG-ICN. We will be back in MEL in June and will head off to AKL in November, followed by the final leg in December/January.

Our positioning flights took us from MEL-HKG on QF in premium economy and HKG-ICN in Y, returning in January.

Our lack of status screwed us somewhat on the MEL-HKG leg. We submitted a points upgrade to J, which was not declined (not unexpectedlt as the flight appeared pretty full). However, we had preallocated seats 37J and K in order to have some (limited) privacy on the flight, and because I am a 'fidget' and drink too much water / go to the loo too much on long haul flights. I called a number of times for various reasons and reconfirmed these seats. Arrived at MEL to find that they had given them away and put us into seats 34E and F, which are the middle of the middle 4 in the bulkhead row - in my view the worst seats in PE due to the bulkhead limiting foot space, no storage space and of course climbing over two people on the aisle on either side of us. Not exactly the dream start I had hoped for our honeymoon, but she enjoyed it anyway. Other than drink on boarding, no drink service prior to dinner. Food service was pretty good, had a nice barramundi, desert was just a muffin. Breakfast muesli was decent but of course nowhere near as satisfying as a full J breakfast.

Stayed in HKG at the Peninsula - cannot speak highly enough of that experience, particularly the spa. Ate at Felix and Yan Toh Heen, and had yum cha at Dragon-i, all of which were great.

Tried to see if we could pay to upgrade the HKG-ICN leg, but it became too difficult so we stuck in out in Y. My first time on the new CX economy, which I quite enjoyed - I like staking a claim to the personal space in front of me, though I can see why people might find it gruelling on long haul as the forward 'recline' position was not stellar. IFE was pretty good though, not quite new QF standard, but better than most I've seen so far. If they fixed the recline issue and made the seat a wee bit more comfortable, I would not hesitate to fly CX Y (even longhaul) again.

On the tripadvisor recommendation, we stayed at the Ibis Myeong-dong, which was interesting. Basic hotel, as advertised, but clean, efficient and well located near a great shopping district (though access by airport bus was a little tricky to figure out at first, but pretty easy once familiar with it).

I am currently writing this using free WiFi in the JAL lounge at ICN awaiting our first flight. Did not get a chance to check out the CX lounge here as I had hoped, but the JAL Sakura lounge is nevertheless quite nice and cozy, with a nice view onto the tarmac where our 777 awaits. Food selection is a little wanting, with some good (but small) sandwiches, miso and instant noodles. Asahi is on tap which is nice, but grog appears to be limited to Chivas, Absolut vodka and a bottle of wine. I'm a little surprised by the size, given that I would have thought JAL has a few flights per day into ICN, but it is only sparsely populated at the moment, and there are at least two flights boarding in the next little while.

Looking forward to the service on JAL and to trying to find a good lounge in NRT for the two hour layover prior to the AA flight to JFK. Will update as we go along.

 

[djfuzz]

JAL flight from ICN to NRT was great, we were the only people in the second J cabin, and the service was wonderful. Bento box lunch was great, as were the seats. We both thought it was a great way to start.

Now sitting in AA lounge at NRT about to head of for JFK. The AA lounge is pretty packed, I can see three AA tails nearby, and seating is pretty much at a premium. I think our flight is full up in J as we couldn't select any alternate seats. Other than the Asahi on tap, the food and drink doesn't seem that extensive - a few more spirits than JAL at ICN, but food limited to finger sandwiches and sushi.

Walked past the lifts to the CX lounge but couldn't see the Sakura lounge anywhere - again have heard varying reviews of both so figured we may as well stay put until the flight is called, which is pretty soon.

 

[SnowYeti]

Great report so far! Keep it coming Asahi, mmmm! my fav beer.

 

[Evan]

Have fun maybe a pity you missed some time in Japan but if you have not seen it and want to then do doubt you could do it on the return trip when you finish your DONE4

 

[djfuzz]

Absolutely Evan, we really wanted to go to Japan - didn't in the end due to a number of factors, including amongst others the fact that the AUD was so weak when we booked we couldn't afford to do some of the things we'd hoped to (if only we'd known!), and also because I couldn't change the routing of the first flight (AA codeshare ICN-NRT-JFK) without being hit up for the full non-discounted price plus penalty. So we're hoping to use the miles from this trip for a future sojourn to Japan.

Have to say that after the luxury of an empty short flight with JAL to a packed long haul flight with AA, the difference is quite noticeable. Seating was at a premium in the AA lounge and the food and drink was limited as mentioned above. On boarding although I thought the general design of the AA J seat was decent, I immediately found some sort of sticky substance in the inside storage well, which soiled my book. I had hoped to clean it up with the towelette, but that didn't actually arrive until well into the dinner service which was itself quite late.

You see, once we'd taken off, the captain didn't extinguish the seatbelt sign until about two hours into the flight (despite a smooth ride, he cited concerns about 'upcoming turbulence' which never materialised). I know it's his discretion to better be safe than sorry, but it really reminded me of the stories I'd read here of US carriers preferring to leave the sign on for liability minimisation than out of concern for passenger safety. I wonder where the line is between overcaution in anticipation of turbulence (I figure most people would be somewhat concerned about this given recent news) and passenger health (on a long haul flight complete confinement obviously has consequences for DVT and bladder control).

In any case, I found the service itself to be reasonable - we had a very nice flight attendant, the food was pretty good (especially the warm nuts and ice cream with cookies). My wife became sick for some reason we haven’t yet pinned down (possible reaction to something at the lounges or drinks on board – have heard theories about the ice, but did not share them), and the attendants were reasonably helpful with that too.

