31 days 80ish hours in the air

[mydogsteelo]

Hello There or Jumbo! as I'm writing this from the dhow lounge in Zanzibar International airport.

I had intended on doing a full trip report and keeping it up to date as I went along .. but fun got in the way so now I'm 3/4 done and just starting. The trip is a 280k one world explorer and my wife and I cant thank this community enough for helping us achieve this!



So we started in Brisbane on the 23rd of December and took the Cathay Pacific flight via cairns where we got to stop and use the lounge there, its not to bad actually, the bad thing is the flight from bne to cns is dry :/ but I can cope for a couple of hours I spose



continuing on we were greated with the good news that Argentinian wine was the going to be on the menu for today and It was absolutely delicious. My wife and I are vegetarian so the food is never "great" but it was definitely tasty enough to eat, actually the deserts were great!


We had around 4 hours to burn in hong kong so embarked on the hong kong crawl starting at the Qantas lounge. The showers there are GREAT! and the staff are so friendly. I spent ages talking and laughing with a few of the bar staff, he was trying to convince me to try the bbq they do there and I have to admit it smelt good ...... i counted him with by explaining that the potato salad was far superior . We spent the rest of our time in hong kong crawling from lounge to lounge on the way to our gate, its a fun airport to be stuck in for a while.

 

[mydogsteelo]

A few pics around the Hong Kong Lounge crawl. I know most of you are very familiar with it but i love it there

 

[kelvedon]

love the pictures, keep it coming please.

 

[TomVexille]

Sounds like a great trip

Looking forward to following along. Also, some of us have yet to get to HKG so I don't mind more pics

 

[mydogsteelo]

fter this we few to Paris CDG for a few days to decompress from the direct journey before heading on to something new. We had visited Paris a few times already so it was nice to just be there for relaxing and enjoying the city. It was xmas day when we woke up the following day so it was great to take a walk along the river and hang at the markets drinking mulled wine.View attachment 62773View attachment 62774View attachment 62775View attachment 62776View attachment 62777

 

[mydogsteelo]

We were leaving not from CDG but ORLY which was infamous for its one world lounge that is not airside (wtf?) good news is this has been rectified! and now there is a really nice Open Skys lounge just near the gates . We were booked on the last flight from ORLY to LHR with a connection to Moscow (i think its DMV?) but as our flight was the last of the day so when we got to the airport the guy tells me that because you plane has been flying all over Europe all day it does not make this connection 40-60% of the time .. so if you could just take you and your case and sit over there for the next few hours while we confirm its going to work that would be great :/ .... "oh wait!" ... "sorry sir i didn't notice you are on a club Europe seat" "here let me take your case and you go though to the lounge .. we will come get you and take you to cdg if there is a problem" -I'm happy

so the new lounge is good ... nice view at ground level of the planes

 

[mydogsteelo]

So we flew on a 50min frantic flight to Heathrow in a club Europe seat ... we did get 1st row so that was cool but its not great because its just like a economy seat with the middle blocked out .... the food however is another story. As a vegetarian i have accepted the fact that i am prone to pretty dam bland food usually but British Airways changed that! .. the food was Amazing! they also made sure we had "enough" champagne to survive the 50min flight

 

[mydogsteelo]

We didn't have long in Heathrow but i remember having some nice soup lol, The nice surprize was that the plane from Heathrow to Moscow was Club World so we had flat beds that are really great! Actually i cant fault anything about British Airways and again i must praise the Vegetarian food It was a truffle pene and the flavour was perfect. (was sure i photographed it ... turns out i did not )

 

[love_the_life]

This sounds an amazing trip - coming along for the ride

 

[TomVexille]

That looks like it might have been enough bubbles to get through

 

[coolkid101]

great stuff - keep it coming!

 

[PLANT]

Europe seat? Is this a points redemption in first class for 286k in points per person?

 

[mydogsteelo]

Moscow Is a great city, we stayed at the Lotte and got club access which I would highly recommend, they do a great breakfast up there and the evening coughtails and food are top quality.


The bartender told me after I ordered a beer that "beer without vodka is just throwing your money away" so after that all beers had a shot of vodka in them. We saw all the big cathedrals but it was freezing so its really pretty hard to stay outside for to long.

 

[mydogsteelo]

a good day in in Moscow is actually just crusing around the city and checking out all the train stations ... they are like art galleries in them selves.

 

[mydogsteelo]

hi plant, we did a 280k Qantas point = redemption one world explorer Business class ticket along with 1 paid air kenya ticket and a lifemiles business redemption for the full journey

 

[mydogsteelo]

So after 4 great days in the Lotte he headed off to London but first we got to visit the lounge in Domodedovo that BA uses, its basic and kinda funny in some ways but its nice enough and you get a nice view of the runway

 

[mydogsteelo]

Another great BA Club world flight on our way to Heathrow. One thing i had never seen was how just before they push out onto the runway a big truck comes out and blasts the wings with some sort of liquid that stops snow from forming on the wings, really normal I'm sure but the first time i'd seen it.


the food again was amazing and i enjoyed a massage on my way over

 

[get me outta here]

Thanks for your great personalised TR. I agree that the underground stations are each a different art gallery in Moscow. Very interesting to see what you get as a vego too. Keep it coming please.

 

[kelvedon]

Nice photos, what camera are you using?

 

[mydogsteelo]

There is three, I have a Sony Xperia 3 and a Canon 6D, my wife has a Samsung Galaxy 6edge so ive just been grabing from all of them.