Introduction
I will start by apologising for no photos. Totally forgot - and to be fair they won't be anything that anyone hasn't seen before. This trip started back in April 2016 with the first DSC promo. I was able to combine that with a AKL-MEL-HKG-SYD-AKL sale fare for about NZD$1900 return in PE (TT sectors in J). Initially I was going away for a couple of weeks and would meet some friends in Asia somewhere and book separate tickets from HKG - however that didn't pan out, so I changed the fare to just be in HKG for 4 days. But I'd recently spent 5 days in HKG for leisure, so I decided to look for some status runs out of HKG. After a lot of searching I found HKG-KUL-CMB-KUL-HKG on CX/UL in J for NZD$1200 which netted 320SC's. So essentially I had a status run within a status run. To be honest, I then found a CMB-DOH-CAI-DOH-CMB fare on QR which I booked with the aim to do a CAI turnaround and go for Platinum - but QR switched to T2 in CAI a few weeks before the date of the flight and reports on FT said the transfer process was very risky as hadn't been bedded down yet, I also absolutely had to be back in NZ on time due to a work commitment. So I cancelled the fare as it was just too risky.
The timing was great too as my AKL-MEL-HKG flights were on the last day on my year and requalified me for Gold through till April 2018. Everything else was within the first 5 days of the new membership year and those (with the DSC) requalified me until April 2019. Easy. I'd also rather spend a few days in CMB checking out a new place (and of course airlines and lounges along the way).
QF152 AKL-MEL 738
Business Class - 2C
Departure for this flight was at 0715 so I arrived at the airport at 0615. Check-in was empty (and they've opened another Priority check-in line as there was only 1 for a while which was pretty manic with all the morning flights), as was immigration and security. Qantas lounge was the usual - pretty glum - I try to spend as little time as possible in AKL QC these days - water, coffee and a slice of quiche and then I went to wander round the terminal rather than be stuck inside the lounge. Can't wait till they upgrade it.
The flight ended up being delayed for about an hour but finally boarding began. Business was 12/12. Very good Jetconnect crew as usual - attentive and did frequent runs up and down the cabin asking for drink orders throughout the flight. The Business FA sent Y pax down the back when they went to use the Business toilet, and she even cleaned the toilet between pax and left a little triange of rolled up hand towels ready!
Breakfast was the standard fare of hotcakes, fruit plate (as a main) or a poached eggs with beans and chorizo. The egg dish was quite good, with one of the eggs still being runny, and the chorizo was delicious and really spicy which was great. I was being relatively good on this flight so just had one glass of champers pre-departure.
160 SC's (thanks to DSC)
QF29 MEL-HKG 744
Business Class - 5J
I was booked into PE but applied for a points UG to J. Business was empty with lots of seats still for sale a couple of days beforehand and so the upgrade cleared at T-28 - with both 5B and 5J still available. However, by departure the whole cabin was filled up.
Arrived into MEL with not much time to spare so popped downstairs to the dungeon for a long black and I'd just finished when boarding was called. I wanted to check out the CX lounge - just because - but didn't end up having enough time. Boarding was quick and the crew were great - much better than my last SYD-HKG on a 744 in J. I think it was sparkling wine served on the ground for a pre-departure beverage (as opposed top Jetconnect), but I could be wrong. CSM came round and greeted everyone and was one of those rare CSM's that can do it well without being really obvious about the checking the iPad and saying the same thing to everyone.
Lunch was smooth and efficient. I had a mezze platter for a small plate and a chicken katsu roll for a main place. Skipped dessert. Both were good but nothing to write home about, and the menu is pretty meh compared to say CX or NZ. The katsu roll was literally just a roll, nothing else with it. It felt like the menu was more a large selection of entrees (despite the fact it's still advertised as three courses). I did have an excellent shiraz during the meal and then kept up my immune system with the single malt throughout the rest of the flight. Snack before landing was either arancini balls or spicy chicken wings - I had the wings which were actually really good.
Cabin crew really excelled here (compared to previous QF long hauls in J) and were constantly roaming the cabin throughout the flight with snacks, offers of juice or water refills. Entertainment selection was so-so and there definitely needs to be a few more movies and box series TV shows. I actually like the Skybed, I find it great to get the perfect lounging position and I like that the massage function is quite solid as well - though the TV screen definitely needs to be replaced to something more high definition and with a faster input response system.