Despite my reservations and other concerns noted above, the seats were pretty good (if a little strange in transitioning between set positions). We both managed to get a fair amount of sleep which was nice, and didn’t have any real difficulties in finding a comfortable position for relaxing or sleeping. Having said that, AA has really shot itself in the foot by not having goose neck reading lights. We were incredibly impressed by the sturdiness and illumination provided by JAL’s, but the AA longhaul was a complete contrast with half the cabin lit up during the ‘night’ period by people working under the overhead lights. It didn’t really feel like a dedicated sleeping period at all, unlike for example the QF sleep periods with the coloured LEDs and a spattering of personal LED lamps operating unobtrusively.

Inflight snacks were a little wanting, and the toilets didn't feature any special touches. I also found a little offputting the fact that there was no cabin separation from economy directly behind us (not even a curtain - similarly in First, though they had the separation of the galley) - more because its nicer (in any class) to have a little bit of cabin privacy so you forget you're packed like Sardines in a big metal tube. It's not nice to be able to see straight through to both ends of the plane and realise how small it really is.

The IFE was decent, even though the selection has nothing on QF. I have been wondering, whatever happened to Super Mario on IFE? I recall Krisworld used to have it, but these days you have pretty stock standard arcade games - it would be lovely to have some good platformers that you could really while away the time with. I liked the Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones that were handed out, though again due to the prolonged initial seatbelt sign illumination, we didn’t get them for quite some time – and they do have some down sides, as they can be a little harsher on the ears than overear headphones, like QF’s. I also liked the fact that the IFE and flight map could be kept on until landing, deliberately or not.

Baggage service at JFK was extremely prompt which was gratifying after the long haul we’d had from Seoul.

All in all, it was a decent flight, made unfortunately worse by my wife’s sickness. Having said that, the flaws identified above could so easily (and cheaply I imagine) be remedied and lift AA’s service that much higher in comparison to its OW partners at the very least. It felt like the overall service was intended to be of a high quality, but was let down a little in execution – and just a tiny bit more care would have abridged that. The length of seatbelt sign illumination did start me thinking about whether to switch our subsequent longhaul legs to BA, and to hell with the mileage, status bonus and EQMs. Still giving it some thought.

Writing this from our room at The Plaza courtesy of some help from some FTers. Managed to get WiFi working in the room for free as a member of the Fairmont President’s Club, which is great (otherwise, the Apple Store is across the road with free WiFi 24/7). Don’t fly again for another week, so will check in then.

 

[djfuzz]

I am sitting at the gate at SFO about to start a red-eye mileage run from SFO-DFW-LAX (which neither my wife or I have been particularly looking forward to), so I thought it a good time to start writing up the TR for our last leg.

The flight was JFK-SFO on the only remaining daily 2-class AA 763 service (selected in order to maximise SCs and mileage). Prior to arrival the flight was delayed, it was delayed again when we checked in, delayed again at the gate, and finally delayed again once we boarded the aircraft – so there was a lot of waiting. Unfortunately, unlike our other flights (including presumably our future QF domestic J flights), we did not have the luxury/convenience of using a lounge prior to boarding. Not a big deal, but a little touch that seems to illustrate the opposing approaches of different Oneworld airlines.

Having said that, watching the situation unfolding at the gate for the first time on an AA flight was certainly interesting. AA appears to be a strange beast – incredibly organised and transparent (eg making both standby and upgrade lists available on viewscreens in order of priority – I often wondered how FTers knew where they were on the list), while completely carefree on the other – despite the two lanes for priority and main cabin boarding, boarding calls were unclear and haphazard as was management of the boarding area – they called first class passengers first, but given the hoard of people standing by waiting at the priority lane, it was impossible to tell who was waiting in line to get in and who was simply waiting for the next call (as a result we were the last to board in the first cabin and had someone take our overhead bin with an oversized bag, which was not so pleasant with our post-NYC carry ons (more on that later).

This time we finally had a couple of seats to ourselves (almost impossible not to, given the 2-2-2 config), and by the H, J window in row 5 of 6. I selected row 5 in order to make the most of the FEBO principle for meal service (given that the flight had an odd number). I’m not sure I noticed service commencing from the back at all, though I may have missed the order of the main meal service which may have started from the rear. In any case, the seat was cleaner this time, which was a relief. There was no screen or PMP embedded in the seat back as I had expected, but the FAs brought out Archos PMPs and Bose headphones shortly after takeoff. The table was slightly smaller than on the international 777 and the storage areas noticeably smaller (despite no removable IFE controller). There was an amenity pack on my seat, but I’m not sure if it was there in error, as my wife didn’t have one nor did I see anyone else with one. Again there was no curtain separating first from economy, but given that we weren’t in the very rear row, it wasn’t as annoying this time.

Going back to something I mentioned earlier, despite reading about it earlier, I was quite shocked at how small the AA cabin bins were. Surely they must be smaller than on other airlines, because we really struggled to fit our modestly sized carry on items in, while others with the aforementioned oversized bags had to squeeze them in tightly. How is it that the Europeans have the tighter carry on restrictions but large overhead bins (as assumption based on an admittedly small sample size), but in the US there are forgiving size limits but unforgiving bins?

The service was pretty similar to the flight before – the FAs were friendly in a homely kind of way, however following the end of the meal service they retreated to the galley to chat amongst themselves before doing a final cleanup of dinner – amongst other people, I had to leave my secondary table open most of the flight because the FAs hadn’t cleaned up the desert glass (quite annoying when either of us wanted to go to the loo). Now I know I could have pressed the call button, fair enough, (I didn’t due to a mixture of tiredness and awkwardness), but I would’ve thought cleaning up dinner trays and glasses to enable passengers to sleep was a natural function of an FA’s duty, as opposed to reading the minds of passengers who want more drinks.

