Circle around Asia via Singapore, Japan and Palau.

[henrus]

I bring the latest of my crazy adventures, Singapore, Japan and Palau all in 11 days.

Planning for this started back in August last year. Qantas was devaluing reward seats on 5 Aug and it started as a search for reward seats leaving Australia to somewhere in Asia for the Easter break. I could take leave 3-12 April and despite having QF Platinum I wasn’t able to request reward seats on what I had in mind out of Brisbane. My two other criteria was all daytime flights and ideally extra legroom seats if in Economy.

I’d left the searches to the last minute but with just hours to the devaluing I found a BA economy reward seat from Sydney to Singapore which paired nicely with a QF BNE-SYD reward seat. Now I’ve been to Singapore plenty of times and whilst a lovely place to visit I wanted to go somewhere different and had ideas on either Laos, somewhere new in China or more of Malaysia and Thailand. The pacific was also in mind but again a lack of reward seats and me not wanting to pay sky high prices for a flight out on Good Friday, Singapore it was to start with.

I also had Palau in mind but the Easter Saturday BNE-ROR wasn’t cheap however the return Sunday 12 April came in at ~AU$400 so I snagged that with the plan of somehow getting from Singapore to Palau.

To Palau it was either going to be United or China Airlines. United flies a large number of routes around the Pacific including 3 destinations into Palau so I figured I’d start with those routes but fares were sky high north of $1k for a 3-4 hour flight and after lots of searching I found a reward seat via KrisFlyer for NRT to ROR. Finally Singapore to Japan was the last ticket booked and amazingly Cathay came in cheapest at ~$500 one way on 2x daytime flights with a nice 4 hour connection in Hong Kong.

All in Economy for about $1300 plus some 38,200 QF points and 13,500 SQ miles (transferred from VA), the final route booked was BNE-SYD-SIN-HKG-HND/NRT-ROR-BNE.

 

[henrus]

Now the first criteria of all day time flights had been met attention turned to seating. On BNE-SYD I’d booked row 6 (which at the time was just a regular economy seat), British Airways and Cathay provide Oneworld Emerald with free exit row seats, on United I paid US$50 (AU$76) for the exit row and finally for ROR-BNE I’d selected seat 5A once again a normal seat, row 4 was available for US$100 but I figured I’d just wait and see closer to departure.

Fast forward a couple of months and in early November 2025 Qantas introduced Economy Plus seating so my row 5 seat became extra legroom plus I was able to change BNE-SYD also to row 5.

Finally about a month before departure family was heading to Sydney and I managed to get two reward seats via a request, BNE-SYD on the same flight. The helpful Fiji based agent did the booking and also linked my booking to their seating us all in row 5 economy plus with their booking also getting my group 1.

Next up with 10 nights away, hotels became the next search 2 nights in Singapore, 3x nights in Japan and 4x nights in Palau.

In Singapore I had one remaining stay plus from Accor which under the old system (effectively purchased for $214) meaning one free night of which the Swissôtel was available however they wanted over $600 for the second night so ended up booking that for one night and then trying the Mercure on Stevens for the next (a new one for me). Tokyo was more expensive than normal and I couldn’t figure out why until someone pointed out it’s cherry blossom season so I initially had plans to spend one night in Tokyo then into the mountains. Finally Palau I’d initially booked the Ocean Star Hotel for about AU$200 per night.

Over the coming months I made a couple of small changes first up was scrapping the Ocean Star and booking at the Palau Royal Resort in which direct was AU$350 per night.

The second change was about 2 months before travelling I randomly looked at Suntory Yamazaki to see if I could get a tasting time slot and much to my surprise I was able to secure one the morning after my arrival in Tokyo, plans then changed and I booked a JAL flight down from Haneda to Osaka which now meant a night near Haneda, then I booked with my Qantas hotels $50 voucher from Qantas points club a hotel in Kyoto followed by a night in Tokyo.

Despite initially getting a confirmation screen and code just minutes after booking the Kyoto hotel I got an email from Qantas hotels saying the booking was now pending and with me stupidly booking late at night when all support was closed it was a wait until tomorrow situation. Without me asking the next morning I got an email saying they were looking into it and they’d get back to me in 24 hours, well 24 hours passed then did 48 and finally I got impatient only to call and be told they’re still working on it (at this time the hotel was still available for booking on QF hotels website) it then was almost a week until I was told it was full and they couldn’t honour the booking.

I landed a refund as a credit of my voucher plus extra payment so had $70ish to spend plus a brand next extra $50 voucher to apologise for the stuff up. Annoyingly you can only use one voucher at a time so I ended up using one in Osaka instas then rebooking the Tokyo option using the other.

