Was over in Perth for the long weekend, and flew ex-Sydney Friday and back on Monday, both in the J cabin on a points upgrade.
Originally my flight ex-Sydney was the 8pm flight, but having decided that it was too late to be arriving in Perth since I am only there for the weekend, I rang the customer service line the day before departure to change the flight to the 1:05 departure. They did this with no problem at all. I think that there should be a facility to do this online, as would upgrading online using points. The new flight departure was on a new A330 - bingo!
Arrived at the kerbside lounge entry in SYD in good time for my departure and the fella behind the counter was very friendly, and very enthusiastic about the J class product in the new A330. He mentioned that economy was quite nice in these planes too, but I never had a look. When issuing the boarding pass, he offered me 3H or 3K. I took 3K while he blocked out 3H. I had already pre selected 3H, but will always take the window when I have the row to myself. He commented about my fare being an upgrade, but the level of service from him was no less than I'd have expected had I paid the full J fare. Still, I'd prefer if the people on the ground didn't know the fare class. I was chatting to him about the A330s, and he said that the two old ones would be retired and disposed of when the new ones arrive. I thought that they were going to be refurbished and placed back into service?
There was nobody else in the entrance area other than another person behind the counter and the security staff, so it was a very pleasant passage through with individual attention, and as one could imagine, security was a breeze. As I was a Silver FF at the time, I had not previously used this entrance to the lounge. This made it a particularly nice experience. That trip to Perth pushed my status to Gold, so I will be getting used to the kerbside entry every week.
The lounge itself was nice and quiet, which makes a nice change as I usually get a 5pm flight to BNE and the lounge is always full and getting a tables is often difficult. I sat up at a table that looks down over the gates. Does one ever get fed up with just sitting watching planes taxiing, taking off and landing? I could sit and watch them all day. There was a good view of the new A330 down on gate 39 that I was to board in an hour's time. Will be nice once the upstairs part of the lounge is done to get a better view of the gates.
Boarding was called about 5 mins before the boarding time on the BP, and I made my way to the gate and used the priority boarding as quite a queue had gathered by the time I got to the gate from the lounge. Breezed through the gate only to be stuck in a queue in the tunnel. Makes me wonder if there really is that much benefit for priority boarding. I imagine priority boarding would be a lot more beneficial for the Boeing aircraft where half of the people are going down the stairs to get on the back of the plane, and where there is so much competition for overhead bin space. (Don't get me started on people who don't use the back stairs and put their bags into the bin at the front of the plane when they get on, rather than bring the bag closer to their seat!)
On board, I was greeted and welcomed back and guided to my seat. I was very impressed with the seat. Very comfortable, with the 15" EFI screen with plenty of connectivity options including 2 x USB Ports and a power point. Also very handy were the little ledges around the seat for setting things on, like your phone while it's charging. On the seat back, in addition to the magazine holder there are a couple of handy compartments where you could store other bits and pieces like the Xoom tablet and chargers etc. Everything on the seat was well laid out and generally easy to reach. The seat feels less than 60" due to the fact that the back of the seat in front is a fixed structure, so the reclining happens within the structure and thus no reclining into the seat behind.
On this particular trip, I found the cleanliness of the seat area not to be up the high standard that I am used to with VA. There was a used glass sitting on a ledge not visible from the aisle and a plastic wrapper from an amenity kit down between the side of the seat and the wall. Also, down the side of the seat, I could see some rubbish on the floor. I would attribute this more so to the design of the seat though as the floor area down there seems to be rather inaccessible for cleaning.
The cabin has a very nice airy spacious feel to it, very nicely done indeed. The lighting really improves the atmosphere within the cabin also. There seemed to be more than ample storage space in the overhead bins and rather easily accessible too. As the plane is still very new, the new plane smell was still evident (Not that I ever felt the new plane smell on a BSI 737). I liked the separate cabin feel, and the separate PA for J class and economy. That way we didn't need to hear about flexi meals for those who purchased felxi fares etc and in the safety demonstration the crew only had to point out the exits closest to us. There were about 14/5 people in the 24 seat cabin, so it felt particularly spacious.
As I got settled into my seat I was presented with an choice of champagne, orange juice or water. Don't know why they bother with water when there is a bottle of water in the seat pocket anyway. Then I was offered a newspaper and the amenity kit. The amenity kit had improved from the one I got in February, now in a VA styled toliletery bag, containing Grown lip balm and hand cream in a presentation box, a pair of socks, eye mask, ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, pen, and packet of tissues.