The food service again was quite homely – an entrée of chicken pieces on corn and beans, main of meatloaf and mash or four cheese ravioli in tomato sauce, the regular ice cream and fudge desert as well as the freshly baked cookies (definitely a favourite of ours). We were also given a water bottle, which we hadn’t on the previous long haul international flight.
It’s strange that AA run a 2-class service and call this first class, since it is their regular business class product in all but name, unlike the service on smaller aircraft against which there is no similar comparison.

Baggage handling was our only real complaint – the premium tags didn’t amount to much because our bags came out close to the end, which wasn’t great after such a delayed flight meaning we had little useful time on our first night in SF.

We stayed at the Intercontinental on Howard Street, which is two blocks away from Market Street and then Union Square, so quite convenient. Despite the shortness of our stay, they looked after us relatively well, giving us a room on the top floor with an amazing view, and complimentary late check out. No free WiFi, but I guess that wasn’t factored into the relatively low price we paid for the room – having said that, we’ve found that free WiFi (even if only for loyalty club members) is one of those nice touches that really distinguish a hotel. But with an Apple Store around the corner again, it wasn’t a huge deal

Following on from our baggage experiences, I was tempted in SF and LA to buy a decent carry on bag - I know there are a variety of views on this around these forums. Had a look at a Tumi lightweight carry on and a Victorinox - some decent prices here too (barring the CA sales tax), not sure how dear they are in Oz. In any case, it was too late and we will have to go on without it, but will keep it in mind for the future or compare the local Oz prices.

Wrote this report a few days ago and since had a very tiring overnight mileage run from SFO-DFW-LAX which I will write up soon. Leaving tonight on LAX-LHR on AA and onto LHR-DXB on BA so will keep you posted.

 

[docjames]

Nice TR djfuzz - keep it coming!

 

[djfuzz]

Thanks docjames.

So we spent a lovely day in SF (except for the cable car – vastly overrated) and then headed to the airport at night in preparation for our midnight departure through to DFW and then back to LAX after a short layover. This was the only part of our trip where we explicitly endured some temporary inconvenience in order to further our respective FF ambitions, and despite the difficulty it was probably worth it – in two flights I posted about 6700 AA miles while my wife notched up 240 SCs, which would have taken 12 MEL-SYD returns back home on Red e-Deals so not too bad.

Arrived at SFO on the BART and trudged to the AA check-in (it was quite some way to the side of the terminal, away from the central access point between AA and UA. Priority check-in was quite small, but still available. I was glad our bags were checked through to LAX without the awkward ‘are you crazy?’ questions I was expecting, but the agent failed to put priority tags on the bags which was a little annoying considering the delay for our bags into SFO. There was no Priority AAccess security line either, which meant a bit of a longer wait to get through the TSA.

The gate was not too far but was absolutely packed and pretty haphazard again – I don’t know who designed AA’s US gate lounges (or how long they’ve been this way) but they are very inefficient in terms of space and access. Again a long upgrade list and standby list – which may have ended up a lot worse as we were advised that due to weather conditions in DFW they were reassessing the weight load on the aircraft and would ‘try to accommodate as many people as they could.’

We boarded relatively on time, but again had the problem of lack of space in the overhead bins (it was an MD80). Even in first class, there was a fair bit of swapping luggage out and around in order to fit everything. I was expecting the seats to be a little dated, but was a little disappointed to see how shabby they were – the old blue leather was scuffed and the embroidered text quite dirty. The blankets shoved into the seatback pockets looked old and tatty, and were quite rough to touch. There was sufficient space for what it was, but I was not overly keen on the flimsy flip out drink stand, which looked like it would give way to the slightest turbulence or body movement (especially if tossing and turning while sleeping). I don’t know how long AA plans on keeping the MD80s in service, but they are in desperate need of an update in the premium cabin – I can’t imagine paying for a full fare first class ticket and getting that cabin. Perhaps it works for them given that they seem to upgrade so many elites so they probably aren’t making all that much money from premium pax anyway.

Not unexpectedly, there was no meal service on the red-eye flight, only beverages. The warm nuts were piping hot, almost too hot to touch. However, the cookie went down very well as always.

Really missed access to the Admiral’s Club during our two hour layover in DFW, however once we transferred terminals and arrived at our gate, we settled in for a little bit. A few shops started opening but we were more about rotating a few minutes of shut eye and charging up our iPhones. Boarding was a little less stressful as we were right at the gate, however we had to go through another TSA screening on the aerobridge which was a bit annoying.

Not much more to say about the DFW-LAX service. It was a 738, but clearly not one of the newly refurbished ones – our seats were pretty much identical to those on the MD80, perhaps with a bit more space on the centre console. The seatback pocket in front of my seat was broken so it hit my knees when the passenger in front of me recline – not quite a first class experience. We sat at the back of the cabin in anticipation of FEBO, but the drinks and nuts service commenced from the front – however the meal service itself did start from the back which was nice. The FA was again nice but not overly attentive – he got my breakfast order wrong despite me being the first one, but that’s forgivable so early in the morning and he was very apologetic. He also helped me out of a tight spot when deplaning, for which I was very grateful. Our bags took a while to arrive at LAX, but they were close to the first ones off the belt – which was more of a relief than anything as I wasn’t sure if they’d make the crazy connection at all!

All in all it as quite a tough night – I don’t think we could bear it in Y, but it was doable in first as we were able to get a bit of decent sleep. It’s the quirk of the DONE4 that allows you to get 240 SCs for two short legs for which you should only get 160 SCs and would only get a maximum of 40 SCs on a LONE4 or otherwise in Y. We did have to ‘work’ for that bonus by taking on some minor inconveniences, but it was probably worth it.