Anyway enough of the pre ramble, now onto the trip…

 

[henrus]

Day 1 - Brisbane to Singapore

I hate morning flights but having been burnt last Easter by a delayed BNE-SYD causing me to miss QF11 and end up spending the night in Sydney followed by AA instead, this time around I booked a ~4hr transit. This meant an 8:20am flight on Good Friday but luckily with family in tow got a lift to the airport. The premium entry was operating as usual and the business lounge was maybe 30% full with nothing special going on except a few hot cross buns.

Boarding started 45 mins before departure, very early for a 737 using both doors but thanks to this was done very early despite being a full flight. The whole flight was uneventful, wifi worked and I had a bottle of water. Hot food in economy was eggs in a box but having just had a bite in the lounge passed. We landed early and taxied from the end of the far runway. Now I normally wouldn’t but I ended up going to the QF domestic business lounge upon arrival to have a chat and another coffee before we went seperate ways. The domestic business lounge was quite empty and despite being Good Friday normal spread of food and drinks.

My timing was excellent because after an hour I trundled down to the transfer bus which arrived just as I did however we spent a lot of time waiting for an A380 to tow so it wasn’t a very quick journey, I refreshed the BA app mainly to see gate as at this point I only had a QF digital boarding pass for the BA flight which would have worked but missing some info like gate/group and noticed my seat had changed, now 18E I must admit I was actually annoyed as previously I had an economy exit row aisle seat so thought I’d been shafted but turns out this was an upgrade to premium economy but in a middle seat. Initially I had no plan to swing by the BA desk but I went to see if that could be at least switched for an aisle or window otherwise I was probably going to ask to be downgraded but thankfully 17F was still available. Interestingly BA check in actually pointed me to the QF first lounge as I’d seen elsewhere that others were being directed to the House. One other thing is other than the boarding pass not once did they mention the upgrade:


There were zero queues through security/passport control and finally I was up to a reasonably busy F lounge but still able to get a table in the corner by the window. Started off with a champagne still lallier then ordered the squid and cheese to start followed by the steak and finally cake. Service was below average having to constantly flag down someone for refills but I still managed a negroni, applewood gin (acquired from the bar myself) and then A lark on the rocks. A couple of years ago I also passed through on Good Friday and they were serving Grange but sadly nothing special going on today.





I had grand plans to quickly enter the house on the way to the gate mainly just to check it out (the only SYD lounge I’ve not visited) but despite the best intentions leaving the QF lounge about 20 mins before the printed boarding time the terminal screens showed BA16 as boarding so I figured might just head over to the gate just in case they’d started early and not only had they started early I was one of the last onboard despite arriving 10 mins before boarding time and 30 mins before gate closing time (sorry to BA fans didn’t get to see if they did a group zero boarding). Oddly no announcement was made in the QF F lounge but clearly everyone made it as it was finished shortly after I got seated. Annoyingly we pushed back almost on time due to paperwork delays and congestion.

Now BA premium economy wasn’t the intention and I hadn’t ever flown BA long haul before. Pre departure drinks in real glasses of sparkling wine, juice and water were passed out with a paper menu and amenity kits (socks/eyeshade/toothbrush/pen/lip balm). Credit to BA this 787 had no wifi and multiple emails before departure plus even an onboard announcement made this fact very clear.

Now I never expect anything special but interestingly the cabin manger did walk around and greet a few people in Y and PE plus they ended up with a glass of champagne after take off, now clearly Oneworld Emerald doesn’t make the cut here so perhaps BA gold or gold guest list?

 

[henrus]

Photos a little out of order but pre boarding drink:


After take off, the BA787 glides over the Bogan River


and I’ll just leave this one here (no I’ve not clicked to a different page):


Once off crew sprung into action with a drinks service which was very generous everyone around ordering spirits got multiple minis but I landed on the Brewdog beer which was average this “special” IPA had actual orange flavour added (said so on the side of the can) which made it taste a bit funny and English consistency it was served warm with a small bag of chive pretzels.

Lunch followed and I picked the pasta which looked like someone had thrown up on it but was tasty enough. No clue if this was the same menu as economy but everything was served on glassware.



The old Thalysis BA entertainment system is cough and slow so spent a few hours watching downloaded YouTube followed by a nap, a deep enough sleep my Apple Watch actually recorded it unprompted. Pre landing in Singapore a snack of a cheese pastry was served (I think also a meat option but wasn’t very clear) and amazingly a very direct route in and landed early into T1. On today’s BA16 about 65% of those onboard continued to London but I went down to a very empty immigration and was in a grab about 10 mins after landing.

 

[AIRwin]

One other thing is other than the boarding pass not once did they mention the upgrade

A few weeks back I noticed the BA flight was already fully booked when I was looking at options to SIN on the same day so I expected that there will be op ups on the day