PER-SIN-LHR-MAN-DUB-LHR-SIN-PER all in Y

[alieninperth]

A few months ago I managed to get a really good deal on a trip back to Europe, all the flights listed above for just under $1,800, including baggage on Aer Lingus. I promised myself that I would write a TR on it as a way of saying thanks to the wider AFF community who have taught me so much over the last 18 months or so.

Please also ignore changes in tense as I am really bad at that, changing depending on the mood, whether or not I am writing while travelling or later on.

Before you start to read this, you should know a few things:
1) I can’t spell
2) I like a drink and it is likely that some, if not all of this will sound like drunken ramblings.


Pre-amble
I do not think of myself as a great writer but I hope that this TR is amusing in some parts, informing in others and if nothing else it uses up some time of this trip of mine.

Like all writers of trs I do this because:
1. Boredom on trips
2. I want to give a little back to the community that has provided amusement, insight and more than a little bit of wonder over the past few years.

As a NB I do not get the luxury of seat allocation prior to check-in but I did stump up and pay for 71d and 66c on the long haul sectors. At check for PER-SIN in I was offered 24a but I much prefer the aisle and I was told that if I moved further back I would have a spare seat next to me so 29d it was. I could have had a row to myself right down at the back but I wanted to maximize lounge time in Singapore.

Lounge time as a NB? I hear you ask, well on a recent trip over east I gave feedback to QF which was ignored, but I did get a few QP vouchers out of it so not all bad. I had planned on using these for this trip to get into sin and T3 in LHR, but alas when packing and getting ready I could not find them. A quick call to QF customer care to explain the situation and the lovely Vanessa put my name down at the QC in SIN for this evening and in LHR T3 for the return. Time will tell if this works.

Thoughts on travel, ponderings if you will.
Really, its not pleasant is it. (not a question, more a statement) Over the past two weeks I have done PER-SYD-CBR-SYD, PER-MEL-PER, and now this. I have to say that these have been some of the worst times of my life. I just cannot see (but will not judge others for holding this view) how travel for work can be anything but horrendous. I tip my metaphorical hat to all you sky warriors who do this weekly.

The only saving grace has been the cabin crew, on each of the flights they have been fantastic. From the crew member on the PER-SYD leg (on a 747), who was giving me wine from J, to the guy who spent 5 mins with me tonight. Stars all of them. There should also be honourable mentions to the ground crew in SYD who moved go an earlier flight with no questions, Vanessa on the phone at customer care, and the check out lady who got two empty seats next to me.

There is an awful lot of dissing QF staff but I have found them to be great of most if not all trips so far.

Anyway on with the show.

 

[alieninperth]

QF71 A330-300 (Noosa)
29d on a lightly loaded flight (there are rows upon rows of empty seats)
Scheduled dep 15:35
Actual departure 17:11
Scheduled arrival: 20:55
Actual arrival 22:38



Compulsory legroom shoot.

By far the least amount of leg room that I have had in the last year (including a dash 8)

I received a sms from QF the day before the flight to tell me that there would be a delay to the service, its only an hour, so fine. That should still allow for a shower in sin (I am an extremely warm person, so this is vital to a pleasant journey for all). However, it is 16:50 and boarding has not started yet. At this rate I will only have 45mins for the QP! What a waste of a voucher.

As an aside we have been told that the flight was delayed because the plane was held for connecting passengers from qf32 (from Lon). Would they have known about this 24hrs ago?

****Update 16:55 boarding has commenced***

Boarding commenced in the usual fashion (business, plat, OW, etc, first with the back of the plane). I am not sure if priority was enforced but then again I don't really care (sorry TonyHancock), mass rush to gate and a lot of standing around, with the checkout agents words of 'lightly loaded flight' ringing in my ears I took my time.

Just after the rest of Y was called I made my way to the gate. The queue for business and priority was massive. Either there were a lot of SG's and WP's on this flight or the people of WA are a bit deaf. I take my seat and I have 2 free next to me, and I am seated 7 rows from the front of Y, I am going to assume that there are not many SG or WP on this flight. Either that or there is a NB shadow!

Boarding was uneventful and after a bit of a wait we were pushed back. It's a little bit weird at Perth airport at the moment, on the taxi to the runway you pass a big group of men in fluro jackets pretending to work. Taxi to the runway, the engines spool up and we blast off, into the wide blue yonder. The flight is scheduled go take 5(ish) hours so the lounge time has all but disappeared at the other end, is it bad if I hope that the inbound qf9 has been delayed?