Sitting in the Galleries South lounge in LHR right now awaiting our flight to DXB (sadly no massages available in the spa, despite our five hour layover), so will continue the TR about the LAX-LHR flight (our final one with AA!) and the upcoming first BA flight shortly.

 

[MAX_1]

Thanks for posting such a detailed report. Look foreward to the rest. Have a safe journey

 

[NM]

... but the agent failed to put priority tags on the bags which was a little annoying considering the delay for our bags into SFO.

AA does not offer priority baggage services for domestic flights, so want a matter of forgetting to add the tags. Even if tags were applied it would not have any affect on the actual baggage delivery at the destination.

 

[Travel Guru]

Other than the Asahi on tap, the food and drink doesn't seem that extensive

Other thank Asahi!! What more could you possibly need?? :mrgreen::mrgreen:

Great TR

TG

 

[djfuzz]

MAX_1 – thanks for the wishes, will do our best to keep it coming. Have been planning it for quite some time, so partly I want to make sure that we have some written record of it.

NM – Our bad. We assumed they did because of the premium tags on the transcon, but I guess that transcons generally have a better level of service for premium pax – then again, in accordance with what you said, the bags certainly didn’t roll out early on that flight. Seems a little odd though, given that baggage priority is one of the things that loyal and premium pax would be paying for – but again, it does make sense of the fact that everyone has such large carry on bags that they cram into the bins.

TG – granted, Asahi on tap was definitely a highlight. Just making the point that for non-beer drinkers (like my wife), the lack of Asahi goggles means that the quality/variety of the rest of the food has some importance.

I thought I’d also note the fact that I haven’t posted any photos on this TR – I have been taking some (not many), but haven’t posted them mainly because I’m travelling with my wife and they are mostly of her, so I apologise that it is not as colourful as some of the other TRs on here. I have also been keeping the menus, so I’ll do what I can to transcribe/scan the relevant details from them on our return.

We had two lovely days in LA with a friend of ours (what’s with all these posh Westfield malls around California? Frank Lowy must be making a killing), then headed back to LAX to board our final international long haul with AA, a 10 hour flight from LAX-LHR.

After our previous AA long haul experience, I’d been considering switching this flight to BA. I didn’t in the end, due to our mileage earning preferences and the fact that AA was nice and at least sleepable (if not as ‘luxurious’ as the BA flight I’m on now).

Check-in this time at T4 was terrible. We were second in line but there was only one agent available who took forever with the first couple of passengers (and us too). Not her fault I guess, but it wouldn’t have hurt AA to have at least two agents for their premium pax.

We then proceeded to the Admiral’s Club, which was a moment for me. I’ve been in LAX T4 sooo many times and for one reason or another have not been able to access the T4 Admiral’s Club. Needless to say, I was kind of disappointed. Not by the physical layout, which was fine (and it was a little less busy than the club in NRT). But the fact all food was chargeable and that only cheese, crackers and drinks (with drink vouchers) were complimentary was very much a letdown. Even WiFi was charged for non AC members or One Day pass holders, leaving premium pax out in the cold. And what else exactly are their members (and premium pax) paying for? The seating? In contrast to the QP, or most other Oneworld lounges, it was definitely not up to the standard we had hoped.

The flight was the run of the mill AA business class service we have now become used to. Seats were clean this time, which was a relief (though the flimsy armrest, which didn’t retract as it was supposed to, was annoying). And it was nice to have a group of two by the AB window to ourselves. Unfortunately, again due to the fact that we were unable to preallocate the seats, we were in row 12 (the rear row of the cabin being row 13), and we had an odd numbered flight, meaning we were on the wrong side of FEBO (more on that later). Once again the flight was pretty much full, a recurring experience on AA.

The FAs were again nice and very helpful but not overly attentive. We got water bottles this time, which was handy, but what was most annoying was how FEBO came back to bite us. I find AA’s decision to put four choices of mains for dinner services a little annoying, especially given how varied the choices are – and particularly because they try to manage the quantities of each of those four available so they inevitably run out of the most popular well before they reach the end. This happened to us – we were hoping to have a salmon given we’re not big on beef or cheesy pasta, but the FA told us they had run out by the time they reached us. We didn’t make a fuss and told her our second choices (far, far second), but thankfully she was able to get a couple of salmons from the other aisle for us. Again, the ultimate result was okay for us, but if we’d shelled out for a business class fare for that flight alone, I can’t see how not getting your choice of meal and being left with three unpalatable alternatives would not annoy you. I know most airlines apologise in advance if a passenger’s first choice of meal is unavailable – but on other airlines I’ve found that the choices are more focused and limited to two usually (maybe three), and all of the choices are more refined and relatively ‘conservative’ (in the sense that they have wide appeal to a broader cross-section of the palates that usually find themselves in J). We did get a final stab at the ice cream dessert, but sadly no cookie – that must be reserved for domestic night flights.

IFE was again good, but by this stage we’d seen all we wanted to see and resorted to our own PMPs (I wish they’d put more than just four episodes of 30 Rock on there – what a tease). Still pales in comparison to QF, whose quality and quantity of IFE media is by far the best I’ve seen so far.

We managed to get a decent five or six hours sleep between meal services and watching IFE/PMPs. The breakfast omelette was pretty simple and cheesy, nothing to write home about. They did provide fast track slips with their landing cards, but of course these weren’t necessary for us due to our transfer to T5 to head on to DXB, which will be the subject of the next post.

 

[Travel Guru]

TG – granted, Asahi on tap was definitely a highlight. Just making the point that for non-beer drinkers (like my wife), the lack of Asahi goggles means that the quality/variety of the rest of the food has some importance.

