Thai SYD-BKK-DPS in J - Virgin Aus DPS-SYD in J

[haydensydney]

Background
My partner and I wanted to take my parents + brother overseas for Christmas 2011. We chose Bangkok and Bali due to the availability of *A awards through SQ and to take advantage of cheap fares offered on VA for the return leg.

We would travel SYD-BKK-DPS on TG and DPS-SYD on VA
My parents would travel BNE-BKK-DPS on TG and DPS-BNE on VA

We booked the trip about four weeks out from Departure, so it was great to be able to secure the flights on points (though – SQ/TG fuel surcharges were epic in cost, typical).

In July 2011 I went to HKG with Thai, on the same aircraft config (A340-600, A330). That trip report is here.

FYI My previous trip reports are here:

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[haydensydney]

TG472
Business Class – A340-600
18 December 2011
From: SYD
To: BKK
Dep: 16:30
Arr: 22:00

At airport / Check-in
We arrived at the airport and checked-in - the wait was longer than usual at ~10mins due to what appeared to be difficulties with passengers in front of us. I discovered that TG allow paid upgrades at check-in, and SYD-BKK would be $810ea to upgrade from J to F. This was tempting but we decided to stick with J and save the rest of the money for more important things… like shopping in BKK.

Lounge
Did the whole express path customs/immigration process with ease - SYD are quite good at processing passengers and are efficient IME. Picked up some Grey Goose in duty free and embarked on the marathon walk to the NZ lounge. Wasn’t terribly busy and we had our favourite seats sitting right by the window - had a wine or three + some munchies.

RNZAF Aircraft in town... made me feel all patriotic

Typical NZ lounge fare

 

[haydensydney]

Getting eyeballed by the Air China A330

Board
Lots of pax on this flight but we were processed quickly by the GA from the Royal Silk queue. On arrival at my seat however I found someone already sitting there – we compared boarding passes and we had both been assigned the same seat. After an awkward 5 mins of us loitering around the seat wondering who would get it, he was moved elsewhere.

Seat
We were in the second smaller J cabin, directly in front of Y, in the middle block of two seats. The seat was as same as last time I flew with TG, not completely lie flat but comfortable in relax mode.

Ambience
As we were in the smaller J cabin directly in front of Y, one often frets about potential noise the noise from the Y cabin: fortunately it was minimal and there were no such issues. We had two dedicated FA’s looking after the smaller cabin – which meant quicker service at meal times.

IFE
Standard on demand IFE offering. It won’t win any awards but it certainly kept me entertained for the flight. I watched ‘Captain America’, ‘Cow Boys and Aliens’ and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ – all of which I hadn’t seen before, so I was happy enough. Flightmap was great, though slightly buggy – it would be good to be able to pause a movie to check flightmap – unfortunately you have to exit your movie completely to see the map, then go back to movie from the beginning and fast forward to where you were up to. #firstworldproblem.

Crew
Great – they were polite in typical TG fashion and efficient. Wine refills throughout the flight were forthcoming. Responded efficiently to the call bell.

 

[haydensydney]

Food
I had a nice lobster and rare beef entre followed by a forgettable beef stir fry + fried rice for mains. I don’t feel like TG goes hard out to provide the best meals in the sky, but they are generally OK and this one met expectations... though the fried rice could've been more substantial.

+1 had snapper, and apparently it was quite nice

My stirfry main - wasn't the best, and the "fried rice" was just plain rice + soy....

Dessert: Yum!

 

[haydensydney]

Towards the end of the flight, we were given another meal (which was prawn noodles).

Beverage
I had a few white wines throughout the flight – there were two whites on offer, both French.

Amenity
The standard international amenity packs were distributed. Contents include:

• Socks
• Toothbrush & toothpaste
• Mouthwash
• Lip Balm
• Moisturiser
• Brush/Comb
• Eye Shades

Disembark
Front doors were used, so I got to walk through and check out the F product. Looks shabby, old and unappealing. Our parents had arrived about an hour earlier so were waiting at the hotel for us.

On-time
Yes

Summary
This was a stock standard TG flight. Crew were polite. Catering was nice but overall uninspiring. Happy with the overall flight.

