Antoallison
Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2015
- Posts
- 423
If I am going to undertake the long flight from Oz to Europe I like the length of stay to be about 6 weeks. Since I retired I am able to be away for much longer but a 3 month vacation seemed particularly arduous.
I booked the flights online on New Year's Eve (blame the champagne consumed) and booked flights for 13th May. Four months to research and book rail travel and accomodation in Italy and Scotland and England.
My trip report will be light on the flight experience as travel was in economy and there was no lounge experience - sigh !
Flew with Qatar - my first experience after previously using Emirates and Qantas to Europe. I was pleased with the Qatar experience with pleasant FA, reasonable quality food and good entertainment system.
Take off at 22.50pm for the longest leg 11 hours 40 minutes when I have a movie watching marathon and snooze a little on
QR901 PER to DOH on Airbus A380,
then a very speedy transit of just 2 hours and 20 minutes in the enormous and flashy airport at Doha.
Next flight QR127 DOH to MXP on Boeing 777 - selected because arrival time was 13.10pm, which means that your hotel room is ready for check in straight away.
I selected the aisle and middle seats aisle at booking but of course the seats right upfront were blocked out for passengers with status etc. I always get to the airport early ( not because I can use a lounge but because I worry about missing the flight). That has the advantage that if you ask the not yet harried staff at check-in, you can often get a seat much closer to the Business class end or even an exit row seat without any charge.
One cheeky Economy tip I have used in the past to try to get my meal early is to order Low Fat, Kosher or Vegetarian beforehand, that way I know they will not run out of a meal and I don't have to endure the aroma of everyone else's hot meal while I wait for what seems an eternity.
I booked the flights online on New Year's Eve (blame the champagne consumed) and booked flights for 13th May. Four months to research and book rail travel and accomodation in Italy and Scotland and England.
My trip report will be light on the flight experience as travel was in economy and there was no lounge experience - sigh !
Flew with Qatar - my first experience after previously using Emirates and Qantas to Europe. I was pleased with the Qatar experience with pleasant FA, reasonable quality food and good entertainment system.
Take off at 22.50pm for the longest leg 11 hours 40 minutes when I have a movie watching marathon and snooze a little on
QR901 PER to DOH on Airbus A380,
then a very speedy transit of just 2 hours and 20 minutes in the enormous and flashy airport at Doha.
Next flight QR127 DOH to MXP on Boeing 777 - selected because arrival time was 13.10pm, which means that your hotel room is ready for check in straight away.
I selected the aisle and middle seats aisle at booking but of course the seats right upfront were blocked out for passengers with status etc. I always get to the airport early ( not because I can use a lounge but because I worry about missing the flight). That has the advantage that if you ask the not yet harried staff at check-in, you can often get a seat much closer to the Business class end or even an exit row seat without any charge.
One cheeky Economy tip I have used in the past to try to get my meal early is to order Low Fat, Kosher or Vegetarian beforehand, that way I know they will not run out of a meal and I don't have to endure the aroma of everyone else's hot meal while I wait for what seems an eternity.