Hanoi, Hua Hin, Bangkok and some SQ Suites

[yld200]

Posting this trip report as it would not have been possible without the amazing knowledge, insight and motivation found on this forum. Thank you all! Prior to this trip myself and my partner had only ever travelled in Y so this was truly an amazing opportunity we had that I had been looking forward to a long time! It had always been a dream of mine to fly at the pointy end at least once and now since I found this forum it has become reality and that's amazing.

This trip has already come and gone as I now get ready to go back to work tomorrow .

The planning for this trip started a few months ago as I had pocketed the 250K points from refinancing my home loan with NAB and obtained an additional 140K from the Amex Velocity card which includes a few referral bonuses. After having dinner one night with our friends and talking about all of our travel plans and places we wanted to go. The next morning at work I was super motivated to find flights for our next holiday over Christmas and bang - flights to Osaka in Suites and return in J found! Quick call to the SO at lunch went something like this:
Me: Hey, so how does this sound - Japan over Christmas in first class?
SO: Ummmmm... well I don't know, whats the weather like?
Me: No idea
SO: Ok I'll look into into it.

Few text messages back and forth and turns out the SO doesn't want to go somewhere cold, and it's cold in Japan in December! Having just gone through a miserable Melbourne winter we both decide we want to go somewhere it'll be warm. Fast forward a few months and SYD-SIN-HAN was booked along with BKK-SIN-MEL return all on SQ totalling 337K velocity miles and around $1200 in taxes for 2 pax. Sweet! I then used some QFF points to book MEL-SYD and bought a revenue ticket from HAN-BKK on QR for $150 /pax and there it is! Suites here we come!

 

[love_the_life]

What a bummer - I was hoping you went to Japan as we are looking at spending next Christmas there and I would have loved to hear what it was like. Never mind - this trip sounds just as good

 

[yld200]

Full disclosure - I suck at taking photos and might not have taken as many photos as I should – so apologies in advance.

Christmas day started off by flying MEL-SYD in J on QF422 at 10am on. This was our first ever flight in J so we were both exited to get this trip started on QF.

I haven't flown on QF domestic in a while and using the check-in terminals along with the bag drop was easy and off we went to the domestic J lounge for a light breakfast. Priority boarding was easy and off we went to our seats 6E and 6F in the re-configured A330. Seats were nice and comfy, good room and lots of little storage compartments.

Not many photos of the seats but overall the reconfigured seats are really good.

Take off was delayed until 10.40 due to a problem with the Right 4 door. Engineering came on board and sorted it out pretty quickly so it wouldn’t affect our SQ flight out of SYD.



Food options were either a savoury bread and butter pudding with mushroom and a Mediterranean platter with mozzarella and tomato. I had the bread and butter which was quite nice and the platter for the SO.



Upon landing in SYD, luggage came out pretty quickly. We then caught the train over to the International terminal.

 

[yld200]

Next up...

 

[yld200]

After the short train ride from the domestic terminal we arrived at the SQ check-in counters. Y line was quite full, J had about 7-8 pax in line and suites line was all ours so check-in was easy. The agent had to enter in our Vietnam Visa details so that took a bit of time, we got our boarding passes for the connecting flight, express passes and instructions to the lounge. Followed the express path signs and went through customs quickly, it was very quiet and it probably wouldn’t have taken much more time to go through normal way, but stuff that!



To the lounge we went!

The first lounge is just big enough (not sure how busy it gets but we were the only ones there for a while - 2 others joined us eventually), with seating up near the window and some other seating options as well. We didn’t go into the J lounge so cannot comment on that. We took a seat up next to the window to kill a few hours before our flight. There is a selection of food and drink at the buffet and also some other food options that you can order off the menu. We had some satay and duck pancakes to keep ourselves fuelled but leave enough room for our meals on board.





Boarding looked like it had started according to our watches so we decided to leave the lounge and make our way to the gate. After walking out of the lounge one of the staff ran after us and advised that she would escort us onto the flight which was nice. Walking up to the gate, we bypassed everyone including those waiting in the priority boarding lane and straight up to the front door awaited our welcome.

