Another installment in my happy flighting series -- this time somewhat abbreviated, slightly more complaining and no photos at all. Sorry! 
I'm currently in Dublin on a work adventure, and getting here was by way of a coughtail of carriers: DJ from MEL to SYD, VA from SYD to AUH and finally EY from AUH to DUB. There hasn't been much discussion of what EY are like, so I figured a quick report would be in order.
:!: WARNING This report contains certain unpleasant topics, including but not limited to checked luggage and whY cabins, and may not be suitable for some frequent flyers. Reader discretion advised! WARNING :!:
Booking
VA have an excellent mixed class fare for travel to Europe available at the moment, seemingly not available on the VA website, but you can see the details on the BestFrights website (naturally, print the details out and take to a quality travel agent to book if you're interested in the fare). This fare piqued my interest as the company where I work have a LLA policy that applies to everyone, all the time. With a little finagling, I was able to get this fare below the LLA that was being offered at the time I needed to travel and was thus able to book a (sort of) premium fare and stay within policy. Nice! As an aside, the corporate TA we use is AmEx BT .. in the past I've had difficulties getting VA tickets issued, but everything just worked this time.
Pre Flight
My first round of disappointments arrived before getting anywhere near a plane: seat selection. The VA website has recently been adjusted to allow for seat selection, but I wasn't allowed to be happy: for whatever reason, the seat selection wouldn't do it's thing for me (my personal suspicion is that the VA website got confused by seeing a booking that was ticketed by a third party in a different GDS), but a quick phone call to VA got me in my favourite whY+ seat as well as the PNRs for the DJ and EY sectors.
I then attempted to get myself in to some decent seats for the EY flight, but failed miserably: a) EY don't allow seat selection online, and b) EY don't offer preferred seating to VA Golds. The lass at the EY call centre got me allocated in to the first forward aisle seat available and advised that I should look at checking in as early as possible to attempt getting a better seat. Not being sure about what food would be available, I also requested a SPML.
Fortunately, the wait to talk to someone at either VA or EY was very short; I was on hold for no more than a few minutes in either case. I sincerely hope that the good folk at VA and EY can set their systems up so that one side can see the status of the other side; not having access to decent seating on a partner carrier is a major step down from what the competition offers..!
MEL-SYD, DJ B73H
For reasons unknown to me, web check-in for my DJ flight failed to work (maybe something to do with the ticket type?) and thus I couldn't avail myself of seating options that would have been available at T-24. I fronted up to the premium counter at MEL to get myself and my bags checked in, which was the host of my next round of complaints: no priority tags (which admittedly isn't a published benny) and no boarding cards for the subsequent VA and EY flights. Surely getting all the boarding cards in one go isn't an unreasonable request to make in this day and age?
I made a point of finding myself somewhere to sit and got myself some Internets so that I could get checked in for my EY flight online -- sadly, nothing better was available, so I remained in my allocated seat.
The DJ flight up to SYD was unremarkable, save for the FAs thinking I was booked on the EY code and wanted to give me free F&B .. who was I to say no? I only had a cup of coffee as I'd used my $20 worth of vouchers at MEL to feed myself, so there'll be no extended dissertations on the gourmet selection that I could have availed myself of on board.
The boarding card "wallet" instructed me to make my way to the transfer desk at Gate 37, which I duly did after being distracted momentarily by VH-XFA sitting up at Gate 40 -- I *did* note that all window shades were closed; clearly they don't want anyone getting a sneak peek!
As I wandered in through the doors and up towards the transfer desk, one of the check in agents instructed me to follow her out the way I came and ushered me up to the end of the terminal pier at pace, explaining that a bus was just about to leave and that I could check in once I arrived at T1. For those of you following along at home that might be familiar with the QF transfer bus at SYD, unfortunately there is no free tarmac tour built in to the trip -- the bus exits the secured area and drives out along the normal roads and up to the departures level of T1.
