PaulST
Established Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Posts
- 1,196
Hi all, I’m currently in the early stages of my (all to brief!!!) annual leave where I’ll be flying around Europe in several different cabin classes as listen below:
QF 744 SYD-HND – J
BA789 NRT-LHR – J (CW)
BA 767 EDI-LHR – Y
BA 777LHR-DOH – First
QR A350 DOH-MUC – J
A few domestic Air Berlin flights
S7 A320 MUC-DME – Y
JAL 788 DME-NRT J
JAL 777 NRT-SYD J
(so keep an eye out for video trip reports for the above over the next few weeks.
My first flight begins in Sydney in one of the refurbished QF 747-400s. It was a big relief that I got one of the newer 744s because QF are known to put the old ones (with the angle-flat J seats) on the Tokyo route quite often.
My journey begun in the QF Flounge which was quite empty therefore the service was fairly prompt and, after eating, there were many empty seats and quiet sections to relax in while I waited for my flight.
Boarding:
Then I was off to the gate where QF stuffed up the priority boarding (which happens often on domestic flights, but usually they’re OK on international flights). There were a few Y pax in the premium lane and when they got to have their boarding pass scanned, they were told that they were in the wrong lane, but they were let on board and an announcement was made for general boarding.
Service:
The service was fantastic. The FA in my section was Gary (or Greg?) and he was great. The food was promptly serviced (great for a 9hr night flight where you want to get off to sleep reasonably quickly) and removed as soon as I’d finished. My wine was promptly filled frequently and all of these interactions begun with my name (impressive considering the cabin was full). I was even farewelled by name by Gary as I deplaned in HND. There were plenty of smiles and appropriate levels of small talk.
The seat:
The Skybed mk2s are fine. They’re in a 2-2 layout upstairs so you have to chose between easy aisle access or a window seat. I enjoy the view so went with the window seat, and I easily climb over an extended aisle seat. They’re perfectly comfortable and I find that the massage feature actually seems to work.
Food and drink:
See my video for footage of both. As I said above, the drinks were topped up frequently and the food arrive and was taken prompty. There was a smallish dinner straight after takeoff, then time to sleep followed by breaky 2-3hrs before we took off (it was served depending upon who woke early) I was offered more food but declined since I’d eating a fair bit at the lounge before we left SYD.
IFE:
Heaps of content although the touch screen lagged a fair bit. An unfortunate part of having the screen fold away is that you can’t use it during take off and landing.
The flight itself:
We left SYD slightly late but arrived on time. As so happens, the captain was a work colleague’s father. There was a fair bit of turbulence but it was all tolerable and the landing was perfectly smooth.
In conclusion… I’ve heard it said that when the QF FAs are good, they’re good. And this was probably a great example of this. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good (business class) crew and it certainly made a good impression. The QF J offering is getting fairly old in my mind and I was keen to try something new, but this flight (and the following rather average BA flight) was a real encouragement to stick with QF.
Video:
[video=youtube;lJUiUaMXi9M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUiUaMXi9M[/video]
QF 744 SYD-HND – J
BA789 NRT-LHR – J (CW)
BA 767 EDI-LHR – Y
BA 777LHR-DOH – First
QR A350 DOH-MUC – J
A few domestic Air Berlin flights
S7 A320 MUC-DME – Y
JAL 788 DME-NRT J
JAL 777 NRT-SYD J
(so keep an eye out for video trip reports for the above over the next few weeks.
My first flight begins in Sydney in one of the refurbished QF 747-400s. It was a big relief that I got one of the newer 744s because QF are known to put the old ones (with the angle-flat J seats) on the Tokyo route quite often.
My journey begun in the QF Flounge which was quite empty therefore the service was fairly prompt and, after eating, there were many empty seats and quiet sections to relax in while I waited for my flight.
Boarding:
Then I was off to the gate where QF stuffed up the priority boarding (which happens often on domestic flights, but usually they’re OK on international flights). There were a few Y pax in the premium lane and when they got to have their boarding pass scanned, they were told that they were in the wrong lane, but they were let on board and an announcement was made for general boarding.
Service:
The service was fantastic. The FA in my section was Gary (or Greg?) and he was great. The food was promptly serviced (great for a 9hr night flight where you want to get off to sleep reasonably quickly) and removed as soon as I’d finished. My wine was promptly filled frequently and all of these interactions begun with my name (impressive considering the cabin was full). I was even farewelled by name by Gary as I deplaned in HND. There were plenty of smiles and appropriate levels of small talk.
The seat:
The Skybed mk2s are fine. They’re in a 2-2 layout upstairs so you have to chose between easy aisle access or a window seat. I enjoy the view so went with the window seat, and I easily climb over an extended aisle seat. They’re perfectly comfortable and I find that the massage feature actually seems to work.
Food and drink:
See my video for footage of both. As I said above, the drinks were topped up frequently and the food arrive and was taken prompty. There was a smallish dinner straight after takeoff, then time to sleep followed by breaky 2-3hrs before we took off (it was served depending upon who woke early) I was offered more food but declined since I’d eating a fair bit at the lounge before we left SYD.
IFE:
Heaps of content although the touch screen lagged a fair bit. An unfortunate part of having the screen fold away is that you can’t use it during take off and landing.
The flight itself:
We left SYD slightly late but arrived on time. As so happens, the captain was a work colleague’s father. There was a fair bit of turbulence but it was all tolerable and the landing was perfectly smooth.
In conclusion… I’ve heard it said that when the QF FAs are good, they’re good. And this was probably a great example of this. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good (business class) crew and it certainly made a good impression. The QF J offering is getting fairly old in my mind and I was keen to try something new, but this flight (and the following rather average BA flight) was a real encouragement to stick with QF.
Video:
[video=youtube;lJUiUaMXi9M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJUiUaMXi9M[/video]
