I've just returned from a OW award RTW trip with the family and thought I'd share some comments. I generally fly on my own for work using DONE4's with carry on only. This trip was in Y with my wife, three kids, mother and four large check in bags so some different experiences for me!
Our routing was MEL-LAX-MIA-BOS-LHR, LGW-EDI-PRG-EDI-LHR-SIN-MEL.
MEL Airport
We checked in as a group in the F room courtesy of my WP status. The staff were very friendly and efficiently sorted an ESTA conflict on one of our passports which was newly issued. The whole lot of us were invited to go to the F lounge without me having to ask.
At the lounge the desk were expecting us and we had a great breakfast waiting for the flight.
MEL-LAX, LHR-SIN & SIN-MEL
All these sectors were on QF A380 and for each flight I'd selected the same first two rows in the economy cabin - 50 & 51 in the "old" configuration. These sectors were easily the best of the trip. The most spacious with the bulkhead ahead of us and the most comfortable and quiet planes. On all sectors I was greeted by the CSM and we were all given J headphones without having to ask for them.
On the way to LAX our 5yo was being fussy with his child meal and the crew swapped it with some beautiful freshly cut fruit from F. For us the food wasn't too bad, with the Caesar salad and late night pizza slices the standouts.
Overall really great service from QF on all fronts. The kids thought I was some sort of legend with the lounge access and CSM greetings.
LA
I'm not a fan of LA. Usually I get stuck in OC visiting clients but this time we were taking the kids to Disneyland and also did Universal Studios as the youngest was desperate to try the new Transformers ride. It's a good time of the year to go as the parks are relatively quiet. The kids love it. The new Cars and Transformers rides are great and surprisingly we could hardly get the 5yo off Splash Mountain. We stayed at Disney's California hotel which has it's own entrance to Disney Walk and California Adventure. It's got good accommodation for families in somewhat dated rooms. It's great to break the day at the park with a few drinks by the pool though!
LAX-MIA-BOS
We didn't want to go to MIA, but due to using an award booking that was the only routing we were offered to BOS. We had a very early flight from LAX, before the lounge even opened so didn't even get the chance to try getting the group in there - not that I thought I'd be able to.
Both these sectors were on AA 757s. Both were very tired inside and extremely noisy - seemed to be the A/C making most of the noise. I wasn't expecting much with AA Y and got exactly that. Easily the worst sectors of the trip; poor service, surly passengers and vast amounts of carry on wars adding to the noise and industrial go-slow.
Boston
Great city. They love their music, drink & sports. My oldest and I caught a Redsox game at Fenway and drinks at the Dropkick Murphy’s McGreevy’s pub while the girls loved the shopping and restaurants in the Back Bay neighbourhood. We took the Duck tour on the amphibious bus which the young kids got to steer on the water and was a hit.
BOS-LHR
This was BA's day flight on a 777, only 5 hours or so over the Atlantic. My WP and wife's PG card got us all into the lounge with a slight frown though it's pretty basic there anyway. The flight was pretty good. The legroom seemed better than on QF, the food wasn't bad and the entertainment system is nearly as good as QF's.
Our next sector up to EDI was from LGW the next morning, again the only route offered on the award flights. We decided to travel immediately to LGW and stay at the Hilton there so we'd have more time for a sleep in the next morning. The National Express coach from T5 round the M25 was fine. New coach and no traffic at that time of the evening. At the Hilton LGW we had two family rooms. They were huge, each with three queen sized beds. Pretty good for an airport hotel though the bar and restaurant were only average - we were too tired to look elsewhere for dinner.
LGW-EDI, EDI-LHR
Both these flights were on BA, A319's I think. We were in the front rows again but these are small cramped planes so not comfortable. Luckily it's only a short flight but next trip I might look at F on the train for a change.
Checkin at LGW was friendly and efficient and we had no trouble entering the J lounge. I didn't want to even try the F one as my recollection was it's a bit small and stuffy for the kids.
Edinburgh
This is where I'm from. We have lots of family there so in many ways it's like coming home. Our 5yo could not remember being there so we went around the tourist sites like the castle, Britannia and Mary Kings Close for the older ones. Great architecture, history and pubs and you can walk around everywhere in the city centre.
