elanshin
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Last year, I decided that I wanted to go back to Shanghai for my cousin's wedding and my partner having never been to China of any variety wanted to come along. Whilst Shanghai is my birth city, I've been living in Sydney for most of my life now and until last October, I hadn't visited the city since 2014.
A whole lot has changed and it's really opened my eyes to what some of the future will hold as Shanghai really does have some aspects that are years ahead of us now.
Our trip eventually became a OWA RTW J booking which in of itself was a massive hassle to finalise but our itinerary for this leg would end up being:
MEL > SYD > CGK (QF positioning flight in Y) - staying overnight
CGK > HKG (CX J a330) - staying overnight
HKG > TPE (CX J b777 regional) - 4 nights
TPE > HKG > PVG (CX J a321N and a330) - 6 nights with 1 in Hangzhou
PVG > SYD (QF J a330)
My partner also flew back to MEL yesterday in ZL whilst I stay in Syd for work for a bit.
Day -1 Melbourne
Our trip starts at MEL overnight where we decided to book the Mantra Tullamarine Airport hotel ($110 on Accor Red hot deal). I had to fly in from Sydney (yes im transiting through SYD next morning, but alas I had work in Sydney). I have Accor Gold and got some cake slices as welcome gift. No welcome drinks were offered but it was already 11 and the bar was closed. We turned in for an early as we both had a full work day.
The on demand shuttle to and from the airport was fairly efficient. I waited about 6 minutes or so to get picked up from the airport and in the morning, they were shuttling every 10mins or so and for $110 I'd happily stay again at this sort of price.
Day 0 To Jakarta
Well its time for us to position ourselves to Jakarta to officially start oir trip. I didn't want to risk a 6:30am arrival into CGK for our CX flight which departs 8:10am so I settled for overnight options. Having gone through all the possible options, I came to the conclusion that QF41 was my safest option (enough time to go for alternatives if it ran into trouble).
We rocked up to MEL T1 and in my sleepy state headed to the service desk, only for them to tell me this was the dom - dom service desk. I had no idea the Dom - Int was hidden away next to the oversized baggage. We had a nice enough chap serve us despite the fact he was a bit new at the job. So new he didn't notice that I had gotten a complimentary upgrade on the SYD - CGK leg.
I only noticed because I wanted to have one last look at the seatmap to see if there were better seats around and I noticed my Boarding Pass now said 3A. I discussed it with my partner and concluded that if I couldn't get her upgraded somehow, I'd ask the CSM to swap her with me as I'd have significantly more chances to fly long haul J than she does.
Feeling pretty happy, we pased the time in the Dom J lounge. I didn't manage to get a photo, but we did see the full orange livery JQ plane. Nothing to write about the MEL dom J lounge besides it was my partner's first time in there. She thought it just had nicer views than QP but liked the dungeon in T2 better. Had a short uneventful flight to Sydney where we watched our luggage get soaked in the rain during the transfer.
We transferred ourselves over to the international airport and I caught a friend before his NH flight, going to Japan for their honeymoon. After that I took my partner over to QF F for the first time.
I didn't really take photos of the lounge, but I'm sure most of AFF should be familiar with SYD QF F lounge. The one mistake i made was not asking for a spa session when we entered as we got in at a super quiet period - next time. Watched my friends flight line up and take off while the S&P Squid was being served. Once the rain cleared we had some stunning runway views with the city in the backdrop.
Before long boarding was called as we finished our final good coffee for the next fortnight (we'll have many interesting coffees on the trip). I had moved "myself" to 4K once I saw what J seats were available although in hindsight I should've taken 7K. During the boarding, I had asked for the CSM as to whether my partner and I would be able to swap seats. He very quickly just said sure as long as you did it now.
I moved back to 24J/K and my partner took my 4K. I say I should've taken 7K because she didn't decide to visit once during the flight which I teased her a few times about. If I'd put her in 7K, she'd only have been 2 rows in front of me.
Here's her lunch and pre landing snack she received. According to her, the cabin crew were quite good once they got over the confusion of who was in the seat - I guess the CSM didn't mention to the crew that I had swapped seats.
She mentioned this was one of the best deserts she's had on a plane.
My original seat at 24J remained blocked so taking over 2 seats wasn't too bad and i managed to make myself comfortable using the extra pillows and blankets. I skipped lunch as I anticipated the swap so I ate a bit more at the F lounge and just snacked more than anything else.
Landing at CGK was quite uneventful and the international arrivals area was quite pleasant besides slight confusion whether we use the e-gate or not as the signs weren't clear - but we decided to try anyways as we had done the evisa online and it let us through. In our eagerness to get our trip started we "exited" a little too quickly and got blasted with the heat and humidity as the area to meet people was actually outdoors! The picture below is actually outside.
To make matters worse, the shuttle transfer that I had organised with ibis styles never showed up. I had thought to myself that ibis styles at the airport can't be that bad and its one night only...turns out it took 2.5 hours for them to get the shuttle sorted and it was a 30minute walk. I'll reconsider the $50 hotel next time im transiting through CGK or just take a grab there instead.
