Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading trip reports for years now and it’s about time I lost my trip report Virginity. I admire and appreciate fellow A.netters putting a lot of effort into detailed, funny and compelling reports. I will try my best but as this is my first so please go easy on me. Certain technical or operational information may not be entirely correct. However, I welcome your feedback. Gosh I'm nervous! Here we go!


And so begins the yearly 3 week pilgrimage to Western Australia to have Christmas with my Parents. My brother flies CX Business from LHR . Not fair! But he can happily enjoy his old narrow herringbone seats (which he always seems to get) and his “addictive fish ball soups”. I’m not travelling on the same plane as him in Economy. No chance. I take pride in my Kangaroo.

Qantas it was - I know a lot of you are thinking WHY but I do appreciate the QF A380 out of LHR plus I’ve flown business with them before on the A380 which is honestly pretty good. My reasoning was that if I could at least get 1 sector of the outbound and 1 sector of the return in business using points then I’d be more than happy. I’m QF Silver which is about as premium as a Greyhound bus pass, but usually they’re pretty good to me with upgrading. Still don’t like the whole 5 hours before departure notification. They sent me an email in October claiming they were pushing for 24 hour notification. Didn’t happen!

19th DEC LHR-SIN Qf 32 (A380-800 VH-OQE ) 11:05
20th DEC SIN-PER Qf 72 (A330-300 VH-QPE) 8:45

I booked seat 66H on the A380 which thankfully isn’t near the Galley like other exit row seats I’ve used previously. For 80 Australian dollars one-way, it’s actually not that bad for 14 hours of unlimited legroom. Much more appealing than paying another 1,200 GBP to sit upstairs and peek through to business. The seat was near the toilets but hey, I’m sure I’ll survive!

I woke up before the flight with a rather emotional Qantas text message full of exclamation marks confirming my upgrade from SIN-PER for 24,000points.There was light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of a first gen Skybed, some Aussie Wine and A3 photocopies of the Australian newspaper, Wohoo!

In London, I got to check in at the First counter where a lovely French lady did everything for me, and to my surprise added yellow First tags. It pays to smile. And also to say “please don’t leave my bags on Qf32 like you’ve done every Christmas. I’m over wearing my swimming trunks at Christmas lunch again!”  

The A380 flight was not eventful, much to my liking. No turbulence for 14 hours, good friendly service, quiet cabin and NO KIDS. Score! May I apologise in advance for not collecting menu cards or taking photography of food on this leg.

I was impressed with a lighter menu choice for lunch - which was hot smoked salmon (served cold) with braised squid ink noodles. Yes squid ink noodles. It was actually seriously good and also meant that I wasn’t consuming thousands of calories, which I can get down on myself about. So thanks Neil Perry!
I even passed on the frozen Twix but had succumbed to a Posh wrap a good few hours later.

Breakfast was pretty dire with over cooked scrambled egg on a soggy muffin, fatty bacon topped with home made but annoyingly hard baked beans.

Here are the only photos of this leg. I know. Terrible! It’ll get better!!
If I return in J on the A380 then I’ll take some pics.

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1 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

A380 ready for departure out of a sub zero LHR.

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2 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

66H legroom.


Stepping off the A380 in Singapore, it was straight to my connecting flight.
QF 32 connects with QF72 which departs Singapore 55 minutes later. Often the A380 is delayed meaning QF72 is delayed. The FA advised me when enquiring about the connection that at least 50% of QF72’s load was on the A380.

So after a minute stroll to gate C24 where my A330 was waiting, I cleared security through the business lane and boarded. Plane was in relatively good condition. After another year in London, it’s so nice to hear the FA’s Aussie accents again! Feels like home.

I had seat 2B (aisle) and sat next to a mining and petroleum guy form Perth who apparently does SIN-PER 8 times a month! He knew all the FA’s by name, they even knew what he was having to eat. Shows how much they change their menus!

We were delayed by half an hour due to issues with one of the runways, confirmed by the captain. On top of this, we had a 30 minute taxi which happens to me almost every time I fly out of Changi.

As we were reaching cruise, the mining guy tried to convince me to have the Arancini, but I’m half Italian and I knew before I even thought about it that my grandmother would have my balls on a plate if I ate anyone else’s Arancini.

I ordered the prawn salad with prosciutto, spinach and white beans, followed by the sea bass with chinese veg. All quite good. But the sea bass was slightly uninspired and greyish in appearance. Tasted OK, but quite dry.

Forgot to say that as I struck up polite conversation with my fellow passenger in 2A, he took a liking to me – maybe because I wasn’t your usual business traveller (no offence intended) and I also knew Perth quite well. As his favorite meal arrived , he said “Here mate you gotta give this a try…taste it, it’s awesome!” He actually handed me his fork with some of the Arancini wedged on it. And for some stupid reason I thought he was going to…well…feed it to me, like a romance movie!! Ugh how embarrassing!!! After what seemed like an awkward millennium, we both realized and laughed. I took the spoon form his hand. After taking a bite, I swapped my unused fork with his and continued with my meal! BTW, they weren’t as good as my grandmothers!

Moving on! We experienced quite a bit of chop prior to our meal due to the high level cloud associated with the deep low-pressure system storm thingy that tore through the Philippines.

I ordered some awesome bloody mary’s served in a full size glassware and then managed to get an hour or two’s sleep, just enough for me to feel human again – which I guess is the entire reasons for business class. Contrary to popular belief I don’t mind the angled seats on shorter trips as it allows you to digest your meal!

Nice textbook landing. And then the most intoxicating greeting: A 30 degree gentle westerley. Lovely after a minus 3 degree departure!

Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Here are the photos. Also included a couple of pics from this lovely corner of the world my parents call home.

Cheers.

M


PHOTOS:


My ride at Changi.

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3 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

1st Gen Skybed cabin. Not looking too shabby.

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5 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]


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6 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

Here's to a good flight.

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4 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

Some aussie plants in the loo.

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7 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

Prawn starter, with a great glass of Mad Fish white to accompany it.

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8 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]

starting our descent

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9 by Marchiei, on Flickr[/img]

HOT HOT HOT! Yesss!

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10 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]


Cape Naturaliste. South Western Australia. Ahhhh.


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11 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]


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12 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]


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13 by Marchie, on Flickr[/img]


M.