 

[yld200]

Flight: SQ222
Push Back: 4.10pm
Take Off: 4:20pm

We were greeted at the front door with a very friendly welcome and escorted to our seats – 3C & 3D. Wow, I’ve seen photos but it looks so much nicer in person, the space, the seat, the first class experience! We made it! Boarding was easy thanks to our escort.

Once on board it was so overwhelming, would you like a drink? what size pyjamas? here is the menu? is everything ok? what would you like to drink after take off? what would you like for your meal? Let me just take it in and take some photos and selfies



Leg room shot - I don't think I can fit



Had some Krug prior to take off, however this shot is post take off.



There were only 5 pax in suites, including us for this flight so a light load.

We quickly realised that we had no power to our seats, nothing, couldn’t move the seat, TV not working, no lights, nada. An engineer was on board prior to push back looking at the issue however they couldn’t get it fixed in time. Pax in 2C/2D had the same problem and it looked like all of the A seats had the same issue – K seats seemed to be working fine. The other passenger was in 1F, so 2,3,4 F were all free. When the safety demo started I pointed out to one of the attendants that we had no power, they apologised and advised that we could move to 3 & 4F to watch the demo. Pax in 2C had already fallen asleep at this point and 2D moved into 2F.

Not ideal that we weren’t sitting together to take in the experience together but I wasn’t going to let anything spoil it for me.

 

[yld200]

Once up in the air, amenity kits and pyjamas were distributed.



Female version



PJs were comfortable but I would have had to change if I were to sleep, they would make me quite warm. Oh forgot to mention the Bose noise cancelling headphones as well

 

[yld200]

What a bummer - I was hoping you went to Japan as we are looking at spending next Christmas there and I would have loved to hear what it was like. Never mind - this trip sounds just as good

Japan for me in October

 

[yld200]

The menu










Plus another 2 pages dedicated to different teas!

 

[yld200]

Back to the seat issue....

Just before dinner was served the customer service manager came around to my seat and apologised for the inconvenience caused by the power issues with my original seat and offered me a $300 kris shop voucher for use on in-flight duty free. Amazing gesture I though considering we had relocated to functioning seat now in F, he then also went to the couple sitting in 2C & 2D offering the same vouchers. Both the SO and myself were taken aback by the offer and were kind of in shock. Thanks SQ!

Time to have dinner together.

 

[yld200]

First up - Caviar. I had to try and was pleasantly surprised by how smooth and tasty it was.



Next up - Double boiled chicken soup. Packed with flavour but I'm not a big soup fan so I didn't finish it.



Followed by a light salad. Just a normal salad, not memorable.



Main dish was BTC - Boston Lobster Thermidor. Great dish, rice a little dry but who cares - Lobster! On a plane! What?!!?!



Dessert was the strawberry shortcake. A spoonful of everything was amazing and just popped in your mouth



I also had a coffee shortly after this which was followed by a cheese platter and a Singapore Sling (forgot to take photos ). Skipped the refreshment meal because I was stuffed by this point! Wowww what a meal...

The rest of the flight was really smooth, every now and then the staff would check up on me and ask if I needed anything. The wife got the bed made up and caught some sleep and I ended up watch 3 movies, no chance I was going to sleep on this flight!

The SQ in-flight entertainment system movie selection isn't as great as QF or EK but still did the trick for me. It was nice to be able to stretch out, be able to stretch out and not feel cramped by your seat.

We landed in SQ around 9pm and in summary my first ever experience on a medium long haul flight in first was simply amazing. I was overcome with comfort, food, drinks and the flight passed in a dash. Definitely something I could get used to.

 

[love_the_life]

Japan for me in October

We were there just last November and want to go back. The cherry blossom season would be too hectic and anyway I will be on QM2 this April so that cancels that out. We think Christmas either in Tokyo or maybe somewhere on Hokkaido at this stage. MrLtL is keen on snow (but not to ski) so we will definitely be up north at some point.

 

[Major]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your photo skills. Keep it up

 

[drron]

We were there just last November and want to go back. The cherry blossom season would be too hectic and anyway I will be on QM2 this April so that cancels that out. We think Christmas either in Tokyo or maybe somewhere on Hokkaido at this stage. MrLtL is keen on snow (but not to ski) so we will definitely be up north at some point.