All good, just having a laugh with you.

Oh how I love Asahi on tap though hmmm :mrgreen::mrgreen:

TG

 

[djfuzz]

A question before I begin – does anyone have any recommendations for lounges in terminal 4 at LHR? I was disheartened when I figured out we wouldn’t be able to go back to the Galleries in T5 during our layover before catching the QF A380 home.

Back to it:

Got off our AA flight in LHR and into the terminal transfer chaos of LHR. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but certainly was long and painful when all we were doing was transiting to another flight.

After a fashion, we finally arrived at the Galleries South lounge, and immediately went to the Elemis spa desk and asked to make a booking. Unfortunately, despite arriving just before 3pm for a departure of just prior to 8pm, the first available booking was at 6pm – which they said would not give us enough time to make our flight, as it was boarding at 6.55pm, so we didn’t book it. Quite disappointing, especially since we probably could have booked it – despite an ontime departure, boarding didn’t commence until at least 20 minutes after that time. The receptionist did offer a treatment in the chairs, but not knowing what they were like (and the only comparison being the ‘massage’ chairs in the JAL and AA lounges) we declined. Next time if we miss out on a spa booking again we’ll definitely give the chairs a go, having read some good stuff about them.

Despite that, we thoroughly enjoyed the Galleries lounge, after the US drought and the disappointment of the Admiral’s Club. The lounge was relatively busy, but thanks to its size, we got seats right by the window, and even the lack of a functioning power outlet at our desk didn’t dampen it (we simply used the ones behind). The food, while not hugely extensive, was very decent – pasta, rice and stroganoff, salad, crisps, cheeses, biscuits and a great selection of beverages, including two decent coffee desks. We did avail ourselves of the showers, which were as well appointed (if a little utilitarian and not as tastefully decorated) as I’d expected.

As noted earlier, despite arriving at the gate on time for boarding (especially since no announcements were made in the lounge), boarding did not start for some time after the scheduled time. When we got on board it became apparent that the flight was at least 2/3 empty in all cabins. There were only a handful of passengers in the Club World cabin, allowing us the opportunity to change seats if desired.

I was incredibly impressed by the little touches that made the Club World cabin feel like an exclusive experience, as opposed to the fairly bland AA business cabin. The lampshades along the middle and at each side bulkhead and the backlit wooden BA logo on the middle bulkhead were very nice. I believe the seats must be less than a year old, since the 777s have only recently been refitted, and they were very nice indeed. Unlike the Qantas Skybeds, which simply fold out, these are three quarters of a bed which go flat, along with a footrest that folds out from behind the seat in front. As always, I prefer the ‘Z’ recline position, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the footrest to depress after unlatching it and making it flat. Didn’t really matter, but would have been nice. What was especially nice (for me) was to be able to face my wife in flight – though I’m not sure she appreciated going backwards for takeoff. If we hadn’t changed our initial seats to JK, we would both have been stuck going backwards in EF, possibly unable to see outside if the dividers had been raised. Disappointingly we didn’t get pyjamas since we left n the early evening ad arrived in the morning, but perhaps they save those for the really long haul sleeper services.

The ‘little touches’ carried over to the rest of the cabin too – clean toilets (4 of them!) with flowers and decent amenities (though I do miss the QF towels) and a well stocked inflight bar with snacks and drinks. The FA service was delightful, they were far more attentive than on AA, though the FA/pax ratio was quite high due to the flight being so empty. The food was delicious – went with beef again, which was much tastier tan the beef I had on AA, with vine-ripened tomatoes and potatoes. Desert and breakfast were great too – was nice to have a lighter muesli instead of the old cheesy omelette.

The big disappointed for us was BA’s IFE system. The TV and remote were great, but the quality and quantity of content, and the fact that the programs were looped instead of on-demand, were not so good. Even AA has it over BA in this department, and for me personally, the IFE is part of a tight trifecta of key services (the others being the seat and food) which are important to me in J class. Of the Oneworld airlines I’ve flown in J so far, only QF has hit all three for six. Still waiting to see if CX can match it though. BA would almost have topped my list but for this unforgivable omission, and they really need to lift their game here. Having said that, we didn’t notice it too much on our 6 hour flight.

Arrived at DXB in the very early morning and took the long trek to the passport control desk (surprised we didn’t need landing cards or anything else). TSA either broke or took my TSA lock, as it was no longer on my bag, which was a bummer. Hit by the unrelenting heat on exit, and caught a cab to Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah. Have had a lovely stay here at this somewhat surreal place, upgraded to Imperial Club which has given me the WiFi needed to post this report (though no access to Skype – hmm).

Leaving on a four-legged return home tomorrow night, DXB-LHR (BA 744) / LHR-SIN-SYD (QF 388) / SYD-MEL (QF 762?), which should be interesting. Can't seem to select seats on either BA.com or QF.com, despite the fact that both of our Sapphire statuses are on the system and linked to the booking (I checked with BA while at LHR). Keep getting errors when I try to move from row 17 on the BA 744 to upstairs. Anyway, will keep trying our luck.

Will report on all how all that goes on our return.

 

[PeteJ]

Great trip report djfuzz. I'm looking forward to the next instalment. Safe travelling.

 

[serfty]

A question before I begin – does anyone have any recommendations for lounges in terminal 4 at LHR? I was disheartened when I figured out we wouldn’t be able to go back to the Galleries in T5 during our layover before catching the QF A380 home. ...

There is only the one choice for T4, the Gate 1 Terraces lounge. While this can get overcrowded in the evenings, at the time of day you are travelling it should not be too bad.

