City hops on Qantas/Cathay Pacific/JAL/Singapore Airlines

[KeithMEL]

I'm on the road again on my mid year vacation after a long semester. So it's time for another trip report! Reviews to come...

F
SIN-MNL SQ910

J
MEL-AKL QF25
AKL-HKG CX108
HKG-SIN CX735
SIN-NRT JL712
NRT-SIN SQ11
MNL-HKG CX904
HKG-DPS CX785
DPS-HKG CX784
HKG-MEL QF30

whY
HKG-TPE CX466
TPE-HKG CX461

Hotels
The Westin Auckland
Sheraton Hotel and Towers Hong Kong
Sheraton Taipei
St Regis Singapore
New Majestic Hotel, Singapore
The Hilton Tokyo
Transit Hotel, Singapore Changi Airport T3
The InterContinental Makati, Manila
The Elysian Villas, Seminyak-Bali

Sights
Taipei
Manila
Bali

[zander]

Wow...thats another huge load of flying...and coming so soon after your DONE4 trip

Happy holidays

[phaleesy]

St Regis Singapore

Surely not!

From jhm's pictures, the impression I got of St Regis is that it's rather fuddy-duddy. That's MY standards. Yours would be much much worse!

[HUGE AL]

St Regis Singapore

OMG, this must be a typo. Surely KeithMEL finds the St. Regis NOT trendy enough?!

[jhm]

I think KeithMEL will be recovering in the St Regis given his stubbornness to book the New Majestic as well against all advice, e.g. the interesting reviews on tripadvisor I pointed him to, e.g. give me hot water over trendiness any day!

[KeithMEL]

QF25 MEL-AKL, 29JUN2008, Business Class: The flight that almost never was.

I sank into the very nice Heavenly Bed in the wee hours of the morning, thankful to finally get some rest after the extremely long day I've had.

rewind

It's 5am in the morning and I've just commenced packing and other preparations for the trip. It had been an exhausting weekend; I've arrived home close to midnight after spending the previous 2 days in Sale - a town approx 212km away from Melbourne. No it was by no means an extension of my holiday - I had answered the call of duty to assist in a by-election effort in that area and have had very little sleep. Alas the results were disappointing though not totally unexpected; at least there was free alcohol at the commiserations party and I wasn't stuck at the Victorian/NSW border with next to zero mobile phone reception unlike some less fortunate comrades. But I digress...

So no I did not have the opportunity to commence packing and cleaning the house (feels a bit grim to come back to an untidy house) till then. The idea was to catch a few hours' shut eye, pack, and arrive at the airport by 9.20am for the 10.50am departure. And perhaps crash onboard on the comfy Skybeds after a few tipples for a power nap. At least that was the plan. Mission accomplished with the packing, and I got to Tullamarine at just after 9am. And I hadn't missed anything in the midst of it all, only an inadequately charged camera battery (which means no pics for this bit of the TR - sorry!).

I was a tad concerned at the possibility of flight cancellations or delays due to the QF Engineers' industrial action. Everything seemed normal when I'd repeatedly checked my booking online. Nothing looked out of the ordinary when at the departure halls, save for the presence of the QF queue dragon who looked quizically at my retro handwritten paper ticket and wasn't about to let me into the very much shorter JCL queue until I got a more experienced staffer from the service desk to intervene.

10.20am - I decided to head to the gate a little earlier to maximise time for champagne sipping. A "small delay" was announced as the aircraft was still in final preparations for departure.

10.35am - Oops, message from the engineers: we would have a "slight delay" due to a maintenance issue with the aircraft. Something to do with a circuit breaker in the food chillers. Realising that it was going to be much longer than a "slight delay" I headed back to the Qantas Pub. My day was about to get much longer...

The new scheduled departure time was 12 noon. It was then became a rolling delay with a new estimated departure time every hour. I enquired at front desk for the possibility of being protected on other flights, however it wasn't exactly their domain and "central reservations in Sydney" weren't about to do anything until the flight was finally cancelled. They assured me that they could see my onward flight to HKG on CX108 the following day. And the QF duty manager was going to try getting the flight out until the crew ran out of hours - ie not till 8.30pm. I overheard from a convo the QP staff had with the duty manager that they were negotiating with the Hilton for day rooms but the Hilton had told QF to pound sand until the flight was actually cancelled per the terms of their contract. Damn bureaucracy...

The very nice QP lounge staff I spoke to were convinced that it was a "go slow" action by the engineers, as these things normally do not take this long to fix. They themselves appeared frustrated and were extremely apologetic. The CSM and another member of the cabin crew of QF25 walked around the QP at approximately 3pm to talk to pax and apologised repeatedly for difficult circumstances.

So the QP became my home/prison for the better part of the day. It was a pleasant enough place to spend time in, I guess. I had a new drinking buddy whom I'd met at the gate and invited into the QP - he was most grateful to say the least after it became apparent that this was not merely a "slight delay."