For a change, the plane took off from a runway that was actually in the vincinity of the terminal rather than having to taxi to the far end of Sydney somewhere, so that probably shaved 15 minutes of the journey time, and contributed to the flight's eventual 25 minute early arrival.
As we were reaching cruising altitude the seatbelt sign was switched off, but another sign (and no, not the no smoking sign) beside it remained on. This sign was for electronic devices. I had never seen this before.
The IFE system was a lot better than offerings I have seen on other flights. Because I was sitting on the right hand side of the plane, it was very hard to see the IFE screen. I soon made a mental note to sit on the left side when flying West and right when flying East for future flights. I found the controls to be very annoying because of a lag when pressing buttons. However, there was a good selection of movies, music and television programs all on demand. It's just a shame that the navigation was rather poor. A nice extra touch too is that you can play your own music on the IFE though the USB port, but it needs to be in .mp3 format. Most of the music on my phone is .wma format, and it didn't work. Those of you who use Apple devices will be safe enough as they are all .mp3. The announcements sounded very echoey through the headphones. I had to take the headphones off to hear what the announcement was saying. While they had the Nat Geo channel programs, I was disappointed that one of my favourite shows wasn't on it.. Air Crash Investigation.. wonder why they didn't have that.. maybe I should have asked the flight attendant..
It wasn't until I saw someone else reclining their seat that I discovered where the controls were. They are smartly hidden under a panel in the armrest. All the seat controls worked expeced, not the same can be said of all aircraft power reclining seats. A partition slides from between the headrests of adjacent seats for additional privacy. There is a small light beside the headrest too, which I never figured out how to switch off. The light switch in the remote control handset operates the light in the panel above, but not the light beside the headrest. I found the seat to be very comfortable in all position. The only small gripe I would have is that when the seat is extended out fully, it goes under the seat in front meaning you need to put your feet slightly sideways to fit under the seat. It should be noted that I am only 5'6 so this might be more of an issue for a taller person. I did not experience sliding down the seat that other had mentioned on this forum.
As I've experienced in the past, the service on the A330 flight is second to none. I was made to feel very welcome on board and the food was delicious. When climbing I was offered a drink. I politely accepted a Fat Yak. This time they just brought the glass of beer as opposed to bringing the bottle too as happened the last time I flew this sector. With the beer I had the hot nuts too. These nuts seemed to have come from the bottom of a bag as there was a lot of nut dust in the bowl. They were still lovely though.
For starters I had smoked salmon which was lovely. Had the sour dough bread, and when the crew noticed that I must have enjoyed the bread they offered me another. A piece of bread wasn't going to run my appetite so of course I was going to go for it. I just made the mistake of letting them away with my butter knife before getting the second bread, so I had to use the knife I was going to use for my main course. Not a big deal, just another thing to add to my ever growing list of mental notes that I invariably will forget the next time the given situation comes up. I can't remember what the other choice for starter was. I only ever remember the choice that I actually had.
I didn't bother drinking any wine on this flight as the Fat Yaks were going down so well. Not once did I have to ask for any drink. The crew were on the ball and always noticed when I was getting near empty.
The main course was lamb cutlets, served with potato slices, peas, carrots and gravy. The plate was very well presented and tasted every bit as good as it looked (The food that is, not the plate..). I will post up photos of the starter and main course once I get them uploaded to the computer. After the main course(as I folded away my table and opened the table in the seat next to me), came the dessert cart. I had the cheese platter, so for reasons mentioned before, I can't remember what the actual dessert option was. I was offered a dessert wine, port (I think) or brandy to go with the cheese platter. On this occasion I declined and just had a Fat Yak - why run a good thing when it's working so well. The last time I flew this sector I had a brandy and it was poured as if they were pouring a glass of wine (I will post a photo of that when I find the photo.). Had I drank the whole glass I'd have been falling off the plane!
Before I knew it, the plane was heading down for it's final descent into Perth. After a smooth landing and a short taxi, we were at the gate. Unusually, the second door was used rather than the front door. As usual, the pax in economy were held back by the FAs while we got off the plane. They must have used the second door so that the economy pax couldn't see the mess that we left behind in the J cabin!
