A trip of Firsts, and a little bit of Business on the side

[djfuzz]

I know this is a tease, but as I mentioned above, I’ve had a few things come up that have kept me from spending much time on this TR, so I figured I’d post what I’ve got so far and continue with the meal service soon afterwards. So here’s the start of the flight…

Lesson 9 (This one’s for QF): Find a better way to get F passengers on board.

After the long walk to gate 18, I saw that our bus for the trip could be Charles Kingsford Smith, which was nice as I’ve been on Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness as few times, but never this one. I stopped to take a few photos, then headed to the premium boarding lanes, which were working fine. However, when my boarding pass was scanned I got the red double beep – given I was already travelling up the front, this was possibly the only time I’d not want to hear it. The gate agent consulted the machine briefly but let me through, and directed me towards the lower deck bridge. Now I know the F cabin is on the lower deck, but I have to say that being forced to wait for 10 minutes on an airbridge with bags in hand and behind a horde of Y pax was not the greatest start. Turns out they were boarding wheelchair passengers, which is completely fine. I don’t mean to be entitled about it, but surely it would be nicer to direct F pax through the upper deck due simply to the lower volume of passengers boarding that way.

Lesson 10: It’s always nicer to be looked after by someone you know.

Finally got to the door and was greeted by the CSM, who also made a comment about the fact that I’d already been checked in and had my seat selected earlier. Now I know OLCI has been around a long time, and I hadn’t even done that – so I was starting to get a little confused about what was going on with all of that. It didn’t come up again, but I must admit it was a little strange. Anyway, after the very warm welcome, I was directed to my seat and it turned out that the FA looking after my aisle was someone who I had a personal connection with – so from here on, I’ll probably not focus too much on the service, because quite frankly it was as good as it would be whenever you have someone you know looking after you. Maybe that’s how good it would have been regardless, but I feel like that fact might have enhanced my experience a little beyond what I should have otherwise expected.

Lesson 11: Suite 3A is my pick of a very good litter.

The cabin looked pretty much full; well, as full as a cabin with 14 seats can. I’d been offered two other seating options when I spoke to the First Host the day before, so I assume that those two seats were probably purchased / upgraded on the day. I chose Suite 3A, as I liked the fact that it was on the low-traffic side of the cabin (only five seats opening onto it, as opposed to nine on the other side). I’d read that 2A and 3A were the preferred seats, as they weren’t so close to the front of the cabin and the stairs / toilets as 1A, and not close to the galley noise like 5A. I couldn’t choose 2A, presumably because it’s blocked for WP/P1 or it may have already been taken when I tried to allocate my seat. Having said that, on balance I felt that 3A was almost definitely the best located suite – the noise and traffic at the front near the toilets/closet would have been annoying (which I have to admit I partly contributed to), and the galley noise also would have been disruptive at times. I felt 3A was ideally located as far as possible away from both of those sources of disruption. Of course, there can be other issues, like a period where there was a fair bit of noise from seats moving around – I can’t pin it down, but it may have been around the time people were getting their beds made, so lots of gears and motors whirring. Also, when another passenger has their overhead lights on there is the potential for a fair bit of light leaking into your space (a bit annoying, as the reading and dining lights provide adequate illumination without disrupting others as much).

Lesson 12: The suites are spacious and comfortable; take advantage of all they offer!

Now the suite itself has been covered in more than adequate detail elsewhere, but here I was for the very first time sitting down in what I’d previously only seen in pictures. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself – it’s just an airplane seat after all – but it did feel pretty good settling into it. To start, despite carrying what I felt to be a massive amount of carry-on, having a whole A380 side bin to myself was one of the most luxurious parts of the trip for me. The mattress was also stored in the overhead bin, but there was still more than ample room for all my stuff. I did notice that the bin also seemed to have some sort of hydraulic or electric system in place as it would respond to any pressure placed on it with some similar whirring noises. I can’t recall if this were the case in the other cabins; I certainly hadn’t noticed it before. I feel like my particular seat may have been a little out of sorts – the wood finishes were a little worn in places, the upper seat belt didn’t have tension (maybe that’s supposed to be the case) and the swivel didn’t feel firm when between positions. Also, other than being a generally slow interface, the side control screen seemed to be getting faulty flight data and stopping halfway through the flight (which was unique to my seat, as I noticed other seats had correct flight data right through to the end).