SYD-AUH, VA B773
I was promptly checked in for my VA flight at the J check in desk and provided with a stack of documents in a neat cardboard wallet: a boarding card, an outbound immigration card and the all-important express pass and lounge invites. Still no EY boarding card to be seen, but was told I could collect one at the transfer desk at AUH. So. Through immigration, through security and on my way to the NZ Koru Club lounge. I walked, and walked, and walked .. and walked some more .. finally finding myself [-]back in Melbourne[/-] at the *A "end" of T1. I wandered upstairs and in to the rather nice NZ lounge. Comfy couches, excellent food and booze spread -- sure, it's no FLounge, but it's certainly a cut above many other J lounges around. I whiled away the time until boarding...
*BEEP* Let me try your boarding card again, sir *BEEP* no, definitely not working. Please see my colleage over there..
Opped-up to row 5 for my flight to AUH!! Turns out the plane was packed to the rafters and way oversold; having an appropriately shiny card helps in that situation apparently.. Great crew, great food, got some work done and slept for a solid 7-8 hours; in what seemed like no time at all, we were at "top of drop" (to quote one of the FAs, if you'll pardon the pun) and on our way down in to AUH. I know I've said it before and I hope that I have opportunity to say it again, but VA are absolutely on to a good thing with their J cabin service. Really couldn't fault it at all.
What I can certainly fault is landing in to what is apparently a brand spanking new airport terminal and ending up at a b*s gate. What the? Still, the ground crew turned up with a stash of express passes and the FAs made sure that only premium pax made it on to the first b*s back to the terminal. Nice!
AUH is pretty easy to navigate -- inside, upstairs and around the corner to the transfer desk. Finally aquire EY boarding card, downstairs and in to the melee for transit security. Wave express card around until one of the staff queue jumps me, through security (no liquids/laptops/shoes out or off, definitely pleased) and straight up to the lounge complex. Total zoo in there (and this is at 2 AM local time..!), but the food offering and bar are pretty decent for a J lounge. I finally managed to find somewhere to park my behind and scoffed down some food, then went and got myself a shower (small sidenote: srsly decent showers!) WiFi was rubbish, but with the number of people in the lounge I was entirely unsurprised by that.
Soon enough it was heading towards boarding time -- back downstairs, through duty free -- pretty decent range and fairly decent prices; not quite as good as HKG but substantially better than any of the .au duty free options, and over to the gate for my flight to DUB.
AUH-DUB, EY A332
By the time I was boarding the flight to DUB I was tired and grumpy -- was tempted to try the priority boarding option available to J pax and EY Gold card holders, but seeing other people attempt to use that lane without due cause and be promptly sent to the back of the whY queue made me think again.
Finally made it on to the plane; plenty of space in the overhead locker, seat pitch is definitely nothing to write home about (about the same as a QF 744) but the IFE screens are hooooge. Get airborne, kids start screaming .. and don't stop. One of the major downsides to noise cancelling headphones is they do a stellar job of cancelling out constant, steady sounds (such as engines), but do almost nothing to prevent piercing screams from interrupting my study of the inside of my eyelids. Karma was busy being a complete cough, and I wasn't going to get away with sleeping through it.
Food service was .. unappealing. SPMLs are generally pretty awful, and EY are no exception. I was served a "supper" of a pastry "something" .. I'm not sure what it was, and I decided against finding out (I'd eaten in the lounge in any case). Attempted to nap in between screams, ended up giving up and heading to the galley down the back to drown my sorrows in average red wine.
Soon enough it was brekkie time -- this time I did eat, and the SPML breakfast actually wasn't too bad: a hot meal of scrambled eggs, mushrooms and potato. Metal cutlery was provided, which always makes for a nicer dining experience. Not long after breakfast was cleared away we were on final descent in to DUB -- the IFE was switched off maybe 15 minutes before touchdown and everyones' screen was switched to the forwards-facing camera (which I personally think is really cool, but I guess there are some that would be a little unnerved). Kind of fun seeing the runway appear on the horizon and get closer and closer and ... touchdown and taxi to the brand spanking new DUB T2.
Finally off the plane, breezed through a basically empty customs hall and waited forever and a day for bags to arrive. I was starting to get worried they hadn't made it, but they both showed up in the last 5 or 6 on to the carousel before it was declared last bags had been unloaded.
