Royal Brunei LHR-BNE-LHR (via DXB and BWN) Business Class

This is my first trip report so any feedback is much appreciated.

Trip: LHR – BNE (via DXB and BWN)
Airline: Royal Brunei
Plane: All legs on B767-33A/ER
Flight BI 98 (LHR – BWN) and BI 71 (BWN – BNE)
Departure: 4th Oct 08:30 am
Arrival BNE: 5th Oct 07:50 pm

Royal Brunei doesn’t serve alcohol on its flights as it’s a Muslim airline, which for me is fine although I like a cold beer and a good wine.   

LHR – DXB:
Check-in at Heathrow quick, no queues and efficient. Boarding cards for the connecting flight in Brunei were also issued.

Lounge at terminal 3 is shared with other airlines – refreshments very basic, nothing to really write about.

Departure on-time and load in business class was 100%.
In-flight service was very good although a bit clumsy, e.g. cutlery placed on the table 1 or 2 minutes after the food. Flight attendants were friendly and attentive and responded very quickly to the calls. Plane was clean.

Quick stop in Dubai. After security in the transit area you only have a few minutes to spare before boarding the same plane again. Awful smoking rooms in Dubai: small, smoky and full of people. OK I do smoke but I hate rooms full of cigarette smoke.   

I was quite tired when we departed LHR so I just took a photo of the plane at the gate and no cabin photos until our last flight BWN - BNE.

Getting ready for departure at LHR



DXB – BWN:
Quick boarding. Departure on-time and load in business class was 100%.
Again, in-flight service was very good but not clumsy. Plane was clean. Arrival in Brunei on-time at 08:45 am 5th Oct.
Lounge in Brunei is nice. Adequate food and drinks for the time. Nice massage chairs. Clean showers.

Brunei airport itself is very small with just a few small shops. Basically more than two hours there must be painful. The duty free shop is a joke – looks like a small convenience store.   


At BWN



BWN – BNE:
Again, nice and efficient crew and good food. Departure and arrival on-time.


Business class cabin BWN – BNE



In-flight BWN – BNE
















Now the return flights:

Trip: BNE – LHR (via BWN and DXB)
Plane: All legs on B767-33A/ER
Flight BI 72 (BNE – BWN) and BI 97 (BWN – LHR)
Departure: 24th Oct 12:25 pm
Arrival LHR: 25th Oct 06:25 am

Below you will also find the menu options for the return flights (I know some of you like that and you can find out in the photos what is what).   

Menu BNE – BWN (Bandar Seri Begawan)

Starter

Green pea soup and parsley croutons
Prawns with mango salsa
Asparagus roasted capsicum with shaved parmesan and smoked chicken salad and balsamic dressing

Main
Macadamia crust chicken with parsley cream sauce and ratatouille
Barramundi fillet with sweet & sour sauce
Served with sugar snap peas and roasted mixed pepper batons

Both the above entrees are served with your choice of either chive mashed potatoes or steamed rice.

Bread selection
Assorted warm rolls and garlic bread

Cheese
All cheese on today’s flight are from Australia made by Master Cheese makers who are experts in their craft. Choice of:
Roaring 40’s
A flavoured blue with a sweet, slightly nutty character, a rich mouth feel and good after taste
Cobram cheddar
A sweet nutty cheddar with a moist, crumbly texture
Kings island brie
A full flavoured and creamy brie

Offered with dried preserved fruits and biscuits

Dessert

Strawberry lemon tart and chocolate ganache

Gelativo
Vanilla ice cream or mango sorbet

Seasonal fresh fruits
Selection of whole seasonal fruits

Strawberries dipped in chocolate

Light selection

Sandwich
Prawn chive mayonnaise and egg mayonnaise sandwich

With

Hot savouries
Snapper skewer and vegetable samosa

Freshly baked pumpkin scones
With coated cream and strawberry jam

Warm noodles
A bowl of satisfying noodles with or without strips of grilled chicken and oriental garnishes


Snack

Assorted nuts
A mixture of cashewnut, almond and peanuts

Keropok
Prawn crackers, a local favourite


A selection of juices
Apple
Cranberry
Grapefruit
Guava
Mango
Orange
Pineapple
Purple carrot and vegetable
Tomato


A selection of soft drinks
Bitter lemon
Bundaberg ginger beer
Coca cola
Diet drinks
Ginger ale
Perrier
Sprite
Soda water
Tonic water

Iced tea
Iced coffee
Iced mocha
Iced milo


Coffee

Freshly brewed filter coffee
Nescafe
Decaffeinated
Cappuccino
Café au lait
Café mocha

Chocolate
Hot milo
With your choice of whipped cream or milk
Warm milk

Selected teas

Ceylon tea
Cha Huang Tie Guan Yin
Darjeeling Tea
Earl Grey
English Breakfast
Japanese green tea
Jasmine tea
Chamomile
Peppermint tea
The Tarik


BNE – BWN:
Check-in quick, friendly and no queues. Boarding cards for the connecting flight in Brunei were also issued.
Royal Brunei uses the Qantas lounge, which is OK, with shower facilities but the refreshments were quite disappointing. Overall I was expecting something much better from Qantas.