But we’re pretty much splitting hairs here – only because this is Qantas’s flagship hard product and it was great in so many other ways. I must say that I’m a fan of Marc Newson, and I really like the design and aesthetic of the suites. I like that it’s not ostentatious or overtly luxurious or bling, but clean and modern. Legroom is more than plentiful in both take-off / landing positions and in the lounge / bed configurations. There was a fair degree of custom control available for the seat position, though I’d love an option that allows you to comfortably lounge while the meal is served; never quite felt like I got this right, though certainly got closer than I’ve done previously in the Skybeds. I thought the mattress was a lovely touch, doesn’t seem to take too long to put together and was more than sufficiently comfortable for sleeping on. I also liked the fact that even with the mattress and table laid, you still had enough room and enough shelf space to get out to go for a walk or to the bathroom, or rearrange things if you so wished. The two storage compartments were pretty much just right, though it’d be nice to have a shoe / magazine / iPad size pocket; obviously the literature pocket can only hold so much without straining. The screen is fantastic; large and crisp, and pretty much all of the content available on the IFE looks great on it. Having the screen open from gate-to-gate was fantastic, for Skycam more than anything. Naturally didn’t get the opportunity to use the ottoman for a guest, though I have to say that I reckon the dining table is made for two people to dine together rather than one person alone. It does feel like a bit of a waste not having someone to share it with, but I guess that’s going to happen a lot of the time.

Lesson 13: Don’t expect both champagnes to be available (but they should be – come on Qantas!).

Shortly after being seated, I was advised that today’s champagne was the Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill. I’m under the impression this is the better of the two they have listed on the menu (the other being the Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs), but a bit disappointing not to be able to try both. I have to admit that I’m probably not competent to judge exceptional champagne; I know a good one when I taste it, and this certainly was good. But I couldn’t distinguish what was really special about it – so special that none of the FAs had actually tried it themselves, which I also thought unusual. The champagne came out with olives and almonds; from previous AA experience, I was expecting the almonds to be warm. They weren’t, which wasn’t a big deal, but would have been a nice touch.

Lesson 14: Skycam is a wonderful thing (made even better on a massive screen).

After not a very long time taxiing to the runway, we took off relatively on time, and had a typically smooth A380 rotation. I recorded the takeoff on the Skycam – see below (there do seem to be a heap of these videos, but in any case here's my small contribution - apologies for the shaky cam, but I'm sure you can understand why it is that way). I must say, I wish all aircraft had the Skycam, though given the size of the A380 and its tail, it is pretty special to see things from so high up. Despite being a regular flyer, I’m not great with takeoffs. But seeing it in perspective from the tail is strangely reassuring, especially given you can see the sky in front of you and understand a little about why the aircraft is moving in a particular way. You’ll notice even from this video the pilot makes a quick correction to avoid some dense cloud cover, which was pretty cool to witness from inside and out.

[video=youtube_share;ZwZRi1jeNSE]http://youtu.be/ZwZRi1jeNSE[/video]

Lesson 15: Change into the PJ’s before take-off if you can.

Amenities were waiting on the ottoman on boarding, but I decided to wait and didn’t head off the bathroom to get changed until after takeoff. Of course, despite there only being 14 passengers in the cabin, there was a very small queue for getting changed due to there only being two lavatories for the cabin; and understandably, you should be able to take your time doing so in F. I probably should have photographed the pyjamas in situ, but again I’m sure you’ve seen them around a fair bit by now. The new F pyjamas seem quite similar to the J pyjamas, just darker and with a smaller, subtler Roo on the left hand side. I’m not sure what material they’re made of, or if they’re different at all to J, but I did notice that I wasn’t as prone to sweating in them as I am with the J pyjamas (of course, there may be plenty of other factors contributing to that). I will say that having the option of slippers as well as plane socks is great; I much prefer slippers, and whatever material they were made with (silk?) was pretty divine on the feet. The male amenities are in a black SK-II bag; I only really used the toothbrush and paste, but it seemed pretty well stocked, with a shaving kit and deodorant as well. I did use the amenities in the bathrooms a fair bit, which I quite liked: Payot hydration cream and exfoliant, as well as Malin + Goetz hand and body lotion. On one of the aforementioned F-as-J flights, I’d found a Payot mist in the bathrooms that was really refreshing; would have been nice to have something like that, but otherwise wetting one of the plentiful towels did more or less the same job. After all that, it was pretty disappointing that the soap was your standard Qantas hand wash; surely Qantas can source a nicer product for their premium cabins. Similarly, would have been a nice touch to have some small flowers; they used to have these in the 744s, so disappointing they couldn’t be fit to the A380 premium loos – it’s a small touch that adds a lot. One thing that I found unequivocally great was the fact that the bathrooms were well stocked with hangers, allowing you to hang up your clothes in the adjacent closet when changing into the pyjamas.