Overall, a very good flight. Great service, pretty good food and a nice place to relax for 9 hours or so.
120 SC's (thanks to DSC)
Novotel Citygate HKG
My flight landed at around 6pm and the flight to KUL the next day was 0830 so I couldn't be bothered going into town. Unfortunately, there's only a handful of accommodation options close to the airport: Regal Airport Hotel, Skycity Marriott and Novotel Citygate. I choose Novotel as I'd get Accor Gold benefits there, and it was the cheapest by far. I got a standard room on a fully flexible rate for about HKD$1150 through the Europcar discount microsite, and rates at the other two were consistently over HKD$2000 on a non-flex. Really impressed with pre-arrival service as I received an email a few days prior confirming a one-class room upgrade and welcome drink and gift etc, as well as detailed instructions on how to get the transfer bus. Upon arrival went down to the hotel shuttle area and waited about 10min for the shuttle. It only takes 5min to get the hotel, so very close to the airport in general.
On arrival I'd been further upgraded to an Executive room. So dropped my stuff and popped into the exec lounge for a drink and something to eat. Luckily I wasn't hungry as I arrived at the tail end of evening hour and there were cold deep fried onion rings and pickled mackerel with pickled onions left to eat...
The hotel is connected to an outlet mall so if you want to get non-hotel food there are plenty of places there, as well as a massage place. Plenty of shops as well so had a wander and checked out the pool and gym area (I'd bought exercise gear, but couldn't be bothered after a lovely shiraz and whiskey combo enroute to HKG).
The room itself was fine. Nothing to write home about. Spacious. Cool. Blackout curtains. Soundproofed. All the things you like. There was a nespresso machine which was a nice touch. However, there was only one powerpoint in the whole room...and it was right by the door to the room...other than that I literally went for a walk in the mall, slept, showered and was outta there for the morning flight the next day.
Up next:
HKG Lounge Hopping (Cabin, Bridge, Pier)
HKG-KUL CX J
KUL Lounge Hopping (MH J, Plaza Premium)
KUL-CMB UL J
I will start by apologising for no photos. Totally forgot - and to be fair they won't be anything that anyone hasn't seen before. This trip started back in April 2016 with the first DSC promo. I was able to combine that with a AKL-MEL-HKG-SYD-AKL sale fare for about NZD$1900 return in PE (TT sectors in J). Initially I was going away for a couple of weeks and would meet some friends in Asia somewhere and book separate tickets from HKG - however that didn't pan out, so I changed the fare to just be in HKG for 4 days. But I'd recently spent 5 days in HKG for leisure, so I decided to look for some status runs out of HKG. After a lot of searching I found HKG-KUL-CMB-KUL-HKG on CX/UL in J for NZD$1200 which netted 320SC's. So essentially I had a status run within a status run. To be honest, I then found a CMB-DOH-CAI-DOH-CMB fare on QR which I booked with the aim to do a CAI turnaround and go for Platinum - but QR switched to T2 in CAI a few weeks before the date of the flight and reports on FT said the transfer process was very risky as hadn't been bedded down yet, I also absolutely had to be back in NZ on time due to a work commitment. So I cancelled the fare as it was just too risky.
The timing was great too as my AKL-MEL-HKG flights were on the last day on my year and requalified me for Gold through till April 2018. Everything else was within the first 5 days of the new membership year and those (with the DSC) requalified me until April 2019. Easy. I'd also rather spend a few days in CMB checking out a new place (and of course airlines and lounges along the way).
QF152 AKL-MEL 738
Business Class - 2C
Departure for this flight was at 0715 so I arrived at the airport at 0615. Check-in was empty (and they've opened another Priority check-in line as there was only 1 for a while which was pretty manic with all the morning flights), as was immigration and security. Qantas lounge was the usual - pretty glum - I try to spend as little time as possible in AKL QC these days - water, coffee and a slice of quiche and then I went to wander round the terminal rather than be stuck inside the lounge. Can't wait till they upgrade it.
The flight ended up being delayed for about an hour but finally boarding began. Business was 12/12. Very good Jetconnect crew as usual - attentive and did frequent runs up and down the cabin asking for drink orders throughout the flight. The Business FA sent Y pax down the back when they went to use the Business toilet, and she even cleaned the toilet between pax and left a little triange of rolled up hand towels ready!
