June to August 2019
PER xHKG YVR (stop) CX (both A350)
YVR - JFK (stop) CX (777)
**ground segment to Chicago**
ORD xLHR BRU (stop) BA (A380 + A320)
**ground segment to Rome**
FCO xLHR BER (stop) BA (A320)
**ground segment to Frankfurt**
FRA - NRT (stop) JL (787)
NRT xHKG PER CX (A330 + A350)
As a bit of an AVgeek, I'm looking forward to trying our the CX A350, BA A380 and JL 787
Was going to go FCO to HKG (stop) then to NRT - but just couldn't get Qatar or Cathay on the days required, so adjusted trip to make Berlin a stopover and fly out JL from Frankfurt to NRT direct on a Dreamliner (seemed to have a fair bit of availability)
Bit of a conclusion to this - enjoyed a nice 9 week trip away. Busy, but worth it!
The CX A350's were fairly bumpy through a fair bit of turbulence (I was surprised how bumpy they were). The BA A380 was a surprise, the service was good, the seat pretty good and the service excellent.
The BA A320 'Club Europe' weren't as bad as I feared, yes it was an economy seat, but the middle spare seat, gave you ample elbow room and for a 1-2 hour flight was fine, again the service was very good. They did delay our bags getting to Brussels though (came on the following flight)
The JL 787-9 was incredible - probably the best service and comfort of all the planes (including the only plane to supply a mattress topper). And the smoothness of the ride (on the 787) was much better than the A350 (which is sad, because I am a big fan of the A350, but the actual flying on them, was very rough and bumpy - maybe just bad luck with weather in and out of HKG)
Got stuck on a 777-300 out of Narita (last minute change, prob due to the cancellations of the past week or two), so didn't get the reverse herringbone seats, only a recliner style seat. Again both CX flights were very bumpy (in some places). The 777-300 was the bumpiest.
Airports:
PER - has really lifted its game in recent years - qantas lounge is small, but pretty good
HKG - amazing as usual, The Pier is a very good business class lounge. Heaps of showers.
YVR - only landed and departed, a plain airport, nothing to get too excited about - the Cathay lounge on departure was good - the train to Vancouver city is right outside the doors.
JFK - as always, old and s*#t, but got through it easy enough, early morning landing.
ORD - never again - BA lounge was small, took 50 mins from leaving the aerobridge to taking off - airport is just too big!
LHR - whoa, got lost the first time through here, ended up outside immigration, the connections was hard to work out. Second pass was better landed and departed from 5A, the lounge was good, without being great.
BRU - OK airport, small, but got the job done.
FCO - Good airport - BA lounge was quite good.
FRA - Not too bad an airport, quite large and spread out - the JL lounge was good, even had 2 x showers.
NRT - Huge reno work ongoing atm, flew in, everything was quick, no delays. Flying out, nothing opened until 7.30am, really thought it was a 24hr airport, it is not, security didn't open until 7.15am, lounge didn't open til 7.30am, felt like it was just opening for our flight at 9am. Cathay lounge at NRT was good.
Overall great way to use 280,000 qantas points - however, made me realise that as good as business class is, I would only pay up to 2x the economy cash price for it - it simply isn't worth 3-4x an economy ticket. Points are the only way I would fly business class! Unless it was a cash special.