Aussie Flyer

I have flown VA business a couple of times across the pacific but earlier this year was my first time in the new 'suite' style seat. Here is my experience... After arriving on a connecting service from Melbourne I took the Virgin Australia shuttle bus over to the international terminal. My bags were checked through so there was no need to stop by the check-in desks but this is what they looked like:

My next series of flight reports will be from a trip I did early this year to the USA and Mexico.  Here's a quick look at the first leg of the trip.  I was flying Virgin Australia via Sydney to Los Angeles. To get to Sydney I took VA811, the 7am flight featuring breakfast service. Here's how it went! FLIGHT: VA811 AIRLINE: Virgin Australia AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUO (9 years old) ROUTE: Melbourne to Sydney DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.25AM GATE TO GATE TIME: 1 hour 25 minutes I checked in at the business class counters where I received my boarding pass for both the MEL-SYD and the SYD-LAX sectors, my bags were checked right through to LAX. I was given my boarding passes in a wallet with a bus ticket for the transfer in Sydney and my international departures card. Then it was onto the lounge... Time for a juice and a macch...

The route between Mumbai and Goa is extremely competitive with Air India, GoAir, Spicejet, Vistara and Jet Airways all flying the route. Most operate either the A320 or B737 for this flight which is usually under an hour in duration. On my trip to India I decided to use Etihad miles to book this flight as I found the prices pretty high on the day I planned to travel. I wanted to have a sample of Jet's business class so paid the extra miles to fly in the 'Premiere' cabin, even though it really is a bit of a waste on such a short sector. I arrived at the huge and ultra modern looking Mumbai airport with about 90 mins to go before departure: The drop off area at Mumbai airport

Here is a trip report on a recent flight I had with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Melbourne in business class. FLIGHT: SQ217 ROUTE: Singapore to Melbourne CLASS: Business Class SEAT: 91F AIRCRAFT: A380-800 9V-SKQ (5 years old) DEPART: 10.45AM ARRIVE: 9.10PM After a visit to the T3 Silverkris lounge I headed to gate B5  for the departure. I arrived at 10am with boarding not yet started and found 9V-SKQ at the gate. This was one of the newer A380's, only 5 years old. It has the upper deck configured exclusively with business class, 86 flat beds in total! Those that have flown the 2006 SQ business class seat know that the bulkheads are generally preferable as they have more leg space since there is no seat in front. I had chosen the centre bulkhead in the rear cabin, seat 91F. When boarding was called I noticed very few other passengers joining me on the upper deck jetway. 9V-SKQ at the gate

FLIGHT Virgin Australia VA7 AIRCRAFT Boeing 777-300ER VH-VOZ (7 years old) ROUTE Brisbane to Los Angeles CLASS Business Class seat 4A DEPARTURE 10.50AM ARRIVAL 6.55AM DURATION 13 hours 05 minutes So, this review is already out of date because the seats have been replaced but here is a quick look at a flight I took in April this year with Virgin Australia from Brisbane to Los Angeles.  Virgin Australia operate a small fleet of 5 B777-300ER's, serving Los Angeles from both Brisbane and Sydney, along with the Sydney to Abu Dhabi route. This is flight VA7, the daily flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. Virgin compete with Qantas on this route who fly a daily B747-400. Brisbane International Checkin

Virgin have had short haul business class on domestic for a few years now. I have read mixed reviews on the product with some experiencing great service and others being almost ignored. Here is my experience on a recent trip. FLIGHT: Virgin Australia VA309 ROUTE: Melbourne to Brisbane AIRCRAFT: Boeing 737-800 VH-VUJ (almost 10 years old) DEPARTURE: 7.00AM ARRIVAL: 8.10AM DURATION: 2 hrs 10 min My flight this morning was operated by VH-VUJ. This aircraft is almost 10 years old, delivered to Virgin Blue in 2006 and later repainted to the current Virgin Australia livery. The aircraft, like all the other VA 737-800's, has 8 business seats and 168 economy. I was in seat 1A for this sector. Upon arrival at the terminal I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge and snapped a pic of my aircraft which was parked right nearby:

With the suites upgrade on Qantas A330s almost complete, flights across the country are going to finally have a consistent business class product. Here we have my experience about 6 months ago on a dinnertime flight, Perth to Melbourne. Terminal Entry

First an apology.... this report is well overdue. I completed this flight in November last year. This is Singapore Airlines flight SQ323 from Amsterdam to Singapore. Currently a B777-300ER route but it will soon feature the brand new Airbus A350 instead. When that change is completed then Amsterdam will lose First Class service from SQ. This flight departs Amsterdam daily at 10.25am, arriving in Singapore at 5.55am the following day. On my flight the aircraft operating the service was 9V-SWA, 9 years old at the time of the flight. I believe it was the first -300ER in the Singapore Airlines fleet. It's still flying in the same interior configuration now as it was when it was delivered. Despite the age of these seats, they are still market leaders in terms of their size! 9V-SWA waiting at the gate at AMS

A little under 3 years ago Cathay Pacific debuted their new 'Regional Business Class' product. It's a recliner seat in fixed shells and now features throughout the Cathay fleet on regional configured Boeing 777's and A330's. Cathay Regional Business Class

I've covered most of my long haul premium travel for the year already (more content coming starting next week though when I travel again). So let's have a look at some of the other flights I've taken this year. I probably fly between 50 and 100 sectors a year, most of them don't ever make it to the blog as they are either repeats of flights I've already looked at or boring short haul domestic economy flights. Anyway, here is a quick look at Qantas flight QF706, the 6.45am service between Adelaide and the nations capital, Canberra. Qantas fly the route just twice a day, a morning and an evening service, focused on business and government travel. I was probably fairly out of place occupying seat 1A and travelling purely for leisure on this Tuesday morning in July. The apron at Adelaide on a winter morning

Over the course of this year Qantas have been progressively refitting the A330 fleet. The new business class seats they have chosen are lie flat pods in a staggered 1-2-1 arrangement, all seats having aisle access. Herringbone and staggered arrangements are the new world standard in business class and both have their advantages. This new seat whilst being an off the rack product, has been modified and 'Qantas styled' by their designer Marc Newson. To see what it looks like in its original form, you can see it at the Thompson website here . Earlier this year I happened to be flying on QF36, the overnight flight from Singapore to Melbourne. I was fortunate enough to try the new product. Close to half the fleet are now reconfigured as at the time of writing (September 2015). Upon boarding I was immediately quite impressed with the 'look and feel' of the cabin...

Today I am finally getting around to writing a report on this regional hop with Sri Lankan Airlines. This was my first time ever flying with Sri Lankan, a recent recruit to oneworld alliance. This means I can earn Qantas points and status credits when flying with them, and makes for seamless connections with Qantas and other oneworld carriers. With a 12.05pm departure I caught a cab to the airport from nearby Negombo Beach where I had been staying at about 9.30am. It's a pretty short ride to the airport and as we approached the terminal area the driver asked which airline we were flying and which class of service. When I mentioned Sri Lankan business he took a turn to a separate, private entrance area. We were greeted at the car by Sri Lankan airlines staff who grabbed our luggage and took it into a private check-in zone. I didn't even know it existed and I was very impressed. The staff were lovely and checked our bags through to Melbourne as well as issuing our onward Sin...

