Aussie Flyer

In January I had the chance to fly on Emirates on one of my sectors en route from the UK back to Australia. The flight I took was from Dubai to Bangkok, operated by the Airbus A380. The flight number is EK384 and the departure time was scheduled for the ungodly hour of 3.05am! Arrival into Bangkok is at a more respectable 12.25pm. At just after midnight I woke up in my Deira hotel, took a shower and grabbed a cab for the short trip to the airport. This flight leaves from the newest terminal, T3. It took me a while to work out where to find the First Class check-in counters, I was able to use them as part of my Qantas Platinum status since the two airlines are now partners. In fact I was booked on the Qantas codeshare  flight number QF8384.  Outside the terminal at Dubai - clearly the home of Emirates

This evening Qantas has announced a number of changes to it's frequent flyer program. Essentially they have now destroyed the program. Without going into too much details for most customers it means earning less frequent flyer points and less status credits (especially if flying with Qantas partners). The changes also see the removal of anyseat awards booked in class award booking classes (i.e status credit and points earning award flights). This change comes into effect July 1. I am extremely disappointed at these changes and as a result I am now looking to other programs to put my miles, e.g. AAdvantage and Virgin Velocity. I think Qantas has made a big mistake here, they are already struggling and in one announcement they will send thousands of loyal customers flocking to other airlines. NOT HAPPY QANTAS. For the changes go here: http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/program/fairer-flying

Over the recent summer and school holiday period Qantas scheduled a Boeing 747-400 on it's Bangkok flight instead of the usual Airbus A330-300. I happened to be travelling the route during this time and although I was booked in economy I decided to do a points upgrade to try out the business class service on the jumbo! I received an sms to my phone confirming the upgrade. the day before and was able to select my preferred seat right away on Qantas.com.

Here is a quick report on QF790, the daily service between Sydney and Alice Springs. This is a Boeing 737-800 sector and on the  flight I took in January I was lucky to score one of Qantas' newer models with Boeing Sky Interior. It was VH-XZF, just 8 months old at the time of this flight. Here is the business cabin featuring leather seats and audio video on demand in all seats:

Flying around Europe in business class is not exactly luxurious. The airline industry standard business class is actually just economy seats at the front of the plane with a middle seat blocked. There may be slightly more legroom and enhanced service but this really should be called 'Premium Economy' at best. Here is a look at what BA are offering at the moment on short haul European business class, which they call 'Club Europe'. This journey begins at Heathrow Terminal 3. My destination on this early January evening is Prague, one of only a handful of destinations that British Airways still serve from this terminal. The vast majority of BA services are operated out of Terminal 5. British Airways still operate a business and first class lounge here though which is used by other carriers like Qantas as well. There is also a First Class check-in zone which was deserted when I arrived. My check-in was handled very quickly and my luggage tagged for Prague with priority...

Here's something a little bit different for the blog. A train report. I did a cruise report last month so why not a train!? This was one I had been wanting to do for quite some time, Virgin Trains in First Class. The route I was travelling was London to Manchester which operates every 20 minutes and takes just over 2 hours leaving from London Euston station.   Arriving at Euston

This is the continuation of my trip from Melbourne to London on Qantas' flagship Airbus A380, flight QF9. For part 1 go HERE . After landing in Dubai on schedule with 13.5 hours of flight behind me it was time to head to the Emirates First Class Lounge in terminal 3. This is the lounge which features direct boarding  to the aircraft, but more on that later. As I was among the first off the flight there was nobody waiting at transit security so I was through and up to the lounge in no time.  First up it's time for a shower since Qantas don't have them onboard like Emirates do!