Finally made it to our room and promptly just showered and slept as we were going to get up at 5 the next morning to start the main trip.
A whole lot has changed and it's really opened my eyes to what some of the future will hold as Shanghai really does have some aspects that are years ahead of us now.
Our trip eventually became a OWA RTW J booking which in of itself was a massive hassle to finalise but our itinerary for this leg would end up being:
MEL > SYD > CGK (QF positioning flight in Y) - staying overnight
CGK > HKG (CX J a330) - staying overnight
HKG > TPE (CX J b777 regional) - 4 nights
TPE > HKG > PVG (CX J a321N and a330) - 6 nights with 1 in Hangzhou
PVG > SYD (QF J a330)
My partner also flew back to MEL yesterday in ZL whilst I stay in Syd for work for a bit.
Day -1 Melbourne
Our trip starts at MEL overnight where we decided to book the Mantra Tullamarine Airport hotel ($110 on Accor Red hot deal). I had to fly in from Sydney (yes im transiting through SYD next morning, but alas I had work in Sydney). I have Accor Gold and got some cake slices as welcome gift. No welcome drinks were offered but it was already 11 and the bar was closed. We turned in for an early as we both had a full work day.
The on demand shuttle to and from the airport was fairly efficient. I waited about 6 minutes or so to get picked up from the airport and in the morning, they were shuttling every 10mins or so and for $110 I'd happily stay again at this sort of price.
Day 0 To Jakarta
Well its time for us to position ourselves to Jakarta to officially start oir trip. I didn't want to risk a 6:30am arrival into CGK for our CX flight which departs 8:10am so I settled for overnight options. Having gone through all the possible options, I came to the conclusion that QF41 was my safest option (enough time to go for alternatives if it ran into trouble).
We rocked up to MEL T1 and in my sleepy state headed to the service desk, only for them to tell me this was the dom - dom service desk. I had no idea the Dom - Int was hidden away next to the oversized baggage. We had a nice enough chap serve us despite the fact he was a bit new at the job. So new he didn't notice that I had gotten a complimentary upgrade on the SYD - CGK leg.
I only noticed because I wanted to have one last look at the seatmap to see if there were better seats around and I noticed my Boarding Pass now said 3A. I discussed it with my partner and concluded that if I couldn't get her upgraded somehow, I'd ask the CSM to swap her with me as I'd have significantly more chances to fly long haul J than she does.
Feeling pretty happy, we pased the time in the Dom J lounge. I didn't manage to get a photo, but we did see the full orange livery JQ plane. Nothing to write about the MEL dom J lounge besides it was my partner's first time in there. She thought it just had nicer views than QP but liked the dungeon in T2 better. Had a short uneventful flight to Sydney where we watched our luggage get soaked in the rain during the transfer.
We transferred ourselves over to the international airport and I caught a friend before his NH flight, going to Japan for their honeymoon. After that I took my partner over to QF F for the first time.
I didn't really take photos of the lounge, but I'm sure most of AFF should be familiar with SYD QF F lounge. The one mistake i made was not asking for a spa session when we entered as we got in at a super quiet period - next time. Watched my friends flight line up and take off while the S&P Squid was being served. Once the rain cleared we had some stunning runway views with the city in the backdrop.
Before long boarding was called as we finished our final good coffee for the next fortnight (we'll have many interesting coffees on the trip). I had moved "myself" to 4K once I saw what J seats were available although in hindsight I should've taken 7K. During the boarding, I had asked for the CSM as to whether my partner and I would be able to swap seats. He very quickly just said sure as long as you did it now.
I moved back to 24J/K and my partner took my 4K. I say I should've taken 7K because she didn't decide to visit once during the flight which I teased her a few times about. If I'd put her in 7K, she'd only have been 2 rows in front of me.
Here's her lunch and pre landing snack she received. According to her, the cabin crew were quite good once they got over the confusion of who was in the seat - I guess the CSM didn't mention to the crew that I had swapped seats.
She mentioned this was one of the best deserts she's had on a plane.
My original seat at 24J remained blocked so taking over 2 seats wasn't too bad and i managed to make myself comfortable using the extra pillows and blankets. I skipped lunch as I anticipated the swap so I ate a bit more at the F lounge and just snacked more than anything else.
Landing at CGK was quite uneventful and the international arrivals area was quite pleasant besides slight confusion whether we use the e-gate or not as the signs weren't clear - but we decided to try anyways as we had done the evisa online and it let us through. In our eagerness to get our trip started we "exited" a little too quickly and got blasted with the heat and humidity as the area to meet people was actually outdoors! The picture below is actually outside.
To make matters worse, the shuttle transfer that I had organised with ibis styles never showed up. I had thought to myself that ibis styles at the airport can't be that bad and its one night only...turns out it took 2.5 hours for them to get the shuttle sorted and it was a 30minute walk. I'll reconsider the $50 hotel next time im transiting through CGK or just take a grab there instead.
Finally made it to our room and promptly just showered and slept as we were going to get up at 5 the next morning to start the main trip.
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