Now what to say about the flight itself. The cabin crew (mainly male) were attentive and pleasant, dropping of wine without it being asked. I even passed a few minutes with one of the crew about my playbook (on which this is being written). He informed me that a B767 is having in-flight internet being trialed on the golden triangle from next week (assuming 31 October), if this has mentioned else where please ignore, and that there has been very positive feedback on the newly re-configd 747 on the bris-lax route. We agreed that it was sad to see the passing of first.

I know that I will probably never fly first but it’s an aspiration, and aspiration is what makes us human. It’s almost as sad as seeing Concorde grounded (btw QF had orders for Concorde, that would have been a trip, the kangaroo route in Concorde), a step back in evolution.

As another random aside and comment, if Concorde still flew, would we have had the GFC, or would it have been worse, or happened earlier? These are the questions that keep me awake at night, or at least from working in the office.

Enough rambling godammit, there's a TR to write.

The food was definitely a step above domestic, the vinaigrette on the salad was nice and the twice cooked pork was actually quite tasty. The wine is also nicer; pretzel snacks are the same.

As an observation, most of my fellow passengers seem to want to sleep. Now I find his a little odd given that we are not leaving the time zone (for those departing in sin) and it is afternoon in Europe if connecting for there as I am. Wouldn’t not people want to stay awake so that they could either sleep that night or on the longer leg of the journey to Europe.

IFE was as I experienced in the last 2 weeks of trans-con flights so I have seen most of it, thank god for books and the playbook (and the ability to waffle on randomly).

Next up, my first flight on an A380.

 

[opusman]

Great start to the TR! And that legroom looks awful :shock:

 

[alieninperth]

thanks opusman, it really was quite tight. I had lots of room to move into beside me so that was good, and no-one in front so no reclining into me, which was even better.

 

[alieninperth]

QF9 SIN-LHR captain Gary Gould (jb747?). “Fergus McMaster”
71d (paid for)
Scheduled dep 23:05
Actual departure 23:34
Scheduled arrival: 05:40 +1
Actual arrival 06:21 +1

Ahh Singapore, how I have missed your heady scented air with that promise of the exotic. Unfortunately that exotic promise was not to be on this fine evening. That would have been fine but even the promise things domestic was denied to me this evening.

De-planeing from QF71 all of us who were destined to LHR on QF9 were sheparded, nay corralled, worse even driven, from our arrival gate to our outbound aircraft. I hesitate to use the words sheparded, corralled and driven as that implies treating us passengers like animals. The reality was that we were directed from the arrivals gate to the departure gate without even the chance to go to the bathroom. I could understand this if we got underway asap but we sat on the plan for a good 40 mins waiting. Really glad I made that call to customer care earlier to get into the QP.

Sitting in 71d I have had a few comments about tatts lotto and being lucky but this was all about the research.

The flight is far from fully loaded. There are spare seats all over the place. I have two next to me and the centre section of row 70 has only 1 person. Before take off it looked like 80a was free and it was showing blocked for me prior to check in and at -80 so I am not sure if this is a no-show.

The taxi to the end or the runway seemed to take a while and we were held short for a minute or two, but we made our way onto the runway and the engines spooled up, with little more than a burp we headed into the inky black night. All of the comments about the effortlessness of take off now seem to have down played it. Even now I am not sure if we have taken off and the sky cam has deactivated or if there is just nothing to see.

The flight itself, seating is good for leg room but I am just under 2hrs into the flight and there is numbness towards the posterior, mmmm this could be unpleasant for the next 10 hrs.

The food was ok (seared fish with a sauce and some veg [I didn't have the grey cauliflower]) and the cabin crew are efficient if a little robotic, not a patch on the crew from QF71.

One other thing, trying to get changed in the bathroom was difficult. Maybe it would have been better to wait until the lights went out and did it at my seat.

Well matron has turned the lights out so I guess its bed-time (hands above the covers everyone).

With just under 3hrs to LHR morning arrives with all the crashes, bangs and lights of a storm. I was hoping for another half hour of randomly tossing and turning in my seat attempting to get some sleep, and perhaps a chance to get changed into street clothes. It looks like I will have to run the gauntlet on that particular activity with the breakfast trolley.

Service through the night was sporadic and a little bit clumsy, now maybe it was because it was dark that we got the snacks bags quite literally dumped on us and things kept getting spilled or dropped. I think a case of less haste, more speed would be the answer. Maybe they are hoping that we will forgive a pretty face as all of them are under 30 or so.