Flight departed on-time at 12:25 pm. Load factor in business class was around 45% and economy was around 60%. Plane was clean.

In-flight service was very quick and efficient. Food was very good as well. Plane was clean.

Most of the flight was quite bumpy, but I actually enjoy it. Arrival was on time at around 05:20 pm.

The food in the lounge in Brunei was very good with a good selection and adequate for the time.

Getting ready for departure at BNE


SIA B772 next to our plane




QF A330 at BNE


View soon after take off from BNE


Business class toilet   




Business class cabin BNE – BWN










In-flight BNE – BWN
















Economy class section BNE – BWN


In-flight BNE – BWN




A few minutes before landing at BWN


And… a few seconds before landing





BWN – DXB:
Flight departed on-time at 07:35 pm and again the in-flight service was very good.
Arrival in Dubai was on-time around 01:15 am.
We even managed to spend a few minutes in the lounge in Dubai, which is run by Qatar Airways. It’s a really good lounge with great food and drinks.
The terminal was full of people.
The duty free shops were also very full and after a quick (sort of) stop there to buy some cigarettes we went to the gate where we were one of the last ones to board – but we didn’t delayed the plane.   

Menu BWN – DXB

Canapes
Mushroom quiche and salmon béchamel roll

Assorted nuts
A mixture of cashew nuts, almonds and peanuts

Keropok
Prawn crackers, a local favourite

Served together with your after take off drink


Starter

Marinated prawns and salmon with mango salsa
And horseradish cocktail sauce

Fish chowder
Served with diced fish and mixed vegetables

Smoked beef tenderloin, papaya salsa and green mescluin
Served with horseradish mayonnaise

Main

Lamb roulade with duxelles of mushrooms
And rosemary sauce

Pan fried barramundi with sweet and sour sauce
Mixed peppers and pineapples

Both of the above entrees are served with your choice of rosemary potatoes and steamed rice

Buttered linguini with vegetables julienne and tomato concasse
And grated parmesan

Bread selection
Assorted warm rolls and garlic bread

Cheese
Kings island blue
Gruyere
Brie
Offered with walnut, grapes and biscuits

Dessert

Home made ice cream
Chocolate and yummy yum

Seasonal fresh fruits
Selection of whole seasonal fruits

Pistachio cheese cake and maple panna cotta
With raspberry coulis

Honey oatmeal cookies

Assorted chocolates
Accompanied with coffee or tea

Light selection

Chicken murtabak and dalca sauce

English muffin and beef mortadella and slice cheese

Warm noodles
A bowl of satisfying noodles with or without strips of grilled chicken and oriental garnishes

Drink options were the same as previous flight


Business class cabin BWN – DXB


In-flight BWN – DXB























DXB – LHR:
Flight departed on time at 02:30 am and the in-flight service was great again. There was a problem with the AVOD so it was reset. It worked fine for everything apart from the moving map that wouldn’t show the map (just the flight path) when it was zoomed in. But it’s not a big deal anyway.

Arrival was on time at 06:25 am although we were put on a holding pattern for around 10 minutes before landing.

Menu DXB – LHR

Starter

Chicken wanton soup
Accompanied with garlic bread and ciabatta roll

Mediterranean vegetable salad with seared tuna
Offered with sesame ginger dressing

Main

Hot savouries assortment
Honey and garlic lemon glace chicken skewer, seafood vol au vent and cheese spring onion lattice

Stirfried noodles with beef oyster sauce
And Chinese greens

Dessert

Tiramisu pyramid and lemon cheese cake


Snack

Assorted nuts
A mixture of cashewnut, almond and peanuts

Keropok
Prawn crackers, a local favourite

Warm noodles
A bowl of satisfying noodles with or without strips of grilled chicken and oriental garnishes

Breakfast Menu

Fresh juices
Orange juice
Energiser: concoction of banana, dates syrup and strawberry

Starter

Cereal
Cornflakes or muesli

Greek yoghurt
Plain with your choice of mixed berry compote or drizzled with honey

Fruit appetiser
Assorted cut fruits

Breakfast bread selection
White and brown toast, hard rolls, baby hovis and mini croissant

&

preserves
marmalade, strawberry or honey

Main

Scrambled eggs and chive with mozzarella
Served with grilled neurnberger sausage, assorted sesame mushrooms and grilled plum tomato

Stirfried pancit noodles with seafood and ginger coriander sauce
Pak choy, red pepper and mushroom strips

Cold plate
Pepper crusted roast beef tenderloin, grilled marinated pesto chicken with gruyere and boursin pepper cheese and dried fruits

Breakfast hot sandwich
Warm cheese roll with chicken mayonnaise

Drink options were the same as previous flight


Departing DXB




In-flight DXB – LHR












Nearly home to lovely, rainy and cold UK   






Overall comments:

I found the business class seats comfortable and you can get a good sleep. The quality of food and drinks were very good with some options being excellent.
Cabin crew very polite, friendly and efficient.
Entertainment system very good and the selection of films was fine.
I would personally rate the airline as a 4 Star airline based on these flights and class.

Hope you enjoy it.


P.S.: Next TR: a trip to Brazil with TAM