Score
[TABLE="width: 179"]
[TR]
[TD]Check-in[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lounge[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Board[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Seat[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ambience[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]IFE[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crew[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Food[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Beverage[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Amenity[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Disembark[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]On-time[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73.3[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[haydensydney]

Shama Sukhimvit, Bangkok
(3 Bedroom Deluxe)

Tripadvisor review here.

We decided to stay at this property as it was one of the few options that had 3 bedrooms in the one apartment. The location was right in the thick of it, in between Sukhimvit Soi 2 / Soi 4. The building is very Meriton-esque, though when inside the apartment it was roomy and well kitted out. Signs of incomplete construction were obvious in some cupboards etc. Breakfast was average at best, though for a serviced apartment building any free breakfast is a bonus. We ate out for breakfast most mornings.

We were all jetlagged so were up at the crack of dawn the next morning after arrival:

Below pics are from the hotel website (the room was as shown so no point putting up my darkened poorly taken pics):

 

[haydensydney]

Vertigo Restaurant, Banyan Tree Bangkok

I had seen some stunning photographs of this restaurant (see below) and had always wanted to go, but never got round to it in my previous trips to Bangkok. Centurion arranged a table for us and we were all excited to give it a go, though the tripadvisor comments on the restaurant weren’t overly favourable so we had warning that it might not be that great.

The restaurant is located on the top floor/rooftop of the Banyan Tree building – some good 60 something floors up. The views on our evening were stunning – not a cloud in sight and the smog was unusually minimal also. We were escorted to our table and we decided on the 5 course degustation. The best course was the Asparagus and Truffle soup, though the rest of the meal was average at best. Service seemed to be all over the shop, e.g. waiters tripping up over each other. Costs were average by Sydney standards, but expensive on Bangkok terms. All up, about $800 for the four of us which included food, a $150 bottle of wine and a couple of coughtails. I don’t recommend this restaurant for the food, but give it credit for having stunning views and a pretty funky atmosphere.

 

[haydensydney]

TG431
Business Class – A330-300
From: BKK
To: DPS
Dep: 08:50
Arr: 14:15

At airport / Check-in
Due to the early departure of the flight, we were up at the crack of dawn. Centurion arranged the transfer in a Merc Vito which was a comfortable ride (cost was ~4400 Bhat, slightly expensive). We checked in at the dedicated Royal Silk check-in desks (which have seats at the desk – quite a nice atmosphere). Used the dedicated Express security/customs area which made those formalities quick to get through. Picked up some more Grey Goose and some Pimms and off to the lounge we went.

Lounge
I would’ve thought the J lounges in the flagship port of TG would be more inspiring – alas, the lounge is quite boring and uninteresting. Some food options available, but nothing really up my alley with the exception of the steamed buns – a nice touch.

Board
Typical BKK departures are a shambles. As soon as the call for families and old people to board, it seems like everyone rushes to the doorway and overwhelms the poor GA. This one was no different. It was a free for all, with little attention to priority boarding. This could be improved massively.

 

[haydensydney]

Seat
God. We were on an un-refurbished A330. J cabin and seats are absolutely hideous, with the seats being the old cradle style. Not my favourite.

Ambience
Packed J cabin, Y was pretty much deserted.

IFE
IFE? Lol…. There were those old armest screens, a-la Air Pacific, with static-y screens and poor contrast. There were the overhead / front of cabin screens also. iPad was used on this flight.

Crew
This crew does a return BKK-DPS-BKK in one day, so it was like they were exhausted just thinking about the day ahead of them – it showed through. My satisfaction with TG regional flights tends to be less than TG long haul [happens with most airlines though].

Food
Prawn Noodles or Traditional Breakfast was offered. I chose the Noodles which weren’t too bad at all. I didn’t take a pic of the main as I forgot to get the camera out (sorry!).

Beverage
We appeared to be the only people in cabin who were drinking wine on a morning flight – it caught the FAs off guard when we asked for wine… they went to the front galley and returned with two partially consumed white wine bottles with the corks half pushed in; indicating that they had been recycled from a prior flight.