The snack bag was ok, water, a kitkat, some dried cranberries which were lovely and some nice oat biscuits.

Breakfast service is completed as we fly over the Russia/Latvia border.

Breakfast was 'bubble and squeak' with a poached egg and braised beans, well that was the marketing. Reality was a lump of grey sludge, an ice hockey puck painted to resemble an egg and I think the braised beans might have been inspired by Heinz rather then Neil Perry. The lump of grey sludge was surprisingly edible. What I am liking though is the new coffee, I had it on the PER-SYD on the 747 and again on the 330 last night and it really is good. I just wish that they would offer coffee with breakfast rather then after, yes service would take a little longer but I think it would be worth it. They manage to serve booze and mix drinks with the dinner service, so why not offer tea and coffee with breakfast?

So what are my impressions of the A380 I hear you ask?

Boarding was quick and easy, well given the plane was waiting for us it should have been. The seats are really quite firm, they look great with the zoned colours and faux carbon fibre seat backs but they really are squeezy. My legroom was fine but looking around the cabin it appears that the regular seats are ok when seated but as soon as they recline they become a nightmare. I also find the seats to be quite narrow.

The cabin was roomy and it is quieter than you would expect from such a big plane, but not much quieter than the 330 that took me from PER to SIN. I have also found the cabin to be quite cold, I had to rug up to keep warm overnight.

The crew were indifferent for most of the flight and as it’s an overnighter that’s fine. I was interested in hearing a number of the crew speaking different languages this morning though, Spanish, German and French in my cabin alone. That’s nice to see.

That’s all from the air, next up getting through LHR from T3 to T5 in just over an hour and a half.

Queuing to get of qf9 I finally had a look at my boarding pass. Seat 2d business, op up woohoo.

 

[alieninperth]

QF3537 LON-MAN operated by BA1384 A319 G-EUPM
Scheduled time of departure 07:45
Actual time of departure 08:13
Scheduled arrival 08:40
Actual arrival 09:07
Seat 2d - business

Transiting through LHR was a bit stressful, with under 90mins to get across LHR I just made it. I am not sure that fast track was particularly fast but hey, when you have a perk you use it. The real issue was the distance between terminals and border control and security. By time I got through these boarding had started. So I didn't even get to check out the galleries lounge.

Priority boarding for business etc meant that I was on the plane in little time and then we sat and waited for connecting pax to arrive. They never arrived so we were further delayed while their bags were retrieved from the hold. We eventually got underway, by taxiing to pretty much where I got of QF9 but got onto the runway and headed into the rainy London sky.


There was a breakfast service on this flight. Bacon rolls, they were so good and it had been good 5hrs since my last meal I ended up taking 2. Even the tomato sauce was ok. Served with proper tea and coffee. Good god the tea was good, from a proper tea pot and nice and strong. Leg room was ok for this short flight but I did like the choice if newspapers prior to boarding. It was nice to see that business had the same legroom and seat configuration as econ, making the op-up was really worthwhile…


We landed in Manchester a little over 40 mins after takeoff, and Manchester airport is terrible. Arriving here is light stepping back to a third world country. It makes PER look majestic.

Waiting for the bags to appear on the carousel I thought that this summed up travel. A whole lot of hurry up and wait. After what felt like an eternity the belt started moving and out pops my bag first. Looks like these nb benefits are really working, shadows on the plane, boarding before bus and now priority baggage. Fantastic stuff!

 

[alieninperth]

EI209 MAN-DUB A320 “St. Canice”
Estimated departure time 15:25
Actual departure time 15:35
Estimated arrival time 16:20
Actual arrival time 16:26
Seat 28c

I think that I may have misjudged Manchester airport. The departure area is lovely. Really light and airy with great views of the apron; the usual array of duty free and food / beverage outlets with some variation but still overpriced merchandise.

Although Aer Lingus is affiliated to QF I was not able to earn any points or SC's for this flight as it was the lowest fare class (A), the price was just to good not to book it.

Boarding commenced via both front and rear doors and we were underway in little time. This was a pretty fully loaded flight with little in the way of space.



The flight itself was uneventful. A trolley came through offering food and drink for purchase and then on board merchandise. It was then time to land. I always like coming in to land in Ireland, however long I have been away it always feels like coming home, especially when immigration welcome you home with a Failte when they see your passport.

Ireland greeted me with her finest weather; cold, windy and drizzle. Still it was good to be home.

