So, I had a bit of time on holidays to post my outward trip to Austria on Qantas and Finnair.
It all started last year when we went to Italy on a Cathay/Qatar double (SYD-HKG-DOH-CDG return) that ended up in business class with my wife and three daughters (15, 15 and 10 at the time). Obviously ruined my daughters for air travel for ever more by showing them the joys of a Q suite holiday - thats a story in itself as to how we got 5 business seats, but suffice to say it ended up a similar price to economy from Sydney. After that, I returned to work in Sydney where there happened to be an Austrian working who sold me on the promise of a better time in Lech, Austria.
So, out with the spreadsheets and costed up a return Europe trip vs North America vs Japan. To my surprise, Europe was about $5K cheaper for 5 of us than Japan, which was about $2K cheaper than North America. Flights, accommadation, ski hire and ski passes for a family of 5 made the difference. So went about planning the trip.
With flights, used the well known hack of flying through south east Asia. Managed to snag 5 economy points flights on Qantas Syd-HK return ($1194 in taxes). Wasn't in the mood to spoil the family again with business and wanted to show then the real world (in other words, economy flights on a luxury ski trip to Europe - obviously that will teach them grit). So google flights was my friend.
Amazingly found 5 economy tickets on Finnair through Helsinki for $3980AUD for all 5 of us. Absolutely amazing value that I couldn't go past, especially as Finnair generously allows me to select front row and Economy Comfort seats for no extra charge given my OW status. So, we booked SYD-HK-HEL-ZUR. With some trepidation for myself, who has become more accustomed to turning left on long haul flights.
So, last week, it's off to Sydney Airport we go for our Qantas day flight Sydney to Hong Kong. Up to the business check in (Qantas Gold) and despite the crowds at Sydney airport, there are none at the check in. I ask nicely for the bags to be checked through and am informed that they normally only check in Qantas to Qantas on separate tickets. When I let them know that the information on the website suggests that they will interline bags from a points flight to a OW carrier on separate tickets, she goes off to add the Finnair booking to the Qantas booking and boom - we no longer have to go through customs and re check in in HK. Qudos to the check in desk staff.
Then through to the 'temporary business lounge' at Syd International. Have my wife and 3 children in tow (now 16,16 and 11) and am worried given the capacity of the temp lounge we will be turned away. So it's up to the desk and I approach being as nice as I can (which is 3-4/10 given my personality according to the wife) and we are waived on through. This trip is looking good...
The temporary lounge has got a bad wrap in this forum. It's not that bad. Better than a lot of lounges I've been in. It's light, was plenty of seats when we arrived (although it did then get very busy) and the food and drinks on offer were actually not too bad. I'm obviously also getting edgy as I want everything to leave on time given the 5 hour changeover in HK for 2 different tickets. But all works well. We board in group 2 (so there is plenty of bag space in the cabin) and then sit there while the rush of humanity then joins the flight and tries to shove 4-5 cubic tonnes of hand luggage into the overhead bins.
We leave on time and I tune in to watch Mobland. I highly recommend that. I have 2 episodes left on the way back. Pierce Brosnan is very good in it. I'm 6ft 3, so I was very very worried about the seat, which felt tight before we left but I have to say, the flight was great. I've been off Qantas lately, and so I was ready to bag this flight. Maybe I got lucky, maybe it is improving, but the meals were good, Mobland was good and the flight crew were also friendly. The seat was also fine. I was a little annoyed that an 11am flight during the day, everyone chose to close their window shades immediately on reaching cruising height while my Garmin watch is desperately telling me to get as much light as possible to avoid Jetlag and my daughters are telling me that I am like so weird for having my window shade slightly open when everyone else has closed theirs. Anyway, apart form that it all went smoothly.
Then arrived in Hong Kong and I had already workshopped this - signed up for the citibank (now MyCard) credit card with 15 priority pass entries and a bonus 100,000 points sign on. Checked the gate, and went to the nearest PP lounge - something called the Kyra lounge. It was okay. Nothing to write home about and given my time again, would try a different one. Anyway, I go with one of the twins to the Cathay bridge lounge after checking the rest of the crew into Kyra. Cathay know how to do lounges. Geez they are good in HK (with the exception of the Wing, that one is just okay). Some noodles, soup and beef brisket, a few beers and it's time to head to the Finnair gate.
Now, I'm a little worried about Finnair. I've read they are a low cost carrier dressed up as a full service carrier. But my wife and twins have flown on them (QF/Finnair wet lease) to Singapore to see Taylor Swift last year (another long story, but like I said, I'm teaching them grit and they missed seeing her in Sydney, so obviously they had to go) and they all said the Finnair plane is rather nice.