I always stay at the Knights Residence in Edinburgh. Couldn't recommend it more; it's the best place I stay in all my travels. Not luxury, but very comfortable apartments complete with good internet, cable tv, washing machine, kitchen etc and right in the centre. Prices are kept down as it's located adjacent to Edinburgh's "Pubic Triangle," a small area containing the pole dancing & strip bars. It can be a little boisterous on weekends till 1am but have never had or seen any trouble there.
EDI-PRG-EDI
We wanted a side trip to anywhere in Europe you could get to direct from EDI. We'd already been to most of the major candidates so everyone agreed on Prague. These flights were on Jet2.com's 733s. Cheap and cheerful. The interiors have hard plastic seats with a thin leather covering over. No recline. I guess they're so thin so they can get an extra row in. Reasonably comfortable for a short flight though. Busy sectors and the crew work hard going up and down trying to sell you drinks then food then duty free then raffle tickets...
Prague
We had a whirlwind visit taking in the main historical attractions like the castle. The Old Town dates to the fifteen century and is charming, though the impact of the high tourist numbers is pretty bad with crowds, cheap restaurants and associated tourist junk. We stayed at a great independent hotel just off the old town called the Imperial Art Deco which has an amazing mosaic tiled restaurant. In general we found the food and service lackluster - almost amusing in a stereotypical Eastern Europe manner - but the history and architecture is brilliant. Lots of beer too and it's cheap!
LHR
Our flight out of EDI was a little delayed but flight connections at LHR T3 was a joke. We walked quickly from the arriving flight so luckily were near the front or we would have missed the QF flight. Slow, jobs-worth security guys manually going through everything in most everybody's carry on. Worst experience I've had in LHR and will make me avoid cross terminal connections there for sure. It took so long there we didn't even think about the lounge and had to go straight to the gate area.
For me, all in all QF had by far the best product, service and environment - though they're obviously catering for their own WP flyer rather than another airline's OWE. The BA 777 was pretty good but their small domestic planes are cramped and uncomfortable. AA Y on my sectors really were terrible - significantly worse than Jet2.com
Cheers,
Steve.
PS: The bags arrived faithfully and quickly everywhere! Almost makes me consider my carry-on only travel.
Our routing was MEL-LAX-MIA-BOS-LHR, LGW-EDI-PRG-EDI-LHR-SIN-MEL.
MEL Airport
We checked in as a group in the F room courtesy of my WP status. The staff were very friendly and efficiently sorted an ESTA conflict on one of our passports which was newly issued. The whole lot of us were invited to go to the F lounge without me having to ask.
At the lounge the desk were expecting us and we had a great breakfast waiting for the flight.
MEL-LAX, LHR-SIN & SIN-MEL
All these sectors were on QF A380 and for each flight I'd selected the same first two rows in the economy cabin - 50 & 51 in the "old" configuration. These sectors were easily the best of the trip. The most spacious with the bulkhead ahead of us and the most comfortable and quiet planes. On all sectors I was greeted by the CSM and we were all given J headphones without having to ask for them.
On the way to LAX our 5yo was being fussy with his child meal and the crew swapped it with some beautiful freshly cut fruit from F. For us the food wasn't too bad, with the Caesar salad and late night pizza slices the standouts.
Overall really great service from QF on all fronts. The kids thought I was some sort of legend with the lounge access and CSM greetings.
LA
I'm not a fan of LA. Usually I get stuck in OC visiting clients but this time we were taking the kids to Disneyland and also did Universal Studios as the youngest was desperate to try the new Transformers ride. It's a good time of the year to go as the parks are relatively quiet. The kids love it. The new Cars and Transformers rides are great and surprisingly we could hardly get the 5yo off Splash Mountain. We stayed at Disney's California hotel which has it's own entrance to Disney Walk and California Adventure. It's got good accommodation for families in somewhat dated rooms. It's great to break the day at the park with a few drinks by the pool though!
LAX-MIA-BOS
We didn't want to go to MIA, but due to using an award booking that was the only routing we were offered to BOS. We had a very early flight from LAX, before the lounge even opened so didn't even get the chance to try getting the group in there - not that I thought I'd be able to.