As the flight was early, I thought I'd have a look in the lounge at PER. I wasn't sure if I was going to be allowed in or not as I know that paid lounge access on silver doesn't have ATA, even though I have done this a couple of times and never had anything said other than being offered a boarding pass. The lounge is a lot bigger than it used to be. Not actually sure if it's finished yet as there seems to be places set aside for a couple of more big television screens. It's easy to see that the position of the lounge is designed for people using it before flying rather than coming the other way, as you have to go upstairs again past all the gates and go out the exit from there just to get out.
The return flight was on the older example of the A330. On this flight I had seat 1A, hence complely forgetting my earlier mental note to sit on the non sunny side of the aircraft. The weather was rotten and it was nearly night time anyway so it didn't matter! The FA looked at my boarding pass and proceeded to direct me to my seat. She got a little flustered and confused herself when directing me. She even forgot to welcome me back. Thankfully I had a good idea as to where seat 1A could be found on an aircraft.. so disaster averted!
As I sat in my seat and began to make myself comfortable, I had another member of the flight crew introduce himself and offered me a drink. Again I opted for the champagne. He was very enthusiastic about presenting the A330 business class produce to his passengers, and in his introduction he would ask if we had experieiced the A330 business class before. He seemed a bit dejected when anyone told him that they flew on the new A330 previously, and then would mention that he had a brand new menu instead of the brand new aircraft. A good flight attendant always has a plan B up their sleeve!
The amenity kit was presented to me after this. On this occasion it had no plastic wrapping on it. Maybe they were fed up clearing out the plastic wrappings from beside the seats. There was a very light load in this cabin, with 9 seats occupied out of 27. Two of pax were seated next to each other in the middle of the front row. Once the seatbelt sign was switch off, one of them moved to another seat. All the triple middle seats had been empty prior to this.
The hot nuts this time came from the top of the bag, so less dust in the bowl! The beers were given with the bottle on this flight so it would appear that there is no standard policy as to whether they retain the bottle or give it with the glass. For some reason, I do prefer to have the bottle, even if I do have to find somewhere to set it. Maybe I should start a thread ranting about inconsistency of the J product based on sometimes getting the bottle, and other times I don't!
Like the econmony seats in the ex-Emirates A330, I actually find the J class seats rather uncomfortable, unless it I have it well reclined. The pan of the seat doesn't allow my back to reach the back of the seat when seated upright, and my feel do not reach the floor. As mentioned earlier I'm not that tall, but I didn't have this problem on the new A330, nor any other aircraft seat for that matter. However, when the seat is fully reclined, I do find it more comfortable than the new seat as the leg room is not impeded. On this plane though, you are reclining into someone so if you don't like being reclined into, row 1 is the row for you.
On this flight, they had no catering menu for me. He said there was a problem with the printers or something. That said, some of the pax were given menus so there appeared to be menus, but just not enough to go round all 9 pax. One would have thought that 1A would have got the menu first. One would also think that he could have given me a menu from someone else once they had ordered their food. Suppose one would also have thought that I could have asked for a menu from someone who already ordered food. Ok ok, I'll put that on my list of mental notes.
So he told me the food options, and I find it hard to take in food options being told to me so I just listen for something that sounds vaguely normal or that I like the sound of and go for that. Had the soup for starter which was very nice, along with the customary bread roll that I have become very fond of. The main course was salmon and cous cous. This was also delicous, apart from the sauce that was on it. The sauce was alright, but it was very rich. Can't remember what kind of sauce it was. With a menu, I just remember what I had and without a menu I remember nothing..
This was the quickest flight I ever had from PER to the East coast, with a remarkable flight time of 3hrs and 14 mins. The flight was definitelty going a lot faster than normal with very strong tail winds. I don't remember what the speed was, but I remeber thinking it was very fast. This flight also arrived ahead of schedule, but only by 8 minutes. This was due to some time sitting on the tarmac in Perth after pushback.
All in all, I enjoyed both flights. It may sound as if I didn't due to the number of things I pointed out. Most of them are just minor gripes or observations. Nothing from above will stop me flying on the A330 again, in fact nothing that I would even go to the bother of making a complaint about. As much as I enjoy the flight, I don't reckon I'll ever pay $1,400 each way for it. It's definitely very good value for an upgrade, and probably the best value you can get with velocity points.
Sorry about the length of the post. Didn't realise I'd typed so much! Well done if you made it down this far! (As I click on "Post Quick Reply")