 

[alieninperth]

BD130 DUB-LHR A319 G-DBCJ
Estimated departure time 17:55
Actual departure time 18:38
Estimated arrival time 19:20
Actual arrival time 20:00
Seat 6c

What is there to say about Dublin airport. Initial impressions of T1are not good (I arrived into t2 on the last flight). There is a bit of a walk through a strange stand alone waiting area between roads before you get to the terminal. The terminal itself is undergoing a lot of work with workmen everywhere.

Check in was fairly painless for the flight to LHR, although I couldn't get boarding cards for the rest of the journey. Bags were checked through to per with no hassles and they even let me off with 1.5kg over the weight limit (QF weight limit not BD’s).

Security was completely empty with no lines at either scanning or passport control. Post security there is the usual oirish tat for sale. As I was not getting any food on the flight to LHR and the QF flight was not for another few hours I decided to treat myself to a burger and bulmers at the airport pub. At over 16euro it was on the expensive side but it was fuel. I realised halfway through the meal that boarding should be starting shortly so I finished up and made my way to the gate only to be informed that the flight would be delayed from 17:55 to 18:20.



Boarding started and we were all on board fairly quickly. In no time we were airborne and on our way to LHR. We seemed to be making good time and were on course for disembarking at 20:00. I think the plane was fairly new, the seats and interior of the plane certainly looked it, and the dark grey leather seats looked great, although I have since found out that it has been flying since 05 so maybe just a recent refurb.

Landing was smooth and we taxied to the gate only to hold short. The captain came on to tell us that the parking guidance system had been turned off. We sat 15m from the gate for about 15/20 minutes while we waited for something to happen. The captain eventually came on and apologised for the delay. He also mentioned that it was ridiculous that we had been waiting so long. There was lots of agreement from the passengers. Although we actually landed at 8pm it was not until 8.25 that I was actually off the plane and into the transfer bus. I was cutting it really fine if I was going to make this flight.

 

[alieninperth]

QF10 VH-OQH ‘Reginald Ansett’
A380 seat 50c (paid for 66a)
Estimated departure time 21:30
Actual departure time 21:30
Estimated arrival time 18:35
Actual arrival time 18:32

As our inbound flight had been severely delayed BMI had organised a bus from the emergency exit of the bridge to the connection centre. From there we got to T3 in good time, it was 20:30 when we arrived at security. It took 15 minutes to repeat the process that we had just gone through in Dublin, now I am all for security, we need to have it but why do we have to do it numerous times on the same journey. From the first time I went through security Dublin, I will have to do the shoeless shuffle again in LHR and SIN, and at no point will I have left a secure area. It seems a bit like overkill.

At 20:45 I got to the OneWorld transfer desk, the transfer agent had to call the gate to make sure that we (there were 2 others on this flight with me trying to make the same connections) would be able to board. There were a few tense minutes while we waited. In the mean time a woman who was on a later flight came to the front and wanted to change her seats. She was seated with her husband in D and E , she then decided that she wanted 2 aisle seats together. Seriously, wtf! The phone was ringing, possible from my gate and he was dealing with this joker.

I brought the agents attention to the phone and it was the gate. Myself and the couple from the earlier flight were good to go. Awesome, the agent gave us our boarding card and told us to run to gate 1. Now normally I would never run in an airport but nothing could have stopped me this evening. After running pretty much the whole way to gate 1 we had to wait around for 5 minutes to board as there was a queue. Still we made it.

I was so happy to just get the flight that I didn't even look at the seat allocation. In the tunnel to the plane I notice that I was not in the seat that I paid for (seated in 50c and paid for 66a). I am quite happy with the seat although it does not have as much leg room as I would like given that I paid for extra leg room. I am also reminded of TonyHancocks’ view to that to get off earlier is better.



On board I find myself with another free seat next to me. This nb shadow is working a treat! What was even better than having a spare seat was finding out that the other person in the row was Miss Australia, on her way back from the miss universe/world competition (21[SUP]st[/SUP] in case you are wondering and here she is in her evening wear. (Beauty Amber Greasley home with a heavy heart | Herald Sun) she is on the left.

The doors close and we are pushed back, taxiing seems to take us to the outskirts of Reading before we take off into the rainy night above London.

Service on the flight is good. The food choices of lamb or fish pie don't really inspire but I went with the fish pie. The shiraz is billi billi (as it has been on all the flights). The cabin does seem quieter than the outbound flight in terms of engine noise. So much so that I feel conscious of my voice carrying when talking to the cabin crew.