As I returned to my seat, my drink order was taken – strangely, after the champagne on the ground, and in anticipation of all that was to come, I didn’t really feel like anything. I kind of felt like I should be having something as I’d be missing part of the experience, but the little voice in my head (thanks anat0l!) kept telling me that enjoying the menu and the matched wines was more important that having something now and potentially becoming too full down the track. On top of that, most of the pre-dinner drink options were things that are readily available and reasonably priced on the ground – with the exception of the champagne which, at the FA’s insistence, I was given another glass of to go with the first course of the tasting menu.

Lesson 16: Bringing your own entertainment is usually more satisfying than IFE.

As I settled in for the meal, I once again noticed how nice the dining position of the seat was, and how the table and ottoman really begs for it to be used for two people. It would be lovely to do this again with a dining partner. Nevertheless, I set up my iPad with the latest episode of my favourite TV show (possibly the most satisfying part of the experience, watching a highly anticipated new episode of a show that I’d downloaded just before boarding the flight, rather than years-old episodes of other shows I’m not that interested in) and awaited the meal. It's interesting that the size of the screen, and the quality of the headphones, is pretty much the only differentiator between IFE in different classes – not the content available. Maybe a secondary screen with a permanent Skycam / flight path might be an idea to start with; but if this particular experience is any guide, wouldn't it be great if QF could offer premium (or even just F) pax an iPad loaded with the latest shows from iTunes / Hulu / Netflix wherever, updated just before the flight? Now that's what I'd consider to be a truly premium IFE experience.

Next… the meal service and the rest of the flight.

 

[Inver]

Excellent TR djfuzz. I've never flown in an A380 but will be in December to HKG not sure if F or J yet. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[djfuzz]

Lesson 17: Seinfeld was wrong; “more anything” is great, but not necessarily “more everything”.

Ever since I had my first taste of F years ago, I’d become enamoured with the concept of a tasting menu of exceptional food on board a long-haul flight. Once again, this would be an opportunity to sample Neil Perry’s flagship product – and after being fortunate enough to attend two QF lunches personally hosted by the man himself, and hearing all about his ethos and vision for Qantas catering (as well as the ever reliable F lounge menu) the First class tasting menu was something I had very high expectations for. The good NP meals I've had have been truly exceptional and have lingered in my mind for some time; indeed, the brilliance of the NP SPS (pretty sure you know what that acronym stands for) is part of the joy of returning to the F lounge.

Needless to say, when you build something up so much in your head, it’s extremely difficult for reality to match those expectations – and so it was here. For the most part, I really enjoyed the meal, as well as the matched wines; but they were not quite the amazing experience I’d been anticipating. Take this with a massive grain of salt – it was in fact a lovely and very satisfying meal. It just did not blow me away, as would another meal I would have a week later at a restaurant in New York (again, allowing for the difference circumstances).

So, to the specific dishes. I’d read some recent reviews of the F menu on the DXB leg and had taken some advice on what to order. The scallop and empanada were a great way to start, somewhat reminiscent of the tapas at The Waiting Room. I loved the cream and the Ponzu dressing; these are reliable NP staples.

The cream of broccoli soup was also great. I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was very tasty. Same goes for the beet salad. I didn’t take the prawn salad, can’t recall whether this was an option or not.

Lesson 18: Don’t feel obliged to stick to the tasting menu (or: pot pie good, blue eye not so much).

Based on an AFFer’s advice on the other thread, I had avoided the ‘bland’ blue eye and gone with the beef fillet. However, I did get the blue eye by mistake. Normally I’d have corrected this, but on the same recommendation I’d actually had my eye on the chicken and rosemary pot pie. I figured the steak would probably be too filling and would mean I’d not get the chance to try the pie later on, so I decided I’d give the blue eye a go. Big mistake. The review of the blue eye was absolutely spot on, I got absolutely nothing from it. I don’t normally send meals I’ve ordered back, but I just couldn’t get through this one and didn’t want to jeopardise the rest of the meal. So I was very kindly offered the pot pie as a replacement; and it was really great. Probably just the right size too, as once again I think the beef may have been a bit much (plus, I’ve had many a steak at Rockpool, as great as they are).

Finished up with the warm chocolate bread and butter pudding, which also was delicious, and the fruit and cheese which went down a treat.

Again, to recap, the meal was very nice but not exceptional. The matched wines were lovely, especially since it’d be very unlikely I’d get the opportunity to select them with each meal again. But as with the champagne, they didn’t knock my socks off either. It was a lovely experience, but now that I’ve done it, it’s not one that I’d ever feel like I was missing out on.