On we go. The plane is as they said - rather nice. 3-4-3, so we have 3 front row seats and 2 behind. It looks like we will score the holy grail of a spare seat in the row behind until the last person boards and takes that seat. I swear, I heard cabin crew "close doors and cross check", pumped the air and then a straggler slowly makes there way to the seat . Ouch. But whatever, I'm in the front row and my aisle seat actually has unlimited leg room, because it is not limited by the wall between economy/PE due to only 2 seats in front and the 'bend' in the aisle.
We leave HK at 9pm and I am stuffed from the lounge. And it's about midnight in Sydney so I just want to sleep. I avoid the first meal and try to sleep. According to Garmin, my sleep is 6hr 37min of poor quality and interrupted and I awake with about 5 hours to go. I watch "No country for old men" on my laptop. Good film, I'm not a fan of the ending, but worth a watch. The meal than comes around offers a choice of noodles and beef, or chicken and rice. A couple across the aisle have ordered a special meal which looks much much better. Some form of vegetarian curry I think. Might need to look into that for the way back.
The neat thing on Finnair is ordering from your seat entertainment system. After waking, I order a hot chocolate, it arrives quickly, and proceeds to burn 3-4 layers of the roof of my mouth. Then we await breakfast. No choice, just an omelette, with beans, broccoli and potatoes in a rather sad looking food grade cardboard box. The coffee that accompanies it could best be described as dirty water. The breakfast is okay. Edible. I start to reminisce in my mind about the caviar on Qatar Airlines., but we are almost in Helsinki. Which, given I have never been to Finland before and the agreement with my wife that an airport visit counts as being in that country, I am getting excited that I can tick off another country visit.
We arrive in Helsinki and have to pass through EU customs, which now includes a photo and fingerprints. I am told this makes it easier next time now I am registered but it's the pits. The line isn't that long, but it takes a long time to register the family of 5. That is tired, a bit sore from the economy seat and still have a flight and car transfer to go. Then through to Helsinki Airport. Which is very 'finnish' efficient, clean and modern. Despite the fact the the departures board shows about 30 flights in the next 3 hours, it is strangely very quiet, with many shops and cafes still not open at 7am. We still have an hour until our Zurich flight, so I head into the Finnair lounge with the youngest and the twins and wife head to a place called 'Espresso House', where they have what they tell me is the best breakfast they have ever had.
The Finnair lounge is very similar to a recently renovated Qantas domestic lounge in Australia. Small selection of food (the dreaded toasted sandwiches of QF domestic), but the Swiss bread makes it above par. Then these egg tart things, which I decide to eat 4 of. The coffee is from a machine, which is better than on the flight, but very milky. Stuffed to the gills (again), we head to the gate to board our flight to Zurich.
The Finnair flight to Zurich is a on narrow body 3-3 intra-Europe aircraft. Very similar to a Virgin/Qantas setup and seat, but no adjustable headrests and no entertainment or charging points. The only inclusion is a water or their signature 'blueberry juice' (which tastes a little like undiluted Ribena). Everything else, including coffee/tea is charged.. We arrive in Zurich all on time and deboard for what feels like a 3-4km walk to the baggage collection. At this point, we have been travelling for about 30hr and I give about a 30% chance of our bags arriving, so I am pleasantly surprised when they all arrive onto the baggage belt. I get a text from the transfer driver that he is ready and waiting and it's through the arrivals hall to the driver holding an iPad with my name on it. My surname is not capitalised, which irks me a little but I don''t say anything because I understand that's a 'me' thing,.
Then into a van for the 2hr transfer across the border to Lech. Other than the fact that Malek seems to be driving at 140kph and looking at his phone for the entire drive, we arrive at our destination unharmed. I get out and kiss the ground and we check in. Big recommendation for the Sandhof apartments in Lech. They are really special. Wife and daughters are very happy with the accommadations, so we settle in, go to get the ski passes, get fitted for ski hire and have some dinner and collapse into bed at 630pm. We slept through until about 7am, and as I write this, we have completed a full day of skiing and ready for another sleep (it's about 7pm in Austria). I have realised 3 things;
1. I can do long haul in Economy (but just because I can doesn't mean I should - in fact I've jsut enquired to upgrade my wife and I on the way back)
2. I am not going to convert Euro to AUD in my head for the rest of the trip, or we will be on bread and water. That is going to be a "February problem"
3. I'm not a very good skier. Everyone, and I mean everyone on the mountain seemed to be extremely competant. We were not. Where are all the beginners? They are not in Lech.