 As a follow up to my earlier post about EY265 , here is how the return sector to Colombo looked. Once again, this flight was being operated by an A320 in the regional Etihad configuration. This aircraft was a little older, it did not feature the wing sharklets that I had on the flight into Abu Dhabi. The cabin however was basically identical, with large comfortable recliners with leather head rests in a fairly neutral colour scheme:

FLIGHT Etihad Airways AIRLINE EY170 ROUTE Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi GATE DEPARTURE 4.55PM (Scheduled) GATE ARRIVAL 8.00PM (Scheduled) / 8.30PM (Actual) FLYING TIME 16 hours 30 min approx AIRCRAFT Boeing 777-200LR A6-LRC Welcome to this report on the worlds 3rd longest flight by distance: flight EY170. Etihad's daily Boeing 777-200LR non stop service between Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi. At 13,502 kilometres in distance only two other flights are longer, being the Qantas flight between Sydney and Dallas, and the Delta flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. On this flight I was flying in the business class cabin on the B777-200LR, an ultra long range variant of the B777 which was acquired by Etihad from Air India with this route in mind.

I have been watching with interest since American Airlines introduced their 'A321T' fleet at the beginning of 2014. These aircraft have now replaced the aging Boeing 767-200 fleet on the flagship domestic routes between New York JFK and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. The aircraft are equipped with 3 classes with 10 First Class, 20 Business Class and 72 Economy Class seats. Both First and Business offer flat beds with business being in a 2x2 configuration. Audio video on demand is available to all passengers. This is a very generous configuration, with most airlines seating double this amount of passengers on the A321. So, on a Sunday in May this year I finally found myself booked on the A321 Transcontinental, here is my report: FLIGHT AA19 AIRLINE American Airlines ROUTE New York JFK to Los Angeles GATE DEPARTURE 11.00AM (Scheduled) / 10.52AM (Actual) GATE ARRIVAL 2.08PM (...

FLIGHT EY131 AIRLINE Etihad Airways ROUTE Abu Dhabi to Washington Dulles GATE DEPARTURE 10.55AM GATE ARRIVAL 5.25 PM FLIGHT TIME 14 hours 30 min AIRCRAFT Boeing 787-9 (A6-BLA) There has been a lot of hype from Etihad about their new Business Studio seat so earlier in the year I decided I had to try it! I was heading to New York but since the business studios only feature on the A380 and B787-9 Dreamliner, I decided to fly via Washington. Washington is the first long haul destination Etihad served with B787 equipment and is the only USA destination not served with Etihad B777's currently.

I've only ever flown Etihad the one time before this trip, and that was in first class from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne last year. On my recent trip to the USA I decided to take advantage of a triple miles offer and fly Etihad business class. The first leg of the Etihad ticket started in Colombo. Flight EY265 is one of two daily A320 flights to Abu Dhabi. Competitor Emirates run a B777-300ER on their flight to Dubai, a significantly larger aircraft with a much bigger seat. However, since the flight is only around 4 hours I was fine to be on one of Etihad's 'regional' birds. Despite hearing rumours that Colombo airport wasn't too great I found it quite hassle free, Etihad has a dedicated counter for those travelling in business:

My recent trip saw me taking advantage of some good business class airfares out of Colombo, Sri Lanka. To get there I flew Melbourne to Bangkok then on to Colombo with Thai Airways. The Bangkok to Colombo sector operates daily as flight TG307, with the Airbus A330-300. Unless there is a last minute equipment swap this 3 hour sector operates with the angled lie flat business class seat, as shown below (from a previous report):

Yes, I have yet another review of Thai Business Class. I'm not sure why I keep bothering really, as nothing has changed much in the past 7 years with Thai and it's business class operations to Melbourne. We did see the B777-300ER for a while, but for now we are back on the -200 and -200ER, with the very occasional substitute. So here is another quick look at TG466, the 2.15pm service from Melbourne to Bangkok. First, the very tired and aging Air New Zealand lounge in the dungeons of the terminal (basement). This lounge is still ok but it really needs a refurb like it's Sydney counterpart is currently undergoing. Air NZ Lounge

After arriving from Brisbane  I headed to the Virgin Australia lounge which is conveniently located airside within the terminal. I stayed in the downstairs section. It was around 6pm so people were having dinner. I ended up with some fairly tasty nachos and a glass of white wine.