 

[djfuzz]

Lesson 19: If you can't sleep, take a walk around – but wear your F PJs.

The good news was that having managed to try almost everything I wanted to with the tasting menu, but not overdoing it, I only felt slightly bloated after the meal service. Not too much longer thereafter I asked for my bed to be made up while I visited the facilities, which didn’t seem to take too long. As noted above, the bed is quite comfortable, even if the open nature of the suite does mean that seat movement and lighting does intrude a little bit into your space. Nevertheless, once lying down fully flat, it’s very easy to ignore all of that and go to sleep – which I did manage to do for a little bit.

When I got up in the middle of the flight, I decided to pick up a snack and do a lap of the infamous A380 circuit. I was a bit disappointed with the F snacks; I know the menu is available throughout the flight, but other than the ice cream I didn’t feel like the snacks were anything special and certainly nothing much better than what was available in J. I went upstairs to the lounge briefly where there was a J passenger reading. Not much fun in the lounge when you don’t have anyone to talk to, so I had a quiet drink and flick through a magazine before continuing through Emerald City, which was dead quiet and dark.

The J Dorm was a little busier, given its sheer size, and reminded me how distracting it can be in a cabin of that size and openness when even one person switches on an overhead lamp instead of a reading lamp. PE was also about as quiet as Emerald City, which was nice. I made my way through to the rear Y cabin, which I must say felt pretty weird. When I got to the rear stairs, I found them blocked off, and had to ask one of the FAs to open it for me. I could tell by her reaction that clearly many F pax have trod this route before. I like the spiral rear staircase of the A380 – I wish the front ones could be similarly spiraled; there’s something nice about not being able to see where you’re going (and vice versa, I imagine). The lower rear Y cabin was worth the trip; very low loadings with people spread out all over the middle and side sections. Seems like the small sacrifice of being at the very rear of the plane was amply compensated for this evening by the ability to take up several seats. The middle Y sections on the other hand were quite full. I was very interested to see that the trail mix offered in the F snack bar seemed to be replicated in some fashion here too. Though lower Y did feel like it stretched out forever, I was still kind of surprised how abruptly I came back to F. I was surprised to find that the Y area directly behind F was very close to the back of F, so much so that the F galley is actually directly adjacent to the front of Y and simply curtained off from it. Unlike a previous trip report here, thankfully I was familiar enough to the FAs that they didn’t turn me back around as I tried to get through the curtain. Hard to believe how different the seating arrangements are across such a small distance. I silently gave my thanks for being on the forward side of that curtain on this occasion and settled back in to the obscenely large suite again – and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it had been made up again! Now that was a very lovely touch.

Lesson 20 (Again for QF): A premium experience should extend to premium IFE.

After I returned to F I thought I’d order a Baileys but then quickly realised I could get one of those anywhere, so decided to try the Port; had both in the end, while putting the bed in the Z position so I could watch some Curb Your Enthusiasm. Once again, it was here that it hit me that the Qantas IFE selection is not as great as it could be. True, it’s great to have such a great selection of Oscar winners as well as some new release movies and popular television shows. But there’s no strong curatorial hand guiding you through the kind of quality of content that you have with the design of the hard product and the food; having a bigger screen and better headphones is not enough if the quality, depth and currency of the content available does not match. Anyway, I made the most of what I could from what was available and used my iPad for a bit as well, before trying to get a little bit more sleep.

I woke again two hours out of Dubai and prepared for the late dinner / supper service. As I’d already had the Pot Pie during the tasting menu, I opted for the fennel soup, veal shanks and pear tart. Again, they were all great and very tasty, but not exceptional by NP standards.

There was a little bit of time to go, so I cycled through some more Curb before heading to the bathroom about an hour out of Dubai to get changed back into my clothes. We were delayed by about 20 minutes and had to circle around Sharjah before being cleared into DXB. Not a lot to see from this point in except the Skycam approach into DXB, which was nice but not especially dramatic this late at night. Took one last look around the surrounding suite that I’d been custodian of for the past 13 hours – a very nice way to while away a very long flight, but sadly not something I’d now consider to be an unforgettable experience. Luckily, I wasn't feeling particularly sentimental just yet, given the fact that I'd be back in the chair in but a few hours...

[video=youtube_share;ss-JRj9CtAw]http://youtu.be/ss-JRj9CtAw[/video]

Next ... a whirlwind tour of DXB's A380 terminal, and the flight to London.

 

[LadyC]

Loving the detail - thanks for taking the time

 

[Chesty]

Awesome trip report, really enjoying it.