Anyway, this is like journaling. Rather cathartic, Might post the return trip.
It all started last year when we went to Italy on a Cathay/Qatar double (SYD-HKG-DOH-CDG return) that ended up in business class with my wife and three daughters (15, 15 and 10 at the time). Obviously ruined my daughters for air travel for ever more by showing them the joys of a Q suite holiday - thats a story in itself as to how we got 5 business seats, but suffice to say it ended up a similar price to economy from Sydney. After that, I returned to work in Sydney where there happened to be an Austrian working who sold me on the promise of a better time in Lech, Austria.
So, out with the spreadsheets and costed up a return Europe trip vs North America vs Japan. To my surprise, Europe was about $5K cheaper for 5 of us than Japan, which was about $2K cheaper than North America. Flights, accommadation, ski hire and ski passes for a family of 5 made the difference. So went about planning the trip.
With flights, used the well known hack of flying through south east Asia. Managed to snag 5 economy points flights on Qantas Syd-HK return ($1194 in taxes). Wasn't in the mood to spoil the family again with business and wanted to show then the real world (in other words, economy flights on a luxury ski trip to Europe - obviously that will teach them grit). So google flights was my friend.
Amazingly found 5 economy tickets on Finnair through Helsinki for $3980AUD for all 5 of us. Absolutely amazing value that I couldn't go past, especially as Finnair generously allows me to select front row and Economy Comfort seats for no extra charge given my OW status. So, we booked SYD-HK-HEL-ZUR. With some trepidation for myself, who has become more accustomed to turning left on long haul flights.
So, last week, it's off to Sydney Airport we go for our Qantas day flight Sydney to Hong Kong. Up to the business check in (Qantas Gold) and despite the crowds at Sydney airport, there are none at the check in. I ask nicely for the bags to be checked through and am informed that they normally only check in Qantas to Qantas on separate tickets. When I let them know that the information on the website suggests that they will interline bags from a points flight to a OW carrier on separate tickets, she goes off to add the Finnair booking to the Qantas booking and boom - we no longer have to go through customs and re check in in HK. Qudos to the check in desk staff.
Then through to the 'temporary business lounge' at Syd International. Have my wife and 3 children in tow (now 16,16 and 11) and am worried given the capacity of the temp lounge we will be turned away. So it's up to the desk and I approach being as nice as I can (which is 3-4/10 given my personality according to the wife) and we are waived on through. This trip is looking good...
The temporary lounge has got a bad wrap in this forum. It's not that bad. Better than a lot of lounges I've been in. It's light, was plenty of seats when we arrived (although it did then get very busy) and the food and drinks on offer were actually not too bad. I'm obviously also getting edgy as I want everything to leave on time given the 5 hour changeover in HK for 2 different tickets. But all works well. We board in group 2 (so there is plenty of bag space in the cabin) and then sit there while the rush of humanity then joins the flight and tries to shove 4-5 cubic tonnes of hand luggage into the overhead bins.
We leave on time and I tune in to watch Mobland. I highly recommend that. I have 2 episodes left on the way back. Pierce Brosnan is very good in it. I'm 6ft 3, so I was very very worried about the seat, which felt tight before we left but I have to say, the flight was great. I've been off Qantas lately, and so I was ready to bag this flight. Maybe I got lucky, maybe it is improving, but the meals were good, Mobland was good and the flight crew were also friendly. The seat was also fine. I was a little annoyed that an 11am flight during the day, everyone chose to close their window shades immediately on reaching cruising height while my Garmin watch is desperately telling me to get as much light as possible to avoid Jetlag and my daughters are telling me that I am like so weird for having my window shade slightly open when everyone else has closed theirs. Anyway, apart form that it all went smoothly.
Then arrived in Hong Kong and I had already workshopped this - signed up for the citibank (now MyCard) credit card with 15 priority pass entries and a bonus 100,000 points sign on. Checked the gate, and went to the nearest PP lounge - something called the Kyra lounge. It was okay. Nothing to write home about and given my time again, would try a different one. Anyway, I go with one of the twins to the Cathay bridge lounge after checking the rest of the crew into Kyra. Cathay know how to do lounges. Geez they are good in HK (with the exception of the Wing, that one is just okay). Some noodles, soup and beef brisket, a few beers and it's time to head to the Finnair gate.
Now, I'm a little worried about Finnair. I've read they are a low cost carrier dressed up as a full service carrier. But my wife and twins have flown on them (QF/Finnair wet lease) to Singapore to see Taylor Swift last year (another long story, but like I said, I'm teaching them grit and they missed seeing her in Sydney, so obviously they had to go) and they all said the Finnair plane is rather nice.