--
So um, I wrote a little more than expected. Hope you enjoyed reading it!
I'm currently in Dublin on a work adventure, and getting here was by way of a coughtail of carriers: DJ from MEL to SYD, VA from SYD to AUH and finally EY from AUH to DUB. There hasn't been much discussion of what EY are like, so I figured a quick report would be in order.
:!: WARNING This report contains certain unpleasant topics, including but not limited to checked luggage and whY cabins, and may not be suitable for some frequent flyers. Reader discretion advised! WARNING :!:
Booking
VA have an excellent mixed class fare for travel to Europe available at the moment, seemingly not available on the VA website, but you can see the details on the BestFrights website (naturally, print the details out and take to a quality travel agent to book if you're interested in the fare). This fare piqued my interest as the company where I work have a LLA policy that applies to everyone, all the time. With a little finagling, I was able to get this fare below the LLA that was being offered at the time I needed to travel and was thus able to book a (sort of) premium fare and stay within policy. Nice! As an aside, the corporate TA we use is AmEx BT .. in the past I've had difficulties getting VA tickets issued, but everything just worked this time.
Pre Flight
My first round of disappointments arrived before getting anywhere near a plane: seat selection. The VA website has recently been adjusted to allow for seat selection, but I wasn't allowed to be happy: for whatever reason, the seat selection wouldn't do it's thing for me (my personal suspicion is that the VA website got confused by seeing a booking that was ticketed by a third party in a different GDS), but a quick phone call to VA got me in my favourite whY+ seat as well as the PNRs for the DJ and EY sectors.
I then attempted to get myself in to some decent seats for the EY flight, but failed miserably: a) EY don't allow seat selection online, and b) EY don't offer preferred seating to VA Golds. The lass at the EY call centre got me allocated in to the first forward aisle seat available and advised that I should look at checking in as early as possible to attempt getting a better seat. Not being sure about what food would be available, I also requested a SPML.
Fortunately, the wait to talk to someone at either VA or EY was very short; I was on hold for no more than a few minutes in either case. I sincerely hope that the good folk at VA and EY can set their systems up so that one side can see the status of the other side; not having access to decent seating on a partner carrier is a major step down from what the competition offers..!
MEL-SYD, DJ B73H
For reasons unknown to me, web check-in for my DJ flight failed to work (maybe something to do with the ticket type?) and thus I couldn't avail myself of seating options that would have been available at T-24. I fronted up to the premium counter at MEL to get myself and my bags checked in, which was the host of my next round of complaints: no priority tags (which admittedly isn't a published benny) and no boarding cards for the subsequent VA and EY flights. Surely getting all the boarding cards in one go isn't an unreasonable request to make in this day and age?
I made a point of finding myself somewhere to sit and got myself some Internets so that I could get checked in for my EY flight online -- sadly, nothing better was available, so I remained in my allocated seat.
The DJ flight up to SYD was unremarkable, save for the FAs thinking I was booked on the EY code and wanted to give me free F&B .. who was I to say no? I only had a cup of coffee as I'd used my $20 worth of vouchers at MEL to feed myself, so there'll be no extended dissertations on the gourmet selection that I could have availed myself of on board.
The boarding card "wallet" instructed me to make my way to the transfer desk at Gate 37, which I duly did after being distracted momentarily by VH-XFA sitting up at Gate 40 -- I *did* note that all window shades were closed; clearly they don't want anyone getting a sneak peek!
As I wandered in through the doors and up towards the transfer desk, one of the check in agents instructed me to follow her out the way I came and ushered me up to the end of the terminal pier at pace, explaining that a bus was just about to leave and that I could check in once I arrived at T1. For those of you following along at home that might be familiar with the QF transfer bus at SYD, unfortunately there is no free tarmac tour built in to the trip -- the bus exits the secured area and drives out along the normal roads and up to the departures level of T1.