Yes there are crowds at Cherry Blossom time but the Japanese are organised and we never felt the crowds.An amazing experience and not to be missed.

 

[yld200]

Once we landed in Changi we were on a search for our Changi Dollars and eventually found the desk tucked away behind one of the duty free shops in T3. Blink and you'll miss it and there aren't really any signs pointing you in the right direction. We had to ask a few people along the way but found our way there eventually - $40 each scored. Lets go find the lounge!


We had a 12 hour transit in and all of the terminal hotels were booked so a lounge sleeping sesh was on the cards! We found our way to the TPR and sat down in the dining area for some food.

 

[yld200]

Had the satay and salad as starters. SO had the striploin which was amazing and I had the lobster

 

[yld200]

After some food and a shower it was bed time. Given all of the terminal hotels were full we took up one of the quiet rooms in the TPR. I took up residence on the lounge chair and the wife hit the comfy floor. We slept until 1am then I recalled some talk about some couches in the J lounge I went to check it out and found some space for the 2 of us. There was another 6-7 people doing the same thing. Lounge staff were great and brought us pillows and blankets immediately.

Some more shots of TPR - Great quiet very private lounge. Felt very special in here.



Snuck in a few groggy shots of the J lounge during my 4am pit stop. The J Lounge was pretty deserted at this time apart from us sleepers. There was a family with the most annoying loud kid in the lounge until around 2am.




After our snooze we went back to have some brekky in TPR. The coffee wasn't great, the Brazilian on the plane was better than what I had in TPR. Sausages were also very peppery.

 

[yld200]

We hopped on the transfer shuttle to T2 for our flight to Hanoi but dropped past the T2 F lounge first.



Food options were good. Had some more brekky here.



Last 2 shots are just random Changi airport photos.

 

[yld200]

Priority boarding on SQ176 worked well, a few families with kids using priority.

We seat seats 16E and 16F on this 777-200ER. Seat were nice and comfy for a short flight. I found the foot well a bit weird as you had to sit on an angle to stretch out. Maybe the seat angles slightly once its put into flat bed mode, not sure...



Light Lunch Options - But where's the lobster?


The prawn starter was nice and light. The Chicken wasn't that great.


Dessert was nice, managed to squeeze it in.


The 3 hour flight went by quick. The staff were great and very attentive during the flight.

 

[yld200]

I had booked a driver from Hanoi Transfer Service to meet at 12.30 ($16 usd) which I thought should be ok given arrival was 11.40 and we had to sort our visa out. I had decided based on reading some info on TripAdvisor to go for the visa on arrival option. I organised a Vietnam visa approval letter online from Vietnam Visa Pro which cost $9 usd per person for a 30 day 1 time entry visa. You then have to fill out an entry and exit form and take it to the VOA desk along with a passport sized photo.

The process is very simple - you take your form, passport and passport photo to the right hand side of the counter. The officers then process your Visa and when ready for pick up they display it on the screen which is on the left of the counter, you pay your $25 usd per person and off you go.

Since we were going to be one of the first off the plane I thought we should get ours sorted pretty quickly, however the 5 or 6 planes that landed just before our would beg to differ. There were already at least 100 people crowded around the VOA area when we arrived, great I thought! We dropped our passports off just before 12 and didn't get them back til 1.15.

There didn't seem to be much order to the chaos. Some people were managing to get theirs done express through a tour guide operator, others I'm not sure how they managed to get theirs processed quickly, might have been incentive based. Even though we were one of the first from our flight that arrived, we seemed to be in the last group of passengers to get our visas. Nonetheless, eventually we were off through immigration and collected our bags which were waiting and the lost luggage area. Luckily our driver was still waiting for us at this point and off we went into Hanoi!

For those interested you can use a shuttle service to get into Hanoi just outside the old quarter for around $2 usd per person. After travelling for 24 hours I didn't really want to be on a bus then have to organise a taxi to our hotel so I just organised the transfer which worked really well.