 

[haydensydney]

Disembark
Disembarking in Bali is an experience let me tell you. I don’t believe I’ve had an airport experience that has ever been that hectic and hellish. We disembarked and made our way to the Visa on Arrival area, where we saw endless queues. When I was approached by what appeared to be an Airport official asking us if we wanted “Express” for $20 USD, I immediately said YES! He said that it would take an hour to get through all of the VOA, Immigration and Customs queues. Looking back, it wasn’t the best idea.

First off, all the Express guy did was push to the front of the queues and push himself into the VOA booth – extremely rude to those in the queue. Anyway this process took ten minutes in itself, and this is when we thought something looked off. When he came back to us with the Visa’s, he then said that he wants another $20ea to get us through immigration. I said “Whoa don’t think so mate” and then ensued an argument between us and this dodgy SOAB. After a heated few minutes, he took backs the visas and gave us back our money… which was fine, until I realised that he had not given back the full amount (pocketing $50 for himself)… Prick. Anyway, lesson learnt. Shame on me.

On-time
Departure was delayed by about 45 mins due to apron congestion. We landed about 30 mins late.

Summary
Not an overly exciting trip to be honest – the product is a massive let down. The IFE options are piitiful. But on a four hour flight, I wasn’t that worried and made do with what was on offer. Was mainly disappointed with the whole corrupt Bali Immigration process – it wasn’t the best introduction to Bali let me tell you. Not TG's fault.

Score
[TABLE="width: 179"]
[TR]
[TD]Check-in[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lounge[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Board[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Seat[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ambience[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]IFE[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crew[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Food[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Beverage[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Amenity[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Disembark[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]On-time[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]55.83[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[haydensydney]

Villa Martine - Seminyak
Private Villa Accommodation

As we booked the trip quite late, we had some difficulty in finding good quality accommodation. Thank god we found Villa Martine, as it was a fantastic way to spend 6 days in Bali. We paid about $450/night for this three bedroom villa. It came with a maid, that was basically at the villa cleaning after us and making us breakfast.

Pluses:
+ Location is at the Legion Beach end of Seminyak, right behind the BinTang supermarket
+ The BinTang supermarket was our local source of food and munchies
+ Close to restaurants and shops and ATM’s
+ Amazing pool which wrapped around the building
+ Day bed and upstairs outdoor entertaining area
+ Maid Service

Minuses:
- No oven in kitchen, only cooktop and microwave
- The actual villa is down a tiny back alleyway, which is a few minutes walk from the main street, quite dark at night and there is a risk of being run down by locals on scooters
- Aircon didn’t cope as well as would’ve liked, with all of us running our units on 18 degrees and it not feeling less than 24-26 degrees
- Lots of chlorine in the pool; my brother got chlorine irritation in a ‘sensitive area’ due to excessive use of the pool
- Maid service: I like my privacy, so it was odd sharing your space with an outsider. Occasionally there would other people, like the pool person, or the local massage woman, who would just wander in (with implied consent from the maid I assume) – slightly odd.
- Most rooms weren’t properly sealed from the outside world, in the main bedroom there was a .5cm gap between the door and frame on the main door and the outside bathroom – meaning that mosquitos could get in and other undesirables too
- TV’s in upstairs rooms didn’t have normal TV channel access: just a DVD player could be used. Unfortunately the villa doesn’t have a DVD collection, so was basically useless having TV’s at all in those rooms.

Still, a five star property and it wasn’t too expensive. We came away quite happy.

 

[haydensydney]

Potato Head Restaurant/Bar - AWESOME

Christmas lunch!

 

[haydensydney]

Beach at Seminyak - there are small bar / cafes scattered along the beach, playing house
music with bean bags... was a ultra relaxing way to spend our last night in Bali

Yes, we did the Monkey Temple thing too…

 

[haydensydney]

VA report to come, tomorrow likely.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Well done!

You do live and learn in Asia.......every time.

 

[haydensydney]

DJ4146
Business Class Seating (With Premium Economy Service) – 737-800
28[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2011
From: DPS
To: SYD
Dep: 01:10
Arr: 10:30

At airport / Check-in
Check-in wasn’t that bad actually considering I was preparing for an onslaught on the senses. Check-in happened normally, though I noticed that the GA hadn’t asked the security questions re: checked luggage and had provided our boarding passes without much chatter at all. When asked about lounge access, he wrote out a lounge invitation with name + “3 guests”… not sure what this was all about, but my +1 is VA Plat and I am VA G. This allowed me to get my family into the lounge as well without having to pay extra

Lounge
The premium lounge, on the top level by Gates 1/2, was adequate. It had an outdoor area (for those with smokers needs) which was great, with nice views of the apron and runway. There was no alcohol in the lounge. Seating was plentiful. Good selection of mags/newspapers. Computers were available.