On we go. The plane is as they said - rather nice. 3-4-3, so we have 3 front row seats and 2 behind. It looks like we will score the holy grail of a spare seat in the row behind until the last person boards and takes that seat. I swear, I heard cabin crew "close doors and cross check", pumped the air and then a straggler slowly makes there way to the seat . Ouch. But whatever, I'm in the front row and my aisle seat actually has unlimited leg room, because it is not limited by the wall between economy/PE due to only 2 seats in front and the 'bend' in the aisle.
We leave HK at 9pm and I am stuffed from the lounge. And it's about midnight in Sydney so I just want to sleep. I avoid the first meal and try to sleep. According to Garmin, my sleep is 6hr 37min of poor quality and interrupted and I awake with about 5 hours to go. I watch "No country for old men" on my laptop. Good film, I'm not a fan of the ending, but worth a watch. The meal than comes around offers a choice of noodles and beef, or chicken and rice. A couple across the aisle have ordered a special meal which looks much much better. Some form of vegetarian curry I think. Might need to look into that for the way back.
The neat thing on Finnair is ordering from your seat entertainment system. After waking, I order a hot chocolate, it arrives quickly, and proceeds to burn 3-4 layers of the roof of my mouth. Then we await breakfast. No choice, just an omelette, with beans, broccoli and potatoes in a rather sad looking food grade cardboard box. The coffee that accompanies it could best be described as dirty water. The breakfast is okay. Edible. I start to reminisce in my mind about the caviar on Qatar Airlines., but we are almost in Helsinki. Which, given I have never been to Finland before and the agreement with my wife that an airport visit counts as being in that country, I am getting excited that I can tick off another country visit.
We arrive in Helsinki and have to pass through EU customs, which now includes a photo and fingerprints. I am told this makes it easier next time now I am registered but it's the pits. The line isn't that long, but it takes a long time to register the family of 5. That is tired, a bit sore from the economy seat and still have a flight and car transfer to go. Then through to Helsinki Airport. Which is very 'finnish' efficient, clean and modern. Despite the fact the the departures board shows about 30 flights in the next 3 hours, it is strangely very quiet, with many shops and cafes still not open at 7am. We still have an hour until our Zurich flight, so I head into the Finnair lounge with the youngest and the twins and wife head to a place called 'Espresso House', where they have what they tell me is the best breakfast they have ever had.
The Finnair lounge is very similar to a recently renovated Qantas domestic lounge in Australia. Small selection of food (the dreaded toasted sandwiches of QF domestic), but the Swiss bread makes it above par. Then these egg tart things, which I decide to eat 4 of. The coffee is from a machine, which is better than on the flight, but very milky. Stuffed to the gills (again), we head to the gate to board our flight to Zurich.
The Finnair flight to Zurich is a on narrow body 3-3 intra-Europe aircraft. Very similar to a Virgin/Qantas setup and seat, but no adjustable headrests and no entertainment or charging points. The only inclusion is a water or their signature 'blueberry juice' (which tastes a little like undiluted Ribena). Everything else, including coffee/tea is charged.. We arrive in Zurich all on time and deboard for what feels like a 3-4km walk to the baggage collection. At this point, we have been travelling for about 30hr and I give about a 30% chance of our bags arriving, so I am pleasantly surprised when they all arrive onto the baggage belt. I get a text from the transfer driver that he is ready and waiting and it's through the arrivals hall to the driver holding an iPad with my name on it. My surname is not capitalised, which irks me a little but I don''t say anything because I understand that's a 'me' thing,.
Then into a van for the 2hr transfer across the border to Lech. Other than the fact that Malek seems to be driving at 140kph and looking at his phone for the entire drive, we arrive at our destination unharmed. I get out and kiss the ground and we check in. Big recommendation for the Sandhof apartments in Lech. They are really special. Wife and daughters are very happy with the accommadations, so we settle in, go to get the ski passes, get fitted for ski hire and have some dinner and collapse into bed at 630pm. We slept through until about 7am, and as I write this, we have completed a full day of skiing and ready for another sleep (it's about 7pm in Austria). I have realised 3 things;
1. I can do long haul in Economy (but just because I can doesn't mean I should - in fact I've jsut enquired to upgrade my wife and I on the way back)
2. I am not going to convert Euro to AUD in my head for the rest of the trip, or we will be on bread and water. That is going to be a "February problem"
3. I'm not a very good skier. Everyone, and I mean everyone on the mountain seemed to be extremely competant. We were not. Where are all the beginners? They are not in Lech.
Anyway, this is like journaling. Rather cathartic, Might post the return trip.