 

[djfuzz]

Am currently in the Terraces lounge at Gate 1 of Terminal 4, with about four hours ahead of us prior to departure on QF32 back to SYD, then QF497 back to MEL. The end of the first ‘third’ of our DONE4, and the end of our honeymoon. There is pretty much no one here yet, though I expect it will build up as flight time approaches.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a lovely stay at Atlantis in Dubai, though my wife fell ill towards the end, which was perhaps foreseeable but not the greatest way to end our trip. Consequently we were a little apprehensive about approaching our final journey, the four-legged hop in opposite directions back home. Other than for mileage and SC purposes (we’re both Oneworld Sapphire now), we had originally taken this route to enable us to visit rellies in London and then take the A380 home. Unfortunately, due to my wife’s illness, we postponed our return to London and thereby turned a 24 hour stopover into a 5 hour layover, and a continuous flight from DXB to MEL through LHR, SIN and clearing customs in SYD.

Our first leg of this behemoth was to be DXB to LHR on a BA 744. Somehow I finally manage to get access to seating selection on ba.com and went straight for 62A and B, which were not yet allocated. 64A and B were also not yet allocated, but I figured that it would be safer bet to go with 62 in case a passenger with a child might kick us out of the bassinet seat in 64A.

Had a bit of drama getting to the airport – after dream runs through Dubai over the three days were there, sure enough on the way to leave the city we got stuck in a killer traffic jam on Sheikh Zayed Road at 10pm at night due to a horrendous car crash. But of course, it being the main highway through Dubai with no real traffic control or accident contingencies and with drivers in Dubai almost all being crazy, it took ages to get through it. In any case we still managed to arrive relatively early for our 2.00am departure.

Although I’ve transited through DXB several times, I’ve never had the chance to depart from DXB, and the experience was underwhelming. Having to clear a security checkpoint straight in from the curb was a little annoying. Checkin was not so great either, no special touches or clear signage for the CW/FC/OW elite lanes. We did manage to get our bags checked through to MEL which was nice. We then had to go through passport control and another security screening checkpoint, followed by an incredibly long walk to the main terminal, and yet another walk to the BA lounge (which was another long walk away from the departure gate).

The BA Dubai Terraces lounge was moderately sized, and while it was fairly empty when we arrived it was quite full just prior to the flight’s departure. I’m not sure it would handle more than one flight, especially if there were more Oneworld elites using the lounge as well. We were preceded into the lounge by a first class passenger travelling with his family who had apparently copped a nasty dressing down from the lounge dragon who had been there on his previous trip, and was trying to convince the present dragon that he was entitled to bring his family in. He must have been on the correct side of the rules, albeit obscurely, since this dragon did allow him in, but not before confirming with someone else.

We managed to find ourselves a nice group of seats by the window, and despite the warning that the Middle East sleeper services did not cater dinner in the lounge, there was some nice options available – penne carbonara, a chicken dish with rice, and some really tasty noodles which I dug into. Beverage selectin was reasonable, particularly for Dubai, and the service staff were very helpful. No showers and modest bathrooms were a shame though, especially since we wanted to get changed before the flight. For what they term a ‘sleeper service’, I’m surprised BA doesn’t provide pyjamas to Club World pax like QF does.

Following the boarding call, we had to race over to the other side of the lengthy duty free area to get to the gate, and then had to clear security once again (this time with an extremely sensitive security scanner which managed to beep on me despite my standard precautions of removing all metal and other objects from my person). Following this we had to join the queue of all pax trying to board the plane – I later learned that we were actually in the priority lane, but that no one was bothering to ensure that that lane was only used by those entitled to do so. As such, boarding at the gate was an absolute mess.

Was nice to be able to go up the stairs on arrival on the plane and take our seats by the exit row in the upper deck. My wife got the pick of the seats and took 62A, so I had to make do with 62B. Once again we were incredibly pleased with the Club World seats, and the service provided by the two FA’s on the upper deck was lovely. Was surprised that there was still a supper service following takeoff, but we opted to go for the hot chocolate and cookies instead.

Managed to get a few hours sleep, but was woken up by light coming from a number of windows that had not been shut by the pax in the window seats. This really bugged me, again for what was supposed to be a sleeper service. I always notice that the FAs on QF are quite fastidious about closing all the shades when entering ‘night time’ sleep periods, so was a little disappointed that this was not as big a deal to our FAs. In any case, this gave me time to check out the IFE, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 744s have AVOD unlike the looped AV on the 777s. The selection still left a little to be desired, so despite my comments in the previous post, I still think QF has the edge (especially since they offer pyjamas!). But with AVOD, I feel the BA 744 Club World service is really quite competitive against QF – though I understand that these days they use the 777s on their long haul flights to SYD, which is a shame if there is no true AVOD like the ones we took.

Again, despite my expectation (I didn’t really read the menu) we were offered bircher muesli, fresh fruit followed by a hot breakfast – not understanding that a full breakfast was available, I settled for pancakes, which I must admit was a nice change to the usual heavy breakfast. Arrival into LHR was pretty much on time, and thankfully we managed to get through the hordes of transferring pax pretty easily as we were the only ones heading to T4 (the buses in the opposite direction, and to the other terminals, were packed).

After a lot of walking (past our QF A380) we finally made it to the Terraces lounge at Gate 1, and were the first to arrive. Had it all to ourselves for a few hours and settled in to use the showers (another pleasant surprise) and write up this part of the TR. It is now less than a couple of hours to departure and the lounge is quite full (there are at least two QF flights leaving close to each other), so I’m glad we took the showers (which I will expound upon in the next TR) earlier. No laptop power around so I’m going to have to cut this short for now.