Board
There was no announcement in the lounge ~1hr from scheduled departure. We decided to leave anyway, as we were aware that the walk was a long one to the actual gate. When we got to the gate, we waited in line for the next security check. We then picked up our duty free (your order it at the shop and you pick it up at the gate) and made our way to the…
…bus.

I don’t recall doing a bus before, so this was interesting. The great thing was that we could get close to the jets on the apron – quite cool, but irritating knowing that VA is too stingy to buy aerobridge access.

Seat
This was my first “new” VA J seats experience. Personally, I was a little let down. First of all, there is no leg rest, which felt odd. The width of the seat was good which was nice, but the recline was awful! It felt like the recline was the same as Y!

The FA approached me and we started chatting, and he mentioned that there were not many pax that night. Turned out to be about 40 pax on the entire flight! This worked to my favour because I found a empty row (in Row 4) where I could lift the armrests and sleep like a baby.

We were row 2, seats A & C

Pics from other websites (my pics werent very good)

Ambience
I didn’t feel the “bling” factor with the new J cabin on VA. The purple separator between the cabins looked far less cool in real life than in the pics.

IFE
Got given this DVD player thing, but it only had about 7 Movies and about 10 TV shows… not that great. Mind you, as this was a night time flight, no IFE was required.

Crew
Awesome crew. The purser was smoking hot, so he was good for a perv. The pilot on loudspeaker had a hot voice too: it’s a wonder he wasn’t working in radio

Food
Had a red wine for sleeping purposes. Didn’t feel like pigging out at this time of night.

Beverage
Wine is cough on VA… “red or white sir?” – doesn’t quite cut the mustard. Hopefully a better selection appears when real J gets cracking.

Amenity
I got a comfort pack, but only a few were available on this flight and my partner missed out. Looks like they bring them in on the inbound, with the second leg missing out if demand on the first leg exceeds expectations.

Disembark
Felt like a normal DJ flight, though the FA did the “locked rope” thing to prevent Y pax from rushing the exits like normal.

On-time
Yes

Summary
Was slightly underwhelmed with the new J cabin on the 737. I think it would be great for the golden triangle routes, but a night time 6 hour flight in those seats would be awful… Im just lucky I found a empty Y row to lie down in. It felt very “domestic-ish” and felt much like a SYD-MEL flight. Crew were exemplary.

Score
[TABLE="width: 179"]
[TR]
[TD]Check-in[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lounge[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Board[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Seat[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ambience[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]IFE[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Crew[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Food[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Beverage[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Amenity[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Disembark[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]On-time[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]9[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]60.83[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[haydensydney]

UNFORTUNATELY....

My mother, brother and I returned with Bali belly. We think it was something we ate in the lounge, as that was the only common meal shared between us that day. Still feeling the after effects now (and we returned yesterday!).

Scores* to date:
*Hayden's Happiness Score

Thai J SYD-BKK: 73.33
Thai J SYD-HKG: 71.60
Virgin Australia J- DPS-SYD: 60.83
Air NZ Economy SYD-ROT: 60.00
Etihad J SYD-LHR: 57.50
Thai J BKK-DPS: 55.83

 

[dk4]

The purser was smoking hot, so he was good for a perv. The pilot on loudspeaker had a hot voice too: it’s a wonder he wasn’t working in radio

ROFL. Thanks for finishing the report, hope you feel better soon.

 

[haydensydney]

ROFL. Thanks for finishing the report, hope you feel better soon.

Feel much better today though +1 has now got it - must be viral. Lovely!

 

[Sprucegoose]

Feel much better today though +1 has now got it - must be viral. Lovely!

I won't dwell on this too much.....it's actually a healthy response. Longer than 24 hrs then see someone.

Hayden,

I believe yours was food. But the two simplistic things anyone can do is boil water for a few minutes and wash your hands.

Bad food prep is a lot harder to avoid.