One of the good thing about having done a few flights in the last few weeks is the ability to check out stuff on the ife that I wouldn’t normally watch or listen to. It’s actually quite nice to kick back with a beer and listen to a bit classical music for a change, or watch a programme on science. A little bit of culture is a good thing.

Maybe because the flight was heavily loaded but is seemed a lot warmer over night compared to the outbound flight. I still didn’t get much sleep though, with the staff coming through the curtain constantly and bumping into me.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with bacon etc or musili. I went for the eggs which was tasty even if the bacon was a little fatty.

Landing was soft and as I was in the first row of y I was off early and had a chance to get changed and refresh myself before boarding the next and last leg.

 

[alieninperth]

QF78 SIN-PER A330 "noosa"
Estimated departure time 19:45
Actual departure time 20:09
Estimated arrival time 01:00
Actual departure time 01:36
seat 46k

It is nice to finish this journey on the same bird that started it.

Boarding was announced with priority given to people with young children, the elderly and those needing assistance. Priority was also given to WP and SG along with OW Emerald. Boarding was also by row from the back to the front and this was strictly enforced. I was again impressed with the multi languages from the crew. The captain gave his first bit of info in both English and German. Boarding was smooth but we were a little late getting away, the captain had said that this was due to luggage being loaded from a BA flight. This caused some mirth for my seatmate who was on that flight and the plane itself was only 100m from the QF plane and had been for at least an hour.

View attachment 4746

Service was incredibly slow at the back on the bus with it taking nearly an hour from the start if service to be offered a drink. By that stage I was fit to eat my arm. Unfortunately what I was given was less edible than that. Fatty braised beef with parmesan salad and tiramasu for desert.

As I was tucking into the salad, I thought it was a little gritty. So I had a good look through it, only to be confronted by a live ladybug crawling in it.

View attachment 4747

Naturally this was a little off-putting. I pressed the bell for the cabin crew and 3 of them ignored it. I had to actually stop one of them and ask them to remove the offending salad. The crews' response was startling "it’s only a small one" said he. I have to admit that I was taken aback by this and was actually dumbfounded. At the very least I would have expected an apology.

Now normally I am a jovial person and I can see the funny side in life generally but this was not funny or acceptable behavior. I have sent an email off to QF on this and so far (a week later) no response.

The remainder of the flight was uneventful with little by way of presence of crew.

Landing in Perth was smooth and we were dis-embarking in no time. A quick stop at the duty free to pick up the aftershave I left here and away I go to wait in line for immigration. 45 mins after that I get through immigration and the on to bag collection and quarantine. Bags were out in no time and then another 45 min wait to get cleared for having a few biscuits in my bag (unopened). Out into the terminal and with no wait for a taxi I was tucked up at home in 30 mins.

 

[moa999]

Great TR and good to see a fellow playbook owner.
I will be aiming to contribute another playbook written report in mid-December.

A pity with all the connections you didn't make it to a lounge.

 

[alieninperth]

Reflections

For this trip I travelled 30,524km, across 3 continents and accrued 19,372 QFFPs, and perhaps more importantly, when the wheels hit the tarmac back in PER I became PS . As I said at the start, this is not fun. The perks and little things that make travel easier are to be enjoyed and embraced as the silver linings that they.

Anyway thanks for reading this far, I know its been tough but I appreciate it.

Safe travels to all of you.

 

[alieninperth]

thanks moa999

I'm a bit spewing about the lounge things, especially as I was hanging around in PER with a J ticket in my grubbly little hand and actually went and bought overpriced beer.

Still I have a few more vouchers now, courtesy of the PS and the recent 'have you been disruped' giveaway so I at least get to sample the PER QP next week.

 

[alieninperth]

I received a letter from QF yesterday about the little visitor to my salad and it turns out that this equals 6 QP vouchers. Better than a kick in the teeth and it means that I will have lounge access until I hit SG. So a benefit of sorts.

 

[spudseamus]

A great TR! loved it ! and im sure yer heart skipped a beat when ya did a left turn over Dublin Bay and saw the 2 pipes!! ahhh ders a thing

 

[alieninperth]

What are the two pipes? Never really flown into Dublin before.

 

[The Rok]

What are the two pipes? Never really flown into Dublin before.

Cooling towers at Ringsend Power Station.

 

[spudseamus]

Kchingggggggggg! RoK