Very much looking forward to our A380 flight to SYD and getting back home, though hopefully my wife gets well enough to enjoy the flight rather than sleep through it. Will be sad to end this trip, but it has been pretty awesome, and we’ve been very fortunate to be able to do this (with thanks of course to everyone on these forums who have provided some stellar advice).

 

[djfuzz]

Sorry it’s been a while, have been mostly recovering and gathering thoughts since we returned – seems a lot more difficult to write TRs back home than it is while on the road. I’ve also been thinking a little bit about the trip in general and some generalisations about J class travel. In any case, here’s my recollection of our trip home from LHR.

We got off the BA 744 from DXB around 6.00am at terminal 5B and began the long trek to our connection. First we joined pax from another 744 on the inter-terminal train to terminal 5, then were lucky enough to be the only pax transferring on the bus over to T4 (mind you, the buses in the opposite direction were totally packed). Given the early hour, we were again lucky enough to get to T4 security with no one there. Must say though, the sensors on the security gates must be super-sensitive – I’ve gotten the art of eliminating metal on my person down pat, but this gate seemed to beep regardless.

Anyway, no big deal, we got through and picked up our QF boarding passes from the transfer desk – 17J and K, and 2D and E for the 738 flight from SYD-MEL. I asked if there was any chance of changing the A380 seats, but the couldn’t offer anything better than row 16, which I passed up due to it being the bulkhead row. We walked up to the departure lounge area, only to find that most of the terminal was shut due to renovations. Found the BA Terraces lounge which was directly opposite our gate.

On arrival at the lounge we were directed to the main lounge upstairs, so we didn’t get a chance to check out whatever was downstairs. Unsurprisingly we were the first people in the lounge, so proceeded to make ourselves comfortable. Wasn’t overly impressed with the layout of the lounge – basically in a ring around the back of house, with one side facing airside and the other facing the service areas (bar, TVs, coffee lounge and showers). Seating wasn;t particularly good, and there wasn’t much in the way of private seating, so we simply parked by the window and settled in.

There was a decent selection of beverages and the coffee machines were okay, but the food selection in the morning (fruit, packages cereal, some pastries, bacon rolls) was not that great. Would have been nice to have some hot breakfast – like the great range of hot, continental and Asian food options at the MH Golden Club and First Club lounges at KLIA.

Booked in to use the showers, which I wasn’t expecting to find at this terminal, and was pleasantly surprised. The showers at this lounge were actually much larger, and IMHO a little better appointed than the ones at Galleries, which felt more aircraft-sized. No rain shower, but there were body jets – which I turned off because they nearly flooded the entire room (probably better to have an enclosed shower than a wet room in these circumstances). The Elemis amenities were okay, but weren’t that special – I never got a chance to sample the lounges when Molton Brown was running the show, so don’t have a solid comparison, but if my limited experience with Molton Brown is anything to go by, I reckon it would have been quite good.

Anyway, within a few hours as the flight approached, the lounge started to fill up considerably and was pretty much nearing capacity as boarding time neared. We left a little bit more than 45 minutes prior to departure (no boarding calls had been made) and crossed to the gate to find boarding underway, so we headed up onto the upper deck of the A380 and found our seats. Later I would find out that this aircraft was ‘Hudson Fysh’, which I’d previously flown from MEL-LAX in March, so they are mixing up which routes each aircraft flies.

One thing about seat 17K (that I also found on 20A on another flight) is that one of the side storage bins is marked ‘no stowage’, which considerably limits the available seat stowage – though this is really splitting hairs in general as there is ample stowage available overhead and in the seat in front, and only makes a difference in comparison to the 744 Skybed Mk I and its many nooks and crannies for seatside stowage. In fact, my overall impression of the cabin now (this was my fourth QF flight in A380 J) is that it is a little too sterile, and misses the small touches of the 744. For example, the toilets are a little too utilitarian, without the faux marble and linoleum tiling of the 744, or the flowers. Also, even though I know it is available, for some reason the LED mood lighting was not used at all on this flight, which is a shame because it really is one of those features that makes travel in the J cabin and Skybed something special. Thankfully seat 17J was just far enough away from the galley area not to be too badly affected by toilet queues (which were considerable – see later) or light creeping through the curtain, but close enough to the front to get quick meal service.

I heard much about the vaunted LHR-based crew and how good they were, but we didn’t notice anything special on our trip. No small touches, no greeting by name. We were given amenity packs just after takeoff, but no pyjamas. I waited until after the meal service before chasing this up with the FA’s in the galley, and was told that LHR had not given them enough for everyone, so they simply didn’t make them available – but that if we wanted some she could give them to us. I had a decent sleep for a few hours, so I don’t know how regular the drink/snack runs were either. I didn’t consider this a big deal until I reflected on it back home, but we spent a little while in the lounge towards the end of the flight (which was not as nice as it could have been – the magazine selection is great, but they really need to have some extra headphones around there so you can use that great big screen), and spoke to some F pax who seemed to have some serious complaints about the temperature of the F cabin and FA service. I didn’t consider ours anything to complain about (not that it was anything special either), but the once we got to SYD, the F pax contrasted the ex-LHR service to the ex-SIN service from the Australian crew, which they said were like night and day, and that the Australian crew provided far better service for a first class flight. I guess that kind of service is even more important when you're paying the premium for F fares.

The meals were typical Qantas/Rockpool fare – a significant improvement over AA and even BA. I find the food on QF J really distinguishes itself from Y and even J on other airlines (not SQ, but it has been a while since I’ve flown with them), and is something I really look forward to – like going to a restaurant really, unlike the nice but pedestrian and almost home-cooked food we got on AA (except that delightful cookie of course).