Breakfast was the standard fare of hotcakes, fruit plate (as a main) or a poached eggs with beans and chorizo. The egg dish was quite good, with one of the eggs still being runny, and the chorizo was delicious and really spicy which was great. I was being relatively good on this flight so just had one glass of champers pre-departure.
160 SC's (thanks to DSC)
QF29 MEL-HKG 744
Business Class - 5J
I was booked into PE but applied for a points UG to J. Business was empty with lots of seats still for sale a couple of days beforehand and so the upgrade cleared at T-28 - with both 5B and 5J still available. However, by departure the whole cabin was filled up.
Arrived into MEL with not much time to spare so popped downstairs to the dungeon for a long black and I'd just finished when boarding was called. I wanted to check out the CX lounge - just because - but didn't end up having enough time. Boarding was quick and the crew were great - much better than my last SYD-HKG on a 744 in J. I think it was sparkling wine served on the ground for a pre-departure beverage (as opposed top Jetconnect), but I could be wrong. CSM came round and greeted everyone and was one of those rare CSM's that can do it well without being really obvious about the checking the iPad and saying the same thing to everyone.
Lunch was smooth and efficient. I had a mezze platter for a small plate and a chicken katsu roll for a main place. Skipped dessert. Both were good but nothing to write home about, and the menu is pretty meh compared to say CX or NZ. The katsu roll was literally just a roll, nothing else with it. It felt like the menu was more a large selection of entrees (despite the fact it's still advertised as three courses). I did have an excellent shiraz during the meal and then kept up my immune system with the single malt throughout the rest of the flight. Snack before landing was either arancini balls or spicy chicken wings - I had the wings which were actually really good.
Cabin crew really excelled here (compared to previous QF long hauls in J) and were constantly roaming the cabin throughout the flight with snacks, offers of juice or water refills. Entertainment selection was so-so and there definitely needs to be a few more movies and box series TV shows. I actually like the Skybed, I find it great to get the perfect lounging position and I like that the massage function is quite solid as well - though the TV screen definitely needs to be replaced to something more high definition and with a faster input response system.
Overall, a very good flight. Great service, pretty good food and a nice place to relax for 9 hours or so.
120 SC's (thanks to DSC)
Novotel Citygate HKG
My flight landed at around 6pm and the flight to KUL the next day was 0830 so I couldn't be bothered going into town. Unfortunately, there's only a handful of accommodation options close to the airport: Regal Airport Hotel, Skycity Marriott and Novotel Citygate. I choose Novotel as I'd get Accor Gold benefits there, and it was the cheapest by far. I got a standard room on a fully flexible rate for about HKD$1150 through the Europcar discount microsite, and rates at the other two were consistently over HKD$2000 on a non-flex. Really impressed with pre-arrival service as I received an email a few days prior confirming a one-class room upgrade and welcome drink and gift etc, as well as detailed instructions on how to get the transfer bus. Upon arrival went down to the hotel shuttle area and waited about 10min for the shuttle. It only takes 5min to get the hotel, so very close to the airport in general.
On arrival I'd been further upgraded to an Executive room. So dropped my stuff and popped into the exec lounge for a drink and something to eat. Luckily I wasn't hungry as I arrived at the tail end of evening hour and there were cold deep fried onion rings and pickled mackerel with pickled onions left to eat...
The hotel is connected to an outlet mall so if you want to get non-hotel food there are plenty of places there, as well as a massage place. Plenty of shops as well so had a wander and checked out the pool and gym area (I'd bought exercise gear, but couldn't be bothered after a lovely shiraz and whiskey combo enroute to HKG).
The room itself was fine. Nothing to write home about. Spacious. Cool. Blackout curtains. Soundproofed. All the things you like. There was a nespresso machine which was a nice touch. However, there was only one powerpoint in the whole room...and it was right by the door to the room...other than that I literally went for a walk in the mall, slept, showered and was outta there for the morning flight the next day.
Up next:
HKG Lounge Hopping (Cabin, Bridge, Pier)
HKG-KUL CX J
KUL Lounge Hopping (MH J, Plaza Premium)
KUL-CMB UL J