Boarding for QF25 was finally called at 6pm... At least I'd qualified to lodge a claim against my travel insurance company on the grounds of a flight delay, as the delay was more than 6 hours.

To be continued...

[KeithMEL]

I think KeithMEL will be recovering in the St Regis given his stubbornness to book the New Majestic as well against all advice, e.g. the interesting reviews on tripadvisor I pointed him to, e.g. give me hot water over trendiness any day!

Actually, the New Majestic scored a ringing endorsement from another SQTalker who stayed there last year.

[jhm]

Actually, the New Majestic scored a ringing endorsement from another SQTalker who stayed there last year.

Ah yes, the SQTalker who loves muffin tops or something like that.

[flo]

have a great trip mate! really looking forward to your adequately charged camera battery. hehe.

anyway: a pleasant read! i really love your trs!

[matt_will_fix_it]

I've always thought its a true test of an airline how they handle delay and cancellation situations, so its very interesting to read your report keith_mel. Lucky you had the QP access... just out of interest, do you know if Y passengers were given anything, drinks/meals etc? or were they left to their own devices?

Hope the rest of your travels go smoother!

[KeithMEL]

. just out of interest, do you know if Y passengers were given anything, drinks/meals etc? or were they left to their own devices?

Not sure, as soon as the delay was announced I went back to the QP. I noticed that they did process a few voluntary offloads and got yield management to open up seats on the following day's flights to AKL and/or LAX for those pax. Overall I think it was all handled pretty well under the difficult circumstances they were operating under. One little fact I omitted was that they did offer to check out NZ's flights to AKL however the next scheduled departure wasn't till 1830 and they were quite confident at that stage of getting QF25 out before then.

[HUGE AL]

I had answered the call of duty to assist in a by-election effort in that area...there was free alcohol at the commiserations party...

KeithMEL always has his priorities in order.

[KeithMEL]

I was greeted by the CSM at the entrance of the aircraft, he'd recognised me and remembered my name... I hope I hadn't been too much of a PITA back in the QP. In the usual sleek, stylish and efficient ways of the QF cabin crews, my coat was swiftly hung up and the tray of pre-departure drinks pushed under my nose with a hint that gasps of horror would echo around the cabin should I reach for anything other than the bubbly, so the bubbly it was. Lanson for today, managed to down 2 glasses before the crew had to prep the cabin for take off.

Today's flight was operated by a 332; I've never been on a QF long haul 332 before and have only been on QF25 when it was a daily 744 so this was a first. The business cabin had a 2-2-2 configuration. Naturally I went for the centre row to take advantage of both aisle access and being able to avoid being mauled when the seatmate wishes to get out of the seat. I was in 1E which was the bulkhead however it did not appear to offer more legroom than the regular rows.

A meal was served shortly after take off. Full menu here. Had the chicken. Whilst edible, the meal was unfortunately neither creative nor well-thought out. It was more simple and boring comfort food rather than the sexy Asian fusion cuisine on the long hauls, or the more thoughtfully presented J meals on Air NZ transtasman flights.

OTOH QF offered a stellar selection of wines even on its TT flights. As a huge fan of pinor noirs I was thrilled that Pallister Estate pinot was featured in QF's current stable of J wines. A rather medium bodied number, more on the shiraz end of the scale as far as pinot noirs go, the wine did much to sooth my palate after the rather average meal - bold expressions of cherries and hints of coffee were rather evident.

Due to the combination of the whole day's worth of alcohol (I'd also gotten into the port after the FA actively recommended it as an accompaniment for the cheese plate) and the sleep deprivation, I turned the Skybed into its fully flat position and crashed for the rest of the flight, only to stir when woken up by the cabin crew during their preparations for landing.

Next: The Westin Auckland-Lighter Quay; CX108 AKL-HKG J: "Pinot noir/Sauvignon Blanc, is that red or white wine?"

[Kiwi]

Not sure, as soon as the delay was announced I went back to the QP. I noticed that they did process a few voluntary offloads and got yield management to open up seats on the following day's flights to AKL and/or LAX for those pax. Overall I think it was all handled pretty well under the difficult circumstances they were operating under. One little fact I omitted was that they did offer to check out NZ's flights to AKL however the next scheduled departure wasn't till 1830 and they were quite confident at that stage of getting QF25 out before then.

If it was me I would have taken them up on the offer of NZ. Firstly sure to get to AKL that night. Secondly better food and drink (although seat on the A320 is not so good as QF A332). Thirdly a chance to double dip the miles

[TONY_SQ268]

Sorry to hear you were so badly delayed - Qantas are really starting to annoy their passengers with these ongoing delays and disruptions...

At least you had more Champagne sipping time I suppose!

I look forward to your next trip report...