Both these sectors were on AA 757s. Both were very tired inside and extremely noisy - seemed to be the A/C making most of the noise. I wasn't expecting much with AA Y and got exactly that. Easily the worst sectors of the trip; poor service, surly passengers and vast amounts of carry on wars adding to the noise and industrial go-slow.
Boston
Great city. They love their music, drink & sports. My oldest and I caught a Redsox game at Fenway and drinks at the Dropkick Murphy’s McGreevy’s pub while the girls loved the shopping and restaurants in the Back Bay neighbourhood. We took the Duck tour on the amphibious bus which the young kids got to steer on the water and was a hit.
BOS-LHR
This was BA's day flight on a 777, only 5 hours or so over the Atlantic. My WP and wife's PG card got us all into the lounge with a slight frown though it's pretty basic there anyway. The flight was pretty good. The legroom seemed better than on QF, the food wasn't bad and the entertainment system is nearly as good as QF's.
Our next sector up to EDI was from LGW the next morning, again the only route offered on the award flights. We decided to travel immediately to LGW and stay at the Hilton there so we'd have more time for a sleep in the next morning. The National Express coach from T5 round the M25 was fine. New coach and no traffic at that time of the evening. At the Hilton LGW we had two family rooms. They were huge, each with three queen sized beds. Pretty good for an airport hotel though the bar and restaurant were only average - we were too tired to look elsewhere for dinner.
LGW-EDI, EDI-LHR
Both these flights were on BA, A319's I think. We were in the front rows again but these are small cramped planes so not comfortable. Luckily it's only a short flight but next trip I might look at F on the train for a change.
Checkin at LGW was friendly and efficient and we had no trouble entering the J lounge. I didn't want to even try the F one as my recollection was it's a bit small and stuffy for the kids.
Edinburgh
This is where I'm from. We have lots of family there so in many ways it's like coming home. Our 5yo could not remember being there so we went around the tourist sites like the castle, Britannia and Mary Kings Close for the older ones. Great architecture, history and pubs and you can walk around everywhere in the city centre.
I always stay at the Knights Residence in Edinburgh. Couldn't recommend it more; it's the best place I stay in all my travels. Not luxury, but very comfortable apartments complete with good internet, cable tv, washing machine, kitchen etc and right in the centre. Prices are kept down as it's located adjacent to Edinburgh's "Pubic Triangle," a small area containing the pole dancing & strip bars. It can be a little boisterous on weekends till 1am but have never had or seen any trouble there.
EDI-PRG-EDI
We wanted a side trip to anywhere in Europe you could get to direct from EDI. We'd already been to most of the major candidates so everyone agreed on Prague. These flights were on Jet2.com's 733s. Cheap and cheerful. The interiors have hard plastic seats with a thin leather covering over. No recline. I guess they're so thin so they can get an extra row in. Reasonably comfortable for a short flight though. Busy sectors and the crew work hard going up and down trying to sell you drinks then food then duty free then raffle tickets...
Prague
We had a whirlwind visit taking in the main historical attractions like the castle. The Old Town dates to the fifteen century and is charming, though the impact of the high tourist numbers is pretty bad with crowds, cheap restaurants and associated tourist junk. We stayed at a great independent hotel just off the old town called the Imperial Art Deco which has an amazing mosaic tiled restaurant. In general we found the food and service lackluster - almost amusing in a stereotypical Eastern Europe manner - but the history and architecture is brilliant. Lots of beer too and it's cheap!
LHR
Our flight out of EDI was a little delayed but flight connections at LHR T3 was a joke. We walked quickly from the arriving flight so luckily were near the front or we would have missed the QF flight. Slow, jobs-worth security guys manually going through everything in most everybody's carry on. Worst experience I've had in LHR and will make me avoid cross terminal connections there for sure. It took so long there we didn't even think about the lounge and had to go straight to the gate area.
For me, all in all QF had by far the best product, service and environment - though they're obviously catering for their own WP flyer rather than another airline's OWE. The BA 777 was pretty good but their small domestic planes are cramped and uncomfortable. AA Y on my sectors really were terrible - significantly worse than Jet2.com
Cheers,
Steve.
PS: The bags arrived faithfully and quickly everywhere! Almost makes me consider my carry-on only travel.