SYD-AUH, VA B773
I was promptly checked in for my VA flight at the J check in desk and provided with a stack of documents in a neat cardboard wallet: a boarding card, an outbound immigration card and the all-important express pass and lounge invites. Still no EY boarding card to be seen, but was told I could collect one at the transfer desk at AUH. So. Through immigration, through security and on my way to the NZ Koru Club lounge. I walked, and walked, and walked .. and walked some more .. finally finding myself [-]back in Melbourne[/-] at the *A "end" of T1. I wandered upstairs and in to the rather nice NZ lounge. Comfy couches, excellent food and booze spread -- sure, it's no FLounge, but it's certainly a cut above many other J lounges around. I whiled away the time until boarding...
*BEEP* Let me try your boarding card again, sir *BEEP* no, definitely not working. Please see my colleage over there..
Opped-up to row 5 for my flight to AUH!! Turns out the plane was packed to the rafters and way oversold; having an appropriately shiny card helps in that situation apparently..
Great crew, great food, got some work done and slept for a solid 7-8 hours; in what seemed like no time at all, we were at "top of drop" (to quote one of the FAs, if you'll pardon the pun) and on our way down in to AUH. I know I've said it before and I hope that I have opportunity to say it again, but VA are absolutely on to a good thing with their J cabin service. Really couldn't fault it at all.What I can certainly fault is landing in to what is apparently a brand spanking new airport terminal and ending up at a b*s gate. What the? Still, the ground crew turned up with a stash of express passes and the FAs made sure that only premium pax made it on to the first b*s back to the terminal. Nice!
AUH is pretty easy to navigate -- inside, upstairs and around the corner to the transfer desk. Finally aquire EY boarding card, downstairs and in to the melee for transit security. Wave express card around until one of the staff queue jumps me, through security (no liquids/laptops/shoes out or off, definitely pleased) and straight up to the lounge complex. Total zoo in there (and this is at 2 AM local time..!), but the food offering and bar are pretty decent for a J lounge. I finally managed to find somewhere to park my behind and scoffed down some food, then went and got myself a shower (small sidenote: srsly decent showers!) WiFi was rubbish, but with the number of people in the lounge I was entirely unsurprised by that.
Soon enough it was heading towards boarding time -- back downstairs, through duty free -- pretty decent range and fairly decent prices; not quite as good as HKG but substantially better than any of the .au duty free options, and over to the gate for my flight to DUB.
AUH-DUB, EY A332
By the time I was boarding the flight to DUB I was tired and grumpy -- was tempted to try the priority boarding option available to J pax and EY Gold card holders, but seeing other people attempt to use that lane without due cause and be promptly sent to the back of the whY queue made me think again.
Finally made it on to the plane; plenty of space in the overhead locker, seat pitch is definitely nothing to write home about (about the same as a QF 744) but the IFE screens are hooooge. Get airborne, kids start screaming .. and don't stop. One of the major downsides to noise cancelling headphones is they do a stellar job of cancelling out constant, steady sounds (such as engines), but do almost nothing to prevent piercing screams from interrupting my study of the inside of my eyelids. Karma was busy being a complete cough, and I wasn't going to get away with sleeping through it.
Food service was .. unappealing. SPMLs are generally pretty awful, and EY are no exception. I was served a "supper" of a pastry "something" .. I'm not sure what it was, and I decided against finding out (I'd eaten in the lounge in any case). Attempted to nap in between screams, ended up giving up and heading to the galley down the back to drown my sorrows in average red wine.
Soon enough it was brekkie time -- this time I did eat, and the SPML breakfast actually wasn't too bad: a hot meal of scrambled eggs, mushrooms and potato. Metal cutlery was provided, which always makes for a nicer dining experience. Not long after breakfast was cleared away we were on final descent in to DUB -- the IFE was switched off maybe 15 minutes before touchdown and everyones' screen was switched to the forwards-facing camera (which I personally think is really cool, but I guess there are some that would be a little unnerved). Kind of fun seeing the runway appear on the horizon and get closer and closer and ... touchdown and taxi to the brand spanking new DUB T2.
Finally off the plane, breezed through a basically empty customs hall and waited forever and a day for bags to arrive. I was starting to get worried they hadn't made it, but they both showed up in the last 5 or 6 on to the carousel before it was declared last bags had been unloaded.
--
So um, I wrote a little more than expected. Hope you enjoyed reading it!