The most annoying thing about the flight was not the fault of the FA’s – pretty much immediately after takeoff, two of the four J toilets were locked and labelled out of service. I’m not even sure if any pax had even used them yet, but halving the capacity of the J cabin toilets led to large queues outside the two functioning toilets (one of which was the handicapped toilet close to us). As I’ve noted before, I am a Fidget who goes to the toilet often, so this impacted my water regulation abilities quite severely. I hoped they’d have a chance to rectify this in SIN, but given the minimal time on the ground, I’m not surprised nothing was fixed – but after the water pressure failure on the 744 to HKG, I must say I was disappointed with the maintenance efforts going into QF’s aircraft toilets.

Technical stop at SIN was far too short to do anything. Tried checking out the duty free, but I’m not sure if we were at a different location or if too much of Changi was shut for renovations, because there was barely anything to see. Went to the QF lounge, which was quite decently sized for a regional lounge, but again lacked any worthwhile food refreshments (nice toilets though, and points for the Molton Brown handwash). Would have been nice to see the F lounge, but will have to save that for when we return as Emeralds.

Given the fact that another QF flight encountered severe turbulence flying back from Asia that night, our return was relatively smooth and uneventful. I’d say there was a marginal improvement in the service with the Australian crew. Toilets still didn’t work, so the really important issue wasn’t dealt with. Received our landing cards and express inwards cards well in advance which was handy. As usual, the A380 iQ IFE was superb.

Landing, immigration and customs were pretty smooth, as was the transfer desk – though they didn’t put new priority tags on our bags which resulted in a significant delay at MEL (though the fact that they reached SYD after going through DXB and LHR was a small miracle, for which we were pretty grateful).

At SYD T3 went up to the Domestic J lounge – I’ve never been to the QP there, but I wasn’t really bowled over by this lounge. Similar in layout to the Singapore J lounge, but the facilities seemed a little more worn. Basic nibblies available and no real hot food (about 8pm at night). The barista service wasn’t available either which was a shame. But it was large and relatively empty. Some couches would have been nice. Telstra WiFi was a bit flaky, but ample iMacs available for use in the corner. Not sure that this is such an amazing benefit for OWE’s/WP’s to use on domestic flights, but I guess it’s better than nothing (and again, I can’t compare it to the QP in SYD).

Was pretty disappointed with the 738 service from SYD-MEL. I’ve flown on the last evening flight on this sector quite a few times, usually in a 767, and it has usually been quite good. This evening however on the 738 it was completely packed – which meant boarding took forever. On top of that, when we got on board we found that the tiny J cabin was pretty much full of the crew from the A380 service either heading home or preparing for a MEL-LAX service. Nice to see familiar faces, but since they’d boarded far earlier than us, there was basically no room available in the overhead bins, bringing back the bad memories of those AA MD80 flights. My wife slept for most of the flight, but I dozed in and out – had my table open though in anticipation of having some supper, but I must have had my eyes shut momentarily because I woke to find the cart behind me and the steward saying that there was only one food option remaining (beef pies, the pumpkin soup having been taken by the other pax in the row in front of us). Now I’ve had the chance to fly on QF staff travel in the past, and I’m all too familiar with the ‘catering not guaranteed’ that gets printed on the boarding passes – while I don’t begrudge anyone their meals, particularly having been in their shoes before, I thought it was a bit poor form not to have at least been offered a meal option as a paying J passenger prior to staff travel (it certainly happened to me when I was on the other side). But in any case, I would have happily taken the pie if it had been offered – but the cart was whisked away before I had a chance, and by the time I got a stewardess’ attention (the one from the Y cabin mind you, our steward had disappeared) it was too late to have anything but a drink, so I wolfed down a hot chocolate. Annoying to run out of time like that, especially when there’s only three rows to serve meals to in the J cabin (as opposed to the chockers Y cabin), but our steward spent ages chatting to the pax in the row behind us and did not bother to stop on the way back despite me desperately trying to get his attention, call button and all. On top of that, we had a significant delay waiting for our bags on landing as usual at MEL (I swear QF and Melbourne Airport have some deal going on parking fees) – even more annoying considering the priority bags actually came out straight away, but ours hadn’t been tagged again in SYD. All in all, I must say it did not feel at all like J service on this leg – if anything, the lack of any sort of resposiveness left us feeling like impostors in the cabin, which is understandable (but still poor form) when you’ve gotten lucky and been upgraded or are on staff travel, but very disappointing when you’ve paid the fare (DONE or otherwise) – especially after such a long trek from DXB.

So to say the least, it was not a great way to end the trip, but I guess more than anything we were glad to be home after a pretty fantastic whirlwind trip around the world. We achieved our major goals – had a terrific honeymoon, got my wife to QFF SG (55 points shy of WP, but we have six more DONE4 legs to go) and me to AA PLT with enough points/miles across both programs for a return J ticket to Asia.

Will be picking the DONE4 up again in November with a short jaunt over to NZ and then completing it in December/January, so more to come then. I have some general impressions about the various J class services that I might post soon when I have put them together, as well as a few photos from the last leg of our trip on BA and QF – since I can’t edit my previous photos, I’ll try to put them in another post here soon.

Thanks for reading, hope to add some more stuff soon!

 

[djfuzz]

Some select photos from the trip:

J cabin on JAL 777, ICN-NRT, and a tribute to QF009:

New Club World cabin on BA 777, LHR-DXB:

Upstairs Club World cabin on BA 744 sleeper service, DXB-LHR:

(cont'd)

 

[djfuzz]

BA T4 Terraces lounge:

QF A380 J cabin and breakfast, LHR-SYD:

QF J lounge, SIN:

(cont'd)